Vicky White news – latest: Funeral for prison guard set as police say fugitive couple staged dry run of escape – The Independent

Casey White, the capital murder suspect who escaped prison and spent 10 days on the run, was not originally imprisoned at the facility where corrections officer Vicky White was working.

Mr White was originally held at the William E Donaldson Correctional Facility, just down the road from the Lauderdale County Detention Centre, where Ms White worked.

According to Fox News, when Mr White’s lawyers requested that Donaldson allow them to bring laptops in to review their case with their client, they were denied. Rather than trying to convince the prison to change its mind, the attorneys request Mr White be transferred to the detention centre, where they could review their case.

Mr White — who was already discreetly communicating with Ms White — was granted a transfer, which placed him in the same prison where Ms White worked, setting the stage for the breakout.

A supplemental case report filed by the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office reveals new details from the moment Casey White surrendered to authorities and was taken into custody while Vicky White was found suffering a gunshot wound to the head.

In the report, Sgt. Erik Nilssen details how he approached the scene on Monday after over hearing the US Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force requesting assistance.

“As the male suspect, Casey White, was pulled from the vehicle, I placed him in handcuffs. Mr White had blood covering his shirt and blood coming from the back of his head,” Sgt Nilssen wrote.

He then requested the assistance of a firefighter on the scene to treat a head injury on White.

“During my interaction with Mr White, he repetitively was asking about the condition of Ms. Vicky White, whom he referred to as his ‘wife’,” Sgt. Nilssen wrote. “Mr White also kept stating that he did not kill Connie Ridgeway.”

These statements reportedly came unprompted, as Sgt Nilssen wrote that he “did not ask him any formal questions”.

White is currently awaiting trial for the 2015 stabbing murder of 58-year-old mother-of-two Connie Ridgeway.

Ms Ridgeway was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Rogersville, Alabama, on 23 October 2015.

Before prison guard Vicky White was accused of helping orchestrate the escape of her jail lover Casey White, she was not only well-liked among her Lauderdale County colleagues, but also well respected enough to earn the award “employee of the year” five times – including as recently as this year.

The 56-year-old correctional officer was tracked down on Monday alongside 38-year-old capital murder suspect Casey White, who she was reportedly in a “special relationship” with for the past two years, bringing the 11-day manhunt to a close.

Ms White had earned the award, voted on by her peers, five times in the past eight years, The New York Post reported.

“I think it just shows the kind of person that we thought she was. No one that worked with her and knows her ever saw anything like this coming,” said Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton in an interview with The Post on Wednesday.

It didn’t help that fugitive lovers Casey White and Vicky White (no relation) had a six-hour headstart on law enforcement when they made their break from Lauderdale County jail. But no one could’ve predicted that the assistant director of corrections of the facility and the 38-year-old capital murder suspect would be on the lam for 11 days.

But the nationwide manhunt came to a dramatic end on Monday with a police chase, car crash and Ms White allegedly shooting herself dead.

Continue reading the full story that lays out some of the apparently missed opportunities that enabled the corrections officer and the inmate to slip through the net for more than a week.

The body of Vicky White, the assistant director of corrections at the Lauderdale County Detention Center, a facility that she reportedly assisted jail lover Casey White to escape from last month, was returned to Alabama on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.

The Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office confirmed that Ms White’s body was released early Wednesday morning for return to Alabama.

The search for the pair of fugitives came to a dramatic end Monday as a police chase in Indiana resulted in the inmate back in police custody and the corrections officer dead from what officials say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The first words from escaped Alabama inmate Casey White after his capture were “I didn’t do it” as his corrections officer lover lay dying from a gunshot wound in their car.

Read the full story here:

Police have reopened an investigation into the mysterious death of escaped Alabama inmate Casey White’s former girlfriend, after her 2008 shooting death was previously ruled a suicide.

Christy Shelton, 31, died on 1 February 2008 after she was shot in the chest by a sawed-off shotgun inside an Alabama home belonging to White’s mother.

Read the full story by Rachel Sharp here:

Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton to WAAYTV in Alabama that he had hoped to return capital murder suspect Casey White to custody and to capture corrections officer Vicky White alive.

Ms White worked for Mr Singleton and was well-liked within the department. She was on track to win her fifth “employee of the year” award this year and was reportedly like a “mother” to other corrections workers.

While Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton rose to notoriety over the past few weeks, becoming the leading authority on the escaped fugitives that launched an 11-day manhunt, he’s had a storied career well before the dramatic 29 April jailbreak of Casey White and correctional officer Vicky White.

The 70-year-old, who plans to retire from the force in January after serving for 50 years, told AL.com in an extensive profile how alongside starting a career in law enforcement just shy of his 21st birthday, he also pursued another lifelong dream: becoming a pro-wrestler.

“Some kids want to be astronauts. I wanted to be two things – a cop and a wrestler,’’ he told AL.com. “I was privileged to get to do both of them.”

He spent more than a decade straddling the two worlds of law enforcement and professional wrestling before he – who went by Dr. Death in the ring – decided to hang up his wrestling mask and boots, which are now on display in his office, alongside a smattering of other memorobilia that reveal little parts of the man behind the badge.

Read the full profile from AL.com below.

A petition has been started to pressure law enforcement and the Governor of Alabama to pay up on their reward offers to “Car Wash James,” the car wash owner who called police when he spotted capital murder suspect Casey White and corrections officer Vicky White in Indiana.

The US Marshal Service announced a total $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest White and information on Ms White, and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey offered a total of $10,000 for the capture of the couple.

Amber Savallo, who started the petition, told WSILTV that the car wash owner, James Stinson, should be rewarded for his report.

“He said if you see something, say something and he did. I just really hope that James can get that from them because I feel like he deserves it 100%,” Ms Savallo said.