Original subtitles

Narrator:

Narrator: In 1996,

a Florida couple was horrified

when their dog dragged home a ghastly surprise.

It was a human skull.

Narrator: It was the first in a series

of unspeakable discoveries

in backyards of Florida homes.

John Jaccoud: He was just disfigured.

I never seen anything like it.

Bob Norman: Everyone in Southwest Florida

is wondering where this monster is.

Narrator: And the unimaginable only got worse.

When I got closer I could see his genitals had been removed.

I was really concerned 'cause now we have two bodies.

Narrator: It was a race against time.

Michael Gandy: We went all out in a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week

surveillance on this guy.

We had a serial killer.

And if he gets away from us and kills again,

how do you live with that?

Narrator: Susan and Wayne Brown were up with the sun

on the first day of 1996,

enjoying the solitude that came with living

in a secluded part of North Port, Florida.

Susan Brown: It was 5:30, 6:00 in the morning.

We have two hunting dogs.

Like he does every morning,

my husband let the dogs out of the dog pen.

( dogs barking )

It was when they get out of the pen,

my husband saw the dogs very curious about something

at the base of a palm tree.

So he went over there to investigate.

( husband screams )

Husband: Susan!

Brown: I was in the kitchen, I could hear him.

I was thinking, "Oh, my God, what is happening to him?"

At that point, I ran down and looked to see what was going on.

I went over there to the base of the palm tree to look

and there it was.

A human skull.

My first initial thought was just, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"

And I thought, "What's happening?"

And he goes, "We need to call the police."

Man over radio: Six, six, seven.

Narrator: Officers were quick to get to the Browns' backyard.

And the more they heard, the stranger the couple's story became.

Brown: We told them the dogs had been bringing bones home

for about a month.

Been picking them up in the yard.

And it's like, "Well, they got a dear, or somebody dumped a cow,

or somebody's horse just died and they couldn't bury it

so they, you know, dumped it out there."

Narrator: When investigators examined the bones,

they came to a gruesome conclusion.

Brown: They found arm bones, leg bones,

a lot of little bones.

They were human.

Narrator: The horror sank in.

Who had been so grossly disposed of

in the backyard of their Florida home?

I had no idea where those bones came from.

Rickey Hobbs: North Port Police Department,

they went back into the woods,

where they found the rest of the remains.

The remains were decomposed. They were just basically bones.

They did not find any clothing.

They didn't find any personal items.

They didn't find anything except the bones.

Gandy: My gut told me that we got a problem.

And it doesn't take a rocket scientist, I guess,

but it was scary.

Narrator: It didn't take long for news of the bones

in the Browns' backyard to spread through the quiet town of North Port.

This case was shocking

to everyone in Southwest Florida.

It's a place where people go to retire.

They go there to enjoy the water.

It's beautiful.

So there was a real feeling

of pall in the air.

Nobody had a clue.

It's all speculation,

and no one's gonna be able to recognize that person,

and it presents a whole slew of challenges.

Hobbs: The medical examiner's office came out.

He collected the bones

and transported them back to his office for examination.

Medical examiner determined that that was a white male.

He was probably 25 to 35 years old,

about six foot three, heavy build.

Narrator: While the medical examiner couldn't determine

exactly how the victim died,

he did declare it a homicide

when a disturbing clue emerged.

A series of knife marks on the pelvic bones.

We were really concerned, at this point.

Narrator: Who was behind the grisly crime?

Hobbs: Initially in any investigation,

everybody's a suspect until you prove otherwise.

Narrator: Suddenly, Susan and Wayne were being eyed

as potential suspects.

( indistinct radio chatter )

Brown: The police came,

you know, guns drawn and sneaking up in the yard.

Then they started questioning me.

"Where were you?" "I was at work."

"Where do you work?" "Local hospital."

( indistinct radio chatter )

They were suspicious of us because we did not call 9-1-1.

We called the regular police number,

and that we were very calm when we called.

Hobbs: Local law enforcement interviewed the Browns,

and through their interviews and their questions,

they eliminate them as any suspects.

Just crazy. Just crazy.

We knew we were innocent. What are you gonna do?

