Victim of little-known serial killer identified 27 years after his murder

Gerald (Jerry) LombardPunta Gorda Sun

“John Doe No. 1” was a victim of “Hog Trail Killer” Daniel Conahan – a vicious serial murderer not well-known outside of Florida.

On February 1, 1994, two hunters in Charlotte County Florida found a rapidly decomposed male corpse near Punta Gorda. The hunters stumbled across the corpse outside where medical examiners figured he was dumped about a month previous. The body – who would come to be known only as “John Doe No. 1” – had rope burns at the extremities and had been mutilated in unspeakable ways. Discerning the cause of death and identification was impossible at this juncture in 1994.

Daniel Conahan mugshot.Florida Department of Corrections

It would be 27 years before John Doe No. 1 would be identified as 32-year-old Gerald (Jerry) Lombard through advances in DNA, particularly genetic genealogy.

He was tied to “the Hog Trail Killer” Daniel Conahan when, in 1996, two male corpses of similar age were found a half-mile from John Doe No. 1. These had remarkably similar wound (mutilation) patterns to John Doe No. 1. All three victims were linked to the signature of one killer.

The second and third victims had only been outside for about a day according to investigators. They were later identified as Richard Montgomery and Kenneth Smith, both of Punta Gorda. The media labeled the murders “the Hog Trail Killings.”

42-year-old licensed practical nurse Daniel Conahan was arrested in 1996 after a few witnesses tied him to the general area used as a dumping ground for the ever-increasing trail of dead. Investigators liked him even more as a suspect when a man came forward who had been propositioned, tied to a tree, and almost strangled by Conahan near Fort Myers.

Conahan is still on death row in Florida as of this writing.

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