Police said the slain Vero Beach employees were meeting before work when an estranged husband arrived, opened fire and later disappeared after heading toward the ocean.
VERO BEACH, Fla. — Two Indian River County employees were shot to death outside the county’s main library Tuesday morning, and police said Wednesday that the suspected gunman, the estranged husband of one victim, remained missing after his truck was found at South Beach Park.
The case quickly grew from a downtown crime scene into a wider land and water search that stretched across Vero Beach and the barrier island. Police identified the victims as Danny Ooley, assistant director of Public Works, and Stacie Ellis Mason, a traffic analyst technician. Chief David Currey said investigators believe the killings were targeted and tied to a marital breakup and a relationship between the two victims. The immediate questions now are where the suspect, Jesse Scott Ellis, 64, went after the shooting and whether the evidence already collected will allow prosecutors to move quickly if he is found alive.
Police said officers were called at 7:01 a.m. Tuesday to the back parking lot of the Indian River County Main Library at 1600 21st St. after multiple reports of gunfire. When they arrived, they found Ooley and Mason dead at the scene. By Wednesday, Currey said surveillance video had helped detectives piece together the final minutes before the shooting. Ooley drove into the lot in a Ford Ranger, police said. Mason arrived a short time later in an SUV and got into the passenger side of Ooley’s truck. Ellis then approached the vehicle and fired multiple shots with a long gun that police described as similar to an AR-15. Currey said investigators recovered the weapon at the scene. “The library was a location where they apparently met before,” the chief said, adding that Ellis appeared to know they were there that morning.
Those details gave the public its clearest picture yet of what had first been described only as a double homicide outside a public building. The library was closed when the gunfire erupted, police said, which likely limited the number of people in the immediate area. The shooting happened near the county courthouse in a busy part of downtown Vero Beach, and across from First Baptist Church of Vero Beach, which operates a preschool. Officials said no children or church staff were on campus at the time. Police have not said how many rounds were fired, but investigators found shell casings in the lot and spent much of Tuesday processing the scene. Detectives also have not publicly said whether Ellis waited nearby, followed the victims or arrived after seeing them enter the parking lot. What they have said is narrower: the attack appears to have been directed at the two victims alone, and police do not believe there is a broader threat to the public.
The victims’ identities gave the story weight far beyond the crime scene. County officials said Ooley had spent nearly 25 years in public works and had risen to assistant director. Mason had worked for the county since 2014 and most recently served as a traffic analyst technician. In a statement released after their families were notified, county leaders said the deaths had shaken the organization and the wider community. Chairman Deryl Loar and County Administrator John A. Titkanich Jr. said, “The reality of this loss is profound,” and described both workers as dedicated public servants whose absence would be deeply felt. The county said grief counseling and other support services were being made available to employees. That response underscored how the killings landed inside county government, where the victims were known not just by title but by years of daily work on roads, traffic and other public services that residents rely on.
By midday Tuesday, the investigation had shifted several miles east to South Beach Park. Police said a patrol officer found Ellis’ unoccupied 2022 Ford F-150 there at about 12:45 p.m., prompting a large law enforcement response that included drones, K-9 teams and officers securing the area around the truck. But the search timeline grew more unusual during Wednesday’s briefing. Currey said someone had reported a man entering the ocean fully clothed shortly after the shooting, and first responders went to the Riomar Country Club area around 8 a.m. for what at first was treated as a welfare call, not a homicide-related search. Fire rescue crews spoke with the man offshore and did not bring him back, police said, because he did not appear to be in distress. Currey said the man gave a false name. Investigators later concluded that man was Ellis. Police said he was seen swimming about 900 yards offshore, and they still do not know whether he drowned, reached land elsewhere or remains in hiding.
That uncertainty has kept the case in an in-between stage, with many of the major facts public but the most important one, Ellis’ whereabouts, still unresolved. Currey said officers were continuing to search beaches and waters on Wednesday with boats and drones. Police also said they had Ellis’ truck in evidence and were examining its contents, though they declined to say what had been found. The chief said the investigation remained “very, very active.” No arrest had been announced by Wednesday night, and police had not released any charging documents because Ellis had not been taken into custody. If he is found, an arrest affidavit would likely provide the first formal, sworn account of how investigators connected him to the killings and what evidence they believe proves premeditation, intent or other elements of a murder case. Until then, detectives are relying on surveillance video, witness statements, forensic work at the library and evidence taken from the truck and the firearm left behind.
Police also used Wednesday’s briefing to explain what they believe was behind the shooting, though many parts of that account remain allegations from investigators, not findings tested in court. Currey said Mason and Ellis had been married for 13 years and were separating. He said the couple had been discussing the sale of their home and that Ooley and Mason had been involved in what he described as an affair. The chief called the shooting “a targeted marital issue that went terribly, terribly wrong.” That explanation helps frame the motive police are working from, but it does not answer every question. Detectives have not said how long Ellis knew about the relationship, whether there had been prior threats, or whether any protective order, domestic violence report or earlier police contact may have foreshadowed the violence. They also have not publicly described whether Ellis planned an escape or whether the move toward South Beach Park was impulsive after the shooting.
Residents who were near either scene described a morning that turned chaotic with little warning. A witness interviewed by local television station WPTV, Carol Hughes, said she was walking near the beach at sunrise when she noticed a man swimming unusually far offshore. After reading later reports, she said she realized she may have seen the suspect and sent a photo to investigators. “That’s what I saw,” Hughes said. In the downtown area, the response was marked by crime scene tape, patrol cars and a library parking lot closed off for hours in a district where people usually expect government offices, church traffic and routine errands, not a double killing. That mismatch between setting and violence is part of why the case has resonated so strongly in Vero Beach. It began in a place associated with public service and ended, at least for now, with police searching the ocean for a man who may or may not have survived it.
As of Wednesday night, police said Ellis was still at large and the investigation remained open. The next milestone is likely to come when officers either locate him or file documents that spell out more fully what they learned from the video, the truck, the firearm and the witnesses who saw parts of his movements after the shooting.
Author note: Last updated March 25, 2026.