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Dead Bodies Found Along Florida's Hog Trails Point to "Highly Intelligent" Serial Killer · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep dive. Today, we are immersing ourselves,
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not in the clean lines of corporate strategy or cutting
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edge AI, but in something much grittier. We're heading to
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the Florida Gulf Coast, mid nineteen nineties.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really distinct setting. Imagine the air just
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thick with humidity, Spanish moss everywhere, like something out of
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a Southern Gothic novel, almost.
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Speaker 1: Kangled underbrush, these really isolated.
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Speaker 2: Trails exactly, and this landscape, it's beautiful in a way,
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but also incredibly unforgiving the sources we're looking at. Make
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it clear this environment wasn't just a backdrop, it was
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more like an accomplice, effectively, Yeah, an active collaborator in
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what turned out to be a truly horrific series of events.
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Speaker 1: So we're diving deep into the source material around the
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Hogtrail murders. Even the name since its chilled, don your spine, doesn't.
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Speaker 3: It It really does.
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Speaker 2: Between nineteen ninety four and nineteen ninety six, these remote paths,
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winding through thousands of acres of wilderness, it became a
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dumping ground.
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Speaker 1: Investigator kept get called out mutilated male corpses. Initially, it
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was four. I think that's right.
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Speaker 2: The initial cluster was four, but the tally grew significantly
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as connections were made later on many more victims.
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Speaker 1: And the connection wasn't just the location. The sources point
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to a very specific, very disturbing signature.
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Speaker 2: Incredibly specific. All the victims were men, usually marginalized in
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some way, transience drifters, man living on the fringes exactly.
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And they were found naked, bound, brutally mutilated, specifically castrated,
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and just left left to decay out there.
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Speaker 1: That pattern of sexual sadism, the emasculation. It was like
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a horrifying calling card.
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Speaker 2: It immediately told investigators they weren't looking at random acts
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of violence. This was something else.
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Speaker 1: And the central figure in all this, the man at
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the heart of our deep dive today, is Daniel Owen
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Conan Jr.
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Speaker 2: Right, And Conyan presents the stark contradiction. He was a
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licensed practical nurse in LPN, working in printa gorda, someone in.
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Speaker 1: A carrying profession. It's hard to reconcile that with the
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sheer brutality described in the sources.
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Speaker 2: That's the core paradox, isn't it. Because the investigators, the
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profilers who studied him. They all described him using one
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particular word intelligent, highly intelligent.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he seemed unremarkable on the surface, just a
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nurse living a seemingly normal life.
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Speaker 2: But underneath a calculating, sophisticated, and deeply disturbed individual.
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Speaker 1: So our mission today is to really unpack this source material.
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We want to get into the details, understand the planning,
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how he used that specific geography to his advantage.
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Speaker 2: And the forensic breadcrumbs he left behind, sometimes unknowingly tiny
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clues that became critical, and.
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Speaker 1: Crucially, how he prayed on vulnerability, how the fact that
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society had already forgotten these men became his greatest weapon.
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Speaker 2: We're looking for that intersection point, you know, forensic science,
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fctimology and this chilling calculated intelligence.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's start with the setting itself, the hogtrails. What
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exactly are they?
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Speaker 2: Well, name itself tells you a lot. They aren't paved roads.
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Speaker 1: Or scenic routs, right, not exactly tourist trails.
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Speaker 3: No, definitely not.
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Speaker 2: They're basically a network of dirt roads, fire breaks, old
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logging tracks. Maybe they cut through thousands and thousands of
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acres of preserved wetlands, pine flat woods, really remote areas.
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Speaker 1: And why hog trails were they literally for hunting hogs
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pretty much?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the name comes from managing the feral hog population.
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Apparently Spanish explorers brought pigs over way back in the
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fifteen hundreds.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that far back.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the twentieth century they were widespread. So
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these trails were maintained for hunting and management. This meant
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only certain people ever really.
