WARNING: Roger Hueber

Summary

Crime Junkie - WARNING: Roger Hueber

Host: Ashley Flowers
Co-host: Brit Prawat
Date: July 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this intense and unsettling episode of Crime Junkie, Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat delve into the deeply disturbing case of Roger Hueber, a former corrections officer from Lockport, New York. The episode functions both as a case study in predatory abuse and a chilling warning about trusting those in positions of authority. Ashley and Brit trace Hueber’s decades-long pattern of grooming, exploitation, and sexual violence against minors and vulnerable women, exploring the failures and complicity of the law enforcement community that surrounded him. Central to the story is the disappearance of Cheryl Rucci—a woman with a cognitive disability, a victim-turned-accomplice of Roger’s, and ultimately a key witness against him—who vanished under suspicious circumstances before she could testify. The episode weaves together personal accounts, investigative missteps, and chilling unanswered questions, all with a focus on seeking justice and closure for Cheryl’s family.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Initial Discovery & Roger Hueber’s Pattern of Grooming

• Origin of Investigation

  • On January 6, 2005, in Lockport, NY, a school administrator is alerted by the diary of “Emily,” a 16-year-old special education student, that her friend Megan (17) is in a secret relationship with an adult law enforcement officer named Roger (Roger Hueber).
  • The administrator, through law enforcement connections, identifies Roger as a corrections officer at the local jail.
  • Roger is told to stay away from students, but soon the matter is escalated for formal investigation. (03:20 - 04:31)

• Legal Gray Area & Investigation Limits

  • New York’s age of consent is 17, so the investigation focuses on whether the sexual relationship began when Megan was underage—not accounting for Megan’s special needs.
  • Attempts to interview Megan are stonewalled due to her perceived loyalty to Roger.
  • Roger's own statement paints an image of Megan as a childlike family friend who babysat his kids, avoiding any suggestion of impropriety. (05:06 - 06:32)

• Cycle of Grooming and Manipulation

  • Roger previously groomed Cheryl Rucci, a woman whose learning disabilities gave her the mental age of a teenager. She became both his partner and a coerced perpetrator in his abuse cycle.
  • Cheryl’s family describes her as manipulated and controlled by Roger, both financially and emotionally.
  • The pattern repeats: Cheryl started babysitting Roger’s kids at 15, had a child with him in her mid-20s, and eventually was drawn into wrongful acts at his side. (07:04 - 08:16)

2. Escalation: Sexual Abuse, Witness Testimony, and Disappearance

• Broadening of Abuse

  • Investigator Taylor discovers that Roger was sexually aggressive not only with Megan and Cheryl but also with Emily and other minors—including exposure, demanding explicit acts, providing alcohol, and engaging in sexual acts in front of children. (08:16 - 09:53)

• Cheryl Rucci: Victim, Accomplice, and Key Witness

  • Cheryl, recently separated from Roger and fighting for custody of their daughter, confesses during an interview to jointly assaulting a 14-year-old girl with Roger in 1999. This confession becomes the linchpin in building a case against him. Cheryl is promised a plea deal in exchange for testifying. (09:53 - 11:58)
  • Notably, Cheryl did not have a lawyer present and may not have fully understood the repercussions.

• Cheryl’s Disappearance

  • On August 9, 2005, Cheryl goes missing after learning deputies are looking for her to serve a subpoena. Despite her critical status as a witness, law enforcement and some investigators quickly write her off as a fugitive, using derogatory terms and failing to take the disappearance seriously.
  • Family insists Cheryl would not have left on her own—her shoes and purse were left behind; she was deeply attached to her daughter and called her family daily.
  • Early law enforcement theories and lack of action (e.g., not tracing her last calls, dismissive language) are criticized as potentially causing “irreparable damage” to the investigation. (13:52 - 16:16; 21:49 - 25:22)

3. Aftermath for Roger, the Community, and Cheryl’s Family

• Legal Outcomes for Roger
  • Despite Cheryl’s absence, her written statement allows the case to proceed. Roger is indicted on 21 counts (20 stick), including rape, sodomy, and other sexual and endangerment charges.
  • He pleads not guilty, makes bail, and is later caught trying to intimidate witnesses (notably, driving aggressively at Emily). Roger’s bail is revoked.
  • A key defense witness flips after pressure from Roger’s estranged daughter, leading Roger to take a plea deal for attempted rape and endangerment.
  • At sentencing, the judge states:

    “I think you are a threat. I think you are a predator. I think you prey on young girls. I think you have an inability almost to avoid that.” (20:53 - 21:49)

  • Roger receives the maximum sentence: 16 months to 4 years in state prison.
  • At a 2007 parole board, Roger attempts to deflect blame on Cheryl, which draws the ire of commissioners. Cheryl, however, remains missing and unable to defend herself. (19:03 - 21:58)
• Cheryl’s Continued Absence & Investigative Gaps
  • Over time, law enforcement finally acknowledges she did not disappear voluntarily and is likely a victim of foul play.
  • Witness “Amy” comes forward with a critical tip: on the night Cheryl vanished, she saw a distressed woman matching Cheryl’s description in a teal sedan, accompanied by a large, intimidating man matching Roger’s build, in a rural area. Amy is disturbed that police responded to her initial report by saying Cheryl “wasn’t worth looking for.” She recognizes Cheryl from news reports days later but is again dismissed by police. (27:08 - 33:05)
  • Amy also reports a foul odor in the area two weeks later, possibly a body, but does not report it for fear of being ignored again. Years later, a search with cadaver dogs yields nothing. Lost time and initial law enforcement attitudes are seen as critical errors. (36:13 - 37:58)
• Unresolved Elements – “A Warning”
  • Roger is released from prison in 2010, violates sex offender registration, and continues to live with Megan and their children.
  • Despite his reputation, local judges and some community members downplay his threat, highlighting gender bias and societal failings.
  • The episode closes with Ashley reiterating the importance of vigilance and seeking community awareness, while updates suggest the case may be under renewed investigation.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Early Investigative Mistakes:

  “An investigator apparently told Cheryl’s sister that Cheryl was just a crackhead whore. And if they give him 10 days, he'll find her body in Niagara Falls.”
  — Ashley Flowers (15:12)

• On Cheryl’s Last Sighting and Family Disbelief in the ‘Runaway’ Theory:

  “Cheryl was chatty. Like, she would call her family every day, multiple times a day... She wouldn’t go long, like even a day, without calling.”
  — Ashley Flowers (23:06)

• On Law Enforcement Dismissal:

  “Amy says that the detective outright told her that Cheryl wasn’t worth looking for.”
  — Ashley Flowers (32:53)

  “That doesn’t even feel to me like, oh, like she ran away. This feels like she deserves whatever’s coming to her.”
  — Ashley Flowers (33:05)

• On Ongoing Patterns:

  “He is still married to Megan. They now have three kids... backyard pool parties, Disney World… It’s the curated image of a family man, and it’s an image Roger seems like he wants to protect.”
  — Ashley Flowers (41:49 - 42:58)

• On Systemic Failures and Gender Bias:

  “The first judge who called him a predator... was a woman. The judge who calls him a good father? Was a man.”
  — Ashley Flowers (41:17 - 41:19)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:11 — Episode begins; Ashley introduces the case.
• 03:20 — Emily’s journal leads to the discovery of Roger’s abuse.
• 05:06 — New York’s legal age of consent and its complications.
• 07:04 — Introduction of Cheryl Rucci and her relationship to Roger.
• 08:16 — Roger’s aggressions extend beyond Megan and Cheryl.
• 11:55 — Cheryl’s confession about the 1999 assault.
• 13:52 — Cheryl’s disappearance is reported.
• 15:12 — Dismissive comments from law enforcement.
• 19:03 — Roger attempts to intimidate witnesses after being indicted.
• 20:53 — Judge’s statement during Roger’s sentencing.
• 27:08 — “Amy,” a witness, describes seeing Cheryl the night she vanished.
• 32:53 — Law enforcement tells Amy Cheryl “wasn't worth looking for.”
• 36:13 — Years-later search for Cheryl remains inconclusive.
• 41:49 — Roger’s life after prison, still living with Megan.
• 44:07 — Indication that new criminal proceedings may be underway.
• 45:56 — Call for information on Cheryl Rucci’s disappearance.

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Closing Reflections

Crime Junkie’s episode on Roger Hueber is a sobering portrait of predation enabled by community blindness and institutional failure. The case not only serves as a warning about those who groom under the cover of respectability, but also highlights the vital need for accountability, thorough investigation, and public vigilance—even, or especially, when the perpetrators wear a badge. Cheryl Rucci, once both a victim and a key would-be witness, remains missing after two decades—her story a call for renewed attention, compassion, and action.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Cheryl Rucci, contact the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office at 716-438-3393 or submit a tip anonymously on their website.

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Find all source materials for this episode at crimejunkiepodcast.com.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hi crime Junkies, it's Britt. If you're like me and you're ready to dive into even more cases, there's another podcast I think you're gonna Park Predators In Park Predators host Delia d' Ambrett dives into the haunting crimes that happen in some of the most beautiful and unexpected places across the globe. Delia has helped host a couple of episodes of Crime Junkie in the past, and if you've listened to her before, you already know her investigative approach brings the facts of each case and their chilling details to life, making Park Predators the perfect mix of captivating and informative storytelling. So once you're done with this episode of Crime Junkie, go check out Park Predators. New episodes drop every week. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

[C]

Hi Crime Junkies, I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

[B]

And I'm Britt.

[C]

And the story I have for you today is true to the title, a warning for our viewers, especially the ones in New York, but a reminder for all crime junkies to be careful who you trust. So let's dive in. Our story begins on January 6, 2005 in Lockport, New York, which is this small city about 40 minutes outside of Buffalo. There is this 16 year old special education student who I'm going to call Emily. She has been working with a school administrator on ways to like, better express herself. Because she's going through a lot at home at the time. She's been dealing with a lot of trauma and her multiple disabilities make it really hard for her to like work through that and process things like all the things going on around her. So working with this person, this administrator and a psychologist, she begins to journal to try and get out the things that she's going through and feeling on paper. Maybe that would be an easier way for her to share information with them. And it is. She writes about her home life, about the books that she reads, and about one of her few friends named Megan. She's actually another female student in the high school's special education program. But what Emily is writing about her is deeply concerning because Emily writes that 17 year old Megan is in a relationship with someone named Roger, an adult man who works in law enforcement. And they have been doing things that apparently make Emily uncomfortable. And whatever it is was clearly intended to be kept secret because Roger specifically told Emily that this school administrator better not find out about him. Which as you can imagine, makes this administrator determined to find out not just about what's going on, but who exactly this Roger is. And she knows exactly who to ask because her husband is a deputy with the Niagara County Sheriff's office and he helps her connect the dots. Roger was apparently not a very common name in the area at that time. Law enforcement. Roger is 41 year old Roger Huber, who is employed by the same department, but he actually works as a correctional officer at the local jail. So she calls the jail superintendent and keeps it simple. Tell Roger Huber to leave my students alone. Now at first this administrator doesn't expect it to go any further than that. She assumes that the department will deal with it quietly. But someone at the jail takes it up the chain because pretty soon an investigator from the sheriff's office, this guy named Joe Taylor, contacts her and says that he is formally investigating the allegations against Roger.

