She Told His Wife About the Affair… Then He Tried to Kill Them Both
…
While Cory Hill remains here in the Orange County Jail awaiting an arraignment date, we’ve been digging into out of state court records, turns out he has a violent past, including a prison record.
>> To understand how we got here, you have to go back to December 23rd, 1992, to a front yard in Suffel County, Virginia.
Because what Corey Hill did there tells you everything you need to know about who this man was.
This was Hill in December 1992 in Suffuk, Virginia.
He was featured in a news report after his car was stolen with his 23-month-old daughter inside.
She was thrown out the window, but fortunately survived.
What Hill did weeks later was seek revenge against a suspect, Dontoan Everett.
Police say Hill went up to Everett’s home armed, and began arguing with him out front with the fight ending in Hill firing a fatal shot.
Cory was convicted of seconddegree murder, 20 years for the killing, two additional years for the use of a firearm, 22 years total.
He was released in 2005.
And court records from Williamsburg, Virginia, show that in 2009, 4 years after his release, Hill was back in court three separate times on assault and battery charges.
In 2016, he moved to Orlando, Florida.
He started an electrical business and called it Anointed Hands Electrical.
He built a reputation in his community as a man of faith.
He called himself Ambassador Corey and showed up to church a lot.
He was by every outward appearance a man who had put his past behind him.
And then he met Shakira.
>> I love she’s my everything.
Shakira Ivonne Rucker.
Kira the braider was how a lot of people in her community knew her.
She did hair.
She was a mother of four, 7, 9, 16, and 18 years old.
And by every account from everyone who knew her, those four children were her entire world.
Her brother Clarence in an interview said >> she cared about her kids.
All she wanted to do is work, go to church, and just live, you know, and have fun.
>> Kira and Corey Hill married on October 25th, 2022.
And on the surface, they looked like a couple who were genuinely in love.
Cory made that very public.
His Facebook page during this period was full of photos of them on his birthday, on Valentine’s Day, out at restaurants, shopping together, and the captions he wrote were exactly what you would expect from a devoted husband.
He posted a photo of the two of them on his birthday and wrote, “Birthday flow.
” Then, days before Valentine’s Day, is it Valentine’s Day yet? Why can’t every day be Valentine’s Day? And on Valentine’s Day itself, happy Valentine’s Day to my beautiful Valentine.
From the outside, Corey Hill was a man who adored his wife.
But something else was happening underneath all of that, and it had been going on for a while.
Sometime in early 2023, Cory Hill began a relationship with Angel Milligan.
hard to find somebody.
>> Angel was also a mother of four.
She lived in the Orange County area, not far from where Cory operated his business.
And according to everything Angel has said publicly, she had absolutely no idea Cory Hill was married.
He told her he was out of town for work whenever he wasn’t around.
That was his explanation for every time he disappeared.
That one lie was enough to keep two separate lives running simultaneously, and neither woman knew about the other.
The evidence of how embedded Cory had become in Angel’s daily life was sitting right there on her own Facebook page.
On August 26th, 2023, just weeks before everything fell apart, she posted a video shot from inside her home through the window.
And outside, you can see a man on a riding lawn mower.
The caption read, “Early morning cut.
Thanks, Corey Hill.
” This man was mowing Angel Milligan’s lawn before 8:00 in the morning while his wife, the woman he called his rib, his queen, the wind under his wings, was back home in Winter Springs.
He had built two complete lives, and for a period of time, it was working.
Then September 2023 happened.
The exact details of how Angel first found out that Cory was married are not entirely clear from public records.
What is clear is that when she found out, she did not stay quiet.
She called Shakira and told her the truth, that Cory had been in a relationship with her at the same time as their marriage, and that she had only just discovered it herself.
When Hill found out Angel had made that call to Shakira, he threatened her.
He told Angel she would regret it and he meant it.
In an attempt to further protect herself from what she already knew about this man’s character, filed a legal injunction against him, a court order.
And Cory Hill was not allowed to come near her.
