The frantic 911 calls made by Little Egg Harbor Township residents during the horrifying murder-suicide on Monday, October 4, have been released.
One of the calls came from Matthew Ellis, reporting the incident before finding out that his wife Cara had been killed. He dialed 911 after a phone call with her suddenly ended.
More than twenty 911 calls came in to the Ocean County communication center during that day.
New Jersey State Police SWAT teams responded to an Ocean County condominium that morning where a man with a semi-automatic rifle reportedly shot and killed his brother and an innocent bystander, police said.
The whole scene played out at the Tall Timbers condo complex in Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J.
While firing more than 50 shots from a second floor window of the condo he shared with his brother at Westchester Drive and Whitemarsh Court, Craig Mueller, 45, shot and killed his 52-year-old brother Bryan Mueller who was standing outside, police said.
Craig Mueller then shot and killed a 21-year-old neighbor, Cara Ellis, who authorities believe was an innocent victim -- a Good Samaritan who went out to help her neighbor.
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"We believe Kara was unfortunately caught in the cross fire, in the street... trying to help Bryan,” Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said.
Ellis was on the phone with her husband when she rushed outside to aid her neighbor, said Ellis' next door neighbor Valerie King.
Area roads were closed and schools were locked down while police surrounded Mueller's home. At about 2:30 p.m. a SWAT team kicked in Mueller's door and found him dead apparently by his own hand.
One witness, Lisa Santana, woke up to the sound of gun shots around 10 a.m. and saw a dead body laying on the ground outside her friend's window.
"Crazy, crazy," Santana said. "That's all I can say. It's nuts."
Ford said authorities still don't know what triggered the attack. There was no known history of problems between the brothers.
"Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever know what demons were haunting Craig Mueller," Ford said.
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