Your Florida Daily: Missing mother found dead inside storage unit, lawmakers to tour ‘untouched’ Parkland crime scene

Plus, a National Historic Landmark lies in the middle of the St. John’s River

Shakeira Yvonne Rucker (Winter Springs Police Department)

ORLANDO, Fla. – Family and friends are remembering Shakeira Rucker after the missing mother from Winter Springs was found dead over the weekend.

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“I’m feeling heartbroken, you know, the hit of news that my sister and the way that she was found it’s devastating,” Clarence Thorton, Shakeira Rucker’s brother, told News 6.

The 37-year-old was found late Saturday night after deputies say they got a call about a bad smell coming from a unit at a self-storage facility off Orange Blossom Trail near Zellwood.

“Orange County deputies responded they were able to make entry into the storage unit and they found a woman believed to be Shakeira Rucker deceased from apparent gunshot wounds,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said at a news conference.

Her estranged husband, Cory Hill, was last seen with Rucker on Nov. 11.

Deputies say shortly after she disappeared, Hill shot at his ex-girlfriend and her family. He is charged with attempted murder in that case.

He’s expected to be formally charged with Rucker’s murder while being held in jail without bond.

Court deputies exit vans that transported jurors to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, to view the "1200 building," the crime scene where the 2018 shootings took place. This during the penalty phase in the trial of confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz who previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. Cruz waived his right to be present at the viewing. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool) (© South Florida Sun Sentinel 2022)

Congress members to tour Parkland school shooting crime scene

Monday, six members of Congress are expected to take a final tour of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland the site where 17 people were gunned down in 2018.

The tour will include a first-hand look at the crime scene that has remained virtually untouched since the massacre.

Family members had said they want government officials to see the site for themselves before it is torn down next year.

Two South Florida representatives will be among those touring the high school building, including Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

A vehicle is fueled at a gas station in Palatine, Ill., Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. On Tuesday, the Labor Department issues its report on inflation at the consumer level in October. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Gas prices drop to lowest level of 2023

Millions of Floridians have begun traveling for Thanksgiving and AAA says gas prices are at their lowest point all year.

The statewide average is now just over $3 per gallon — well below the national average — which is also declining.

As of today, GasBuddy.com says the national average for a gallon is about $3.28, which is a 39 cent drop from a year ago.

The story of the Maple Leaf, a Union transport ship sunk in the St. Johns River April 1, 1864 by a Confederate mine or torpedo, is documented in an exhibit at Mandarin Museum at Walter Jones Park. (Wikimedia Commons)

Random Florida Fact

A National Historic Landmark lies in the middle of the St. John’s River.

The Maple Leaf wreck was a passenger steamship that struck a Confederate “torpedo,” or what we would now call a mine, in the St. John’s River about 12 miles south of downtown Jacksonville.

The explosion killed four Union soldiers on board and quickly sank the ship.

Since the remains of the Maple Leaf were blocking a portion of the river, the Army Corp of Engineers moved the wreck where today it’s buried beneath seven feet of mud in 20 feet of water.

It is extremely well preserved under the mud with the hull virtually intact along with thousands of pounds of cargo.

Some of those recovered artifacts can be found at the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History.


About the Author

Katrina Scales is a producer for the News 6+ Takeover at 3:30 p.m. She also writes and voices the podcast Your Florida Daily. Katrina was born and raised in Brevard County and started her journalism career in radio before joining News 6 in June 2021.

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