That injunction was in place when months later he showed up at her door with a gun anyway.
Angel, in a public response, later directly addressed people who were blaming her for making that call.
She wrote, “Me and your sister never had bad words, and we only spoke to each other in September when I found out he was married.
I kicked him out the same day, but God bless you all.
The truth will be told.
” She found out, she called, she kicked him out, all in the same period.
And from her own account, confirmed later in her on camera interviews, the call to Shakira was not malicious.
It was one woman telling another woman the truth.
Shakira, upon learning that her husband had been living a double life the entire time, acted on it.
Cory was pushed out of their shared home and then the arangement began.
In the weeks leading up to November 11th, 2023, Cory Hill and Shakira were in contact again.
Whether he convinced her he wanted to reconcile or whether she simply agreed to meet for closure, that detail is not fully clear from public records.
What is clear is that something had brought them back to the same table.
And Cory Hill, in the days just before that dinner, was putting on a public performance on Facebook that I still find extraordinary.
On November 9th, 2023, 2 days before Shakira disappeared, he updated his Facebook profile picture.
He uploaded a photo of the two of them.
Him standing behind her, arms wrapped all the way around her.
With a caption that read, “The wind under my wings, my strawberry drop, my rib, my queen, ambassador Corey, and Ambassador Kira.
” The very next day, November 10th, he updated his cover photo and called him and her Mr. and Mr.s.
Hill.
On the evening of November 11th, 2023, at approximately 7:30 pm, Shakira Ivonne Rucker left her home in Winter Springs.
She told her children she would be back soon.
Surveillance cameras at a restaurant called The Hungry Crab in Davenport, Pulk County, captured the two of them together that evening.
That is the last confirmed image of Shakira Rucker alive.
One family member who later saw that restaurant surveillance photo noted something.
Look like she was being forced.
I that picture did not look right.
She was wasn’t smiling or anything.
So we we don’t know what’s going on.
>> Cory later claimed that after dinner he drove Shakira back toward her home and dropped her off at the mailboxes.
He said that and nothing else.
Her family rejected that story completely.
And the surveillance footage from the following morning tells a completely different account.
At 2,400 Wiggins Road in Apopka, the cameras at the self-s storage facility captured both Shakira and Corey arriving and entering storage unit number 3032 together on the morning of November 12th.
The cameras then captured Cory walking out of that unit alone.
Shakira did not walk out.
Not that morning and not at any point.
Sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 that same morning, a text was sent from Shakira’s phone to her daughter.
The message said she was on her way home with food.
>> The daughter got a text at 6:00 6:30 in the morning saying, “I’m on my way.
” She never came.
Could have been from him.
It could have been from her.
We would never know.
>> Now, I don’t believe the text came from her.
The family says he’ll claimed to drop her off at home that morning.
>> Do you have any reason to believe that he could have hurt your daughter? >> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> Because by the time that text was sent, investigators believe Shakira Rucker may have already been dead inside that storage unit, shot and covered with two tires.
And Cory Hill had one more stop to make that day.
At approximately 10:00 am on November 12th, 2023, hours after what investigators believe was Shakira’s murder, Corey arrived at Angel Milligan’s home on Holly Creek Road in Orange County.
And he did not just show up.
Angel described the moment.
>> Words came out of his mouth.
Don’t run now.
And at that point, I went to turn my back to, you know, run the house.
And all you hear shot.
>> I felt the wind of like two of them gray like pass my face as I’m like running.
>> Her family was in that home.
Bullets entered the walls and then Corey fled.
>> You can’t say what’s not going through my mind.
It’s heartbreaking.
>> Angel Milligan says she was dating Hill for about 4 months.
She says he never got violent towards her and she never expected this.
still thanking God for my life to know what could have been a possible outcome for me.
He was arrested shortly afterward in the Mount Dora area and was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, two counts of attempted secondderee murder with a firearm, burglary of a dwelling with assault and battery, shooting into a building, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and violation of a domestic violence injunction.
He was booked into the Orange County Jail and held with no bond.
