TOMS RIVER, NJ — A photo in the cell phone of a woman accused of harboring a fugitive wanted in a fatal Manchester shooting revealed the slaying and dismemberment of a Toms River man, court documents show.
In the photo, Elizabeth C. Mascarelli and Maxwell A. Johnston are posing with “an individual who is clearly deceased, amputated at the top of his legs, and with a hatchet in his chest,” and Mascarelli is holding the handle of the hatchet, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case against Mascarelli.
That photo, which was described during the detention hearing Wednesday morning for Mascarelli in Ocean County Superior Court, was one of several found on Mascarelli’s cell phone that led to the discovery of the killing and dismemberment of Kerry M. Rollason, 56, of Toms River, according to the affidavit.
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Mascarelli, 29, of Seaside Heights, was one of four people in the home at 1905 Ravenwood Drive on July 5 when law enforcement arrived to arrest Johnston, 35, in connection with the June 27 fatal shooting of Gabriella Caroleo, 25, of Manchester.
The three others — Danielle M. Bolstad, 42, of Barnegat; Jared M. Krysiak, 34, of Brick Township, and Jarred Palumbo, 36, of Manchester — left the home immediately when authorities arrived to arrest Johnston. But Mascarelli remained in the home with Johnston during the nearly seven-hour standoff and was charged with harboring a fugitive, after admitting to authorities that she knew Johnston was being sought in Caroleo’s killing, according to the affidavit.
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The standoff ended with Johnston, who was a ranking member of the Bloods street gang, taking his own life with a gunshot to the head, but the investigation was just beginning.
Mascarelli was ordered held until trial by Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels, as was Bolstad, whose detention hearing was held Wednesday morning as well. Krysiak was ordered held during a detention hearing Wednesday afternoon. Palumbo was charged July 13 and released on a summons to await trial. Read more: Fugitive In Toms River Standoff Killed, Dismembered Home’s Owner: Prosecutor
The probable cause affidavits for Mascarelli, Krysiak, Bolstad and Palumbo give a timeline of the events in the case, beginning with the shooting of Caroleo on June 27 through the killing and dismemberment of Rollason along with his body being left at a property in Jackson.
It does not give a motive for the killings of either Caroleo or Rollason, however, and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office did not comment when asked about the possible motive. It also does not say how or why Mascarelli, Bolstad, Krysiak and Palumbo came to be at the home. Rollason owned the home at 1905 Ravenwood Drive and it had been a rental property, according to property records online. But Rollason, who bought the home in 2019 while he lived in Clifton, had been living there, public records and the affidavit indicate.
Here is a timeline of the events, according to the affidavits:
June 27, in the afternoon: Caroleo is shot in the left side while she is near Ridgeway Liquors in Manchester, at the intersection of Ridgeway and South Hope Chapel roads. Caroleo calls 911 at 4:55 p.m. and tells the dispatcher she has been shot, and identifies the shooter as Johnston, who she refers to as her ex-boyfriend. She tells authorities he shot her as she was walking along the road, and gives them the license plate number of his vehicle. She is flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where she is pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m.
At 8:18 p.m., a witness calls Manchester police and describes seeing a young woman kneeling in the area around the time Caroleo was shot. The witness said the woman apparently was arguing with the driver of a gray Honda Pilot, which then left the scene. The license plate number provided by Caroleo comes back to authorities as a gray Honda Pilot. His license plate was captured on an automatic license plate reader in Edison.
Authorities notify Caroleo’s mother of her death, and her mother tells them Caroleo texted her mother shortly before the shooting, telling her mother to call the police and referencing Johnston. Caroleo’s mother said she spoke with her daughter and could hear Johnston yelling in the background. Caroleo had told her mother she was afraid of Johnston, she told authorities.
Murder charges are filed and an arrest warrant for Johnston is issued that night.
June 28: Caroleo’s autopsy is conducted and shows she was shot a single time, with the bullet damaging several organs and her spine, killing her.
June 30: Authorities receive a call from a woman who identifies herself as Johnston’s mother. She tells police she believes he is involved in the fatal shooting of Caroleo, and that he called her shortly after 5 p.m. the day of the shooting. Johnston’s mother said he had “become increasingly paranoid” over the last several months and accused Caroleo of harassing him. Johnston’s mother said he told her he did not want to go back to jail. She had not been able to reach him after that call.
