The Hog Trail Murders /// Part 2 /// 601 | Forensic Files

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man who has agreed to play out the rest of the season on the franchise tag here is the
captain oh honey it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
[Music] friend today we are still sipping on Pulp friction from the Motorworks Brewing if you like citrus grapefruit
and a beautiful golden and orange Brew you're going to love pulp friction which took the gold medal at the 2017 best
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goes out to our good friends that helped us with this week's beer run and those are first up a cheers to Melissa and
Fort Meers Florida and a big shout out to pel in Hillsdale New Jersey and next we have hailing from the beautiful Parts
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that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
crime the end anybody [Music] end two south Florida counties in the mid99s were rocked by the disturbing
discovery of five disfigured and mutilated bodies in three different locations across the cities of Northport
and Port Charlotte this between 1994 in 1996 five bodies were discovered but it was the last one which was the first to
be identified all five cases were considered homicides two of the five victims at this point in our timeline
are identified and along with autopsy reports it was believed that the killer was praying on vulnerable young male
victims who were either transient or homeless now one victim that was identif ified was Richard Montgomery who was
killed a short time before his body was discovered this would make his case quite a bit different from the others
and the police were gearing up to try to track down the persons known to Mr Montgomery to find out what they could
possibly know about his murder and what they find is some great Witnesses for the Montgomery case here's what they
learned they find two witnesses that say that they had seen Mr Montgomery the day
before his body was found in the woods according to these Witnesses these were people that knew Mr Montgomery to some
degree they said that he told friends the night that he disappeared that he had a gig he had a job that was going to
pay him $200 and he was last seen by his friends standing by a rural road waiting for
someone waiting to meet someone but it sounds more like he was waiting for someone to meet him and pick him up at
that location then of course we know that Mr Montgomery was found dead the next day police also learned that
Richard Montgomery lived with his sister and they could place the victim with some other individuals this is Bobby
Whitaker and Gary Mason and some other friends the day before when he mentioned that he was going out to make a few
hundred and would be back shortly when asked by somebody in the group if whatever he was up to was legal Mr
Montgomery simply smiled Mr Montgomery also told his mother that someone had offered to pay him $200 to pose for n
pictures but he did not tell her who made the offer right in this same conversation with his mother mcgomery
mentioned that he had recently met a man named Daniel conahan who lived in Puna Gorda Isles and was a nurse at a medical
center the last time friends saw Montgomery alive was on April 16th between 400 p.m. and 7 p.m. weeks later
in may of 1996 two witnesses came forward to point out that Dan conahan is likely to be the
last person that they were aware of to be in contact with the now deceased Richard Montgomery again he was the
fifth body found but this is huge because we can identify one of the victims and we have some people that
knew the victim while still working to pce these alarming details together an unexpected call came into law
enforcement this maybe from one of the strangest places that they would think to possibly get a break in their case
this call came from an incarcerated individual who told the police he knew who had murdered Richard
Montgomery well and if this guy is credible this could be a huge break for law enforcement the person who calls in
is a one David a Payton so the next big break in this case came on May 8th 1996 that from a prison inmate located
in Mor Haven and this was David a pton who had a story for the detectives David Payton told police that before he was
locked up he said that he would Cruise the streets of Fort Meers Florida and hustle gay men for
money he told detectives that in March of 1995 he was picked up by a person that
he identified as Dan conahan he said Dan gave him drugs and alcohol and asked if
they could drive to a remote area to take some photos of David pton naked and tied to a tree this is an incredible
detail and graphic account of this incident and this is all from a fantastic website
called Twisted Florida it's a Blog about several different true crime stories from the Florida area yeah I recommend
this blog which I love Florida Captain especially the beach communities there but Florida is as weird as any state
when it comes to True Crime so well you love to go on vacation there and uh and because of you you have shined so much a
light on the the crimes in Ohio so basically the two places you go most of the time have some weird cases
suspicious a little bit of a red flag so I'll tell this portion of our True Crime
Story as it is told on the Twisted Florida blog go on kind David pton might have thought he was in for a good time
when a stranger in a car rolled up alongside him and asked him if he wanted to smoke some joints pton often spent
his nights hanging out on the streets of Fort Meyers hey bro you want to smoke some weed that late evening in 1995 he
accepted a man's offer and hopped into his car what followed would not be a typical night in Southwest Florida as
