Editing Daniel Conahan (section)

===Murder spree===
On February 1, 1994, the mutilated corpse of a man was discovered in Punta Gorda. The body had been outside for about a month and had rope burns on the skin and the genitalia had been removed and discarded. In June 2021, the body was identified as that of Gerald Anthony "Jerry" Lombard who had not been seen or heard from since 1991 or 1992.

On January 1, 1996, a North Port family's dog brought home a male human skull. Police eventually pieced together much of a skeleton and determined that the genitalia had been cut out, similar to the 1994 victim. The North Port skeleton was also never identified.

A third man's mutilated body was discovered in North Port on March 7, 1996. He had been killed only 10 days earlier. He also remained unidentified until June 1999 when he was identified as John William Melaragno.

Another man's skull was found in Charlotte County on April 17, 1996. Police searched the surrounding woods and found the rest of the man as well as a second body. The second was a man who had been raped, murdered and mutilated only the day before, and was identified as Richard Allen Montgomery. The first body was later identified as Kenneth Lee Smith. Speculation became rampant about a serial killer and the media dubbed the murders "The Hog Trail Killings".