Authorities in Alabama announced Monday morning an arrest warrant has been issued for corrections official Vicky White after she left a detention center with suspected killer Casey Cole White on Friday. Investigators say the two aren’t related, and Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said authorities are investigating whether Vicky White was a willing participant in the escape.
Casey White, 38, had been jailed on a capital murder charge in the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence, Alabama, about 75 miles west of Huntsville. He is 6 feet, 9 inches tall, weighs approximately 260 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes, according to authorities.
“Casey White … is an extremely dangerous person, and we need to get him located and get him off the street,” Singleton told reporters during a Monday morning press conference.
Casey White was already serving a prison sentence for attempted murder and burglary and was set to go to trial next month for the stabbing death of a 58-year-old woman, a charge in which he would face the death penalty if convicted.
At a news conference Friday, Singleton said Vicky White, the 56-year-old assistant director of corrections, was armed when she left the jail with Casey White and headed to the courthouse for what she said was a mental health evaluation for the inmate. She was alone with him, which the sheriff said violated department policy.
The vehicle carrying the two when they left the detention center was found at a nearby shopping center parking lot, according to the sheriff’s office.
Singleton said Monday that newly discovered surveillance video showing the vehicle at a stoplight minutes after leaving the jail led investigators to believe that they went directly to the parking lot without stopping at the courthouse. Singleton also said no mental health evaluation for the inmate was scheduled.
Friday was supposed to be Vicky White’s last day at work before retiring, Singleton said. She sold her home about a month ago and talked about going to the beach, the sheriff said.
“Everybody thought she was going to retire,” Singleton said. “You know, nobody saw this coming.”
The sheriff said authorities didn’t know where the two might be. “If we knew where they were at, we would be there and not here,” Singleton said.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Sunday it is offering up to $10,000 for information leading authorities to finding the two.
“We consider both of them dangerous and in all probability both of them are armed,” U.S. Marshal Marty Keely said at the Monday press conference.