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Speaker 1: Used them, hunters, maybe conservation officers.
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Speaker 2: Exactly where someone specifically seeking out that deep isolation, and
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for someone like Conahan, that environment was well, it was perfect.
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Speaker 3: It was a key part of his strategy.
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Speaker 1: The isolation helps commit the crime, obviously, but the sources
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really stress what happens after the crime, the evidence destruction.
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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely rual. You've got this subtropical climate, intense humidity,
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high temperatures, not.
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Speaker 1: Exactly ideal for preserving a crime scene.
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Speaker 2: The opposite, it accelerates decay massively. The sources say, bodies
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could lie out there for months, sometimes months. Yeah, and
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during that time nature does its work. Scavengers are a
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huge factor, vultures, fire ants, even the hogs themselves.
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Speaker 1: So the very animals the trails were named for contributed
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to erasing the evidence exactly.
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Speaker 2: They dissolve everything, soft tissues, potential fingerprints, fibers, fluids, It
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all gets compromised incredibly quickly.
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Speaker 1: That points to someone who knew the area well, knew
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how long she had before the scene was essentially cleaned
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by nature.
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Speaker 2: It suggests planning, calculation, not just impulsive violence. He understood
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the environment and.
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Speaker 3: How to use it.
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Speaker 1: And we see that calculation right from the first discovery,
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don't we John Doe number one in nineteen ninety four.
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Speaker 2: Yes, February first, nineteen ninety four, Northern Port Charlotte investigators
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find this man estimated eight twenties, nude from the waist down.
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Speaker 1: In the condition he was found in. It immediately set
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the pattern, the signature that would become so terrifyingly familiar.
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Speaker 2: The sources are very specific. His genitals were removed and
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the word they use is surgically removed with a sharp instrument.
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Speaker 1: Surgically. That implies skill, precision, not just slashing.
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Speaker 2: It implies control, maybe, even as you suggested earlier, some
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kind of professional knowledge or training. And there was more
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legatu marks, clear marks on his wrists, suggesting he'd been
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tied up, maybe bound to a tree, while the AsSalt
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and mutilation took place.
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Speaker 1: So right away you have these twin pillars sexual sadism,
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the emasculation, and the use of restraints before the killing blow.
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Speaker 2: Which for John Doe number one was eventually determined to
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be strangulation confirmed later on.
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Speaker 1: It seems like things went quiet for a bit after that,
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or maybe just undetected. But then nineteen ninety six hits
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and the pace picks up dramatically.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it escalates. Either he became more active or maybe
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just less careful. Hard to say, but in January ninety six,
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partial remains are found in Northport, signature torso and legs,
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same horrific mutilation. Then just a couple of months later,
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March ninety six, another body near Interstate's seventy five, severely decomposed, but.
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Speaker 1: Still you could still see the signs.
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Speaker 2: Signs of restraint, signs of the emasculation. The pattern was undeniable.
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Speaker 1: Now he's establishing this horrifying rhythm. And then comes April eighth,
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nineteen ninety six. This seems to be where the first
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major break happens, according to the sources, the first real
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forensic foothold.
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Speaker 2: This was absolutely crucial. The discovery of Richard Allen Montgomery.
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He was young, only twenty one, and how is he
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found dumped in a ditch? But he was partially sticking
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out of a roll of carpet padding. It looks like
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the killer tried to use the padding to hide the body.
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Speaker 1: A hasty attempt at concealment.
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Speaker 2: Possibly, But in doing that, he inadvertently left behind something tiny,
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almost microscopic, but incredibly significant.
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Speaker 1: The single blue paint chip.
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Speaker 2: That one tiny chip clinging to Montgomery's roma. In all
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that dirt and debris, that chip became well, the investigator's
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holy grail at that point.
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Speaker 1: For our listeners who might not know much about trace evidence,
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explain why one paint chip can be so powerful.
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Speaker 2: Sure, it's not just color. Automotive paint is complex stuff.