Narrator: If the Browns were innocent,

how did the human remains end up in their backyard?

And how long had they been there?

Hobbs: At that point we didn't know who the person was.

All they knew was it was homicidal violence.

North Port Police Department interviewed everyone they can as far as leads.

They checked the Missing Persons and tried to identify them that way,

but they come up empty.

Brown: You know, there's a mother out there,

and you know he's got family somewhere.

Whatever happened to him? It's sad.

( siren blaring )

Narrator: Four months into that investigation,

detectives Ricky Hobbs and Mike Gandy answered an alarming call

30 miles away in neighboring Charlotte County.

There had been another terrifying discovery

in the backyard of a new housing development.

I learned two county employees were taking a break or something

but they were just walking around in the wooded area

from a nearby paved road.

And they stumbled upon a skull.

Norman: It's out in the middle of nowhere,

and it's just not a place that people go very often.

Hobbs: When I responded I went into the woods

and went back about 50 or 100 feet

and that's where the skull by itself was laying on the ground.

Gandy: We went in and started to look around a little bit

and then I found the torso of a human being.

We assumed that that torso went with the skull

that was found by the county workers.

Just from experience,

we knew that the torso was there a week or so

or maybe a little longer.

Narrator: There was no telling what other horrors awaited detectives

in the backyard of this development.

Not too far away, I found the remains of a pelvis.

Though seasoned detectives,

it was impossible for Gandy and Hobbs

to make sense of the scene.

And with each step, it became more surreal.

I saw something off in the distance

about a hundred feet that caught my eye.

And as I approached this thing under the tree,

I could see a-- part of a hand sticking out.

Just the fingertips.

So I didn't know whether I had a homeless guy there.

It appeared to be a carpet padding laying on top of him.

As I got closer, I could see

what appeared to be blood on the hand.

And I called out to Lieutenant Gandy,

"Hey, I've got something over here."

I lifted up the edge of the carpet padding,

and what we had was another body.

Body of a white male.

He was what we call fresh.

Only been there 10 or 12 hours.

He had ligature marks around his wrists.

Ligature marks around his neck,

and ligature marks around his legs.

Narrator: And what detectives discovered next was ghastly.

Gandy: He was completely nude

and his genitals had been surgically removed.

Norman: There was a grisly murderer out there

who was tying people up to trees.

Where nobody could hear you scream.

Narrator:

Narrator: In 1996, after a dog

Narrator: In 1996, after a dog dug up a human skull

in a North Port, Florida backyard,

investigators unearthed the remains

of an unidentified victim.

Four months later, detectives in neighboring Charlotte County

discovered the gruesome remains of two more bodies

in the backyard of a new housing development.

As I got closer, I could see his genitals had been removed.

Gandy: I've done this for a long time

and I've seen some pretty bad things.

This ranks up there with the top of them.

Hobbs: Our theories on why the genitals were removed

was that they're taken to remove evidence.

If you're performing a sex act on someone,

you're gonna leave DNA. You're gonna leave something.

So by removing that particular item,

you're not leaving any evidence.

Gandy: It was scary to know

that we were dealing with someone capable of doing that.

And it made me wonder how difficult it was gonna be

to catch this person.

Narrator: A skull, a torso, and a fresh body.

Were the remains of these two victims

the work of one ruthless killer?

Or was this simply a gruesome dumping ground?

Gandy: The fresh body that we found

had just been put there maybe the night before.

Narrator: Who fell prey to these atrocious crimes?

Investigators worked quickly

to identify the most recent victim.

Hobbs: Well, we were able to recover fingerprints from the victim.

We were able to take those fingerprints

and run them through a database.

And when we did that, we got a hit that they matched

a white male identified as Richard Montgomery.

Jaccoud: None of us could really believe it.

You know, I think it took a while to sink in.

The pictures still haunt me.

He was just disfigured.

I never seen anything like it.

( sniffling )

Badly beaten.

Narrator: Just 21 years old.

Richard Montgomery was barely an adult.

News of his senseless murder crushed his family and friends,

especially his buddy, John Jaccoud.

( crying )

I mean, I can't talk about it.

It's been really hard on me.

