FLORIDA
The Daily Beast
Fred Laster’s siblings told police about the last man seen with him, but nothing happened for the next 23 years. Now authorities and a mom say Ron Hyde may be more than a murderer.
KELLY WEILL
KATIE ZAVADSKI
03.10.17
A woman and her dog were the first to find the headless torso.
The duo stumbled upon the remains in a gas station dumpster in Jacksonville, Florida, on a Sunday morning in June 1994. The body’s head, legs, and hands were missing. Two bloodstained kitchen knives were wrapped in nearby plastic bags. A mattress topper, rubber gloves, bath mats, and a bloodied flannel shirt were also inside.
It was a “mannequin or something, but looks like a real person,” the dog-walker told the station mechanic, he later recalled. Another witness who had visited the gas station earlier told police that he had seen a shiny sports car backed up to the dumpster, with its trunk open.
The body was fresh, investigators found, and had been washed of blood and fingerprints, and while the lower extremities had been cut away with a knife, the male genitals were intact. Forensics experts ruled the death a homicide and said the victim was likely between 14 and 17 years old.
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