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It's layered. You got primer, base coat, clearcoat, multiple layers, right,
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and each layer has a unique chemical recipe, its own signature.
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Using techniques like microspectroscopy, forensic analysts can break down those.
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Speaker 1: Layers, figure out the exact formula.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, the pigment composition, maybe even the manufacturing batch.
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Speaker 3: This lets them potentially.
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Speaker 2: Trace that chip back to a specific make, model, and
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even year range of a vehicle so.
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Speaker 1: It's like finding a tiny piece of the car's ID
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right there.
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Speaker 2: On the victim, precisely like a microscopic license plate left
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at the scene. It was a huge potential lead, and.
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Speaker 1: Things kept escalating. Just nine days after Montgomery was found,
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another body surfaces April seventeenth.
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Speaker 2: Kenneth Lee Smith, twenty five years old, and his discovery
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added another layer to the killer's methods.
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Speaker 1: This was different.
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Speaker 2: Yes, Smith's remains were skeletal, but they've been sowd in
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half at the waist. Post mortem dismemberments.
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Speaker 1: Sawed like with a tool.
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Speaker 2: The sources mentioned, precise, almost clinical cuts. It suggested the
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killer used specific tools and maybe had the knowledge or
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skilled to dismember the body efficiently.
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Speaker 1: Why do that Easier disposal.
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Speaker 2: That's the speculation, Easier to transport, maybe easier to hide
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in smaller pieces. It just reinforced this image of a cool,
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methodical killer, not someone acting in a blind rage.
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Speaker 1: So by spring ninety six, we've got these five bodies,
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all young white men, and critically no defensive wounds found
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on any of them.
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Speaker 2: That's right, which strongly suggests they were either taken by surprise,
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quickly incapacitated, or lured or lured into a situation where
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they felt safe initially compliant. That element of deception seems
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key to how Conahan operated.
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Speaker 1: The task Hose must have known they had a serial
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killer on their hands by then organized.
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Speaker 2: Well, oh, absolutely, someone who knew the area, knew how
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to use the hogtrail's isolation and the environment's tendency to
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destroy evidence. He was choosing his dumping grounds very carefully.
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Speaker 1: Let's pivot now and talk about the victims. The sources
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paint such a tragic picture here. It wasn't just random men,
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it was specifically marginalized men.
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Speaker 2: That's one of the most heartbreaking aspects of this case.
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The source material calls them ghosts even in life.
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Speaker 1: Ghosts even in life, meaning.
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Speaker 2: Meaning these were men whose disappearance might not set off
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immediate alarm bells. Transience hitchhikers, guys struggling with addiction, maybe
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men frequenting gay bars or cruising spots looking for companionship.
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Speaker 1: People less likely to have a family immediately filing a
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missing person report, or maybe less likely to have the
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police launch an intensive search right away.
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Speaker 2: Exactly that vulnerability, that societal invisibility, was something konnihan deliberately exploited.
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It gave him time, time for the bodies to decompose,
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for the evidence to vanish before law enforcement even I
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knew someone was missing, Which.
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Speaker 1: Makes the recent breakthroughs using genetics just incredible. They're essentially
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undoing that anonymity decades later.
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Speaker 2: It's monumental providing names, providing closure that families have waited
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decades for. The prime example is Gerald Jerry Anthony Lombard.
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Speaker 1: He was John do number one, the very first.
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Speaker 2: Victim found back in ninety four. He remained unidentified for
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twenty seven years.
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Speaker 1: Twenty seven years, unbelievable. How do they finally identify it?
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Speaker 2: It was June twenty twenty one. The breakthrough came from
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Investigative Genetic Genealogy or IgG. This is the technique that's
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revolutionizing cold case work.
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Speaker 1: Okay, walk us through that a bit. How does searching
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something like ancestry dot com help identify remains that old?
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It's not like Lombard himself had an ancestry profile.
