Florida executes Daniel Conahan Jr. for 1996 murder

Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday at Florida State Prison. His death marks the 15th execution in Florida this year, accounting for more than half of the 25 executions conducted in the United States so far in 2026.

Conahan was convicted in 1999 for the 1996 kidnapping and strangulation of Richard Allen Montgomery. Montgomery’s body was discovered in a wooded area of southwest Florida, a location where authorities had found the remains of at least six other people over a three-year period during the 1990s. These cases became known as the ‘Hog Trail Murders’ due to the swampy, wooded terrain where the bodies were located.

While Conahan was identified as a person of interest in several other deaths found in the region, he was never formally charged with those crimes. Throughout his legal proceedings, Conahan maintained his innocence and argued that the evidence against him was circumstantial. His final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected prior to the execution.