the two were coasting along US 41 Payton noticed that while The Quiet Man in the
driver's seat was supplying him with marijuana valume and beer the driver was not partaking
himself little conversation was taking place between the two strangers until the man seemingly out of nowhere asked
pton if he had ever had photographs taken of him specifically nude photos The Stranger said he wanted to drive to
the woods and take photos of Payton's naked body tied up mhm reaching over he touched Payton in a certain area and
explained that the Rope would not be flicky flicky and explained that the Rope would be tied tightly but not bad
enough to hurt him yeah right continuing on their Drive the two ended up on an outof theeway Dirt Road in Charlotte
County Florida they passed a couple of people in trucks with dogs and upon seeing them the Man became agitated and
upset this is the driver the two moved along slowly until they hit a mud hole and the vehicle became stuck when pton
offered to go ask the other people that they had just seen for help the man's demeanor darkened and he firmly said to
not move from the car while he talked to them run for your life returning with another person to help push the car out
of the hole he directed pton to remain inside the vehicle alarmed pton turned around and looking at his surroundings
he noticed a few disturbing items in the back seat of the vehicle items with a potentially chilling purpose
the these items that he says he saw there Captain were a camera a bag a tarp some rope and a hunting knife well the
camera maybe that doesn't throw up any red flags but I don't like people having big trash bags in their car so run for
your life or oh you got some ropes maybe run for your life or once you see a tarp
run for your life get out of there this is not a good place to be I don't find myself in that vehicle at all so it's
hard for me to think past that part one I'm not getting in the vehicle in the first place two once you touch my
purple-headed yogurt Slinger I'm gone but also when you say hey I'd like to take some nude photos of you tied up to
a tree well first of all nobody nobody wants to see the captain nude but second of all you do not want to see me tied up
naked on a tree but oh this guy driving this car he does well yeah he sent me a couple I've not asked
him specifically this question but I'm here to tell you I would wager $100 bill he does well
on on our 600 episode you just said the funniest thing that you've ever said so I guess the next 600 shows it's all
uphill from here ladies and gentlemen but yeah I'm not getting into that car there's too many red flags and and if I
get in that car there's so many red flags that I am jumping out of the window for my life this is what's going
to push him over the edge I don't know how scared or frightened he was or how off-put he was by any of the actions
leading up to this I can simply simply uh regurgitating the story that's on Twisted Florida as they saw it so he
says pton says that you know seeing these items he was already kind of getting frightened and he said driven by
fear I had to make a Split Second decision and tell you what this pton guy now while I would not have gotten in the
car this guy makes a great effort uh here this is a very smart move on Payton's behalf so what he does is as
soon as this man Dan conahan and this other person get the vehicle remember the the
car is stuck in this mud hole right as soon as these guys push it out Payton he does as instructed by this this person
that's been driving him around remember Dan conahan says don't get out of the car you stay you are to remain in the
vehicle well David Payton remains in the vehicle he just hops in the driver's seat and flees the
area takes the vehicle with him so smart move he's driving off in this blue Mercury Capri and he's heading south on
us41 in the man's vehicle that you know the guy that picked him up but because of the drug in the beer in his system he
was already having a hard time staying awake at the wheel as he's trying to flee this area well and again so it
could be a situation where they start moving the the car and he starts going man whatever this guy gave me is is
doing something to me it's trying to pass me out right well I don't know if he's trying to pass him out I think he's
just plying him with drugs and alcohol so that this guy becomes easier victim even more vulnerable and I mean you're
talking that combination as described by Payton right is volume marijuana and beer well party
you want to stay awake and drive a vehicle you better get some toothpicks and and keep your eyes Pride open your
eyelids Pride open there but um he says that he drove off the drugs are in his system they're taking effect he was
having a hard time staying awake of course this whole thing there's no real violence
here what happens is you would think that maybe or as the good people at Twisted Florida wrote that Payton would
contact the authorities after such a strange and frightening experience but the flip side of that coin is ironically
it was not pton who contacted the police but rather Dan conahan who was the owner
of the rope and the knife and the tarp uh he lost very little time in contacting police and this is because he
was driving his father's vehicle right so when he comes home without his father's vehicle because his this person
that he picked up made off with the vehicle he contacts the police and says hey someone stole my father's car and
here is a story or my version of the story as it goes unfortunately soon after David pyton reached Fort Meyers
Florida he's picked up and arrested for the stolen vehicle so now he's telling police what happened that