And as of that moment of his arrest, Shakira Rucker’s family still had no idea where she was.
Shakira had not come home the night of November 11th.
Her phone had last pinged in Davenport, 50 mi from her home in Winter Springs, and 60 mi from Cory Hills home in Mount Dora.
Her family knew which direction to look, but they just didn’t know where she was.
On November 14th, the Winter Springs Police Department officially named Corey Hill a person of interest.
Winter Springs Police Captain Doug Cely says surveillance video shows Rucker and aranged husband Cody Hill together at a PK County restaurant Saturday night.
>> That’s what’s made him a person of interest in the case now because we see that they’re they’re together that night.
>> Is that believed to be one of the last times that she was seen? That is what we have as of right now.
Again, all investigative resources are being utilized at that point in time.
So, we still have some more work to do.
>> Her family was not sitting and waiting.
>> And now, Shakira Rucker’s family is taking matters into their own hands.
>> Yeah.
This video shows them searching the woods in Winter Springs right near her home.
>> We need a a location, a pin drop, something, you know, because right now we don’t know anything.
tell us something, you know, like if you really loved and cared about her, tell us something.
Don’t let it end like this.
And it won’t end like this when we’re going to make sure it doesn’t end like this.
>> Cory, already in the Orange County Jail on the attempted murder charges, said nothing.
Not to law enforcement, not publicly, nothing.
Angel Milligan, who had nearly been killed by this same man just 2 days earlier, was watching all of this unfold.
and she posted on November 14th.
She wrote, “Lord, we leave this beautiful mother, loving, caring woman, and your hands bring her home to her babies.
” That same day, she shared a community search post.
She shared, “Hello, tomorrow there will be a search for Kira.
5246 Mahogany Drive, Mount Dora, 32757 12 pm” And she added, “If anyone can help.
” This woman who survived Cory Hill shooting was publicly asking people to help find his wife.
Meanwhile, agencies were flooding in from across Central Florida.
Winter Springs Police, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, FDLE, the FBI, Lake County’s Electronic Division.
Investigators were working 16 and 18our days.
The family joined the physical searches on foot.
>> We get a clue we’re going.
You never know what you will find.
I’m I’m not wait.
We’re not waiting.
>> Shakira’s daughter was out there every single day asking the same question.
I just want my mom cuz like it’s hard with her not being here cuz I’m always with her, you know? It’s like I I can’t live without her.
>> During one live news interview, Shakira’s mother, Elaine, was so overcome that she fainted mid-sentence on camera.
>> If you’re hearing this, please let us know.
Let someone know where she is.
It’s been 5 days now.
Her children needs her.
We miss her.
We love her.
Elaine, what has your experience with him been like previously? Is this >> overcome with emotion? Elaine Rucker fainting mid interview after pleading Cory Hill to start cooperating with investigators.
>> EMS responded on scene.
When Clarence was asked about that moment afterward, he said it was important for the community to see, to understand the physical toll this was taking on his family in real time.
>> You try to eat something, but you can’t eat.
You try to sleep, but you can’t sleep, knowing that she’s out there somewhere cold, hungry, you know, and fighting.
>> You will BRING HER HOME TO US, OH GOD.
SHE WILL LIVE AND NOT DIE.
GOD, >> WE’RE BELIEVING GOD THAT WE will get the answers.
>> We’re not going to stop at all until we get some results.
We’re not going to stop.
Search teams combed areas near Bob White airfield in Mount Dora.
They searched the wooded areas around Round Lake Road, close to where Cory lived and close to where the shooting at Angel’s home had occurred.
On Thursday, November 16th, heavy rain and darkness forced the searches to stop.
Friday, they resumed.
Clarence had already given investigators a detail that pointed them in the right direction.
He told them that Hill’s furniture wasn’t fully in his house, and an empty house sometimes means a storage space.
But as the Orange County Sheriff’s Office later explained, there are hundreds and hundreds of storage unit facilities across Central Florida.
And investigators did not know about this specific one until a 911 call came in from someone complaining about a smell from a storage facility.