Rich was living with his sister and his brother-in-law

and they had a young child.

And they, uh, they took care of Rich.

They all took care of each other, really.

Oh, Rich was such a great uncle.

You know, and he's always eager to help the family,

and he was there for them.

Narrator: Like most kids his age,

Rich hustled through life always chasing a buck.

Jaccoud: He was very eager to make money.

You know, there were some construction jobs and things.

You know, but this,

to contribute and help out with the family.

Narrator: Mostly, John and Rich were just a couple of kids

without a care in the world.

We'd talk about cars and jobs and girls

and things that 20-year-old people talked about back then.

He was, you know, tall, thin, good hair.

He was really good with the women.

They loved the way he was.

He was just so full of life and people--

all people loved him, you know.

We just wondered how something like that

could even happen to Richard.

He just did not deserve it.

Narrator: As Rich's family and friends struggle to figure out

why such a loved guy was so viciously murdered,

investigators were desperate for answers

to these grisly crimes.

They started by trying to identify the victim

found in the same yard as Rich.

These two bodies that we found

were probably feet away.

When the torso was found,

the back tissue was still there.

It was kind of preserved because it was laying on the ground.

When they rolled the torso over,

there was a tattoo still visible on the back.

We basically made that tattoo public

to try to find out anybody know a person that has this tattoo.

Narrator: It was a bewildering case for investigators,

who needed to act fast to catch a killer.

But first they had to meticulously comb through the crime scene.

Hobbs: We're probably not gonna find anything that's gonna jump out

and say, "You got it."

It's gonna be microscopic.

So we gotta be very careful on what we collect,

how we collect it, how we process the bodies.

Gandy: We did not find any clothing in the area.

We did not find any murder weapon.

We only could assume

that the person responsible for murdering these people

took their clothing with them.

Narrator: Hours into their painstaking search,

the detectives finally discovered a possible clue

on the mutilated body of Richard Montgomery.

When he was swabbed, they found a paint chip

down by his hip.

Narrator: The paint chip was collected

along with other fibers and hairs.

Until the evidence was analyzed,

detectives could only hope

it would provide a link to the killer.

But a search of the backyard

did reveal an even more perverse MO.

We were able to find rope marks on the trees.

Hobbs: You consider the victim's height,

the victim had ligature marks,

at the same levels as the trees,

like people were tied to it.

And he was rubbing into the tree.

We've got a person who's basically tortured these people.

Narrator: Within hours, word of the horrific scene

was circulating through the community of Charlotte County.

Norman: As the facts trickled in, we were all wondering,

"Who is doing this? What is happening"

They just knew that there was a grisly murderer

out there somewhere who was tying people up to trees

out in the middle of nowhere.

Where nobody could hear you scream.

Narrator: As detectives began piecing together clues

about this crime scene, they suddenly recalled the bones

found four months earlier in a North Port backyard.

Hobbs: I called North Port PD.

And told them, I said, "Hey, look, we got two more bodies."

At that point we started comparing notes.

On our crime scenes, on our victims,

and everything seemed to be the same thing

on all three bodies.

They were all laid out in the woods.

They were all naked with no clothing, no belongings.

Narrator: Was it possible all three deaths were the work

of the same sadistic killer?

We went back out to the Browns' backyard,

and looked around and we found the same ligature marks

on the trees up in North Port.

Narrator: In an instant,

the detectives greatest fear was realized.

Now what we have is a known serial killer,

and we know that it's gonna happen again

if we don't catch this person.

Narrator:

Narrator: In the spring of 1996,

investigators in southwestern Florida

had a serial killer on their hands

when bones and mutilated bodies started turning up

in rural backyards.

To catch the person behind the horrific deaths,

investigators first needed to know who was being targeted.

21-year-old Richard Montgomery

was their only identified victim.

Gandy: We found out Richard didn't have a lot of money.

His family didn't have a lot of money.

Hobbs: He drank a lot.

He stayed wherever he happened to be that time.

But he had a group of friends that he would hang out with.

Jaccoud: Last time I saw Richard he was just hanging out.

It was just like a normal night. He might've had a couple beers.

And I think someone busted his chops a little bit about money, you know.

