JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Saturday would have been Ashlee Rucker’s 36th birthday.
Her ex-boyfriend, Chad Absher, was found guilty Thursday of shooting and killing her in 2017 in a double shooting that also seriously wounded her sister, Lisa.
Rucker’s family and loved ones joined together Saturday to visit her gravesite, which is how they’ve celebrated her birthday for the past five years.
This time, however, was somewhat different because the family said they have a bit of closure after the guilty verdict was handed down against Absher.
Rucker’s family remembers her as a daughter, mother, sister, aunt and friend. They said she was full of life and didn’t deserve what happened to her.
The family sat in court this week, listening to testimonies and waiting anxiously to learn Absher’s fate.
They said it was hard to hear some of the things the defense said.
Vallerie Thompson-Wells, a close friend of Rucker’s, said it doesn’t feel like it’s been five years since she was murdered but also said she can’t hold a grudge and has to find the strength to move on because it’s what Rucker would want.
Thompson-Wells remembered Rucker as spontaneous and the “life of everything.”
“I mean every family function since I can remember since she came into our life, she’s been there. She became part of our family,” Thompson-Wells-Wells said.
The family has found solace in the justice that was serviced for Rucker’s murder.
“She was just it,” Thompson-Wells said. “She was beautiful, inside and outside. She was loved hard. She was amazing.”
When Thompson-Wells thinks of the situation, she can’t help but think of how it could’ve been avoided.
“Just leave it alone. You can watch Lifetime movies all day long, but whenever it happens in your life, it’s totally different,” Thompson-Wells said.
Absher’s sentencing is Nov. 28, where he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.