That call came on November 18th.
The man renting the unit next to number 3032 had been noticing something wrong for days.
A red liquid seeping under the shared wall into his space and a smell that kept getting worse.
He reported it to the storage facility staff and they dismissed it.
They told him it was probably an oil spill.
He came back, reported it again, and even documented it himself on video.
Then he called 911.
I had notified this place before that there was blood seeping into my unit.
I have video of it.
>> Eventually, the facility manager went to investigate.
She cut the lock off unit number 3032 herself.
And when she looked inside, she saw enough to call 911 immediately.
>> We had a complaint from a customer that it looked like something was leaking into his unit.
We went ahead and um now we cut the logs, but it look like there’s a there’s a body there and we what we can see is a head.
>> Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to 2,400 Wiggins Road in Apopka shortly before 5:00 pm on November 18th, 2023.
Body cam footage captured what they found inside unit number 3032.
They found a woman in a blue shirt and blue pants.
They also found fired cartridge casing near her head, blood on the ground and the walls, and two tires placed over her body.
Shakira Ivonne Rucker had been inside that storage unit for 6 days.
She had been shot, covered with two tires, and the man who rented that unit had walked away, gone back to his life, and said nothing.
The following day, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office posted saying, “Earlier today, Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the self storage at 2,400 Wiggins Road in Apopka and found Shakira Rucker dead inside a storage unit.
This is now an Orange County homicide case.
Shakira’s family was notified this evening.
We grieve with them and our detectives are committed to bringing them justice in this case.
>> I’m saying that he is the suspect.
We’re not looking for anyone else.
He will be charged with the murder uh eventually in this case.
>> Within 48 hours of the discovery, more than 50 family members and friends gathered at a neighborhood park with candles and balloons released into the air.
A community that had spent a week holding on to hope were now trying to hold on to each other.
>> Everyone’s angry, but we must stay strong for the sake of my sister.
You know, she’s up there looking at us.
You know, we got to stay strong for our kids.
They’re devastated, you know, but they’re staying strong for each other because at the end of the day, they’re going to need they’re going to need each other.
>> State Attorney Andrew Bane and Sheriff Mina both attended the vigil personally.
>> We need to make sure that we’re taking care of each other and making sure that we are um going to be able to see people are going to be able to see the next day and the day after that.
And it’s going to avoid these type of situations in the future.
And then when proceedings eventually began in court, word came back from the family about how Corey Hill conducted himself in that courtroom.
A post was made on Facebook after that court appearance that read, “Cory Hill, no remorse after killing my sister, Shakira Rucker, sat in court blowing kisses at my family, mocking my family in court.
Loved ones had to be escorted out due to bitterness.
Evil man, hypocrite preaching to God’s people and pulling this betrayal on God.
Hurting my family after they welcomed him with love.
This man sitting in a courtroom charged with the murder of his wife was allegedly blowing kisses at her grieving family.
On December 1st, 2023, her family held a wake at Unity Memorial Funeral Home at 44 West Michael Gladen Boulevard in Apopka.
The following day, December 2nd, Shakira’s homegoing celebration was held at Orlando West Ministries at 3005 North Powers Drive in Orlando at 11:00 am Family and friends were asked to wear white and/or black.
Hundreds of people came.
her sister Dee posted afterward.
She wrote, “This was one of the hardest walks I have ever done.
Still in disbelief, my sister will never come back.
I couldn’t look at her in that casket.
” Our family laid Kira to rest in a way I know she’ll be very pleased.
We celebrated her service in a way that she would have celebrated during any given church service.
I know she is at peace now.
We have to accept the reality.
God, please give our family and friends strength and courage to keep going.
We will continue to fight this battle.
It’s not over.
Her children will be forever blessed.
Shakira’s 18-year-old son stepped up after her death to take care of his younger siblings.
Three children, the youngest of them 7 years old, lost their mother, and their oldest brother became the one making sure they were okay.
In January 2024, a grand jury returned a formal indictment of nine total counts.