Richard just told us that he had a way to make money.

Hobbs: He told his friend he had a gig where he was gonna go make $200

real quick and he'd be back in a couple hours.

Jaccoud: He didn't give any details

and he really was very vague about it.

It didn't seem like it was a big deal, you know.

Hobbs: The last time Richard was seen was by a couple friends of his.

He was standing on Royal Road and 41

like he was waiting for somebody.

Narrator: Rich's trail went cold

on the side of that rural road.

Investigators began to speculate.

Did someone persuade Richard to meet up

with a promise of a paying job?

And was that person his killer?

Gandy: While we were working on this case,

we would update the media as much as possible,

and keep the public informed and to generate leads.

Narrator: The publicity turned up a critical lead

about the tattooed torso found near Richard's body

in the backyard of a housing development

when a frantic mother reached out to detectives.

Hobbs: We received a call from a lady

who said that she hadn't heard from her son for a while

and he had a tattoo like that.

And we were able to identify that it was Kenny Smith.

Narrator: 25-year-old Kenny Smith had recently moved to the area

from Naples, Florida.

Hobbs: He would stay at flophouses, missions,

do anything for a beer.

Narrator: Though the bones found in the Browns' backyard

had yet to be identified,

a victim profile appeared to be emerging.

Young, impressionable white men eager to earn a buck.

Much like Richard Montgomery.

It appears he lured most of his victims with money.

Gandy: Some of the victims because of they're being transient,

they would do things to make money and so forth.

Jaccoud: Richard might not have been the smartest guy, you know,

and he was easily persuaded,

but he wasn't looking to get in trouble, you know.

But just very eager to make money.

Narrator: The urgency to solve and stop these killings was palpable.

And investigators quickly set up a task force.

The criminal profiler came down,

reviewed all of our evidence and our pictures,

and determined, in his opinion,

that the same person was responsible for all the crimes.

He said he was most likely a sexual sadist.

Basically someone who gets sexual arousal

from everything that he's doing to these other individuals.

Narrator: For weeks, detectives Gandy and Hobbs worked tirelessly

to catch a presumed serial killer.

Everyone in Southwest Florida is looking at each other

and wondering where this monster is.

Narrator: With every dead-end lead,

investigators fear the killer might strike again.

And then a tip from an unlikely source

broke the case wide open.

Hobbs: David Payton was an inmate

at the Marion County Correctional Institute.

What Payton told investigators was that he was down at Fort Myers.

And a guy pulled up, offered him some beer,

and they got in the car and started driving away.

Gandy: David Payton said the person that picked him up,

he gave him some beer, he gave him some Valium,

he gave him some marijuana.

And then he said the man offered to pay him

for nude photographs

with some bondage, being tied to trees.

Narrator: Eager to make a few bucks, Payton went along with it.

Payton says that he made a turn down a road

and then cut back into the woods.

Moments later, the car hit a mud puddle and got stuck.

Hobbs: Payton had asked, "Well, I can go back there and push it out."

He said the subject's demeanor totally changed.

Very authoritative, "No, you stay here."

Narrator: The man barked at Payton to get behind the wheel,

while he got out to push.

That's when Payton made a terrifying discovery.

Payton looked around the backseat of the car.

That's when he saw a rope, saw a tarp,

and a knife on the floor.

Now he's concerned.

He came to realize

that this was not about photography.

This was about violence.

This was about murder.

As soon as they pushed it out of the hole,

Mr. Payton just floored it and took off.

He said he was afraid for his life.

Narrator: Payton's head was spinning with fear, booze, and drugs

when he was pulled over by the cops in Fort Myers.

By the time he was found, the car had been reported stolen.

That's what Mr. Payton was charged with, that and DUI.

Narrator: Payton tried to explain his harrowing ordeal

to the officers.

Hobbs: Mr. Payton had a fairly extensive record.

They didn't believe him.

After we learned this incredible story,

we did a little bit of research.

Narrator: The car had been reported stolen hours earlier.

The car was actually reported stolen through Charlotte County.

So I went back, found Mr. Payton's arrest, pulled the reports,

and the car belonged to a Daniel Conahan, Sr.

