Husband charged after estranged wife found dead in his Florida storage unit

The estranged husband of a Florida woman who was found dead inside his storage unit last month has been charged in her slaying, the prosecutors office announced.

Cory Hill was charged Friday with second-degree murder with a firearm in connection with the death of Shakeira Rucker, the Office of the State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit said in a statement.

Authorities found her body inside a unit at Self Storage in Apopka on Nov. 18, after an employee reported a foul smell coming from within the facility. Rucker, a mother of four, was reported missing just days earlier and the subsequent search spanned most of central Florida, including Seminole, Polk, Orange and Lake counties.

Rucker was last seen leaving her home on Nov. 11, and her family believed she left with Hill to “an unknown destination,” Winter Springs Police Department said in a Facebook post.

“We were all hoping for a different outcome,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina told reporters at the time. “But there’s a little bit of closure for Shakeira’s family.”

The sheriff noted that the unit where the body was found had been registered to Hill.

While a motive for the deadly violence remains under investigation, Rucker recently discovered that Hill was in a relationship with another woman and living with her, according to an affidavit cited by NBC News.

Hill was already in jail when his wife’s body was found. He was charged with attempted murder after he shot at an ex-girlfriend and her family on Nov. 12, officials said.

“It can be deduced Hill killed Rucker and then attempted to kill the female he had an extramarital affair with,” the arrest warrant affidavit says.

Hill could later be indicted with first-degree murder, the prosecutor’s office said, but officials are still building their case.