night and they don't believe Payton's story Dan conahan he reports his father's car has stolen on the on that
same night and he his story was very different he said that the theft happened when he stopped on the side of
the road and he went to relieve himself now an initial background check of Dan conahan revealed that he was an
unemployed licensed practical nurse who had previously worked at charlot Regional Medical Center he had formerly
served in the military until being discharged he was currently living with his parents in Punta Gorda so they
didn't believe David Payton's story Payton's defense attorney at the time told him to take the plea or he was
going to be risking more time in prison so with no support on his side David pton plad guilty to vehicle theft and
was sentenced to two years in prison so now we fast forward to may of 1996 David Payton still incarcerated
tells authorities hey I know who committed the hog Trail murders it's the same person that picked me up a year
before took me to a road not well traveled and told me that he wanted to take nude pictures of me tied up and of
course he's not able to to identify the man by name uh I'm guessing maybe even on this phone call he's
certainly not able to identify the person driving the vehicle that night as it happened but when you later plead
guilty to stealing the car you know who filed the police report so of course police have that man's name from the
police report of that stolen Mercury which ended up leading them to Daniel conahan Jr right and you have to
remember where he jumped into the driver's seat and drove off to escape where they claimed that he stole the
vehicle from was only a few miles from one of the dumping sites where they found all those bodies well let's just
think for a second how bad that would suck you you get in the car you shouldn't have got in the car but you
got in the car you took some drugs they're doing some stuff to you this guy's acting strange he's talking to you
about taking pictures of you nude tied to a tree he has this knife in his car that you get stuck you jump in the
driver's seat you take off you get arrested the cops don't believe you and now you're sentenced to two years in
jail I mean maybe you'd feel lucky at that point like look I could have been murdered and then you would think at
some point that this person after the situation happens then kind of sees different things in the news that would
make him believe that he escaped death yeah after all it was it was he the inmate that contacted police and said
hey I know who I think did this and then you know let's go back to some of the other unique details of these cases you
know we have police who are working these as they are in fact connected due to the unique nature of the homicides
and the fact that they believe and have proof of the victims being tied to a tree tied naked to a tree and then
strangled the police are reviewing similar assault reports from the recent past and we talk about this so many
times when we cover cases like this and unsolved cases of Serial offenders you have to remember in the cases that are
solved it's not something that happens in every single case but it happens often and sometimes it's not until the
guy's already in handcuffs are already on trial or even after the fact that he gets locked up right but often we find
the one who got away yeah Ryan goling there's usually somebody who got away the the managed to survive a serial
killer and they're able to give us great insights into the other attacks that happened on victims that weren't so
lucky so one such report if in fact police were looking for one that got away or similar types of crimes they
come across this report that is from August 15th 1994 so it falls into our general timeline right the 94 to 96
seems to be the the span of concern here right and I have a very kind of basic version of this story but I'll go
through what I have here Captain it says Stanley Burton was a high school dropout
who had difficulty keeping a steady job the assault report indicated that Burton
met Dan conahan who offered to pay him1 100 to $150 to pose for nude photographs
Burton agreed and conahan drove him to a rocky Dirt Road in a secluded area where
conahan pulled out a duffel bag with a tarp and a Polaroid camera the two men headed into the woods where conahan laid
the tarp out and asked Burton to take off his shirt after taking numerous pictures of buron conahan then took out
a new package of clothesline so he could get some bondage pictures he asked Burton to step close to a nearby tree
and then clipped the clothesline in several pieces draping them over burden to make it look like bondage conahan
moved behind Burton snapped the Rope tightly around him pulled his hands behind the tree placed the ropes around
his legs and chest and wrapped the Rope twice around Burton's neck conahan then performed a sex act on Burton and
attempted to sodomize him after many unsuccessful attempts conahan snapped the Rope around Burton's neck placed his
foot against the tree and pulled on the rope in an attempt to strangle Burton who tried to slide around the tree to
keep his windpipe open conahan hit Burton in the head this dude is a absolute Savage I mean he is a sick So
eventually he gives up on this attack conahan seems to get frustrated as the two are struggling back and forth in the
woods and he gives up on this attack and he leaves the area but he left this man tied up to the
tree right now who knows how long he would have been there the way that Burton describes it it sounds to me like
he leaves conahan that is leaves mid struggle who knows I wasn't there and again this is a brief description Maybe