But the person that reported it stolen was Daniel Conahan, Jr.

Narrator: They learned 42-year-old Daniel Conahan, Jr.

was a former navy man who moved to Florida from Chicago

and lived with his parents in upscale Punta Gorda.

We ran a background check on Daniel Conahan.

He had been in the military.

He had had a dishonorable discharge.

Hobbs: We spoke with the naval criminal investigation service.

Come to find out he had had two investigations.

He had been out on the beach, supposedly approached some other sailors,

and hit a guy with a rock.

For us it was a red flag.

Now we've got some indicators there's some violence.

Gandy: We learned that he had employment at a local hospital

as a licensed practical nurse.

Once we learned that he had a medical background,

the thought crossed our mind about the genital mutilation.

And how clean the incisions were.

Hobbs: Now I'm thinking we've got a suspect

who could be responsible for what's going on.

Narrator:

Narrator: After hearing a bizarre story

Narrator: After hearing a bizarre story from inmate David Payton,

investigators were eyeing 42-year-old local nurse,

Daniel Conahan, Jr., as a possible serial killer.

After they learned Conahan's violent past,

investigators turned to an old friend of his

for more evidence he might be their guy.

Hobbs: We tracked down one of Mr. Conahan's old roommates.

And during his interview,

he had indicated that one of Mr. Conahan's fantasies

was having to do with sexual bondage.

Gandy: If Conahan was the guy, he's gonna kill again.

So we could not let that happen.

So we went all out in a 24-hour,

seven-day-a-week surveillance on this guy.

Hobbs: We wanted to see where he goes, what he does, who he contacts.

Gandy: The first goal is to see if we can catch him

trying to hurt someone or establish what his pattern is.

To see if his pattern would match the MO

of what we believed we had with these murders.

Narrator: Dozens of eyes followed Conahan's every move.

It was a time consuming process, but it paid off

when the team began noticing his strange patterns.

Making U-turns, and right turns, left turns.

Just to make sure nobody was following him.

Gandy: He would drive through homeless areas

where transients would hang out,

bus stations, anywhere he could

to make contact with people that were on the street.

Hobbs: We think that he was doing that to find people

who wouldn't be missed.

Narrator: Conahan's patterns were suspicious

and aligned with what investigators were looking for.

Gandy: He made contact with several different people.

And of course that would get everybody's hair

on the back of their neck raising, because we were scared.

"Oh, my God, is he gonna pick this guy up?"

Mr. Conahan was a hunter.

It was almost like he was a starving animal looking for food.

Narrator: Detectives needed to come up with a plan.

And designed one that was risky,

but could ultimately bait Conahan into a trap.

Gandy: Once we found out what Conahan was looking for,

we decided that we would put out some decoys.

And we did that in several places

where we knew Conahan hunted.

My supervisor came to me and asked me to do some undercover work.

I was asked because I fit the profile

of the last known victim.

The last victim was similar to my age.

We were already surveilling the suspect,

so we knew that he went into the park.

I knew what he looked like.

So, I just went on foot with a hidden bug on me,

and tried to make contact with him.

Narrator: The undercover team anticipated a long anxious night.

but Clemens was in the park mere minutes

when thing started heating up.

Scott Clemens: I went into the bathroom and basically as I was walking out,

Daniel Conahan was walking in.

And as soon as he saw me,

he turned around and walked right back out and followed me.

He was on me right away.

Kinda walked slowly and he approached me,

and we just started making small talk.

I made up a name

and told him that I had taken a bus from Georgia,

and I wasn't familiar with the area.

I didn't have any family here.

We just walked together side by side,

just chatting, small talk.

The vibe that I was getting from him

was that he was interested in me.

He was obviously familiar with the park

because he led me to about the deepest portion of the park.

And then he asked me if I ever hustled before.

I said, "Yes, of course."

And then he propositioned me for sex.

Basically asked me if I wanted to make a quick 20 bucks.

Of course I said yes,

because if I would've said no it would've been suspicious.

I asked him to see the $20 and he said he didn't have it.

Then at that time he wanted the two of us

to go for a ride to the ATM,

and then we would get the money.