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Speaker 2: Right, It's indirect. Standard DNA testing like COTIS usually needs
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a direct match or a very close relative already in
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the system. IgG works differently. Investigators take the DNA profile
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from the unidentified remains Lombard's DNA in this case exactly,
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and they upload it to public genealogy databases. Ancestry ged
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match are common ones, but only where users have consented
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to law enforcement matching. The goal isn't necessarily to find
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a sibling or parent.
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Speaker 1: You're looking for more distant relatives.
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Speaker 2: That's the key. Third cousins, fourth cousins, even more distant.
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Once they find those distant genetic relatives, forensic genealogists.
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Speaker 1: Get to work building family trees, massive.
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Speaker 2: Complex family trees. They use census records, birth certificates, death records,
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marriage licenses, working backwards and forwards through generations.
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Speaker 1: Until they can pinpoint a likely candidate exactly.
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Speaker 2: They narrow it down until they have a strong hypothesis
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about the person's identity. In Lombard's case, the initial lead
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came via ancestry dot com pointed to a specific family.
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Speaker 1: Line, and then they confirm it how.
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Speaker 2: They contacted living relatives identified through that tree. Lombard's sister,
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his brother, his son, got fresh DNA samples from them,
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and did a traditional DNA comparison for the final confirmation.
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Speaker 1: Wow. So after twenty seven years, they finally learned John Doe.
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Number one was Gerald Lombard, thirty one, a drifter originally
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from Massachusetts, last seen around ninety one or ninety two.
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Speaker 2: Imagine the weight lifted for that family, even amidst the grief,
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finally knowing what happened, finally having a name.
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Speaker 1: And we also know more about Richard Allen Montgomery, the
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young man found with the pink chip.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Montgomery was local from Punta Gorda. Sources say he
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was twenty one, looking for work, maybe a companionship. He
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was found with severe rope.
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Speaker 1: Burns consistent with the binding.
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Speaker 2: Mo yes, and the cause of death was fatal asphyxiation
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after what was clearly.
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Speaker 1: Torment and Kenneth Lee Smith, the one found dismembered.
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Speaker 2: He was identified sooner, relatively quickly. Yes, back in ninety six.
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He had a distinctive tattoo and dental records helped confirm
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his identity in his story, similar pattern described as affable, friendly,
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but struggled with drug addiction. Again, someone who struggles might
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have made him more vulnerable, less visible.
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Speaker 1: It really hammers home the killer selection process. He knew
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who to target.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, It's a tragic common thread.
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Speaker 1: The scope of this just kept expanding, didn't it. Years later,
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connections were made to remains found further south, the so
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called Fort Myers eight.
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Speaker 2: Right. These remains were discovered quite a bit later in
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two thousand and seven, down in Lee County, but the
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forensic work dated their deaths back to Conahan's peak activity
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period ninety four to ninety six.
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Speaker 1: And they're still identifying these men even though.
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Speaker 2: It's incredible, isn't it? It shows the dedication of these cold
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case units. Of those eight, four have now been identified.
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Speaker 1: Who are they?
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Speaker 2: We have John Blevins thirty eight, a transient Eric David
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Cohler twenty one, Jonathan James ty Hay twenty four, and
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Robert Ronald Bobby Soden. He was identified just recently.
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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, and even more resent.
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Speaker 2: Just this year twenty twenty four. Another man, Alejandro and
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Arcis Lago forty four, was identified. His remains were actually
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found back in two thousand and two, but linked to
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a two thousand and one disappearance that fits the profile.
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The timeline keeps extending.
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Speaker 1: Slightly, the confirmed count keeps climbing. It's staggering looking across
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all these victims. Lombard Montgomery Smith the Fort Myers victims.
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What are the absolute defining elements of Conahan's sadistic signature.
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Speaker 2: The consistency is what's so chilling. First, the binding always restrained,
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often with heavy cord or camouflage rope, and specifically double knotted.
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That detail suggests care.
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Speaker 1: Deliberation, not just a quick tie up no.
