Richard Hyde, a 34-year-old white male and elementary school principal, was murdered in his Moon Township, Pennsylvania home on December 3, 1977. At approximately 1 a.m., while speaking with a friend on the phone, Hyde reportedly heard the sound of breaking glass from another part of his ranch-style house. After ending the call, he walked past a nightstand containing a loaded firearm and proceeded into the hallway.
There, he was struck by a blast from a 12-gauge shotgun that tore through his chest and abdomen. Despite the severity of the wound, he managed to stagger into the kitchen, where he collapsed and died in a pool of blood on the linoleum floor.
His wife, Donna Hyde, also 34 and white, was in a bathroom off the hallway at the time of the attack. She attempted to flee the home and seek help, running barefoot through snow and mud toward nearby houses. Her escape was hindered by the terrain, and she ultimately disappeared. The couple's two daughters, ages 9 and 4, were found unharmed in the home the next morning. Reports vary on whether they slept through the incident or hid in a closet during the attack.
Donna's body was discovered the following day in a wooded area approximately two miles from the Hyde residence. She was found face-up beneath a pine tree, clothed only in a sweater and one sock. Her pants and underwear were balled up nearby. She had been bludgeoned to death with a blunt object, possibly a blackjack. The blows to her head were so severe that, had she survived, she would have suffered permanent brain damage. Authorities determined she had not been sexually assaulted.
The murders of Richard and Donna Hyde were the 26th and 27th in a string of unsolved killings that plagued southwestern Pennsylvania between March 1976 and late 1977. The brutality and randomness of the crimes left the community deeply shaken. In response, Moon Township canceled all school activities on December 7, 1977, the day of the Hydes' funeral. The school where Richard Hyde had served as principal was later renamed Richard J. Hyde Elementary School in his honor.
Investigators eventually linked the shotgun shell found at the Hyde residence to another murder scene in Fallston, Beaver County, where William Adams had been killed by a similar blast on November 20, 1977. His wife, Nancy Adams, was also missing at the time and her remains were not found until eight years later.
Serial killer Edward Surratt, a long-haul trucker from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, emerged as the prime suspect in the Hyde murders and several others in the region. Surratt was known for a pattern of killing men with a shotgun and abducting or assaulting their female companions. He was arrested in Florida in July 1978 after committing a violent home invasion. Although he later confessed to several Pennsylvania murders, including those of John Feeny and Ranee Gregor, he never admitted to killing the Hydes and was never formally charged in connection with their deaths. He remains incarcerated in Florida, serving multiple life sentences.