We did not want Scotty to get into the car with him,

because we could not control that.

Hobbs: That was nerve-racking.

We're close by but we're not standing right there with him.

And he's not armed.

Narrator: Clemens didn't get into the car,

and coyly asked Daniel what else he'd like.

Clemens: He wanted to take naked pictures of me

and he would pay me.

And he wanted to do this in the woods,

and he explained to me

that there would be bondage.

Yeah, I'm thinking, "Wow, this is the exact same MO

that he was doing to these other victims.

Hobbs: We were afraid that if he felt something was wrong

that he could just go off and do something real quick.

That would harm the detective.

Narrator:

Narrator: On a hot and humid

Narrator: On a hot and humid Florida night,

an elaborate undercover operation was reaching a pivotal moment.

Undercover cop Scott Clemens just lured suspected serial killer

Daniel Conahan, Jr., into his trap.

He told me that he wanted to take pictures of me naked,

and he wanted to take them in the woods.

At the time, our policy was, you know, you can't get naked.

So I told him I didn't have time,

that I was in a rush to be somewhere else.

After I kinda shut him down,

I think he started to become a little suspicious of me.

Narrator: Conahan suddenly stopped his advances toward Clemens

and took off, and the operation was shut down for the night.

But after so much surveillance

and plenty of probably cause on Conahan,

investigators already had a backup plan in place.

We conducted a traffic stop on U.S. 41 in Punta Gorda.

Gandy: I explained who we were

and that we were investigating these crimes,

and that his name had come up in these crimes.

And that I would like to sit down and talk with him,

if he would be willing to do that.

To my surprise, he agreed to-- to talk with us.

Narrator: The stakes were high

and investigators knew a confession was key.

Afraid of spooking their suspect,

they didn't haul him into the station.

Gandy: We had already set up a motel room

that was wired with video and audio.

So we went into the motel.

In the next room was a team

that was monitoring this conversation.

- Would you like some water or something? - Yes, I would.

Yes, no problem. Got some right here.

He was friendly. I think that he thought

he was probably the smartest person in the room.

And I think that's why he decided

that he would talk to us.

Gandy: I was nice to him, I didn't put any pressure on him.

He was obviously nervous because under the table--

We had a tablecloth.

You'll see that tablecloth moving rapidly.

That's him patting his foot underneath the table.

I asked him if he'd ever taken part in bondage with anyone.

Narrator: Conahan had no idea investigators knew otherwise.

Gandy: I think he underestimated our investigation to that point.

He had no clue how massive it was.

How much information we had.

- ( laughs ) - I understand that,

but let's get beyond the embarrassment--

Narrator: Detectives waited until they knew they had Conahan

backed into a corner,

then hit him with another surprise.

Hobbs: We had obtained enough probably cause

that Conahan could be connected to these crimes,

that I was able to obtain a search warrant.

Hobbs: While he was being interviewed,

that's when we processed his house.

We picked up some of his clothing.

We actually found a quarter inch rope,

pliers, paring knives, tarps.

A lot of the items that would normally be in a murder kit.

Narrator: There was another small

but potentially significant piece of evidence

the team was hoping to link to Conahan.

One piece of evidence came from the body of Richard Montgomery.

When he was swabbed, they found a paint chip down by his hip.

When we served the search warrants

on Mr. Conahan's blue car,

we also collected samples of paint.

Narrator: The samples, along with the other evidence,

were rushed out for testing.

Investigators at the motel were hoping

to skillfully pull a confession out of Daniel Conahan.

Gandy: I thought maybe once he knew

I caught him in some lies or some untruths

that he would maybe give me a little bit more information,

but that didn't happen.

Eventually I can tell he's getting tired,

he getting to the point

where he may be feeling a little bit threatened.

So I decided that it was time to shut the interview down,

because I wanted another chance to interview him.

So I wanted to leave on a good note,

and that's the way we ended it.

- Y'all set? - Yeah.

Hobbs: A little frustrating that we didn't get a confession,

but we were in the right direction.

Very well. Thank you for your time.

Narrator: Certain Conahan was behind the grisly murders

of Richard Montgomery and two other victims,

detectives kept close tabs on him.

