Daniel Owen Conahan Jr. (born May 11, 1954)[1] is a convicted American murderer, rapist, and suspected serial killer. Conahan was convicted of one murder, but has been linked to a dozen murders, mostly of transients seeking employment and gay men in the Charlotte County, Florida area in what came to be known as the Hog Trail Murders. Conahan has also been named the prime suspect in the additional murders of eight men, collectively referred to as the Fort Myers Eight, who were discovered in a mass grave site in 2007.
Early life and career
Daniel Conahan was born on May 11, 1954, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to a middle-class family and moved with his parents to Punta Gorda, Florida, shortly after his birth. When he was a teenager, he discovered he was homosexual; this displeased his parents, who sent him to several psychiatrists. Conahan frequently told friends that his sexuality was not a disease and how he was angered by having been mistreated and traumatised by his parents for his homosexuality. "It wasn't the kind of thing you were open about in the 1970s," Conahan later told investigators. "But I found a gay bar, and if I got there early, they wouldn't card me. Being gay is part of God's plan, too."[2] He graduated Miami Norland High School in 1973 where classmates later described Conahan as a quiet loner, participating in school activities sporadically, and joined the United States Navy in 1977, stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois.
In 1978, he was nearly court-martialed for taking fellow Naval officers off base for sex, and was discharged a few months later after getting into a fight with a man upon whom he had attempted to force oral sex.[2] After his Navy discharge, Conahan stayed in Chicago for thirteen years before moving back to Punta Gorda to live with his elderly parents in 1993. In 1995, he became a licensed practical nurse, graduating at the top of his class from Charlotte Vocational-Technical Center[2] and was employed by Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda. Conahan spent the majority of his spare time frequenting gay bars. "I learned there are a lot of hitchhikers on U.S. 41 from North Port to Fort Myers, and some of them were looking to perform sex acts for money," he told detectives.
Murders
Hog Trail Murders
Conahan is believed to have been responsible for the Hog Trail Murders in Florida between 1993 and 1996. He is currently incarcerated and on death row for the murder of one of the victims, Richard Montgomery. Although he has yet to be brought to trial on the other killings, he is generally believed to have committed them. Furthermore, since Conahan's incarceration, several additional remains have been discovered and he has been named a suspect in those deaths as well.
On February 1, 1994, the mutilated corpse of a man was discovered in Punta Gorda, Florida near Biscayne Boulevard by two hunters. The body had been outside for about a month and had rope burns on the skin and pelvic region. The genitalia had been removed and discarded. The man was not identified[3] until June 2021, when the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office announced that new DNA testing done by Astrea Forensics[4] confirmed the victim as 27-year-old Gerald “Jerry” Lombard, of Lowell, Massachusetts, who vanished from his home in Florida in 1991 and was described as a "drifter" by his family.[5][6]
Facial reconstruction of previously unidentified victim, known as John Doe #1; DNA tests in 2021 identified victim as Gerald “Jerry” Lombard.
On January 1, 1996, a North Port family's dog brought home a male human skull to a residence on Plamedon Road. The residents claimed that for months, their dog had been bringing them bones from the neighbourhood. Police eventually recovered the chest and hipbones a half mile from the residence after conducting a search a day later.[7] More skeletal remains were discovered in an isolated wooded area, with just the right hand and chest covered in flesh. Despite the fact that the cause of death was undetermined, the medical examiner assumed the body had been severely mutilated, particularly around the genitalia. The North Port skeleton has not been identified and is referred to as the Sarasota County John Doe.[8]
On March 7, 1996, a man travelling down Route 75 in North Port, Florida, pulled off onto Laramie Circle to urinate. He came across a naked male corpse positioned face-up in the shape of a cross after passing the forest line. The man immediately contacted the North Port Police Department. The victim was killed, according to the medical examiner, ten days before he was discovered. He had four stab wounds and his genitals were mutilated. The victim's feet were covered in cuts and scrapes, and slash marks could be seen on his upper body, indicating that the victim may have tried to run away from their murderer moments before he was killed. It was assumed he was tied up before he was slain because of rope-marks on his body. Rope marks on a tree near the discovery of the bones was noted in one officer's report.[9] The victim remained unidentified until June 30, 1999, when he was identified as 35-year-old William John "Bill" Melaragno.[10]
