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What inspectors found inside Hyde's home

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – First Coast News has uncovered more details about the unsanitary and unsafe living conditions inside murder suspect Ronnie Hyde’s Jacksonville Beach home.

A utility report from Jacksonville Beach Energy shows that over 12 years of meter reading at Hyde’s house the average water consumption was zero. That’s because Hyde was without any running water. A source close to the investigation tells us Hyde was using the bathtub as a toilet.

Reports from Code Enforcement dating back to 2007 show 12 different cases involving neighbor’s complaints about his property and building code violations. His case was taken up by a special magistrate several times and he was ordered to bring the property up to code.

Click here for the full report


A relative of Ronnie Hyde, who wants to go unidentified, spoke with us about his living conditions. She says after Hyde’s mother passed away in 1993, just one year before Fred Laster was murdered, Hyde seemed different because he was especially close with his mother. After her death Hyde’s father retrieved his belongings from his son’s Jacksonville Beach home.

“It had gotten over-run with fleas, because of the dogs I guess. I don’t know what the problem was,” said the relative of Hyde.

She says when his parents were alive everything was clean.

“I don’t know what happened in between but it had gotten pretty dirty then.

She says Hyde seemed to depend on his mother quite a bit when she was alive. The parents never kept the shrubs that high, and only had a chain link fence.”

“Anything financially that he wanted or needed she would get it for him somehow. She always made sure that he was taken care of. “

In dozens of reports we obtained from Jacksonville Beach Code Enforcement there are complaints covering a wide range of issues, including wild animals in the backyard, overgrown weeds that were shoulder high, sightings of rats and worries that the house would actually fall apart.

Most recently Jacksonville Beach Code Enforcement tried to inspect the home two days after the FBI raided the place. They were turned away at the time, but when they returned a day later they filed a lengthy report describing the deplorable conditions inside the home:

Holes in walls and ceiling, broken windows, rotten food, items like mildew and dirt covering surfaces, walls and cabinets, rat droppings, dead or decaying fish and other animal meat, a room so cluttered and filthy they could not enter it, and, as we know, no running water. They determined the house to be hazardous.

On March 15th Code Enforcement sent a notice to Hyde in jail detailing the violations on his property. He has 60 days to get everything up to code on his property before the case is sent to a Special magistrate for a hearing. In the past Hyde has received several similar letters and the cases did go to a Special Magistrate. In some of those cases Hyde did get the property cleaned up and up to code but he reports being “100% disabled” so he hired a contractor. This time, he has to either do it himself or find family in the area to do it for him. So far we are told no family has been located nearby. A source close to the investigation tells us the house will most likely be condemned.

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