UCF professor says fatal DV cases have common factors

ORLANDO, Fla. — Two mothers were found dead within days of each other in Central Florida.

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Four children will spend Thanksgiving without their mother, Shakiera Rucker.

Dr. Lee Ross is a criminal justice professor at UCF.

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“That’s why they say love is blind because it really blinds you to the danger that you’re in,” Ross said.

Investigators said the last time Rucker was alive was with her estranged husband, Cory Hill. A week later, she was found dead in his Apopka storage unit.

“No one knows everything about their partner,” Ross said.

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Channel 9 searched Hill’s court records. He had a domestic violence case with an ex-girlfriend but not with Rucker.

“It’s called internalized violence,” Ross said.

Hours before Rucker was reported missing, Hill shot at his ex-girlfriend.

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“[It’s] like a pressure cooker steam has to be released has to let out has to exhaust. Where is this coming from?” Ross said.

Ross participated in a fatality review on the domestic violence task force in Seminole County and found common factors in relationships that ended fatally.

Gun ownership and previous threat to use it and an abuser previously getting away from police.

“80% of women who died an INTER PARTNER homicide episode are killed with a gun,” Ross said.

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