Police say the suspect fled from a library parking lot, drove to South Beach Park and was later seen entering the Atlantic Ocean.
VERO BEACH, FL — Authorities in Indian River County continued a broad search Thursday for Jesse Scott Ellis, a 64-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife and another man outside the county’s main library before vanishing near the ocean.
Investigators say the killings were targeted, not random, and now the case has shifted into a manhunt that stretches from a downtown library parking lot to the shoreline at South Beach Park. Police have announced arrest warrants charging Ellis with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the deaths of Stacie Ellis Mason, 49, and Danny Ooley, 56, both longtime Indian River County employees. The search matters not only because the suspect remains missing, but because authorities say they still do not know whether he died in the water, reached shore elsewhere or is hiding nearby.
The shooting happened about 7 a.m. Tuesday in the north parking lot of the Indian River County Main Library at 1600 21st St. Police Chief David Currey said officers began getting 911 calls around that time from people who reported hearing gunfire near the library. One caller told dispatchers, “I’m pretty sure I heard shots fired.” By the time officers arrived, they found Ooley and Mason in and around Ooley’s truck with multiple gunshot wounds. Currey said surveillance video showed Ooley arriving first in a black Ford Ranger. A short time later, Mason arrived in a black Volkswagen Atlas, got out and entered the passenger side of Ooley’s truck. Ellis, police said, had parked nearby on a street, walked up to the driver’s side with an assault rifle-style weapon and opened fire. Currey said Ellis then moved to the passenger side and shot Mason again after she fell from the truck.
Police say Ellis left the firearm and shell casings at the library scene, then drove away in a dark gray 2022 Ford F-150. The search turned quickly toward South Beach Park after investigators learned the truck had been seen there. A woman walking near the shoreline called 911 at 7:58 a.m. to report a tall older man entering the ocean between the park and the Riomar Country Club. Assistant Fire Chief Steve Greer said rescue crews responded about 8:30 a.m. for what they believed was a water welfare check, not a homicide call. Greer said the man, later identified by police as Ellis, was wearing long shorts and a dark blue shirt and had swum roughly a quarter mile to a half mile offshore. Rescue crews approached him by boat, but he gave a false name, insisted he was fine and refused help. “He said he was okay and that he does this often,” Greer said. “He became agitated.” Fire crews returned to shore, and police say that was the last confirmed sighting.
Officers later found Ellis’ truck in the South Beach Park parking lot about 12:45 p.m. Tuesday and used a drone to determine no one was inside. After the truck was tied to the homicide investigation, fire rescue crews told police about their earlier encounter in the water. Since then, agencies including the Vero Beach Police Department, Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, Indian River County Fire Rescue, Indian River Shores Public Safety and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have searched the area by land and water. Cadaver dogs were brought into wooded areas near the park Thursday, while boats, drones and shoreline teams continued looking for signs of the suspect. Police say they have Ellis’ vehicle and everything inside it, but they have not publicly described all of that evidence. They also searched his home and recovered multiple firearms and cellphones that investigators said were being examined.
Authorities have described the case as a marital dispute that turned deadly. Currey said Ellis and Mason had been married for 13 years and were in the process of separating or divorcing. He said Mason and Ooley had been seeing each other, though police have not said exactly for how long. Ooley also was married, according to police. Currey called the shooting a “targeted, marital issue that went terribly, terribly wrong,” and repeatedly said investigators do not believe the public was chosen at random. Even so, officers have warned that Ellis could still pose a danger if he is alive. By Thursday evening, the legal posture of the case had changed sharply. What began as a search for a person of interest became an active murder case with warrants in hand. Vero Beach police announced Ellis is wanted on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder. That means investigators now say they believe the killings were planned or carried out with enough deliberation to support the most serious homicide charge under Florida law.
The deaths also hit Indian River County government hard because both victims were well-known public employees. County leaders identified Ooley as the assistant director of Public Works and Mason as a traffic analyst technician. Officials said Ooley had spent nearly 25 years with the county, rising from maintenance worker to a top public works post, while Mason had worked for the county for 14 years. In a statement, county leaders said the loss was profound and described both as dedicated public servants whose absence would be felt across the organization and the community. Counseling and support were offered to county employees as co-workers tried to process the killings. The setting added to the shock. The gunfire erupted at the main library, a familiar public space not far from downtown Vero Beach, and directly across from a preschool that police said was closed at the time. Residents who use the library or drive through the area each day were left with a crime scene in one of the city’s most visible civic spaces.
For investigators, several major questions remain unanswered. Police say they have surveillance footage from the library, physical evidence from the parking lot, search warrants for the vehicles tied to the case and electronic evidence from cellphones. But they have not said whether Ellis left behind a note, sent messages before the shooting or made any contact after he was seen in the water. They have not said whether he reached land at another point along the barrier island, whether tides carried him away or whether he had help. A witness told local television that she snapped a photograph of a man she thought looked unusual while swimming far offshore Tuesday morning and later shared it with police. That image has added to public speculation, but authorities have not used it to announce a confirmed sighting after the fire rescue encounter. For now, the last verified timeline point remains the same: a man police say was Ellis refusing aid in the Atlantic Ocean just hours after the shooting.
Neighbors, library patrons and county workers have followed each new detail with a mix of disbelief and grief. The first public voices in the case came through emergency calls from people nearby who said they heard gunfire around 21st Street and believed it came from the library area. Those calls captured the confusion of the first minutes, before names, motives and the suspect’s path became known. By the next day, police were standing before cameras with photos of the victims and the man they were seeking. Officials have tried to balance two messages at once: that the attack appears to have been personal, and that finding Ellis remains urgent. Short comments from police and rescue officials have helped sketch the case in plain terms. Currey said officers were dealing with “a targeted, marital issue.” Greer described a man in the ocean who seemed calm enough to refuse help, even as investigators later came to believe he had just fled a double killing. Those details have turned the search into a grim race to answer whether the suspect is dead or still out there.
As of Thursday night, Ellis had not been found, the murder warrants remained active and search teams were still working the South Beach Park area. Police were expected to provide another update Friday as the investigation moved into its fourth day.
Author note: Last updated March 27, 2026.