thought he had successfully choked the guy to death sure you w using the Rope but regardless what we know ends up
happening is this burden guy gets extremely lucky that conahan left something at the scene it was like a set
of pliers or something that somehow in a struggle he was able to reach these pliers I don't know if he used his his
foot to grab them off of the ground but he's able to use these pliers to help pry himself loose from from the rope and
from the tree and he he he managed to escape with his life uh in that way now it's uncertain to me what what is
unclear through all of this is they have this assault report that was filed by this individual by Stanley Burton but
I'm curious if that because we're reading it after the fact that they've retroactively applied Dan conahan's name
to this report because it seems like conahan should have been arrested and charged with something knowing that he
filed this police report but it doesn't seem like that ever happened so it's very likely that this victim Stanley
Burton didn't know the man who picked him up and who tried to kill him there in the woods yeah so even though he
didn't know him so he couldn't say hey well it was John it was my buddy John they were able to have have him identify
he was able to identify Dan conahan through a police [Music] lineup this show is sponsored by better
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[Music] GameChanger all right we are back can't believe we made it this far it's all cuz of you but make sure you
subscribe to the podcast and make sure you tell friend so we can reach another 600 episodes cheers to you Colonel
cheers captain now remember our inmate David pton who called police says hey I know who killed Richard
Montgomery they hear his story they are aware that well we charge you with stealing Dan conahan's father's vehicle
so we do know that you know this individual or spent you know some deal of time with him even if you were in
fact guilty of stealing the car or if you say what happened happened they can clearly connect the dots between Payton
and Dan conahan now what happens here is they're like you know what we better double
check everything before we really start investigating this guy we have other people mentioning Dan conahan's name to
law enforcement as well in regard to Richard Montgomery's murder they hook Payton up to a lie detector test he
passes the test and so with that they decide hey that's enough for investigators to put a tail on Dan
conahan they want to start their investigation but they're going to surveil Dan conahan for some time before
before they take the investigation any further well it's smart on law enforcement's part to hey we don't know
if we should believe him let's give him a polygraph at least they give us some kind of barometer of if we can trust him
or not yeah and they're going to use that information to start to tail Dan conahan and they start by going to the
condo where he shared uh a living space with his father in Puna Gorda and the detectives they discover very quickly
that he has some erratic driving behaviors he's always out driving he often pulled u-turns he stopped on side
streets and parking lots they wondered if he was aware that they were trailing him or if he just did these types of
Maneuvers because he was worried that somebody may be tailing him you see what I mean like not necessarily any
awareness that somebody is in fact doing it right but as it just in case so they
decide very quickly that they're going to put a tracking device on this vehicle in fact soon after they received David
payon's information police began monitoring Dan conahan and a mobile tracking device was placed on that
vehicle they say every time he left his house we had six cars bracketing him yeah one of the best tips I've ever
heard from law enforcement is if you think somebody's falling you do four left turns or four right turns they had
Dan conahan's home under 24-hour surveillance with both human eyeballs on the team as as well as video cameras
surveilling this condo where he lived at with his parents at all times they say that they surveilled him for 50 days and
they had two separate instances when they had undercover detectives who posed as homeless men who stood on the side of
us41 and while they were wearing a wire Dan actually approached these two men and asked them about going to have them
pose for nude pictures in the woods aha aha feels like a goty moment some more details about that is one detective said
that he was asked if he was into modeling and Dan told him that he liked to take photos with the theme of
progressive bondage and then we have a second undercover detective that put himself in conahan's path and he said he
too was propositioned with cash if he would pose naked for some pictures now they couldn't get these two undercover
detectives they could never get him to take them to the actual to any place in the woods or out in any of these
locations they were hoping to have him do that the interesting thing here though too is if you look at the
situation and you have these five victims and I know we're talking about a span of of two years or so in which we
had these five vict victims but with the 50 days of surveillance they're really hoping to catch this dude red-handed is
what it tells me and unfortunately that means that based off of the crime scenes
and how decomposed some of their victims were they likely didn't have much in the
way of physical evidence against Dan conahan they were able to trace some of that fiber evidence that they had and
some paint chip evidence that they had found at the crime scene and on some of the murdered victims back to Dan conahan
