{"id":369134,"date":"2026-04-08T07:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369134\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T07:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:20:17","slug":"florida-beach-rescue-hero-saves-alleged-double-killer-from-sea-unaware-of-days-prior-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369134\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida beach rescue hero saves alleged double killer from sea unaware of day\u2019s prior events"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m exhausted, I\u2019m tired,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Do it! Get on your back and let the waves carry you, you can do it, come on\u2019,\u201d Belinda told WPBF 25 News.<\/p>\n
Police have identified the man as 64-year-old Jesse Ellis, suspected of shooting his estranged wife, Stacie Mason, and Danny Ooley. Both were employees of the Indian River County Public Works Department.<\/p>\n
Jessie Ellis after he was saved from drowning. Photo \/ Vero Beach Police Department<\/p>\n
Footage released by police showed Belinda helping Ellis on the sand after he reached shore.<\/p>\n
He told her he would never go out that far again and that he planned to \u201ctake a long vacation\u201d, said Belinda, who had no idea who he was or what he was alleged to have done.<\/p>\n
Vero Beach police chief David Currey said Ellis told people on the beach he had \u201ca cramp\u201d in the water and \u201cthat he was okay\u201d, reported WPTV.<\/p>\n
During a press conference, WPTV reported, Currey showed footage of Ellis walking down the beach three hours later.<\/p>\n
Jesse Ellis allegedly killed his estranged wife the day he was saved. Photo \/ Indian River County<\/p>\n
He said police located Ellis\u2019 truck in a carpark nearby with wet clothes and a diary describing his mental distress.<\/p>\n
Currey said the diary detailed \u201cthe pain that he was in, couldn\u2019t sleep, couldn\u2019t eat, wished he could have done something better. He wanted to crawl up in a hole\u201d.<\/p>\n
Police are still searching for Ellis.<\/p>\n
Belinda said while she could not have left someone to drown, she would have called 911 immediately had she known he was suspected of murder, reported WPBF 25 News.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not leave him in the water no matter what,\u201d Belinda said. \u201cEverybody is going through something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m exhausted, I\u2019m tired,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Do it! Get on your back and let the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1554,7972,1970,4731,8609,9944,3685,2147,193374,71,42,12811,121444,3375,14235,1304,43,1118,384,36303,8527,4514,17162,54552,3008,1361,40,38,41,39,59571,193375,3590],"class_list":{"0":"post-369134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alleged","9":"tag-beach","10":"tag-believe","11":"tag-days","12":"tag-double","13":"tag-drowning","14":"tag-events","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-floridas","17":"tag-from","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-hero","20":"tag-investigators","21":"tag-killed","22":"tag-killer","23":"tag-morning","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-of","26":"tag-people","27":"tag-prior","28":"tag-rescue","29":"tag-same","30":"tag-saved","31":"tag-saves","32":"tag-sea","33":"tag-that","34":"tag-top-news","35":"tag-top-stories","36":"tag-topnews","37":"tag-topstories","38":"tag-unaware","39":"tag-vero","40":"tag-visitor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}