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Speaker 2: Second, definite signs of sexual assault, often indicating torture before death. Third,
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the unique and horrifying signature the castration, precise, almost surgical,
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suggesting a specific, deep seated pathology focused on emasculation and.
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Speaker 1: Humiliation, and the cause of death itself.
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Speaker 2: Usually strangulation or asphyxiation, a very close, very intimate method
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of killing, often used to silence screams during the fernal moments.
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Speaker 1: So Conahan had the environment working for him destroying evidence.
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He had victims who wouldn't be missed quickly, but something
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had to give. The sources point to one absolutely critical
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factor that started to unwrap his highly intelligent facade.
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Speaker 3: A living witness, someone.
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Speaker 1: Who survived, and that survivor was Stanley Burton. He was
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twenty six, a drifter like many of the victims. His
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story is just harrowing, but ultimately it cracked the case open.
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Speaker 2: Burden's testimony was the lynchpin. He provided the kind of detailed,
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first stand account that the deceased victims couldn't. This happened
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back in August nineteen ninety four.
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Speaker 1: Before most of the known bodies were even found exactly.
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Speaker 2: Burton said he accepted a ride from a man, stocky
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build maybe in his forties. The man offered him twenty.
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Speaker 1: Dollars twenty dollars for what to pose.
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Speaker 2: For nude bondage photos out in the woods.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that specific lure. It's chillingly manipulative, isn't it. It
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sounds consensual upfront.
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Speaker 2: It completely lowers the victim's guard. They're agreeing seemingly to
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participate in something entering a vulnerable state willingly. They have
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no idea that consent is about to be violently revoked.
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Speaker 1: So Burden agreed, he did.
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Speaker 2: He described being taken deep into the woods, told to strip,
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and then tied to an oak tree with that same
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distinctive camouflage rope we see mentioned elsewhere.
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Speaker 1: Tied to a tree just like the marks on John
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Doe number one suggested precisely.
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Speaker 2: Burdon said he was then sexually assaulted, and then the
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attacker started to strangle him with a ligature a garroat How.
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Speaker 1: Did he possibly survive that.
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Speaker 2: Pure survival instinct? He feigned death. He just went limp,
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stopped fighting, played dead until the attacker, believing he'd finish
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the job, finally left.
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Speaker 1: Incredible presence of mind in that moment of terror, But
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the sources mentioned something infuriating when Burdon went to the police.
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Speaker 2: Initially, his story was largely dismissed.
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Speaker 3: At that time.
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Speaker 2: Sadly, reports of assaults, especially those involving marginalized individuals, were
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potentially linked to the gay cruising scene, were sometimes viewed
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with skepticism by law enforcement.
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Speaker 1: They didn't believe him.
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Speaker 2: His account was initially brushed off by some as possibly
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a homosexual panic hoax. It's a terrible example of how
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biases could prevent recognizing a real predator a real survivor's account.
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It wasn't ann til the body started surfacing, matching his
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description of the binding and the mo that his report
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was taken with a gravity it deserved.
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Speaker 1: But his description of the attacker and crucially the car
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that mentally paid off.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely stockuman forties driving a blue Mercury Capri. That specific
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car detail lingered in the case files, and it led
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directly to the next big break in June nineteen.
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Speaker 1: Ninety six, which came from.
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Speaker 2: An inmate named David Peyton. He came forward with the
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story he'd been hitchhiking and got picked up by a guy.
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Speaker 1: Named Dan driving a blue Mercury Caprik.
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Speaker 2: Driving a blue Mercury Capri, Peyton said he saw something
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in the back seat that terrified him. A bag. What
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was in it, knives, rope, a tarp, gloves, basically a
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kill kit, all laid out. Peyton understandably panicked. When Dan
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was momentarily distracted, Peyton stole the car and took off.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so Peyton steals the potential killer's car. And this
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is where Conahan makes a really interesting, maybe arrogant move.