back to the vehicle that he was using and back to the home that he shared with his parents right so that gives us some
kind of physical evidence the other troubling thing they were able to subpoena Dan conahan's credit card
records and they were able to see his purchases and his purchases are lining up with some of these stories of of what
people called in mainly Stanley Burton story then also David Payton's story where
they got credit card statements showing that Dan conahan purchased clothesline rope Polaroid film pliers a utility
knife this all in the area and they also found that he was using ATM machines located close to the areas where he was
propositioning these men and picking them up yeah because he doesn't have to give them the money but he might need to
show them the money correct so not only does he have this kill kit but he has the tools of the trade to also document
the kill and then also like you said the the ATM to have the money on hand so he
could show these individuals hey I got the $200 so armed with all of these statements of the witnesses that led up
to the Richard Montgomery murder and then the two statements of the individuals that survived Dan conahan
and that physical evidence and these credit card statements and ATM statements this is enough for them to
make an arrest they arrest him and they are going to charge him with the assault
on Stanley Burton and also the murder of Richard mcgomery ultimately the Stanley burden case the
the assault case they dropped the charges on that case and I think it's a rather complicated matter and we we
still have quite bit to get to so I don't want to go through the details of that uh people are certainly welcome to
find those on their own now while they are awaiting trial for Dan conahan another skeleton was found in Charlotte
County 10 months later DNA identified the remains as a one William Charles Patton uh who disappeared in
1993 so if in fact this William Charles Patton murder is connected to Dan conahan this would be likely the
earliest one to date in our timeline this man disappeared in 1993 at this point in our timeline
captain we're bringing up murder charges against this guy only for one murder that being of Richard Montgomery right
four other victims that we believe are connected to Dan conahan but three of them still hadn't been
identified at this point by the time they go to trial against this guy that they believe is a serial killer and like
what you were stating the other day that some of these victims were put out there
and then once they were discovered then another victim was put out there so we didn't believe that the victims were
just all out there at the same time and law enforcement didn't find them they were finding the victims as he was
dumping them but that does not mean because we got miles of wooded area that doesn't mean that they found all the
victims that could be connected to this like I said psychopath Psychopathic killer it would take a couple years but
in 1999 Dan conahan was found guilty he was found guilty on first-degree premeditated murder charges and
kidnapping and in December of 99 he was sentenced to death he is currently still
alive and he is being held at the Union Correctional Institution and Rayford Florida and if you look him up online
the the one of the first sentences and first paragraphs that will come up is that he is convicted of one murder but
suspected in six plus murders now depending on who you talk to that number can vary to a great degree that's
because several more bodies were discovered in the Charlotte County area with similarities to the hog Trail
killings there was one victim found in 2000 two victims found in 2001 and an additional one found in 2002 now that's
going to lead us up to this horrific discovery which took place on March 23rd 2007 this is when eight skulls and
skeletal remains were found in a wooded area in Fort Meyers this is reported to be the largest such Discovery in the
state of Florida's history and you had referenced this captain in episode one where this case has some things that
reminds one of the West Mesa body pit or the Long Island serial killer case right
what happens in the discovery of all of these bodies well we can get the details
straight from an article that is titled Fort Meyers police seek clues in deaths the skeletal remains of eight people
were found in a wooded area about 25 ft from an unpaved section of Arcadia Street and East Fort Meyers so to give
one some perspective of distance here I don't have the exact locations of where the first five victims were found and
then we have a sixth potential victim that is found leading up to conahan's trial we have four other Vic victims
that are found in the early part of the 2000s and then we have eight that are discovered together these eight are are
discovered in a relatively small space but it could be upwards of 20 to 30 miles from where some of the other
bodies were found and keep in mind these these eight bodies are being discovered
what over 10 years after Dan conahan was arrested yeah so these deaths have been worked as a homicide all eight of
them and they believe police believe this to be a body dump location in fact it was somewhat obvious early on we have
a quote here from one of the officers involved that says it certainly sounds like a dump site but having said that
you would now have to determine whether they were murdered and dumped killed at that location and left there or just
bodies illegally disposed of one could make an argument that these are connected to the other victims I think
you can make a strong argument that they're not and this is probably the working of a entirely different serial
