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

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

“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.

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.

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.

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.