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Speaker 2: It's fascinating from a psychological perspective. Instead of just letting
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the car disappear, may be hoping it wouldn't be found
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or linked back to him, Conahan did the opposite. He
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boldly reported his blue Mercury Caprice stolen to the police.
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Speaker 1: Why would he do that? It seems canterintunic if you're
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trying to hide something.
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Speaker 2: It was likely a calculated gamble, a faint By reporting
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it stolen, he positions himself as a victim. It potentially
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creates an alibi, confuses the timeline if the car is
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later found near a dump site. He might have thought
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it was a clever way to deflect suspicion.
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Speaker 1: The highly intelligent predator trying to outsmart everyone.
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Speaker 3: It backfired big time.
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Speaker 2: That stolen car report put his name, Daniel Conahan and
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the vehicle's VIN number officially into the police system.
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Speaker 1: Which could then be connected back to.
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Speaker 2: Stanley Burden's original description of the attacker and his blue
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Mercury Capri and David Payton. The car thief was able
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to identify Conahan from a photo lineup as the Dan
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who owned the car with the kill kid inside. The
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pieces suddenly snapped together.
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Speaker 1: The net starts closing in rapidly.
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Speaker 2: Conahan was arrested on July third, nine, nineteen ninety six,
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and once they had him in custody, the evidence started
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piling up.
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Speaker 1: What did they find when they searched his place.
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Speaker 2: Rope consistent with the type used on victims cameras, which
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ties back to Burden's story about being lured for photos
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and significantly semen stained underwear and the.
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Speaker 1: Crucial forensic links tying him directly to the victims found.
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Speaker 2: This is where the trace evidence became devastating. Remember Kenneth
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Lee Smith, the dismembered victim. Yes, microscopic fibers found on
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Smith's body were analyzed. They were a match to the
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fibers from the upholstery inside Conahan's Mercury.
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Speaker 1: Capri, placing Smith inside.
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Speaker 2: That car undeniably. But the absolute slam dunk was the
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paint chip.
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Speaker 1: The tiny blue chip from Richard Montgomery's remains.
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Speaker 2: Forensic analysis confirmed its unique multi layer chemical composition was
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a perfect match to the specific paint used on Conahan's car.
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There was no explaining that away.
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Speaker 1: So you have the survivor's testimony, the car linked fibers
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linking another victim to the car, the paint chip linking
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Montgomery to the car.
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Speaker 2: And then add credit card records. Investigators tracked his purchases,
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placing him geographically near the dumb sites around the times
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the victims likely disappeared. The circumstantial case became overwhelming and.
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Speaker 1: The profile that the FBI and FDL had been working
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on it suddenly clicked into place.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the profile suggested a local white male, possibly with
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military or significantly medical knowledge. That medical knowledge could explain
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the precision, the surgical nature of the castrations.
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Speaker 1: Enter Daniel Owen Kinahan Junior the LPN exactly.
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Speaker 2: His background filled in so many blanks. Born fifty four,
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Catholic upbringing, moved to Punta Gorda as a kid, and
20:39
the sources detail this really disturbing, potentially formative event from
20:44
his youth. Oo was that when he realized he was
20:46
gay as a teenager, he was subjected to electroshock therapy.
20:50
Speaker 1: Oh my god, electroshock therapy to cure homosexuality. That's barbaric.
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Speaker 3: It was a practice used back then.
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Speaker 2: Tragically, While we can't draw a straight line, profilers would
20:58
absolutely consider that kind of extreme trauma and forced repression
21:02
when analyzing the violent sexual pathology that emerged later, especially
21:06
the focus on emasculation.
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Speaker 1: It suggests a profound internal conflict, maybe projected outward in
21:11
the most horrific way.
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Speaker 2: It certainly points to deep psychological damage. His later life
21:17
also provided skills. He was a Navy veteran, though discharged
21:21
in seventy eight for sexual misconduct, he came back to
21:23
Florida and then quite.
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Speaker 1: Remarkably graduated top of his nursing class, top.