First-degree murder with a firearm for Shakira’s death, and the state attorney’s office filed a death notice the same morning.
State attorney Andrew Bane held a press conference on January 18th, 2024.
>> Is seeking the death penalty against her aranged husband.
Today I am announcing that um Corey Hill um has been indicted for first-degree murder um for the killing of his aranged wife.
And then obviously somebody that’s um already um been convicted of a prior homicide um plays a big factor into whether we’re going to seek the death penalty.
>> We’ll never have the chance to talk to her again.
Rucker’s loved ones were emotional after the announcement and said they support the decision.
>> And we know that this decision that may not bring my sister back, but it’s going to be a step in justice.
>> Meanwhile, Bane says his office is preparing for a long process towards a conviction.
>> It falls discovery um and other evidence and um obviously getting ready for a death penalty case.
>> Bane outlined two statutory aggravating factors for the death penalty.
First, the cold calculating methodology of the homicide, the premeditation, the storage unit rented in advance, the deliberate nature of what was done, and second, the prior violent felony from 1992 in Virginia.
Both factors on record, both documented.
Shakira’s family was at that press conference.
Her oldest sister, who goes by DJ, stepped to the podium first.
she broke down.
>> We stand here uh vulnerable and open to share that it’s been difficult um for our family during this time.
It’s been a very emotional roller coaster.
We’ve been angry.
We’ve been sad, very confused.
Um it’s just an unescribable pain that we feel u with what’s going on with with what happened with Shakira Rucker.
We’ll never have the chance to talk to her again.
We’ll never have the chance to spend any time.
Her children will never be able to see her again.
It’s hard.
We’ve shown up.
Um, we thank everybody for showing up to help during the search, the search parties, everybody who’s been financially supportive to us, the prayers, all that.
We thank you.
Um, we know that we are a family that’s moving forward and we know that this decision that may not bring my sister back, but it’s going to be a step in justice.
It’s going to be a step.
And as a person of faith, uh, I can’t I’m sorry.
>> Clarence stepped up to finish when she couldn’t.
I know that we as a family are moving forward.
I know that today’s this decision may not bring my sister back, but it’s a step in the direction for justice.
As a person of faith, I pray for everybody involved and that God put a head of heads of protection over their hearts, their minds, and their souls.
from this tragedy started from this from this tragedy we started for my sister foundation in honor of Shakira.
If you would like information, please go to fmsfoundation.
org.
Also, we have flyers.
We invite you to our upcoming inaugural event in February 1st at 1:30 in the city of PA to help us continue our mission to fight back against domestic violence.
Appreciate everybody for coming out.
Thank you.
>> At a later domestic violence awareness event, another sister, Leonia Thornton, said something that I think speaks to the full reality of Shakira’s situation.
I promise to dedicate the rest of my life bringing awareness because it is a silence that needs to be broken.
I mean, I wish he would have said something.
I wish we would have known.
We could have saved her.
>> And she talked about something bigger than this one case.
The reality that a lack of affordable housing keeps women trapped in situations they are desperately trying to leave.
Shakira had only recently moved into her own apartment about 2 months before she disappeared.
She was in the process of building her life away from him.
She was doing exactly what people tell women to do and she still agreed to have one dinner.
Thornton says lack of affordable housing was one factor that prevented Rucker from finding a safe place to go.
The event held at the Apopka Community Center was put together in part because of cases like Ruckers.
in light of so many violent events in this area and in in the Florida overall, we’ve just decided that this is a very very important um topic to address throughout the community.
>> Several agencies and community leaders came together to share resources and information to address the challenges of domestic violence.
So in our community, Harbor House ends up working with right around 4,000 individuals every year just in our outreach program and an additional thousand people live with us in our emergency shelter.
And so the need of education is so high when it comes to understanding what is domestic violence, an issue Rucker’s family is hoping to tackle so no other family has to live through a similar tragedy.
>> I couldn’t save my sister, but I vow to save someone else.
>> Cory Hill pleaded not guilty to all nine counts.
