A mother-of-four who was missing for a week has been discovered dead in a storage unit registered to her estranged husband.
The body of Shakeira Rucker, 37, was found in a unit at Self Storage at 2400 Wiggins Road in Apopka, Florida, on Saturday, said the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Rucker’s death has turned into a homicide investigation.
‘Shakeira’s family was notified this evening,’ wrote the sheriff’s office on Facebook. ‘We grieve with them & our detectives are committed to bringing them justice in this case.’
Rucker left behind children aged seven, nine, 16 and 18, according to her sister Dedra Rucker.
‘She was a loving mother to four beautiful children and a victim of senseless violence,’ wrote Dedra in a GoFundMe page to raise money to support the four children.
‘Shakeira was murder by her husband and left lifeless in a storage for 6 days.’
Her sister said the family went on a manhunt but a citizen found the decomposing body first.
‘This was unexpected and has taken a major toll on her children,’ Dedra wrote.
A citizen reported a foul odor coming from the storage unit, which led to the grisly discovery. Shakeira seemed to have died from gunshot wounds, but her autopsy is pending, said Sheriff John Mina.
‘My heart breaks, I can’t imagine the pain and suffering (her family) have been enduring this past week,’ Mina said on Sunday morning, according to WESH.
Rucker’s husband, Cory Hill, 51, is the only suspect in the case and is expected to be charged in her murder, the sheriff said.
‘Cory Hill could have stopped a lot of that pain and suffering by talking to investigators in the very beginning instead of putting them through this week-long nightmare,’ Mina said.
‘The storage unit was registered to him, he had to have known that we would eventually find her in there, so it’s very, very disappointing.’
Shakeira was last seen with Hill at a restaurant in Polk County on November 11. Hours after she was last seen, Hill allegedly went to his ex-girlfriend Angel Milligan’s home and shot at her, and Shakeira was struck in the scuffle.
‘I heard gunfire,’ Milligan told WESH. ‘I felt two of them pass by my face.’
Hill has a criminal record including a murder conviction from a 1992 shooting of a man who stole his car with his baby daughter.
Winter Springs Police Chief Matthew Tracht on Sunday said, ‘It’s not the outcome we expected, but there’s a little bit of closure for Shakeira’s family.’
The GoFundMe page, which was launched to provide Shakeira’s kids ‘with the care, comfort, and resources they need during this incredibly difficult time’, had raised more than $900 as of Monday afternoon.
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