Vicky White, the Alabama corrections officer who escaped with convict Casey White, has died. White shot herself following a car chase in Evansville, Indiana, which ended with U.S. Marshals colliding with the escapees’ vehicle. There was no gunfire from the officers in pursuit.
Sheriff Dave Wedding of Vanderburgh County told CNN that Vicky White’s injuries were “very serious.” Officers were able to free Casey White from the car’s wreckage, but Vicky White was pinned down, with a gunshot wound to the head. Casey White reportedly asked the officers to “help his wife” (to authorities’ knowledge, the pair aren’t actually married.”
Sheriff Singleton of Lauderdale Alabama has promised Casey White will be in “handcuffs and shackles” when he returns to Lauderdale to face charges.
What do we know about their escape?
On the morning of Friday, April 29, Alabama corrections officer Vicky White, 56, and prisoner Casey White, 38, left the Lauderdale County jail. Casey White was serving 75 years for crimes committed in 2015, and faced two counts of capital murder.
Officer White, who’s not related to Casey White, apparently told a guard she was escorting the inmate to the courthouse for a mental evaluation, and planned to seek medical care herself afterward, as she was feeling unwell.
For starters, it appears to have been premeditated. There’d been no evaluation scheduled for Casey White that morning, and the pair never arrived at the courthouse. According to video later released by authorities, Vicky White checked out of a Quality Inn in Florence, Alabama, on the morning of the disappearance. Judging by video evidence from the prison, Casey White did not physically force Vicky into her car.
Vicky White’s vehicle, a 2013 Ford Taurus patrol car, was reportedly seen in a shopping center parking lot late Friday morning by someone on their lunch break. Several hours later, authorities discovered they were missing, and a fugitive hunt ensued.
The pair abandoned a second vehicle, an orange 2007 Ford Edge SUV in Williamson County, Tennessee, hours after their disappearance was discovered. Tow truck driver Robert Kimes told CNN that the car, which was locked, was “in the middle of the road blocking traffic,” and “it looked like someone broke down and left it there.”
The car was empty, and it wasn’t immediately known where the fugitives headed after that, or whether they stole another vehicle.
“It really doesn’t leave us a lot, we just know what direction they were headed, they headed north from here,” Lauderdale County sheriff Rick Singleton told the press. “After Friday afternoon, when they abandoned that car, which direction they went from there, we don’t know.”
It appears that Vicky White had put some considerable effort into the scheme in advance. “I think this was a very well-thought-out plan,” Singleton said.
An arrest warrant was issued for Vicky White on charges of permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree. The U.S. Marshals Service offered up to $10,000 for information leading to the capture of Casey White, and up to $5,000 for Vicky White.
What do we know about Vicky White?
White, who was due to retire on April 29 and had already submitted her papers, was an “exemplary employee” boasting an “unblemished record,” according to Sheriff Singleton.
“I guess we’re trying to hold on to that last straw of hope that maybe for some reason she was threatened and did this under coercion… but absolutely you’d feel betrayed,” Singleton said per CNN. “All of her co-workers are devastated. We’ve never had any situation like this with Vicky White. She was a model employee.”
White was a widow, and has no kids. She’d sold her house and been living with her mom, Pat Davis for about five weeks before the disappearance. Davis has been in a state of shock for the last 10 days. “The whole thing has been a nightmare. I just want my daughter to come home. And to come home alive,” Davis told CNN before the news of Vicky’s capture and death broke.
According to Sheriff Singleton per CNN, Vicky White used aliases to buy the vehicle the pair used for their escape, and was likely to be traveling under a new guise or guises thereafter. It’s likely that her experience in law enforcement proved a huge asset to evading capture.
What do we know about Casey White?
Casey White, who was already serving 75 years in prison for crimes committed in 2015, also faces two counts of capital murder for the 2015 stabbing of 59-year-old Connie Ridgeway. His other offenses include a police chase, carjacking, and home invasion, per the U.S. Marshals Service as reported by CNN.
White also allegedly claimed he’d kill his ex-girlfriend and her sister if he left prison, adding that he’d like the police to kill him. Going further back, White apparently beat his brother in the head and face using an axe-sledgehammer handle in 2012, which landed him behind bars for three years.
Sheriff Singleton warned that White is extremely dangerous — emphasizing that this meant that Vicky White remained in peril while she was with him, “willingly or not.”
“He’s 6-foot-9, weighs somewhere around 250 pounds,” Singleton said. “We’re assuming he’s armed because she was armed.”
White had planned a previous escape attempt involving a hostage in 2020, but detention center employees thwarted him.