Johnston’s father spoke with authorities and told them Johnston had asked him to take care of his daughter. He also relayed that Johnston had been increasingly paranoid, and that he believed Johnston was responsible for Caroleo’s death.
July 1: Newark police notify Ocean County authorities that Johnston’s Honda Pilot has been found parked on a street in the city. It is not occupied and is towed back to Ocean County. Johnston had been in Newark on June 28 at the Jacob Street home of a man he had been in contact with while he was in prison.
At about the same time, authorities went to an address in Howell to arrest Johnston, who had been seen there on June 30. He was not at the home when authorities arrived, however.
July 2: Johnston arrives at the Ravenwood Drive home. He stays there for the next four days, with Mascarelli in her room, according to Mascarelli, Bolstad, Krysiak and Palumbo. The documents do not indicate how Johnston got from Newark to Howell, or from Howell to the Toms River home.
Rollason is last seen at the Ravenwood Drive house outside shortly before 4 p.m., a witness tells authorities several days later.
July 3: In the early morning hours, Palumbo hears three gunshots, and Johnston comes down to the basement where Palumbo and Krysiak are, and tells them to leave the house immediately. Palumbo sees Rollason’s body on the floor as they along with Mascarelli, Bolstad and Johnston leave the house. When they return to the house a short time later, Johnston begins to dismember Rollaston with the help of Mascarelli and Krysiak. Three hours later Palumbo was asked to help bring bags upstairs from the basement, and the bags were loaded into a black Kia Soul that belonged to Bolstad. The Kia is seen on surveillance video leaving the Ravenwood home at 12:28 a.m. and returning at 4:31 a.m. or about about 3 hours early July 3, then leaving again that afternoon and not returning until shortly after 1 a.m. on July 4.
Search warrants obtained for Bolstad’s phone show her texting an associate at 4:03 a.m. telling the woman, “You guys have to get out of here right now, please get out of here now.” Later in the evening, she sends a text to Mascarelli warning her to “be careful” because the owner of the Jackson property where Rollason’s body was found was outside.
The property owner later tells authorities he saw Mascarelli and Johnston on the property on July 3 in the area of a burn barrel, which is where the bags containing Rollason’s body parts were found.
July 5: Authorities go to the Jacob Street home in Newark where they believed Johnston had stayed with a search warrant and collected several items that belonged to him, including two cell phones, and as a result were able to track him to the Ravenwood address, where the standoff happened. Read more: Manchester Fugitive Takes His Life, Ending Standoff In Toms River
After the standoff, seven cell phones were collected, including three belonging to Krysiak, along with multiple other items of evidence. Among them were Rollason’s wallet and cell phone, which were in the bedroom Mascarelli and Johnston were in.
July 6: Mascarelli is charged with harboring a fugitive and taken to the Ocean County Jail. Read more: Woman Charged With Harboring Fugitive In Manchester Slaying In Toms River Standoff
July 11: Mascarelli’s phone is examined, revealing the photo of her and Johnston with Rollason’s body, along with photos showing her, Johnston and Bolstad around “an active burn barrel.” Authorities identified the photo of Johnston and Mascarelli with the body as having been taken in the basement at the Ravenwood Drive home. The property with the burn barrel was tracked down based on past surveillance on Johnston, who had been seen at the site on Toms River Road in Jackson during narcotics investigation surveillance, according to the affidavit.
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Authorities brought Palumbo in for questioning and showed him the photos from Mascarelli’s phone, and he recounted what he says happened when Rollason was killed.
Authorities then executed a search warrant at the Jackson property and found several items in the barrel, including a knife and an ax, and items that were positive for human blood. Two pickaxes and a shovel were nearby.
July 12: A second search warrant is executed at the Jackson property and cadaver dogs find the bags containing Rollason’s body parts about 100 yards away from the burn barrel.
July 13: An autopsy conducted by the Ocean County Medical Examiner determines Rollason had been shot three times, including through the heart, and his skull fractured by blunt force trauma. His body had been cut into eight pieces, authorities said.
Palumbo is arrested and charged.
July 14: Bolstad is arrested.
July 15: Mascarelli is served with the additional charges related to Rollason. Krysiak is charged and listed as a fugitive.
July 16: Krysiak is arrested in Marlboro.
July 24: At her detention hearing, Mascarelli’s public defender noted she has a lengthy history of drug abuse and said she was afraid of Johnston. Bolstad’s public defender says she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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