On the morning of March 24, 2026, 49-year-old Stacie Ellis Mason was shot and killed in a parking lot near the Indian River County Main Library in Vero Beach, Florida. The attack, which also killed her 56-year-old colleague Danny Ooley, happened about 7 a.m. Authorities described the incident as a targeted crime of passion linked to an alleged affair between Mason and Ooley.

Investigators say Mason and Ooley arrived separately; Mason exited her SUV and got into the passenger seat of Ooley’s Ford Ranger. A suspect approached and opened fire with a rifle-style weapon, shooting Ooley first, then Mason, and firing again after Mason fell from the truck. The weapon was left at the scene.

Police quickly identified Stacie’s husband, 64-year-old electrician Jesse Scott Ellis, as the prime suspect. After the shooting he fled in his pickup, which was later found abandoned at South Beach Park. A witness saw a man matching his description enter the Atlantic fully clothed; rescue crews later contacted a man about 900 yards from shore who gave a false name and declined assistance. An arrest warrant for two counts of first-degree murder was issued and a multiagency manhunt searched land, air, and sea. As of early April 2026, Ellis remained at large and investigators were uncertain whether he had drowned or escaped.

Did anyone in the Vero Beach area see the pickup truck after it was abandoned or have information about the man seen in the water?