[B]

Thank God.

[C]

And good, because realistically, I mean she was a mandatory reporter, like it should have been more official than that. And I actually checked with my sister in law who's a vice principal and she's like, absolutely, you're not supposed to like go investigate or see what's what.

[B]

You just like you hear court and that's.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. So at least when it gets, it gets told to them, it got up the chain. Now here is where it gets tricky. The age of consent in New York is 17. So it's actually not illegal for Roger to be in a sexual relationship with 17 year old high school student Megan.

[B]

I mean, not even if she's a special needs student.

[C]

No, that is not a factor. It is only about age. So really the investigation that ensues is just trying to determine if the relationship started before Megan was 17. Now Joe Taylor tries to go right to the source with Megan. He reaches out to a woman that he describes as the mother figure of Megan's house. But that woman says that talking to Megan is probably going to be a waste of his time. Because according to her, Megan would never be honest about what is going on between her and Roger.

[B]

She would protect him.

[C]

Yeah, based on the little snippet we got from Emily's diary, I'm sure that he has made it very clear to Megan because he made it clear to Emily that people shouldn't know about their relationship. So investigator Taylor decides to go directly to Roger with the allegations instead. Now, when he asked the jail supervisor to send Roger over to the criminal bureau, it's casual. Like Taylor doesn't have enough to charge him or arrest him or even Mirandize him. Like this is just a chat. But he asks Roger how he knows Megan. And Roger says that, you know, he's known her for like six or seven years, since back in 1998 when she would have been about 10 or 11 years old. And she's really close with the family now because she is friends with Roger's 13 year old son and she's over at his house almost every day babysitting his eight year old daughter.

[B]

Wait, is there a Mrs. Huber in the picture?

[C]

Not technically. Then. So he had been married before though, like that is who he had three of his four kids with. Then his fourth kid, the eight year old he had with this long term girlfriend who did live with him when this was all going down in 2005. Now in the end, Roger denies ever having a sexual relationship with Megan and even agrees to take a voice stress test before investigator Taylor lets him go.

[B]

Okay, but I want to know what his live in girlfriend has to say about all this.

[C]

Taylor does too, but it has to be handled the right way because Taylor quickly learns how complicated things are. So his girlfriend is 33 year old Cheryl Rucci. And Cheryl, like Megan and Emily, had a learning disability that affected her mental development. So even at 33, her cousin who we spoke to, put her mental age at about 16. And it seems like Roger manipulated her into being both victim and perpetrator. You see, Cheryl's mom and stepdad are corrections officers and they worked in the same department as Roger when Cheryl was growing up. Her brother is even a corrections officer now too. By the time Cheryl was 15 or 16, Roger was divorced and Cheryl started babysitting Roger's kids, sometimes at Roger's house.

[B]

You mean like Megan did?

[C]

Yeah. So fast forward about 10 years to when Cheryl is 25. She's then living with Roger, having a baby with him and being a full time stay at home mom to his three other kids. Like she has her baby in 1997, 1998 is when he meets Megan.

[B]

I mean, this feels like a cycle

[C]

of grooming, but there are more than just Cheryl and Megan in it. And the way that he would use one victim to prey on the next, I think is part of the process as well. So investigator Taylor ends up learning that while Emily may have just written in her journal about Megan, Roger has been sexually aggressive with her too. She says that over the summer, Roger played a pornographic movie in front of her and asked her to show him her breasts. And another time, Roger took her and some other miners out on a motorboat to go tubing. Cheryl was there, some other adults too, and there was alcohol on board, and at least one miner was drinking. But when they got out on the water, you know, basically stuck with no way to get away. Roger, Cheryl and the other adults got naked in front of these minors. Roger also exposed himself another time to Emily. One New Year's Eve. He took her and Megan to a movie. And after they all went to a motel. And when Megan went out to get a drink, that's when he exposed himself. And we know by that point Roger had already had sexual contact with Megan. Because through his investigation, Taylor learns that sexual contact with her began in the spring or summer of 2004, when she possibly wasn't 17 yet. And he told of a time in December that Roger had sexual contact with Megan at a gym, in front of her 12 year old cousin and in the presence of a 2 year old.

[B]

Which is like conditioning these other kids to think that this is all normal.

