The suspect left behind a vehicle full of clues, but those clues have not yet produced him, police say.
VERO BEACH, Fla. — Murder warrants, spent shell casings, wet clothes and handwritten pages have given investigators a detailed evidence trail in a Vero Beach double homicide, but the central figure in the case remained missing weeks after police said he killed two people outside a library.
The evidence released so far has shaped the case in a distinct way. Police say they know who carried out the March 24 shooting, why he likely targeted the victims and what he left behind after driving to the beach. What they do not know publicly, or have not publicly said, is where he went after that. Jesse Scott Ellis, 64, is wanted on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the deaths of Stacie Ellis Mason, 49, and Danny Ooley, 56. The investigation now rests on a gap between strong physical evidence and the absence of the suspect himself.
At the crime scene behind the Indian River County Main Library, investigators said they recovered 21 spent shell casings. Chief David Currey later said Mason and Ooley were sitting inside Ooley’s truck when they were shot. Currey used unusually stark language at a later briefing, saying the two were “executed.” Police identified the deaths as a targeted act tied to a marital breakup and an apparent affair. Mason was Ellis’ estranged wife. Ooley was her co-worker in county public works, and investigators said the two had been seeing each other for a short time. In practical terms, that early framing mattered because it pushed the investigation toward motive quickly. Officers were not building from a blank slate. They were looking for a suspect they believed had a personal connection, a reason to attack and a route away from downtown already set in motion before the public fully understood what had happened.
The strongest second scene in the case was not the shoreline itself but Ellis’ truck after officers found it at South Beach Park at 12:45 p.m. Police said the vehicle contained wet shorts, a wet shirt, an empty holster and a .380-caliber magazine. Officers also found Ellis’ wallet, passport, driver’s license and credit cards. Currey said there were handwritten documents and journal-style entries from early and mid-March that described emotional collapse, sleeplessness and a desire to harm himself and Mason. Taken together, those items gave investigators a narrative of distress, preparation and possible staging. Leaving behind identity documents and credit cards can point one way, toward suicide. Wet clothes and an empty holster can point another, toward escape. The truck, in other words, did not resolve the case. It sharpened competing theories and made the beach parking lot a storehouse of contradiction rather than closure.
The timing attached to that evidence is just as important as the objects themselves. Police said the shooting was reported at 7:01 a.m. They later said Ellis drove to the beach, entered the ocean before 8 a.m. and was reached by fire rescue crews offshore around 8:30 a.m. The man they encountered said he was a deep-water swimmer and wanted to be left alone, according to Currey. He was later believed to be Ellis. A surveillance image released by police appeared to show him walking south on the beach at 11:10 a.m. That image, the chief said, was shown to friends and family who thought it resembled Ellis. The clock built by those moments suggests a suspect who may have used the ocean as cover, not ending. It also created a long window before the truck was located, a gap large enough for a person on foot to move, change clothes, hide or find transportation.
The victims’ identities keep the evidence from becoming abstract. Mason was a traffic analyst technician for Indian River County. Ooley was assistant director of Public Works and had nearly a quarter-century with the county. The shooting took place not at a remote location but at the main library near government buildings in downtown Vero Beach. That setting matters because evidence in public places often comes with cameras, witnesses and a defined timeline. Yet even there, the case still has holes. Police have not publicly described whether usable fingerprints, DNA or additional video from nearby properties changed the direction of the search. They have not publicly said whether the murder weapon was recovered. They have also not publicly spelled out whether Ellis arranged supplies, transportation or contact points before the shooting. Those missing procedural details stand out because the evidence released so far already suggests more than a burst of rage.
Legal steps came quickly. Investigators first announced a person of interest, then later said Ellis was the suspect, and by March 26 said he was wanted on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder. Currey told the public the next day that Ellis could be a danger to himself and possibly others. Still, an arrest warrant is only one stage of a case. It establishes the charge and the basis for a manhunt, but it does not answer the practical question of whether the accused can be found. As of April 17, the public record still showed a man charged but not in custody. The next meaningful development would be a verified sighting, an arrest, a body recovery or the release of more investigative material showing how police think Ellis moved after leaving the water.
This is why the Vero Beach case has remained gripping. It contains the elements of a solved homicide on paper and an unsolved disappearance in practice. The shell casings, the writings, the wet clothes and the murder warrants point forcefully in one direction. The missing suspect points just as forcefully in another.
Author note: Last updated April 17, 2026.