His defense attorneys filed a motion to suppress all evidence recovered from storage unit number 3032, the body, the shell casing, the DNA, arguing that deputies entered without a warrant and that the search violated Cory’s fourth amendment rights.
The judge denied that motion.
The court sided with prosecutors, citing exigent circumstances and the fact that the facility’s own rental agreement granted the property owner the right of entry.
The evidence stays.
The case is tracking toward trial in 2026 with monthly court check-ins as both sides continue building their arguments.
As of the most recent public records, there is no verdict, no conviction, and no sentencing.
Cory Hill remains in the Orange County Jail.
Now, I want to come back to Angel Milligan for a moment because her experience after the shooting did not end with surviving it.
She posted publicly at some point after the initial wave of media coverage died down.
And this post says something that tends to get overlooked in the larger narrative.
She wrote, “I hate wishing I was dead, but I won’t be dealing with everyone since my kids would have been taken care of like her kids.
Let’s talk for real.
I have been nice for way too long.
” What help did I receive? None.
Not only me, my kids didn’t receive any help.
Not to mention, bullets were lying right beside my baby.
I feel like the state of Florida, Orange County Clerk of Courts, and the news used me for the story and everyone else after me.
Me and my kids are being treated terribly, just trying to live, and nobody is doing anything about it.
Angel Milligan did what most people would say was the right thing to do.
She nearly died for it, and then she felt completely discarded.
People in her community also pushed back against the harassment she received in the aftermath.
Monica Zhao wrote publicly, “The only person we all should be mad with is Corey Hill.
Everyone is deeply sad and hurt in the tragedy outcome of Shakira Rucker.
Our hurts, thoughts, and prayers go out to the family.
Please stop calling Angel Milligan and sending threats trying to antagonize her.
Let’s pray for her and her kids who had to witness all this.
She is the victim also.
Get your facts together and come correct.
” That is it and that is all.
Fair warning, Angel Milligan.
Keep yourself together.
We got you.
Keep the negativity and drama from around you.
Do not answer or respond.
On February 14th, 2024, the For My Sister Foundation was officially announced.
The post reads, “I am thrilled to announce the launch of our nonprofit organization, For My Sister Foundation.
This journey has been filled with challenges and triumphs and I am so grateful for each of you who has supported us along the way.
Your belief in our mission has been a driving force and we are excited to begin this new chapter.
Thank you to God for guiding us and to each of you for your unwavering support.
Together we will make a difference.
Thank you to my village for my sister foundation.
#s Shakira Rucker, domestic violence awareness, transitional housing.
That detail from Leonia about affordable housing being a barrier to safety made it into the foundation’s mission from day one.
Months later, around March 2024, Dee posted again.
She wrote, “The pain never goes away.
We find ways to cope with it.
The tears never stop falling.
We find ways to hold it inside or isolate ourselves.
Our smiles aren’t always real.
We’re hurting inside.
We try to stand strong but break down behind closed doors.
I will never forget how my sister praised God before her life was taken.
Her loads were heavy.
God was ready for her to come home, but we weren’t.
I’m sorry, Lord, but I’m still lost.
Praying for better days.
Shakira Rucker is survived by her four children, her mother, Elaine, her brothers and sisters, and a community in Winter Springs, Florida that has not stopped saying her name.
We can all just gather together and be happy, you know, as a family because all my sister stood for was love.
>> I will say only one thing and then I am done.
Two women did everything right.
One found out the truth and told it.
The other heard it and walked away.
And Cory Hill decided that both of those things were punishable by death.
That is who he was.
That is who he had always been.
Shakira Rucker was not failed by love.
She was failed by a system that looked at a man who had already killed once, handed him back his freedom, and asked nothing more of him.
She paid for that decision with her life.
Justice for Kira.
So, that’s it for today’s video.
Stay safe out there, and I hope these stories help you recognize warning signs and encourage you to seek help or offer support before it’s too late.
I’ll see you in the next episode of Crime of Passion.
Thank you for watching.
Heat.
Heat.