[C]

That is exactly what I'm saying. It wasn't just a single person caught in Roger's web, but at the center of it with him was Sheryl Rucci. Except it seems like she was ready to break the cycle of abuse. By the time investigator Taylor sits down with her, she says that she has just left Roger because he told her that he didn't love her anymore. And according to her cousin, Roger was really ugly to Cheryl during this time. So maybe that's why Cheryl is even willing to talk to Taylor. Maybe the fact that she's now fighting for custody of her own eight year old daughter, who would be in a house alone with Roger, is why she shares a bombshell that will do Roger in for good. Probably something that Roger thought she would have taken to her grave. Some girls run away from home and some run directly into their destiny. Meet me Sundays at the altar where there's more to confess Inside the web of love. Cheryl Rucci tells investigator Taylor that in the summer of 1999, she and Roger sexually assaulted a 14 year old girl together. Like a broken record, the story goes like Roger was close with the girl's family. He'd known her since she was a baby. She was in his orbit well before it Happened. He made her family feel comfortable with him, made this child feel comfortable with him before he and Cheryl abused her. Cheryl gives enough details and specifications that she essentially hands Roger over to them on a silver plate ladder. But in doing so, she is basically signing herself up for the same fate.

[B]

Right. Did she realize that she was doing that when she was talking to them?

[C]

I think she did. I mean, she didn't have a lawyer or anything when she talked to them. So I don't know how much she contemplated, like, or how much she could contemplate the repercussions that might come from this, But I think she was driven to confess out of fear. Her family felt that for her whole adult life, Roger had his thumb on her. They told us that while she worked on and off a little bit throughout her life, she never really had a steady job. She'd always been easily manipulated and controlled by Roger, both financially and emotionally. And her cousin, who we spoke to, said that they never saw any sign of physical abuse. But Cheryl was clearly afraid of the guy, and he had threatened to take their daughter away from her. And I think the fear of losing her daughter, of what would happen to her daughter, that could have been the big driver of why she was willing to confess, no matter what it meant for her. Now, of course, when Investigator Taylor confronts Roger with this in a formal interview on March 15, he denies all the allegations against him. Like, sure, yeah, he knows this girl like he was at all these places, but, like, all of it's totally innocent, he says. Like, nothing to see here. But the thing is, they don't need him to confess. They have enough by that point to arrest him on felony sex crime charges tied to the 1999 allegations that Cheryl told them about. But that means that what they will need is Cheryl to testify against him. So probably deciding that she was the lesser threat of the two, they offer her a plea deal if she will agree to testify that against Roger, which her family said that she was planning to take so that she could be with her own daughter. Now, we don't know the exact details of the deal. Investigators wouldn't confirm anything to us other than the fact that there was a deal.

[B]

Is it not documented somewhere?

[C]

So it might be, but the DA's office won't release anything related to Cheryl's case to us. But here's what I know. So on August 9, 2005, Cheryl was at this cookout at her apartment complex. And according to her family, some friends told her that Niagara County Sheriff's deputies had been there earlier looking for her. They were trying to serve her with a subpoena to testify before the grand jury. Apparently, Cheryl got upset. She started calling family, including her mom, but no one picked up. She left her mom a voicemail asking her to call back. But when her mom eventually gets that message and tries, she can't get a hold of Cheryl. So her family starts looking for her. They start calling around. And by the next night, August 10th, they report her missing because no one can find her. And to them, the circumstances are deeply concerning. Like we're talking about a witness in a sex abuse case against a corrections officer who just disappeared before she could testify against him. But her family told us that authorities did not view the circumstances in the same light they did. They all met at Cheryl's apartment to look for her that night. Family and law enforcement. And there were no signs of a struggle. Nothing was a mess. And even though they took some investigative steps you would expect for a missing person's case, like taking items from her place for testing, they ran, you know, canines, trying to track her scent. A family member said that they were told that Cheryl probably just ran away to avoid testifying. More than that, an investigator apparently told Cheryl's sister that Cheryl was just a crackhead whore. And if they give him 10 days, he'll find her body in Niagara falls.

[B]

What?

[C]

Well, 10 days come and go, and guess what? No Cheryl. So now she's not only missing, she will eventually get listed as a fugitive.

[B]

And does this department know about Roger's case? Like the details, the fact that she's the witness?

[C]

Brit, it is being handled by the same department. And this is the same department. I like to remind you that Roger, she worked for. Yeah.

[B]

And. Okay. Do they not believe in, like, a conflict of interest in New York?

[C]

I don't know how this is flying. It's kind of unbelievable.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Now, I do need to say that while the family says that law enforcement seemed to have a one track mind and write Cheryl off as a fugitive in the wind, the current investigator told us that all possibilities, including foul play, were explored from the jump. Either way, Cheryl's disappearance doesn't actually stop the case against Roger from moving forward. Investigator Taylor is allowed to read Cheryl's written statement to the jurors. And by the time it gets to that, they have built out a bigger picture of what Roger had been doing. All the stuff with Megan, Emily, the boat, the alcohol, the motel, that was all going to be part of their case now, too. And Emily, the student whose journal started this whole thing, she was Expected to be a witness in the case. So even without Cheryl there in the flesh on September 1, the grand jury who was presented the case against Roger indicts him on 21 counts. I'm not going to read every single one because it's a lot, but I'll give you, like, the highlights from the 20 that actually stick. So there are multiple counts of rape, sodomy, sexual abuse tied to that 1999 allegation involving that 14 year old girl. They also charge him with endangering the welfare of children, unlawfully dealing with a child for allegedly giving alcohol to a minor, criminal contempt for allegedly violating an order of protection and a firearm charge connected to his job as a peace officer.

