APOPKA, Fla. — A mother who went missing out of Central Florida was found dead over the weekend in a storage unit, Orange County Sheriff John Mina explains.
Shakeira Rucker was first reported missing out of Winter Springs after she was last seen on Saturday, Nov. 11, WKMG reports. Law enforcement has been searching for her ever since.
After finishing up a search in the area near an airfield in Mount Dora on Saturday, Nov. 18, deputies were called out to a storage unit in Apopka on reports of an alleged smell coming from inside one of the units.
Once deputies were able to open the storage unit, they found the body of a woman believed to be Rucker. Mina says she died from apparent gunshot wounds.
"We just want to extend our deepest condolences to Shakeira's family," Mina said during a news conference. "My heart breaks, I can't imagine the pain and suffering that they have been enduring this past week."
According to Mina, the storage unit where Rucker was found is registered to her estranged husband Cory Hill, who was named a person of interest earlier in the week. WKMG reports Winter Springs police got security video from Polk County that showed Hill and Rucker together on the day she was last seen.
"The storage unit was registered to him, he had to have known we would eventually find her in there," the sheriff said. "So it's very, very disappointing."
Hill is already in the Orange County Jail on charges connected to an incident on Nov. 12 where he shot at his girlfriend and family, Mina explains.
With him being behind bars with no bond set, the sheriff says the agency has "plenty of time" to continue collecting evidence to build a case to charge him with murder.
"I'm saying that he is the suspect, we're not looking for anyone else," Mina said. "He will be charged with the murder eventually in this case."