A missing Florida woman was found dead in her estranged husband’s storage unit, authorities said.
Shakeira Yvonne Rucker, 37, was found dead inside a storage unit at the Self Storage on Wiggins Road in Apopka, Florida, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a Saturday Facebook post. The Sheriff’s Office is now investigating Rucker’s case as a homicide.
“This is not the update we wanted to be giving you all today,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina announced at a news conference Sunday, adding that the story has had a lot of “twists and turns” over the last week and has covered many jurisdictions.
Police had just finished searching for Rucker in an area near Bob White Airfield in Mt. Dora, Florida, on Saturday when they got a 911 call from someone at the Self Storage reporting “a smell emanating from one of the units,” Mina said.
Orange County sheriff’s deputies responded to the call and found Rucker dead in the unit from apparent gunshot wounds, Mina said. He noted that that a full autopsy is underway.
Officials said the storage unit belonged to her estranged husband, Cory Hill, the prime suspect in Rucker’s murder, and that he has not been cooperative in the investigation.
The killing took place at the storage unit, Mina said. No motive was announced.
“He is the suspect. We are not looking for anyone else. He will be charged with the murder eventually in this case,” Mina said.
The public defender’s office representing Hill did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.
Mina said Hill is already in the Orange County Jail, charged with four counts of attempted homicide for shooting at his “girlfriend and family” on Nov. 12. According to Orange County jail records, he was booked on Nov. 13.
NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando reported that Hill was shooting at a former girlfriend and her family in that case. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for clarification Sunday night.
Rucker, whom WESH reported was a mother of four, was first reported missing after her family said they last saw her on Nov. 11, according to a Facebook post from the Winter Springs Police Department. Police said she was last seen leaving her Winter Springs home that day, and her family believed she had been with Hill.
“It’s not the outcome we expected, but there’s a little bit of closure for Shakeira’s family,” WSPD Chief of Police Matthew Tracht said Sunday.
Tracht said the team worked 16-to-18-hour days to find Rucker and worked across four counties, including Orange, Seminole, Polk and Lake counties. They also got help from the Mt. Dora Police Department, the Floria Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI, he said.