[B]

And you said indicted on 21, but only 20 stick. I gotta know about the one that didn't stick.

[C]

There was a charge related to the New Year's Eve incident with Emily and Megan in that motel room. It turns out the motel was in a different county, so that got dropped.

[B]

Okay?

[C]

Now, Roger pleads not guilty to all 20 counts. Roger makes bail. He walks out. But does he go home and sit on his hands and stay out of trouble while he waits for his day in court?

[B]

No, of course not.

[C]

No, he does not. He starts trying to intimidate witnesses, or at least one witness. Three different times over the course of a few weeks. In December, Emily saw Roger drive his green truck behind her while she was walking near his street. And he would, like, swerve right at her, getting close enough that she could almost reach out and touch his vehicle. And there was like, no question that this was him. I mean, for one, this man has a vanity plate that says Huber. But like, also, at least one of the times Megan was in the passenger seat of the car when it came close to her. And Emily wrote in her journal that one time Meghan approached her and threatened her to try and get her to change her testimony.

[B]

I mean, it feels like he's using Megan like he used Cheryl.

[C]

He's got her so wound up in his crosshairs that I think she sees Emily as the enemy. Or at the very least, she is willing to do Roger's bidding, no matter how she sees Emily. These incidents end up getting reported to authorities, and prosecutors use this to get Roger's bail revoked. And while he's sitting in prison, the case that his defense team was building really starts falling apart because they had a witness who I guess was there for the 1999 incident and originally gave the defense a signed statement saying that what Cheryl described never happened. But before we get to trial, that witness flips and she was going to testify that everything did happen exactly like Cheryl said it did.

[B]

Why the change of heart right before trial?

[C]

Well, apparently Roger's estranged daughter. So this would have been his daughter with his ex wife, not the daughter he shares with Cheryl. She knew about this 1999 incident as well. And she told the witness that you shouldn't lie. Like you've got to tell them what happened. And based on that, she decided to tell the truth. And Roger sees the writing on the wall after this. So this is when he decided to take a plea. He pleads guilty to second degree attempted rape and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. And at his sentencing, which happens on June 5, 2006, the judge tells him, I think you are a threat. I think you are a predator. I think you prey on young girls. I think you have an inability almost to avoid that. And then the judge gives him the maximum sentence, which is 16 months to four years in state prison. In a pre sentence interview, Roger had described what he did this way. He said, quote, I have three beautiful naked women in front of me and took advantage of, of an opportunity. And let's be very, very clear, one of those women was a 13 year old kid, right? Now the prosecutor points out something else that I think is important. She speaks to Cheryl's role in all of this. And she said that Cheryl was someone who was very controlled by Roger and these were his fantasies, not hers. Cheryl didn't introduce this to their relationship, but he did. Rogers seems to disagree with that because later at a parole board interview in 2007, he tries to put a lot of what happened on Cheryl, saying she invited the girls over, he didn't know how old they were. Like one girl told me she was 18. Cheryl told me that too.

[B]

I mean, I believe this 0%. You are a man in your 40s. You don't need to check a birthday when you see a 13 year old girl right there like they're in middle

[C]

school, Come on and listen. One parole commissioner calls him out on this like absolute bull. She basically says like, how convenient is it that now it's all Cheryl? Like the girls were friends of hers, she brought them home and you're just this like innocent victim who didn't know like how old they were or like who they were. And like, oh like again, how convenient that Cheryl has been missing for more than a year now by this point and isn't around to defend herself. And that's when Roger pushes his narrative here by saying, well, she's on the run, I guess. And that is an insulting insinuation to Cheryl's family because from their point of view, Cheryl wasn't just a missing person. She was supposed to testify in a sex abuse case against someone who worked for the very same department that is now investigating where she went. And every day over the past year without word from her, they only became more and more convinced that she didn't leave on her own. They think something bad happened to her and to them, the evidence was there from the beginning. Cheryl's daughter said that her mom used to walk her to school, take her to the park and the movies. One time she even got a job at her school so that they could walk home together. She told us that Cheryl was loving and kind, she was family oriented, and that she doesn't think she would ever have just walked away from her. More than that, though, like, Cheryl didn't have a cell phone or credit card or a driver's license. And, like, sure, like she could have taken the bus or something, but how is she going to get by? They told us that the first night when they reported her missing and they went with police to check her apartment, Cheryl's shoes were by the door, exactly where she always left them. Her purse was still there. The whole place was clean besides a couple of beers. And yes, they took those. Check those. No DNA on those. It looks like she just stepped out with just the clothes on her back and was going to come right back. And based on the last reported sighting of her, that might actually have been the case. And more than all of that, the thing that they say is Cheryl was chatty. Like, she would call her family every day, multiple times a day, especially when she wasn't working or didn't have her daughter and she got bored. Like they would call her Nancy nine times. Like, she wouldn't go long, like even a day without calling. Now, from law enforcement's point of view, Cheryl's last confirmed sighting is at about 9pm on Aug. 9. This is like the same day she was at that cookout. Heard about the sheriffs looking for her. And they say that at 9pm Some neighbors reported seeing her around the apartment complex. And some people said she might have even been barefoot and taking out the trash at the time, which makes sense with her shoes being inside the apartment. But if she walked out without her shoes, it doesn't seem like she would have gone far. Right. And interestingly, I don't know if you remember, so they brought canines in to like track her scent when she first went missing? Well, according to family members and some early reporting on this case, the trail that got picked up seemed to go from Cheryl's apartment to a nearby skating rink. And investigators do get reports from witnesses who saw a car in the area that night. But they got, like, multiple descriptions of what that car looked like, Even though it doesn't seem like anyone saw Cheryl get into that car. Like, that is what makes the most sense to me. Like, with. With the canine scent ending there.