Another man's skull was discovered in Charlotte County, Florida on April 17, 1996. Police searched the surrounding woods and found the rest of the man as well as a second body. The first body, which had been dismembered, was later identified as 25-year-old Kenneth Lee Smith. According to media reports, Smith's sister called police after seeing a photo on the news of a faint tattoo still visible on the unidentified man's shoulder. The second body was a man who had been raped, murdered, and mutilated only the day before, and was identified as 21-year-old Richard Allen Montgomery.[11][12][13][14][15] Montgomery's mother informed police that a few weeks before her son's death, he told her he had met a new friend named 'Dan Conahan'. Speculation became rampant at this time about a serial killer, and the media dubbed the murders "The Hog Trail Killings", named for the wooded areas in which the bodies of the victims were found.[15]
While Conahan awaited trial, another skeleton was found in Port Charlotte, Florida on May 22, 1997. A county construction worker was clearing brush on a dirt path when he discovered skeletal remains under a pepper tree near Quesada Avenue. The coroner determined the victim was deceased for several years. Ten months later, on March 16, 1998, DNA identified the remains as 24-year-old William "Billy" Charles Patten, who had disappeared in 1993.[16]
On October 19, 2000, skeletal remains were found in a wooded area west of Toledo Blade Boulevard in North Port, Florida. In January 2001, landscapers unearthed human bones on Grouper Hole Drive in Boca Grande, Florida. On November 28, 2001, during construction near U.S. 41 in Charlotte Harbor, Florida, construction crews discovered human remains, later determined to be male. On January 6, 2002, a man was discovered by county employees near a landfill site off Zemel Road in Punta Gorda, Florida.[17] The body remains unidentified and the case is still being investigated as a homicide. He is known as the Charlotte County John Doe. Investigators suspect that these discoveries might be tied to Conahan.[18][19]
Fort Myers Eight
On March 23, 2007, eight skulls and skeletal remains were found in a wooded area in Fort Myers, the largest such discovery in Florida history.[20][21] These came to be known as the Fort Myers Eight. In a forested area at Rockfill and Arcadia Streets, a property surveyor had initially found two human skulls. With the help of area agencies, cadaver dogs, and forensic experts, the Fort Myers Police Department was able to retrieve a total of eight sets of skeletal remains. They found no clothing nor remnants of coffins, body bags, or anything else that might be used to hold human remains. There were no tracks or other indications that someone had recently visited the area. Although a connection to a closed funeral home was considered possible, speculation soon turned to Conahan. The medical examiner has ruled the deaths to be homicides and Stanley Burden, the star witness at Conahan's trial, had been attacked within a mile of the site where the eight skeletons were found.[22]
In November 2007, 38-year-old John Blevins was the first victim of the Fort Myers Eight to be identified. He had a transient lifestyle and lived in the Fort Myers area. He had a criminal record for minor offenses and was last seen in 1995, but was never reported missing. According to his mother, he mentioned plans to "go out" and to return shortly afterward.[23] Shortly after Blevins' identification, a second victim was identified that same month as 21-year-old Erik David Kohler. Kohler disappeared from Port Charlotte, Florida sometime during October 1995. In September 2008, Jonathan James Tihay, 24, was the third victim to be identified. He was a drifter who was last seen in October 1995 in Fort Myers, Florida, when he called his mother to ask for money. A victim who was formerly known as "Victim H" was identified in September 2022 as 30-year-old Robert Ronald “Bobbie” Soden of Fort Myers, Florida, who disappeared in 1996.[24] Four of the decedents remain unidentified.
Facial reconstruction of victim "A"; Unidentified.
Facial reconstruction of victim "B"; Unidentified.
Facial reconstruction of victim "F"; Unidentified.
Facial reconstruction of victim "G"; Unidentified.
Facial reconstruction of victim "H"; Positively identified in September 2022, as 30-year-old Robert Ronald "Bobbie" Soden.
Arrest, trial and imprisonment
In May 1996, several witnesses directed police to Daniel Conahan, including one who had escaped him when Conahan's car became stuck while driving him down a dirt road.[25] Later, police linked Conahan to a 1994 Fort Myers police report where Stanley Burden had been propositioned, tied to a tree, and nearly strangled. Burden survived and had rope scars on his body two years later.[26] Conahan's credit cards were subpoenaed and his house was searched, turning up evidence linking him to both Burden and Montgomery. On July 3, 1996, Conahan was arrested and brought to Lee County for the attempted murder of Burden.[26] The following February, he was charged with the murder of Montgomery, while the attempted murder charges in the Burden case were dropped.[10][11]
Conahan was tried for the 1996 kidnapping and murder of victim Richard Allen Montgomery. In Punta Gorda, Conahan waived his right to a jury trial on August 9, 1999, thereby electing a bench trial. The star witness was Stanley Burden, who authorities alleged had been nearly killed by Conahan in 1994. Conahan's attorney rebutted that Burden was an imprisoned pedophile, serving a 10-to-25-year sentence in Ohio.[27] On August 17, 1999, Judge William Blackwell deliberated for 25 minutes and found Conahan guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and kidnapping.[28] Conahan succeeded in moving the penalty phase of his trial to Collier County but, in November, a jury recommended a sentence of death and Judge Blackwell agreed on December 10.[29] Conahan is currently housed at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida.[22]