21:28
Speaker 2: Of his LPN class in nineteen ninety five, started working
21:31
at Charlotte Regional Medical Center, so he had the medical knowledge,
21:35
the anatomical understanding.
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Speaker 1: Which brings us back to that description highly intelligent. Professor
21:41
Wayne Porter used that phrase. It wasn't just booksmarts, was it.
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Speaker 2: It was cunning, it was predatory intelligence. His methodical nature
21:49
was key, choosing victims who wouldn't be immediately missed, varying
21:53
the dump sites across counties to confuse investigators, initially using deception,
21:57
the modeling gig lore to gain.
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Speaker 1: Compliance, precision in the mutilation and dismemberment.
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Speaker 2: Likely drawing on his nursing skills, and that stolen car
22:05
report a bold calculated risk. He was constantly thinking, planning,
22:09
trying to stay ahead. That's why he got away with
22:11
it for as long as he did.
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Speaker 1: So. Conahan is arrested in ninety six. He's formally charged
22:16
in early ninety seven, specifically with Richard Montgomery's murder. First,
22:20
and then he makes another calculated move regarding his trial.
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Speaker 2: Yes, instead of facing a jury, he waived that right
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and opted for a bench trial, just him and the judge.
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Speaker 1: Why do that? Trying to avoid inflaming a jury with
22:34
the graphic details.
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Speaker 2: That's often the strategy, maybe believing a judge would focus
22:38
purely on the legal interpretation of the evidence, less on
22:41
the emotion. But it was a gamble that didn't pay
22:44
off for him.
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Speaker 1: The judge convicted him.
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Speaker 2: In August nineteen ninety nine, Judge William L. Robinson found
22:49
him guilty first degree murder kidnapping. The judge cited the
22:53
overwhelming forensic evidence of fibers, the paint chip, the credit
22:57
card trail.
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Speaker 1: In Stanley Burton's testimony to be incredibly powerful.
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Speaker 2: In court, absolutely crucial. Burden provided the human element, the
23:05
direct identification, the living proof of Conahan's methods. His statement
23:09
in court pointing at Conahan, that's the man who tried
23:11
to kill me. That resonates, It validates all the science.
23:14
Speaker 1: Conahan received the death sentence in December nineteen ninety nine.
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He's been on death row ever since.
23:19
Speaker 2: Yes at Union Correctional Institution, and like many on death row,
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he's pursued appeals relentlessly for the past what nearly twenty
23:27
five years now.
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Speaker 1: And incredibly the sources say this case is still active,
23:31
not just in terms of appeals but in identifying victims.
23:34
Speaker 2: It's far from closed. That commitment to identifying the remaining
23:38
john does is ongoing. We saw those IgG breakthroughs in
23:42
twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty four, bringing
23:46
names like Lombard, Sowden logo back from anonymity.
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Speaker 1: But Conahan himself is still playing the game. It seems
23:52
there was a recent development remarkable.
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Speaker 2: Isn't it in January twenty twenty five. Just recently, the
23:57
sources say Conahan actually petitioned the court.
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Speaker 1: For new dedms on what evidence on some.
24:02
Speaker 2: Specific items still held from the original investigation. A hare
24:06
found at one scene, some old cigarette butts found near another,
24:08
and scrapings from Richard Montgomery's fingernails.
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Speaker 1: He's trying to use modern DNA tech to exonerate.
24:14
Speaker 2: Himself, that's the goal. He's hoping these tests might reveal
24:17
DNA from someone else, creating reasonable doubt suggesting another perpetrator
24:22
was involved. It's a classic tactic for an intelligent, potentially
24:25
narcissistic offender using the system, using science to keep fighting.
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Speaker 1: The outcome of that petition is still pending.
24:34
Speaker 2: As far as the sources indicate, yes, but it just
24:36
shows his mind to still working, still engaged in trying
24:39
to manipulate the narrative, even after all this time.
