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Former youth pastor goes to trial in teen's 1994 dismemberment

Ronnie Leon Hyde is led into a Duval County courtroom on April 11, 2017.
Bruce Lipsky
/
Florida Times-Union
Ronnie Leon Hyde is led into a Duval County courtroom on April 11, 2017.

It was a gruesome discovery in mid-1994: a dismembered torso carelessly tossed behind a Lake City dumpster.

DNA testing ultimately determined 22 years later that it was missing 16-year-old Yulee teen Fred Paul Laster, while a genetic sample recovered with it at the dumpster led to the March 7, 2017, arrest of Laster's Jacksonville Beach youth pastor, Ronnie Leon Hyde.

Now after five years of court hearings, motions and more, Hyde, 65, heads to trial. Jury selection is set to begin Monday at the Duval County Courthouse.

Read the rest of this story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.

Dan Scanlan - Florida Times-Union