killer just in the same area well and that's where we kind of find ourselves left here in this case because because
there are many people that argue that these eight skeletons that were found together these victims would go on to be
known as the fort Meers 8 that they are all just other victims of Dan conahan right he's the easiest one to go well he
was active in this area and active believed to be about the same time that maybe some of these victims went missing
yeah I wish we could put a time period on on the deaths because that would give us a sense of if these were before or
after the victims well that's interesting here Captain because what we have here
is um some kind of it's it's really sad information because in in the first set of bodies that are found that we covered
extensively there are still some of those victims that are unidentified of this fort Meers
8 I've seen reports that three of them have been identified I've seen reports that only two of them have been
identified uh the the more concrete information that I have in front of me is that two were later identified as men
who disappeared in 1995 which would certainly fall into the Dan conahan timeline that we were working
with with his sus other suspected right victims which we should say other suspected victims because Dan conahan of
course was spoken to very quickly after the discovery of these bodies it wasn't lost on police that hey we have a known
serial killer that's locked up that may be responsible for these additional murders and yeah and he has a life
sentence so is it a possibility that he's going to come forward and confess it's possible the problem with Dan
conahan is he's he's only been convicted of one murder he's suspected of many more obviously he's never admitted to
even the one that he's been convicted for right he's admitted to killing zero people and with the amount of
decomposition and evidence lost due to time and weather and other items as well it doesn't appear that the police
have any evidence to connect Dan conahan to the Fort Meers 8 my problem with the
Fort Meyers 8 is that they're they're buried in Shallow Graves they say what less than two feet deep less than two
inches oh sorry of dirt yeah less than two Ines of dirt so th this is doesn't go with the signatures of his other
crimes the problem with the signatures of his other crimes though is those signatures are are not there's no way of
knowing so the right the the bearing of the body necessarily isn't you can look at it as a potential signature or as a
potential Mo which are two very different things but it could fall into either one of those categories based off
of the psychology of the killer but because we don't know the Killer and can't say for certain it's hard to
really hone in on that psychology so the the problem with with looking at signatures and comparing them from
Richard Montgomery to the fort Myers 8 right is these are skeletal remains his signatures Dan conahan's signatures as
they were on victim Richard Montgomery are all based off of they still being skin very true on our victim yeah where
we can see the ligature marks where we can see that there was a portion of the body amputated or removed cut off right
none of that is available for us to to view or even speculate on in regard to the Fort Meers 8 because they're all
skeletal Remains the problem is I I don't think we can look at this situation and say nope can't be Dan
conahan because the signatures don't match up the the issue being when we talk about burying somebody in two
inches of dirt one we don't know how long they've been there police have outwardly said that this could simply be
due to flooding in the area or changes in the area over time that maybe necessarily they were
just left on the ground and these changes occurred due to the passing of time right the other thing that they
point out the the officers that do believe that the fort Meers 8 were in fact buried in these shallow Graves if
if we were to call it that that's how it's referred to in some of the news articles and Reporting on this case but
I think that paints a whole entirely different picture than what police say that they saw at the scene at the scene
of the fort Meers 8 they're saying that it they wouldn't even go as far to calling it burying somebody more as
somebody just took the time to throw some dirt leaves and sticks over top of the bodies before leaving the area yeah
but it's it's also different in the sense of the other victims are not found in in a cluster like like these victims
are or as close of a cluster as these victims are yeah with John Doe one four and five and obviously four and five
were later identified I would call that a body cluster I I believe it was Gary Ridgeway the Green River Killer who
referred to some of his kills and and where he left remains as body clusters this to me with the fort Meers 8 that's
that's eight people all together in one location who's to say that he wasn't spreading
out uh at some point the other thing too is he you could look at it as if he did
all of these well maybe he was evolving or devolving whichever way you want to look at it maybe his crimes evolved to
something else or devolved that he was getting lazier with how he was choosing to conceal the bodies right then on the
flip side of that though you still have the possibility because we don't know who these victims are because we don't
know who is in fact responsible you could have had two killers working at approximately the same time with similar
similar victimology you could have a copycat situation now it's been reported that with the fort Meers a again many of
them still to this day not identified uh but they put the possible span of murders from as early as 1987 and one or