[B]

Yeah. And if she gets in a car, then she probably went off with someone she knows, presumably.

[C]

I mean, that's what I would think. But it would seem like that couldn't have been Roger, because we find out he always had an alibi. He was supposedly with his and Cheryl's daughter at the movies that night. Like, he had her that night. That's why Cheryl was alone at her apartment when she went missing. But here's the thing. So for years, right, we've thought he had an alibi. We actually spoke to their daughter for this episode. We talked to her about the night her mom went missing, and she dropped this huge bombshell. She said, yes, they were supposed to go to the movies, but that movie night got canceled. Roger ended up dropping her and her brother off at their grandma's, like, Roger's mom's house. Which means there was a stretch of time where, from her point of view, Roger was on his own. Or at least she doesn't know where he was.

[B]

But would Cheryl have actually gotten into a car with Roger?

[C]

I don't know. I mean, but, like, who's saying that she got in the car willingly?

[B]

I guess. Why else would she have been at the skating rink?

[C]

Well, that I don't have an explanation for, because, I mean, it's not like it shares a parking lot with her apartment complex or anything. Like, it's, like, across this major road. So I agree. Like, if she went that way, it's, like, intentional.

[B]

Yeah, for a reason.

[C]

And the thing is, if you remember, we know she called her mom when she heard that someone was looking to serve her with a subpoena. But the huge unanswered question I have is, like, who else might she have called when her mom didn't pick up? The current investigator wouldn't even confirm for us whether they even pulled Cheryl's phone records, much less like, what they showed if they did.

[B]

Okay, but if you're gonna call someone to meet you or pick you up, like, why not just have them come to your apartment? Like, why meet at the skating rink.

[C]

I don't know. None of it makes sense. And maybe it's because, like, that didn't happen. Maybe the skateboard, that tractor was old, or maybe it didn't track to like the skate rink at all. Because we tried to verify this detail with the current investigator and all he would say is that dogs were used in that initial window when Cheryl was reported missing, but he couldn't say that the trail was ever concretely verified. Again, I don't know the difference between couldn't and wouldn't tell us, but right. So I don't know, maybe this skate rink is just this red herring. He did tell us though that over time, more resources were put into locating Cheryl, not as a fugitive, but as a missing person. He said they followed up on more than 200 leads. And according to an article in the Lockport Union sun and Journal, they did land searches, they did sonar searches in a nearby lake. They sent out cadaver dogs at one point, but they never found any sign of Cheryl. In 2011, the sheriff finally said that investigators believed that Cheryl was a victim of foul play and that she didn't leave on her own. Investigators even searched Roger's old home once it was foreclosed on. They didn't find anything. But even with this change of heart, I cannot help but believe that the early assumptions that they made did like, irreparable damage to Cheryl's case. Stuff that's going to be so hard to come back from because there are some tips and leads that like, once they're passed up on, you don't really get a second chance. And there is this one tip in particular that I think is a shining example of that this witness story that has never been reported on before. Now the current investigator told us that her account is noted in the original case file, but we spoke to her directly. Now this witness is a local woman who I'm going to call Amy. And on the night that Cheryl disappeared Again, this is August 9, 2005, she saw something that she has never been able to forget. On the night Cheryl disappeared, around 10, maybe 10, 15 at night, Amy was driving to work, taking this rural road near the woods off State Route 78. And she spots this like teal four door car that's pulled over to the side of the road with its lights on. So Amy pulled up behind it. She thought that maybe the car broke down, someone might need help. Again, not a lot of traffic on this road. And when she gets out, she can see that there is a woman inside the car. She's young looking, tan with dark hair. And she seemed like she was trying to talk to Amy. She was, like, talking fast, like she was anxious or scared. But there was also, like, music blaring from the stereo inside the car. And the woman inside wasn't rolling down the window so that Amy could hear her better. So while Amy is trying to, like, make sense of this, something catches her eye on the side of the road. And it's like this huge, incredible hulk, like, figure walking out of the brush back toward the car, back toward where she was standing. And that's when Amy could finally read the woman's lips. She was saying, go, go, go. So Amy runs back to her car and speeds off just enough to get out of Dodge. And she uses her car's, like, emergency system to call for help before she decides to circle back. She knew that the woman shouldn't be left alone. Like, every fiber of her being was telling her that that woman was in danger. Because, like, it finally hit her why the woman might not have been rolling down the window. Because Amy realized that the entire time she was there by the car, she never once saw the woman's hand. So she's thinking, like, oh, my God, maybe she was, like, bound in some way. Which is just all the more concerning.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Now, when Amy gets back to the spot, the car is still there, but now the lights are off and the woman is gone. So is the man that came walking out of the brush. And Amy looks up and down this road, but nobody is walking in either direction. Which just gives her the eeriest sense that both of them disappeared into the woods. Now, Amy has enough self preservation sense about her to know that she can't just go into the woods to find them. Authorities have to. Except authorities don't show up.

[B]

What?

