Shakeira Rucker, missing Winter Springs, Florida mom found dead in storage unit as estranged husband and career criminal Cory Hill eyed as prime suspect.
‘I just want my mom to come back.’ The body of a missing mother-of-four in was found inside of her estranged husband’s storage unit in Florida over the weekend. The discovery follows reports of a ‘strange smell’ emanating from a storage unit.
Shakeira Rucker, 37, of Winter Springs was last seen on November 11 at a restaurant with her estranged spouse, Cory Hill, 51. Hill who is in custody on unrelated attempted murder charges against a different woman is considered the prime suspect in Rucker’s death.
Rucker was last heard from by family members when she told them she was going to buy some food and to head home for the evening on the 11th. She was the mother of two boys, 7 and 18, and two girls, 9 and 16.
Embroiled in another conflict with another woman
‘Shakeira’s family was notified this evening. We grieve with them & our detectives are committed to bringing them justice in this case,’ the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a released statement.
On the night of November 11, Rucker was seen in surveillance video with Hill. Police say that he shot at his ex-girlfriend during a domestic dispute. Rucker’s death was as the result of gunshot wounds, police said.
‘I heard gunfire. I felt two of them pass by my face,’ Angel Milligan said in an interview with WESH. Hill was arrested the following day, on November 12.
This past Saturday, authorities responded to a a ‘Your Storage Unit’ in the town of Apopka, jut north of Orlando, after someone called the police regarding a strange smell.
According to authorities, Hill is refusing to speak to investigators regarding Rucker’s death. He has not been charged in relation to the killing.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said Sunday that Cory Hill could have ‘stopped a lot of pain and suffering by talking to investigators from the very beginning instead of putting them through this week long nightmare.’
Career criminal
‘He is the suspect. We are not looking for anyone else. He will be charged with the murder eventually in this case,’ Mina said.
At the the time that authorities got the call about the storage unit, officers were searching for Rucker at an airfield in the area.
Hill has previously been convicted of another violent crime – murder.
Court records obtained by FOX 35 from Suffolk, Virginia show that Hill was convicted of murdering 18-year-old Dontwaine Cornelius Everett in the front yard outside his house.
Around 7:10 p.m. — two days before Christmas — Hill was talking with Everett and the two began arguing.
Hill pulled out a gun and shot Everett who died ten minutes later.
Hill was sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and another two years for using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
‘He was trying to kill me,’
Court records show Hill found himself back in front of a judge three times in 2009, accused of assault and battery, reports WFTV.
But there’s more.
On Nov. 12, detectives responded to a shooting that happened on Holly Creek Road in Orange County. A woman, Angel Milligan, said Hill approached her and her family with a gun and started ‘indiscriminately’ shooting.
No one was injured and Hill allegedly ran away before detectives arrived. He was located in Mount Dora and arrested by police there, OCSO said.
‘He was trying to kill me,’ Angel Milligan told FOX35.
According to Milligan, she and Hill used to date, and they lived together. Milligan said she broke things off in September, after speaking with Rucker. The woman went on to get an order of protection against Hill who nevertheless went on to trespass at the woman’s property and start shooting.
News of Shakeira Rucker’s murder has left family members devastated and frustrated.
‘I just want my mom to come back’
‘I just want my mom to come back. It’s hard, her not being here, because I’m always with her. It’s like I can’t live without her. She’s all I know,’ her daughter, Mikayla Johnson, 16, told Fox35.
On Sunday, Rucker’s family gathered at a park in Pine Hills to celebrate her life.
‘I’m feeling heartbroken, to hear the news of my sister’s passing and the way she was found its devastating. We’re grieving this moment as it hasn’t even been 24 hours since we heard the news but we’re here strong,’ her brother, Clarence Thornton, told Spectrum News.
‘She was a caring person, she cared about her kids. All she wanted to do was work, go to church and just live. You know and have fun. She just wanted to work and take care of her kids — the little things,’ he added.
The sibling also expressed anger at the investigation, saying that family members tried to point police to the storage unit earlier.
‘Very disappointed because we told them that it could be the storage because all of his furniture wasn’t in the house,’ Thornton said.
He also questioned why nobody who works at the storage facility noticed anything unusual.
Speaking of Hill’s fate, Thornton said: ‘He needs to go down for everything, everything he is.’
‘My sister should have never been in that situation. Not in a million years I would have thought my sister (to) ever been in that situation,’ he added.