two maybe as late as 2001 which is super scary because we know that Dan conahan was locked up in
19 1996 so if if this again this is all speculation they're not basing any of this off of scientific fact but let's
say this speculation is correct and one or two of these murders happened that late well Dan conahan was already locked
up and incarcerated at that time so he couldn't have been responsible for those later murders and therefore make it even
much more difficult to believe him to be responsible for any of the fort Meers where we stand is we have the psychopath
in jail for Life convicted of one murder now if you put all the victims that they found
together that they don't have somebody in jail responsible for that's 18 victims and and we've both said I think
you could make a strong argument uh that all of them are connected and whether you want to put the the eight of the
fort Meer eight in your in their uh there's a strong argument I think either way right and
with one situation I mean you look at John Doe number five who's identified as Richard Montgomery and John Doe number
four who is identified as Kenneth Smith well those two victims are found 50 yards apart from one another one was
killed the day before he was found and one was killed just weeks before he was found and that's very difficult to say
well whoever did the killing of Richard Montgomery didn't kill Kenneth Smith it's you you would have to go out of
your way to be able to prove that right I think what what to me that shows is the difference in the degree of what
they were able to work with in their investigation with Richard Montgomery he was killed so shortly before he was
found they were able to piece together a series of events that made a a a a courtroom only deliberate for less than
30 minutes before sentencing this guy to death where the case that happened just
weeks before Richard Montgomery's death and murder that of Kenneth Smith there's
so much evidence already lost to time just weeks prior that one loses very little confidence in all these other
murders that likely happen months or maybe even a year or two before that of Richard
Montgomery now one piece of good information or or good news anyway occurred last year when authorities tell
us in July of 2021 that using genetic genealogy they have in fact positively identified one more of the unidentified
victims here this is more than 27 years after his mutilated and decomposed body was found in a wooded area of South
Florida they say now that John Doe number one was 31-year-old Gerald who went by
Jerry Anthony Lombard so now they've identified John Doe number one and now they are tasked with trying to connect
him to his alleged [Music] killer me this is the end anybody [Music] mebody you could be anywhere but you
choose to be right here and we thank you Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners
today we will be recommending Boogeyman by Stephen Jackson Boogeyman he was every parents nightmare this is the true
story of a detective that refused to let some cases go cold he tracked down a serial killer and put him Behind Bars
check out Steven Jackson's great book Boogeyman you can find that great title and many other wonderful recommendations
on our recommended page at true Crim garage.com yeah I'm going to write a book called Boogerman that'll be out
next year until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] is it possible to predict the
unpredicted can 3D printed life-size organ models help to map out complex surgeries ahead
of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you know where to go

The Hog Trail Murders /// Part 2 /// 601

Part 2 of 2

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The Hog Trail Murders refers to series a murders that took place in the Southwest District of Florida from 1994 - 1996. Warning this is some pretty gruesome stuff. Today we take a look at the crimes as people working and living in two Florida counties begin finding the bodies of victims that were left in the woods and on the Hog Trails. Today we expand this True Crime story to a third county as eight bodies are recovered in Fort Myers, Florida. These remains will become known as the Fort Myers 8 and as you will hear there is much debate out there if the Hog Trail Murders and the Fort Myers 8 are connected or not.

Beer of the Week - Pulp Friction by Motorworks Brewing

Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

Recommended Reading - Bogeyman; He was every parent’s nightmare by Steve Jackson

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Brief Summary

The episode details Dan Conahan's murder of Richard Montgomery and his suspected involvement in multiple other homicides in Florida.

Key points

The Disturbing Discovery. In the mid-90s, five disfigured bodies were found in South Florida, raising alarms.
Witnesses Come Forward. Two witnesses provide crucial information about Richard Montgomery's last moments before his murder.
A Shocking Call. An incarcerated individual claims to know who murdered Richard Montgomery, potentially breaking the case wide open.
David Payton's Escape. David Payton's harrowing experience with Dan Conahan leads to a shocking twist in the investigation.
Stanley Burton's Narrow Escape. Stanley Burton survives a brutal attack by Dan Conahan, narrowly escaping death.
Dan Conahan's Investigation Begins. Law enforcement starts surveilling Dan Conahan after connecting him to multiple murders.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is an incredible detail and graphic account.

8:28WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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