The lifeless body of 37-year-old Shakeria Rucker, a Black woman and mother of four, has been discovered in a storage unit owned by her estranged husband, Cory Hill, in Apopka, Florida.
The grim revelation came after someone reported an unusual odor emanating from one of the storage units at a local self-storage facility. Orange County Sheriff John Mina, addressing the tragic discovery, remarked,
“My heart breaks; I can’t imagine the pain and suffering [her family] have been enduring this past week. We were all hoping for a different outcome.”
While preliminary observations suggest Rucker may have succumbed to a gunshot wound, an autopsy is still pending to confirm the cause of death.
However, investigators have named Cory Hill, Rucker’s estranged husband, as the primary suspect in this chilling case. Shockingly, Hill is not cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
Sheriff Mina expressed the intention to charge Hill with murder, emphasizing the lack of cooperation from Hill during the inquiry.
Hill is presently in custody at the Orange County Jail for a separate incident involving him shooting at his ex-girlfriend and her family.
Mina voiced disappointment over Hill’s failure to assist investigators early on, stating:
“He could have stopped a lot of the pain and suffering of her family by talking to investigators in the very beginning…he had to have known we would eventually find her in there, it’s very disappointing.”
Shakeria Rucker had been missing for a week before her body was discovered, prompting criticism from her family regarding the timing and intensity of the search efforts.
Winter Springs Police Chief Matthew Tracht acknowledged the intensity of the search but Rucker’s brother, Clarence Thornton, expressed dissatisfaction, stating,
“Now it’s been six days, and they’re trying to push, push, push. They should’ve been pushing since day one.”
Adding a layer of complexity to the case, court records revealed that Cory Hill had a prior conviction for murder. In 1992, while residing in Virginia, Hill sought revenge against a man who had kidnapped his 23-month-old daughter during the theft of Hill’s car.
Following a brief argument, Hill shot Dontowine Everett and was subsequently convicted of second-degree murder, serving a 20-year sentence.
Hill was released in 2005, making his past a haunting aspect of the ongoing investigation into the tragic demise of Shakeria Rucker.