[C]

At least not for as long as she waited out there. Now, we don't know exactly where Amy's emergency call was routed to. I don't know who got it. I don't know what was entered into the system in real time. Now, the current investigator told us that Amy's sighting was noted in the case file, which we don't have access to because when we requested it, our request was denied. But he said that the call was followed up on by, and he wouldn't say, how cool. But, like, as far as Amy is concerned. Right, like, she thought, no one came out. So a couple of days later, when she is at home, she sees Cheryl's photo on the news, and she recognizes Cheryl as the woman she saw in the car. So obviously Amy calls up the police right away because she wants to make sure someone knows about what she witnessed. Right, because she doesn't know. Like, she didn't talk to anyone. But their response is mind boggling. Amy says that the detective outright told her that Cheryl wasn't worth looking for,

[B]

which is what they had basically told her family.

[C]

Amy claims that the detective said that Cheryl got into this mess herself and now she's trying to get out of it.

[B]

What does that even mean?

[C]

That doesn't even feel to me like, oh, like she ran away. This feels like she deserves whatever's coming to her kind of thing.

[B]

And it's coming from somebody who's employed by the same law enforcement office where Roger was employed.

[C]

Listen, I don't know who told her that, but this idea that people had Roger's back or had reason to cover for him, dude, I can't even tell you how deep it goes, like, for legal reasons, literally, it's something that we're still digging into. But let me just tell you, like, real quick, side side story here, two interesting tidbits that we stumbled upon because Cheryl's cousin told us that a woman who knew Cheryl commented publicly in a Facebook group that she was sexually assaulted in Roger's home after being served alcohol. In the comments, the woman said that she was underage at the time. And the man that she accused was and still is a member of the Niagara County Sheriff's Office. We reviewed the screenshots of those comments taken before they were deleted. We also reached out to the man accused and the current sheriff and the deputy sheriff for their responses to those allegations, and we have not heard back. We also heard from Cheryl's family that Cheryl had turned over some tapes to the sheriff's office right before she went missing. Now I'm being like, vague about like, what's on him, whatever, whatever, because again, still digging. But the current investigator said that he is familiar with the claim that those tapes exist, but he hasn't seen documentation of their verified existence in the missing person case file available to him. So if these tapes are real, we don't know where they are now, whether they were logged somewhere else, returned, lost, destroyed, or never actually turned over in the first place. And obviously we reached out to Roger about the tapes and all of this, but we have not heard back from him. And speaking of Roger, this man is hard to miss. Like, homeboy is scary looking. So to bring it back to Amy and her story, when she eventually saw Roger, she did think that the bald, stocky, muscular, hulk like figure that she saw walking out of the brush that night was him. Now, police blowing Amy off wasn't even the end of the saga. About two and a half weeks after that initial incident, Amy was driving past the same area where the car was, and she noticed this foul odor coming from the woods near where the car had been. And she told us that she drove that route all the time. She had never smelled anything like that before. So she doesn't think it was like a dead deer or a random animal or something. But the thing is, Amy didn't report it that time. She had already called investigators and got dismissed. So she was afraid of being labeled as, like, a nuisance caller. But she did say that later she spent years trying to get cadaver dog teams, like, back to that location where she saw the car. That's kind of hard to do as one individual with no law enforcement connection.

[B]

Okay, girl, what are we waiting for?

[C]

Don't tempt me with a good time and shovel, but I would. But I don't want to get in the way because I actually have some kind of good news. The current investigator who took this case over in 2023 has been doing some legwork on this. He wouldn't tell us much about what he's doing, but when we got court records from Roger's prosecution, I'm talking, like, hundreds of pages, transcript, motions, orders, indictments. In it was a receipt showing that materials from the original case file were checked out and then returned to the DA's office custody in July of 2025. So we're talking just a year ago. And this included, like, Cheryl's own written statement to investigators, a statement from another witness, a letter, materials from a case that had been closed for nearly 20 years got pulled a year ago and reviewed by someone. Now, I don't know exactly what the who had those files or what they were doing with them or whatever, but what the current investigator would say to us is that at some point in the last couple of years, he did put in a request for a trained search and rescue organization to come and search this area in question. Now, we spoke to the founder of Western New York Missing and unidentified persons, an advocacy organization that helped push for the search, which finally happened in November of 2024. And they told us that the team searched. They didn't find anything but caveat. They felt like they had more work to do. She said that the team wasn't able to cover everything that they wanted to that day, and they haven't been able to get back out there with law enforcement since even if nothing is there

[B]

now though, that doesn't mean there was like never anything there.

[C]

This is exactly my point about the lost time. Like it is, it's terrible. Like I don't, I don't know what has been lost that we can't get back.

[B]

Wait, if police actually followed up on it like they said they did, like wouldn't they have gotten a plate number or something on that car, like to know whose it was?

