Daniel Owen Conahan

Serial Killer

Daniel Owen Conahan: The Hog Trail Killer

Background

Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., born May 11, 1954, is an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer associated with the series of killings commonly known as the Hog Trail Murders in southwest Florida. Conahan was convicted of only one murder, the 1996 killing of Richard Allen Montgomery, but investigators connected him as a suspect to a group of remarkably similar homicides in Charlotte and Sarasota counties. Years later, he also became a person of interest in the deaths of eight men whose skeletal remains were discovered together in Fort Myers. The cases became linked because of an unusually distinctive pattern. Male victims were found unclothed in remote wooded locations. Several showed evidence of having been restrained against trees, and several had suffered genital mutilation. Investigators eventually learned that Conahan approached financially vulnerable men and offered them money to pose for nude or bondage photographs in isolated areas. The testimony of a man who survived one such encounter became a crucial part of the case against him.

The First Hog Trail Victim: Gerald "Jerry" Lombard

On February 1, 1994, a construction company worker reported discovering a decomposing human body in woods near Wyandotte Avenue and Tulip Street in northern Charlotte County, Florida. The man had no identification and initially became known simply as John Doe No. 1. The exact date of the man's death could not be established. His body was unclothed, and circumstances at the scene later became significant when detectives began comparing it with several other deaths. Investigators found similarities involving the remote location, mutilation and evidence suggesting that trees near the scenes may have been used to restrain victims. For more than 27 years the man remained unidentified. Forensic genetic genealogy eventually led detectives to the Lombard family. DNA obtained from relatives confirmed in June 2021 that John Doe No. 1 was Gerald "Jerry" Lombard, who was born August 30, 1962, in Massachusetts and had lived in Lowell. His family had not heard from him since approximately 1991 or 1992. Charlotte County investigators have specifically identified Conahan as a suspect in Lombard's homicide. No charge, however, was ever filed against Conahan for Lombard's death. ...

Confirmed Victims: (1)

Richard Montgomery Age: (21), Date of Death: 1996-04-03

Suspected Victims:

Kenneth Smith , Date of Death: 1995

Eric Kohler , Date of Death: 1994

Gerald Lombard , Date of Death: 1994

James Self , Date of Death: 1994

John William Melaragno , Date of Death: 1996

John Blevins , Date of Death: 1995

Jonathan James Tihay , Date of Death: 1995

Ronald Soden , Date of Death: 1990s

Fort Myers Victim A

Fort Myers Victim B

Fort Myers Victim F

Fort Myers Victim G

Daniel Conahan - Wikipedia