TOWN OF LOCKPORT — Faith, family and friends is what is keeping the Rucci family going since their beloved Sheryl Rucci went missing five years ago.

Niagara County Sheriff’s investigators have never stopped searching for her.

It’s a case that involves:

• An ex-boyfriend who served hard time for child sex abuse.

• Charges lodged against Rucci as a co-defendant in the case — after she went missing.

• A disappearance timed just two weeks before Rucci was to be subpoenaed to testify against the ex-boyfriend, Roger L. Hueber.

• The 13-year-old daughter of Rucci and Hueber, trying to cope with the loss of her mother.

“We look at it as an open investigation and we are actively following up on any informational leads we have and/or are generated,” Capt. Kristen Neubauer said. “It was always an open, worked case that’s never been overlooked. Never.”

Although Sheryl is not physically with her family, her parents, Kathy and Joe, say their granddaughter, Ashley, is a little piece of Sheryl still with them.

“We couldn’t save her body, but we saved her soul,” Kathy said. “We have her soul in Ashley. She was our miracle.”

Kathy said Sheryl was medically incapable of having children, until a “freak of nature” happened 13 years ago.

“When Ashley was born, I said to Sheryl: ‘She was born for a reason — to take care of you or to take care of me.’ She is the soul of our daughter,” Kathy said.

Ashley, 13, who said she was too upset to talk about her mother, is described by her family as a “little Sheryl.”

“She’s a spitting image of Sheryl. Just put a dark wig on her and you got Sheryl,” Kathy said.

Joe added that Ashley’s height, look and mannerisms are also like Sheryl’s.

“She most importantly filled in our deeper moments,” Joe said.

Despite having a difficult last five years without her mother, Ashley is adjusting well, Kathy said.

“Her Aunt Theresa and Ed have custody of her, but we’re such a close-knit family, she’s exposed to all of us who just love and cherish her,” Kathy said. “One of the main things we stress to her is to just be a kid and leave all the worrying to us. She has a real good head on her shoulders.”

The family still holds out a faint hope that Sheryl is alive.

“As a mother, I hope she’s alive, but reality tells me no,” Kathy said, trying to hold back tears.

“It’s like having cancer: It’s hard to go through, but you take it day-by-day with faith, family and friends.”

In the backyard of Kathy and Joe’s Stone Road, Town of Lockport, home is a makeshift memorial filled with angelic statues in memory of their daughter, Sheryl. Small trees, bushes and two benches surround the stone path leading to statues, flags and other items to remember Sheryl.

“Ashley goes there the most. We see her talk to her mom, and just sit and think,” Kathy said. “We really all go back there often just to collect our thoughts.”

Sheryl’s disappearance

Niagara County Sheriff’s Office investigators said Sheryl, who would now be 38, went missing Aug. 9, 2005. Her family reported her disappearance the next day — just two week before she was going to be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury against Roger L. Hueber, her former boyfriend and a Niagara County jail guard.

Hueber was charged March 15, 2005, with two counts of third-degree rape, two counts of third-degree sodomy, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of unlawfully dealing with a child. He was accused of providing alcohol to minors, then going skinny dipping with and sexually abusing three girls, age 13, 14 and 17.

One year later, he pleaded guilty to third-degree attempted rape and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to 1 1/3 to four years in state prison.

According to then-Assistant District Attorney Caroline A. Wojtaszek, Hueber’s three victims were friends of his children.

Wojtaszek said Sheryl, as his co-defendant, was controlled by Hueber and reportedly provided juveniles with drugs and sex around the same time Hueber did.

In a rare legal move, Rucci was indicted by a grand jury on sex charges three weeks after she went missing. She is still reported wanted, but Neibauer would not say what would happen, legally, if Rucci were found alive.

Law enforcement and family initially thought Sheryl was hiding to avoid testifying against Hueber and/or to avoid facing a sealed indictment accusing her of having sexual contact with a child.

Those theories have changed.

“I think that with all the information that we have and the people that we’ve talked to, I think it would be very difficult for Sheryl to be away from her daughter and her family for this length of time,” Neubauer said. “I think that if she’s hiding someplace or has been hidden someplace, that would be highly unlikely. She’s a daughter, a sister, a mother and very close to her parents, so I don’t think it would be likely that she would be able to stay away from them this long.”