[C]

So I don't know what they did. Right? Like they won't tell us. But Amy said that she actually recorded at least a partial plate number that night. I mean, she knew something was up. She was there with the car. She gave that to police. The only thing we know is that the registered car didn't apparently match the description of like this teal four door car. Now my next question, okay, what car did it match? Yeah, the current investigator wouldn't get into any specifics about the partial plate itself, who it came back to, what other kind of vehicle, like it could have been registered to. But what I think is so interesting, Britt, remember how witnesses reported seeing a car like near the skating rink the night that Cheryl disappeared? So the current investigator told us that one of the multiple vehicle descriptions, remember there was different ones, but one of them was a teal or blue car. Now I don't know who that teal or blue car could belong to, but when we talked to Amy, she said that the teal car that she saw looked like a Chevy Caprice style sedan. And so obviously like when we talked to Cheryl's daughter, we asked her like whether like Roger or anyone around him owned a car like that back then. And she said the one thing that came to her mind was that Roger had this like dark sea green like Chevy Camaro. But like a Chevy Camaro is a two door sports car. He also had that like pickup truck or like a Trailblazer or whatever. A Caprice is a larger four door sedan. It doesn't look like either of those.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So I don't know if it was a car completely unrelated to him, something he might have had access to. That car is a big mystery. Now Roger was released from prison on January 15, 2010. Four days later he registered as a sex offender. But he almost immediately violated his registration requirements when he moved in with his new wife Megan and their baby without telling anyone.

[B]

Megan, the former high school student, Megan, that's the Megan.

[C]

Obviously not in high school anymore by that point. Like, but failure to do that got him five years of probation. That began in 2012, when he was back in court for failing to update his address as a registered sex offender, the judge said something during the sentencing that really stuck with me. He said, quote, everything that I know about you, Mr. Huber, is you're a good father. Although, you know, having a criminal past is never a good role model. Example. But let's. Again, those. Those years hopefully are behind you. Sounds like you're a good father. I'm not going to remove you from. From your family. I'm not going to place you in jail, end quote.

[B]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and just say that I think it's more than just not being a good role model here.

[C]

So I do just have to say the judge. The first judge who called him a predator was like, I don't think you, like, have the ability to even stop that was a woman. The judge who called him.

[B]

Wait, let me guess. This one's a man.

[C]

Was a man the one who calls him a good father. So, like, make your own call about that. Roger got discharged from all supervision on February 25, 2015.

[B]

But that's not five years.

[C]

I. It's. You're right. Math is. Is math. Eh. He just got done early and just in time, because In August of 2015, he ended up getting arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, which would have been a probation violation if he

[B]

had still been on it.

[C]

Right. But he wasn't, and so he is still out. And this is why I titled this episode as a warning. Because while one judge was just hoping Roger's past was behind him, he was a convicted predator. And I think it takes more than hope and a prayer to protect kids. And Roger seems to be around plenty of kids still. He is still married to Megan. They now have three kids. And because of her Facebook, we have a pretty good idea of the image that they put out to the world. Posted on Megan's page are photos of Roger at backyard pool parties at Disney World with his family. It's the curated image of a family man, and it's an image that Roger seems like he wants to protect. Our reporter Malika Dhaliwal found a state police report from October 2025 where Roger called 911 to report suspicious activity because people were talking about him in a public Facebook group specifically about him being a registered sex offender and the crimes that he was convicted of.

[B]

So they were speaking the truth?

[C]

Yes. He told police that he thought the comments were threatening, but the responding officer, like, looked at the comments and is like, yeah, no. And Roger had to admit that, like, nobody threatened him directly. No one had done anything to him or to his property. The officer basically told him, like, listen, Facebook is a public forum, and it's like, if your community wants to talk about who's living in their community, like, people have the freedom of speech just like they would in any other public place. And I can't say if his next thing was Roger or not, but when Malika posted on a local Lockport Facebook group asking if anyone who knew Cheryl wanted just to talk to us, within 24 hours, that post was reported multiple times and got removed. But it's hard to hide from your past forever. And we heard something really interesting. So in our reporting, we were trying to get in touch with the original prosecutor on Roger's, like, sexual abuse case. But interestingly, her office said that she couldn't speak because of a pending matter related to the criminal case against Roger.

[B]

What criminal case exactly?

[C]

My question, we have been trying to find out, but knowing that that case stuff was being pulled in 2025, knowing we've got a judge saying there is a pending criminal case in 2026, I think something seems to be brewing in Niagara County. Cheryl Rucci is still missing. Her daughter now has children of her own, three boys that Cheryl never got to meet. And her daughter told us that growing up without her mom has been confusing and painful, especially because she believes that she knows who is responsible and has had to watch that person go on living their life. And Cheryl's mom has spent 20 years waiting for answers in trying to keep Cheryl's memory alive. But at times, it can feel like her legacy is always going to be tied to Roger. And Cheryl's cousin acknowledges that Cheryl may have been involved in some bad things. I mean, she is far from a perfect victim. But she says that her daughter should never have had to grow up without her mother. And maybe that's the truth about Cheryl. She was a complicated person living a very complicated life inside a world that Roger Huber controlled. I'll say it again. She was an imperfect victim who became an imperfect witness. She was a woman who decided to testify against the most powerful person in her life, knowing what it might cost her. And then she disappeared before she could have her day in court. She deserves to be found. Her family deserves answers. So if anyone out there knows anything about the disappearance of Sheryl Rucci. I mean, anything at all, please contact the Niagara County Sheriff's office at 716-438-3393. You can also submit a tip anonymously. To their website. Investigator Ed Finley, he's the current lead on the case, told us that even information that seems small, like a rumor that's been passed around, even if you think they know it, they might not like it, can matter if it gives investigators something to follow. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com

[B]

and you can follow us on Instagram rimejunkiepodcast.

[C]

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. I think Chuck would approve.