Vicky White, an Alabama prison officer, and Casey Cole White, an escaped capital murder suspect, were found Monday following a 10-day manhunt, according to Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton. Casey White has been taken into custody after both were caught alive in Indiana, according to Singleton.
They were apprehended after a citizen tip led officials to Evansville, Indiana, more than 200 miles from where they went missing. Before the vehicle crashed, authorities chased the pair in a Ford F-150, with Casey White driving and Vicky White riding along.
Alabama Jail Guard Vicky White Hit With New Charges
Casey White surrendered peacefully, according to Singleton. Vicky was hospitalized after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to the US Marshals Service. Her condition is still unspecified.
CBS News reports that they will be extradited to Alabama and detained separately, with Casey White being arraigned promptly in Lauderdale County before being transported to the Department of Corrections. According to him, Vicky White will not be imprisoned in the facility where she previously worked.
Vicky White was charged with two new offenses, including identity theft, according to police. After she and capital murder suspect Casey White escaped from Lauderdale County Jail in Alabama on April 29, Vicky White was charged with enabling or assisting escape in the first degree. She used an identity to acquire the pair's initial getaway vehicle.
Per Newsweek, police have brought accusations of forgery in the second degree and identity theft against her as a result of her use of the pseudonym. Vicky White's alias is unknown, although the US Marshals Service had earlier issued an advisory that identified two possible aliases that had been exposed to the public.
However, it is known that she used the pseudonym to buy the pair's getaway car, a 2007 orange Ford Edge that was discovered abandoned outside of Nashville, Tennessee, last week. The automobile was located barely two hours after they were last seen, and police released images showing the two attempting to spray-paint the vehicle before leaving it.
Vicky White sold her home for $95,000 and withdrew over $90,000 from numerous local banks only days before assisting Casey White to flee, according to Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly.
After escaping the Lauderdale County, Alabama, jail at roughly 9:30 am on April 29, the accused lovers led authorities on a weeks-long manhunt. Vicky White was shown holding the door open for a cuffed Casey White, 38, on security camera, with a second perspective showing them getting into a marked police car and driving away.
Both Whites were nowhere to be located in the local shopping mall parking lot where the sheriff's police car was visible on the security footage. Despite sharing the same last name, they are not related.
Vicky White "was regularly around the cell blocks, had contact with all the convicts at one point or another" as the county's assistant director of prisons, Singleton told CNN. The Alabama jail guard had recently sold her home and was scheduled to retire from her work as a high-ranking female correctional officer on the day the two vanished, according to the inquiry.
Vicky White informed her coworkers at 9 am on the day of the jailbreak that she was escorting Casey White to the county courtroom for a mental health evaluation. She also informed her coworkers that she was feeling unwell and that she wanted to see a doctor later.
It wasn't until 3.30 pm that anyone noticed the two were missing. Police cautioned the public that the two were regarded as dangerous and may be equipped with an AR-15 rifle, pistols, and a shotgun while the hunt progressed.
Did Vicky White Voluntarily Help Fugitive Casey White?
Vicky White was arrested on accusations of enabling or supporting escape in the first degree following their abduction in northwest Alabama. Singleton told reporters that she "participated" in Casey White's escape, although it's unclear if she did it willingly. This isn't the first time Casey White has tried to flee police custody.
White attempted to break out of the same jail in October 2020, according to the son of his accused victim, shortly after an alleged confession to the cold case murder of Connie Ridgeway, a 58-year-old mother of two who was stabbed to death during a home invasion in 2015.
According to the US Marshals, Casey White had previously been sentenced for a 2015 crime spree, including a house invasion, carjacking, and a police chase. He had confessed to Ridgeway's murder and was being held in the Lauderdale prison awaiting trial when he vanished. Ridgeway's son, Austin Williams, told The US Sun that he was concerned for his and the broader public's safety while Casey White's escaped from prison.
Related Article : Missing Alabama Jail Guard Vicky White Might Be the Mastermind in Casey White Escape, Lawyer Claims