24:42
Speaker 1: And meanwhile, there are still families waiting for answers. The
24:46
four unidentified victims from the Fort Myers.
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Speaker 2: Eight, they remain John Doe's, a sark reminder of how
24:52
effective Cornihan was for a time at making people disappear
24:55
in those vast unforgiving woods.
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Speaker 1: His confirmed victim count is currently thirteen.
25:00
Speaker 2: Thirteen linked directly through evidence or confessions that align with
25:04
the mo and timeline, but most profilers and investigators believe
25:07
the true number is almost certainly higher.
25:10
Speaker 1: So when we circle back to that phrase highly intelligent,
25:13
what's the real takeaway?
25:14
Speaker 2: It wasn't intelligence in the conventional sense of wisdom or contribution.
25:18
It was intelligence weaponized.
25:20
Speaker 1: Old calculating, predatory exactly.
25:23
Speaker 2: It allowed him to maintain that facade, the caring nurse
25:26
by day, the hunter by night. It informed his victim selection,
25:30
his methods of luring and disposal, his attempts to outwit
25:34
law enforcement.
25:35
Speaker 3: His sophistication lay in his.
25:37
Speaker 2: Ability to exploit vulnerabilities both in his victims and in
25:40
the environment itself.
25:42
Speaker 1: It may be vulnerabilities in society's willingness to look for
25:45
certain missing people.
25:46
Speaker 2: That's a huge part of it. His success wasn't just
25:49
his own cunning. It was enabled by a system, by
25:51
a society that didn't always see or prioritize the marginalized
25:55
men he targeted.
25:57
Speaker 1: Did the Hogtrail murders lead to any changes, any positive legacy,
26:01
if you can call it that, there were impacts.
26:03
Speaker 2: Yes, The sources suggest it spurred improvements in Florida law enforcement,
26:07
particularly regarding outreach to transient populations, trying to make them
26:10
less invisible.
26:11
Speaker 1: In strengthening cold case protocols.
26:13
Speaker 2: Definitely, especially around DNA. The long term effort to identify
26:17
Kanahan's victims using new genetic tools is part of that legacy.
26:21
For the families of men like Gerald Lombard or Bobby Soden,
26:24
that work means everything. Their loved ones aren't just statistics
26:28
or forgotten does anymore so if we try to boil
26:32
down the key lessons from this deep dive into the sources, first,
26:36
you see the absolute power of a survivor's testimony. Stanley
26:40
Burn's account was the human key that unlocked the forensic evidence.
26:43
Speaker 1: Without him, it might have taken even longer.
26:45
Speaker 3: Much longer.
26:45
Speaker 2: Potentially. Second, the environment itself was a major character in
26:49
this story, Florida's subtropical climate, acting as both a concealer
26:53
and an evidence to grater, it posed unique challenges.
26:56
Speaker 1: And Third, the sheer impact of modern science, soific investigative
27:00
genetic genealogy. It's reaching back decades to give names enclosure
27:05
where there was only silence.
27:07
Speaker 2: It really shows how science and dogged investigation can eventually
27:11
overcome even calculated efforts at erasure.
27:13
Speaker 1: It's a grim journey we've taken today exploring this material,
27:16
but it does highlight that perseverance that even the most
27:20
intelligent predators can eventually be caught.
27:22
Speaker 2: And the source material really drives home that idea intelligence
27:26
without empathy, without basic humanity, that's perhaps the most dangerous thing.
27:30
Speaker 1: Of all, Which leaves a final thought, maybe for you,
27:33
the listener, as you reflect on everything we've unpacked today,
27:36
consider this, how much of Daniel Conahan's horrifying success stemmed
27:41
purely from his own undeniable, cunning, and meticulous planning.
27:44
Speaker 2: And how much was a direct result of a broader
27:47
societal blind spot, a failure to see, protect and value
27:50
the marginalized men. He's so deliberately hunted down, something to
27:53
mull over until next time.
27:55
Speaker 1: Keep digging,