Buried in more than four thousand pages of documents is a tiny earthquake of new information: Ronnie Hyde, the man accused of killing and dismembering 16-year-old Fred Laster in 1994, was the boy’s foster dad.
That previously undisclosed information adds a layer of complexity to the already disturbing case against Hyde, who is accused of killing Laster in his Jacksonville Beach home and disposing the body in a dumpster in Lake City. Hyde was subsequently also charged with 12 counts of child pornography.
Hyde, a church counselor, was known to be a friend of the Laster family, and his access to – and possible exploitation of -- the three Laster children is alluded to in police reports. But Hyde’s formal role as foster father to the kids, whom he claimed as dependents on IRS filings, has not previously been disclosed.
The information is included in thousands of pages of documents released Friday as part of the discovery process, and could become evidence at trial. The document dump also includes FBI records from people who called the agency with tips about Hyde following his arrest, and hundreds of photographs.
Among the documents is Hyde's resume, in which he claimed to be a counselor to teenage sex offenders, and an application to work as a counselor and "relaxation specialist" at a nudist camp for teenagers. (The camp does not appear to exist any longer.) At one point, he drafted a grant application seeking $60,000 to create a counseling center for sexually abused teens.
Hyde's resume also indicates he volunteered at First Baptist Church in Ponte Vedra, but does not say in what capacity. At the time of his arrest, Hyde was a mental health counselor at Crosswater Community Church in Nocatee. He has also worked in the Florida State Prison system as a psychological specialist; at the Child Guidance Center; at World Good News; and briefly at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office as a corrections officer in the 1970s.
Among the material photographed as it was removed by police investigators: six discs of apparent child pornography, a homemade display of sex offender mugshots, and evidence of squalid living conditions at Hyde's Jacksonville Beach and Jacksonville’s Eastside homes.
At the time of Fred Laster's disappearance, Hyde was a youth pastor at the Strength for Living Church in Jacksonville, and friend of the Laster family. The teen was reported missing in 1994, but was not linked to the grisly torso discovery until 2016, when a tip to the the Center for Missing and Exploited Children resulted in a DNA match with Laster’s family.
Investigators obtained a sample of Hyde’s DNA by going through his trash. They say it matched a second DNA sample recovered from a flannel shirt found with the discarded torso.
Hyde has been in the Duval County Jail since March 2017.
Investigators believe evidence indicates Laster was probably killed at Hyde’s Jacksonville Beach home, but the FBI also searched property he owns at 2076 Thelma St. in Jacksonville. His Jax Beach home was subsequently demolished.