Suspected serial killer Daniel Conahan is believed to be responsible for five homosexual torture murders in Central Florida. Charged with the murder of Richard Montgomery, Conahan told a Florida jury he had never met the victim. But Robert Whittaker, Montgomery's former roommate in Punta Gorda, testified that Conahan came looking for Montgomery about two months before the 21-year-old's body was discovered in the woods.

Montgomery's brother-in-law said he saw Montgomery walking toward Cox Lumber April 16, 1996 -- the day he disappeared and a day before his body was found in the woods of northern Charlotte County. Prosecutors say that same day, Conahan bought rope, cutting pliers, a razor-sharp knife and Polaroid film at a Punta Gorda Wal-Mart. Then he picked Montgomery up by the lumber yard and took him for a drive. Conahan allegedly offered to pay him about $100 to engage in a nude photo shoot that included progressive bondage. Once in the woods of northern Charlotte County, they said, Conahan tied Montgomery to a tree, raped and strangled him.Though Conahan had agreed to pay Montgomery $100 for the photo shoot, but Lee said Conahan only withdrew $40 from an ATM that afternoon.
The next day, two Charlotte County workers, taking a break from inspecting roads, went off looking for good spots to hunt hogs and found a human skull. Detectives cordoned off the area looking for the rest of the remains, later identified as Kenneth Lee Smith. Nearby, they found a carpet with a body hidden under it. It was Montgomery's day-old corpse. Rope grooves were found on a nearby tree. Conahan is on trial only for Montgomery's death, but he is a suspect in Smith's murder and the murders of at least three other men whose remains have been discovered since 1994 in the woods of Florida's Charlotte County and North Port.
Charlotte County Medical Examiner R.H. Imami testified that Montgomery was strangled to death and that he had ligature marks on his body. However, Imami said the ligature marks on the body appeared to have been inflicted after death. Conahan's attorneys say whoever killed Montgomery tied him up after his death. Prosecutors say Conahan, an unemployed nurse, cut off Montgomery's genitals because he knew if he left them, authorities would trace his DNA to the body through saliva.
Investigators said Conahan, an unemployed nurse at the time of his arrest, had a penchant for picking up drifters to take nude photographs and a proclivity for sexual violence. He allegedly offered transients money to take nude pictures in the woods near Fort Myers, then tied them to trees and killed them. All of the victims were male; most were found naked, with strangulation marks around their necks.
Less than three months after Montgomery¹s body was found, Conahan was arrested, but only on charges that he attempted to kill a Fort Myers drifter, Stanley Burden, two years earlier. Burden later identified Dan as Conahan. He testified that he realized the agreement he made with Conahan to pose nude with progressive bondage scenes was a mistake when the ropes tightened around his neck. Burden said he finally escaped after Conahan gave up trying to strangle him after about 30 minutes.
Conahan took the stand in his trial and admited that he solicited Burden for oral sex in 1994, but denied that he tried to strangle him. He also denied ever meeting Montgomery. "I have fantasized about bondage," Conahan said. "But that is not my only fantasy."
Conahan, who faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder, denies everything. His defense attorney, Mark Ahlbrand, claims a bad back made Conahan incapable of committing the crimes. Investigators said the murders started in February 1994. The last body was discovered April 17, 1996, in Charlotte County when a government employee found a severed human head and Montgomery's body in the woods.
Conahan was discharged from the Navy at Great Lakes, Ill., in 1978, a year after he enlisted, under the threat of court martial for several counts of sodomy and physical assault. Prosecutors described Conahan as a gay, sex-driven killer who fantasized about raping, photographing and strangling young men. Defense attorneys argue that he¹s being falsely targeted for his openly gay lifestyle.
In his trial forensic scientists testified that fibers from Conahan's car, his father's car and his home were discovered at the murder scene in northern Charlotte County. A metallic blue paint chip ‹ identical in nature and color to a chip missing from his father's Mercury Capri ‹ was found in Montgomery¹s pubic hair. Conahan showed little emotion throughout the trial, although he cried at one point last week when his ex-lover ‹ who has AIDS ‹ testified of the accused¹s bondage fantasy.
On August 18, 1999, the suspected torture killer was found guilty in the death of transient Richard Montgomery. Sentencing was scheduled for September 13.