What did Daniel Conahan do?
Daniel Conahan is a suspected serial killer, who has been linked to dozens of murders of transients and gay men in Charlotte County, Florida. These murders were known as the hog trail murders. He was also a prime suspect in the murders of eight men, who were collectively referred to as the Fort Myers Eight. All eight bodies were found in a mass grave site in 2007.
How was he caught, and what happened at the trial?
Several witnesses pointed towards Daniel Conahan as being someone who needed looking into, including a man who escaped from him when Conahan’s car became stuck while driving him down a dirt road. Police later linked Conahan to a 1994 incident where a man called Stanley Burden had been tied to a tree and nearly strangled to death. Conahan’s credit cards were seized in a subpoena, which also led to his house being searched, which gave police evidence that linked him to Burden and another man, Richard Allen Montgomery.
On the 3rd July, 1996, Conahan was arrested for the attempted murder of Burden, and in February, 1997, he was charged with the murder of Montgomery, but the Burden charges were dropped.
Conahan went on trial for the murder of Richard Allen Montgomery in 1999. Conahan waived his right for a jury trial, and was instead tried in a bench trial. The star witness was none other than Stanley Burden, who had nearly been killed by Conahan. At the end of the trial, the Judge deliberated for 25 minutes before finding Conahan guilty of first-degree murder. Conahan managed to get the penalty phase of his trial moved to Collier County, but later that year, a jury recommended he be sentenced to death, and Judge Blackwell agreed.
Where is Daniel Conahan now?
Conahan is currently imprisoned and on death row at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida. He is 69 years of age. Despite only being charged and found guilty of one murder, he is believed to be responsible for many more, but as of yet, no charges have been brought against him for these additional crimes.
The case has been covered by a number of true crime television shows like Most Evil, Forensic Factor, The New Detectives and Buried in the Backyard.
What do you think of Daniel Conahan’s case? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Was the man who escaped Conahan in Conahan’s car in prison for stealing that car? I hope not. A quiet little execution for this depraved evil man is too good. Conahan deserves the same fate as his victims. Genital excision but before strangulation.
This animal should be excuted immediately he has been on death row way to long