Latasha Evette Rucker was a 36-year-old mother who was a lover and a fighter: She battled Crohn's disease, all the while taking care of her five children in rural Texas.

Police say Rucker went missing on August 15, 2016. "She was reported missing to us by her mother,” Cleveland Police Chief Darrel Broussard said, according to Your Houston News. 

Her body was found in a wooded area south of Cleveland, Texas.

Her family members can't help but think that Rucker was the victim of a horrible act of violence.

“I would be able to accept this if she had passed from her sickness but not this, not a cold-blooded murderer to dump her off like she was a piece of trash,” the cousin said, according to Your Houston News. “Her friends [and] family, and especially her children, love her with everything in us.”

Gerard Dante Simmons, 28,  who friends say had a back-and-forth relationship with Rucker, has been charged in her death.

According to TheVindicator.com: "Simmons confessed to the murder of Rucker which led Officers to the location of her remains. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death."