Sheryl was last seen around 9 p.m. Aug. 9, 2005. near the 6500 block of Lincoln Avenue. At the time she disappeared, the then 33-year-old was likely wearing a navy blue Canisius College sweatshirt and a gold chain necklace with a heart-shaped pendant. She is 5’10”, 110 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

The Ruccis said once the sheriff’s office got involved, the family also started its own investigation.

“We had our whole family searching high and low around town,” Kathy said. “Even the police had the bloodhounds out in the search, but the dog went from Sheryl’s apartment and stopped at Skateland down the road.”

None of the leads panned out.

“It just looked like she left her apartment and was coming back,” Kathy said. “Her shoes were in the same place as she always left them, her purse was still home, her apartment was immaculate. Clean. Like nothing was wrong.”

Years later, the Ruccis still have kept Sheryl’s belongings.

“We kept her stuff at the apartment for a few months. We didn’t know if she was coming home,” Kathy said.

Two years later, they packed up her belongings, and now store them in her parents’ basement.

“There was one time Ashley needed some summer clothes, so we went through Sheryl’s stuff and they fit her just perfectly. It was really something,” Kathy said.

The investigation

Investigators John Wick, Paul Perkins and Neubauer said they won’t give up the search.

“It’s still active,” Neubauer said, explaining that an unprecedented number of hours have been devoted to the investigation.  Wick was put on the case full time last September to give the investigation a “new set of eyes.”

“I would be comfortable saying if we collectively sat down and did the numbers, there would be over 1,000 man hours put on the case  ... if not more,” Neubauer said.

Investigators said Hueber was the initial person of interest due to his relationship with Sheryl.

“He was spoken to a couple of times right around the report of her going missing, and he denied any knowledge of having anything to do with her disappearance,” Neubauer said. “He was always a person of interest because of the fact of the missing persons case,” she said.

Hueber was released from prison Jan. 17, 2010

“We’ve tried to approach him since his release ... and he’s chosen not to respond,” Neubauer said. “We can’t compel him to talk to us. We’ve talked to multiple people all the way from direct acquaintances to people who’ve lived in the area.”

When Hueber’s name came up, Kathy said: “We haven’t spoke to him. We don’t want him into this. He has nothing to do with our family, just Ashley’s biological father, but not in any of our lives.”

Hueber is not the only target of the investigation. Neubauer said they have followed more than 200 leads.

“There have been leads about bodies located somewhere ... about information or evidence located somewhere, and again, it hasn’t come to anything. We have followed up in other states throughout the country,” Neubauer said. “These leads were both leads that would be potentially saying she was alive and leads saying that she was potentially dead.”

Neubauer said following those leads has provided information, and there will be a decision in the near future on the status of Wick’s activity on the case.

“I don’t know we’ll ever consider it closed.”

Wick has taken the investigation in new directions, Neubauer said.

“He’s followed up on multiple leads with individuals, both of people who are incarcerated and people that are still in this area. He’s coordinated and conducted a good handful of searches in fields and large bodies of water,” she said. “We followed everything, and everything’s come up with negative results, unfortunately for her and for the family,” she said.

Although, some information could not be released due to “integrity of the case,” Neubauer said several law enforcement agencies throughout the country are aware of Sheryl’s missing persons case.

Wick also recently put out a new missing person’s poster in the jail to see if inmates can generate any information on the case, as well.

“I know that we are doing everything that we possible can on following up on information, but the best answer is to figure it out and go to the family with an answer,” Neubauer said. “When you know that you’ve been able to do as much as you can do, then you feel better about your work _ and that’s how we feel about this case,” she said.

The Rucci family said at this point, they are simply looking for closure.

“Loose lips, sink ships,” Kathy said. “Anyone with even the slightest bit of information should come forward.”

The Ruccis are offering a $5,000 reward for anyone with information, as long as they can prove something.

If you have information, contact the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office at 438-3393 or investigators John Wick at 438-3342 or Paul Perkins at 438-3409. All anonymous tips can also be sent to the sheriff’s office through its Citizen’s Observer program.

Contact reporter Britney Milazzo at 439-9222, ext. 6251.