They were waiting for the test results of the paint chip

or for Conahan to make a misstep

when another haunting story surfaced.

I was approached by a detective

from the Fort Myers Police Department.

He says, "You know, we had one just like that down in Fort Myers."

And I said, "Excuse me?"

He says, "Yeah, we had just like that, but ours lived."

And I said, "What?"

Narrator:

Narrator: In 1996, detectives

Narrator: In 1996, detectives in Florida were closing in

on Daniel Conahan, Jr., a suspected serial killer.

They finally got a major break in the case,

after another victim narrowly escaped death.

Gandy: This victim was picked up, taken to the woods,

given narcotics.

Lightly tied to a tree and then cinched.

Hobbs: He took some pictures,

and then given the excuse, "Well, I gotta adjust this, adjust that."

And the next thing you know,

the guy's pinned up against a tree.

Victim was able to stay alive by pretending to pass out.

We showed this detective a photograph

of Richard Montgomery's injuries.

And he said, "Oh, my God!

Those injuries are identical

to the injuries that my victim had."

Hobbs: Detectives give him a photo array of six photographs.

And as soon as they laid that line up on the table,

he put his finger and boom.

That's him.

That was Daniel Conahan.

We had more than sufficient evidence.

The judge agreed.

And we arrested him.

Gandy: We charged him with the attempted murder

and rape of this other victim.

Narrator: Daniel Conahan was safely off the streets.

But to charge him with the murders of Richard Montgomery

or Kenny Smith, investigators needed more evidence.

Hobbs: During the examination at the medical examiner's office,

Richard Montgomery was swabbed.

They found a paint chip by his hip.

When we served the search warrants on Mr. Conahan's car,

we also collected samples of paint.

We were able to process those paint samples.

And these two particular samples matched.

That paint chip puts Mr. Conahan's car with Mr. Montgomery.

That was huge.

Gandy: We were able to establish we had physical evidence,

we had his MO, we had enough at that time

that we charged him with the murder of Richard Montgomery.

Jaccoud: It was a big relief to a lot of people

and a little bit of closure to what happened to Richard.

Norman: It just makes you wonder the depth of his insanity,

'cause at the bottom of this there's definitely

a very sick, twisted mind.

Narrator: With the help of one fortunate survivor

and the collection of evidence,

detectives pieced together exactly how Daniel Conahan

carried out his horrific crimes.

Hobbs: Mr. Conahan would pick 'em up.

They would be going back into the woods

under the guise of posing nude.

In a bondage scenario.

And he'd offer them anywhere from $20 to $100, $200.

He would call it light bondage,

which would be ropes tied around them very loosely.

He had a method somehow of cinching those ropes

to where his victims could not protect themself

and could not fight back.

Ultimately, he would strangle them.

Narrator: Without enough evidence

to tie him to the murder of Kenny Smith,

Daniel Conahan, Jr. stood trial

for the murder of Richard Montgomery

on August 9, 1999.

Hobbs: Mr. Conahan pled not guilty all the way up.

He never admitted anything.

Narrator: After an eight-day trial,

Conahan was convicted of first-degree murder.

Hobbs: When it came time for his sentencing

the jury ultimately decided he should receive the death penalty.

Narrator: Investigators never learned the identity of the John Doe,

whose bones were found in Susan Brown's backyard.

And, sadly, they believed even more unidentified victims

were killed by Conahan.

Hobbs: During the investigation, we estimated

that there probably 16 victims out there.

Norman: To try to understand why a sick killer like Daniel Conahan

does what he does is anybody's guess.

You see a need to control.

And you see that with a lot of serial killers.

A whole lot of people remember him.

And that's something that's gonna be part of the history

and lore of-- of that place for generations.

Narrator: Jean Jaccoud chooses

to remember his close friend Richard Montgomery,

and the life stolen from him far too soon.

Jaccoud: I really spent a lot of time trying to forget

about exactly what happened to him.

What I let people know about Richard is that, you know,

he would've made something of himself.

He really would have.

He would've had everything everybody else has.

That's all he ever wanted.

Have a life and, uh, and it was taken.

That was taken from him.