A missing Alabama prison official and the inmate with whom she disappeared last week were seen on surveillance footage abandoning a marked vehicle together.
Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky White disappeared on Friday while claiming to escort inmate Casey White to a mental health evaluation. Earlier this week, investigators confirmed that a “special relationship” existed between the pair. The two are not related. During a press conference on Friday, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton explained that there were indications of a “jailhouse romance” between Vicky White and Casey White, Fox News reported.
On Thursday night, authorities linked a 2007 Ford Edge SUV abandoned in Williamson County, Tennessee, to the pair. The vehicle was initially spotted hours after the April 29 escape, but not connected to the couple until “the tow truck driver who picked up the Ford vehicle remembered it when he saw a local TV story this week about the missing officer and inmate and alerted his boss,” according to CNN. The car was initially found locked and without tags.
Authorities are now trying to determine Vicky White and Casey White’s next move — including whether they stole another car.
“It really doesn’t leave us a lot, we just know what direction they were headed, they headed north from here,” Singleton said, according to CNN. “After Friday afternoon, when they abandoned that car, which direction they went from there, we don’t know.”
Singleton noted that Vicky White sold her house for $95,550 — far below its market value of $235,600 — on April 18. District Attorney Chris Connolly told ABC News that Vicky White withdrew approximately $90,000 from several banks before April 29.
Indeed, Vicky White’s mother-in-law, Frances White, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that the official had amassed large sums of money over time to keep herself afloat and “may have been brainwashed” into freeing Casey White. “She had said that she’d like to live in Florida, that’s the only thing I can think of,” Frances White told the outlet. Vicky White’s late husband passed away in January as a result of complications with Parkinson’s disease.
“She had money before she sold her home,” Frances White continued. “She saved her money. I figure if she’s still got her money, she’s still got enough to live on for a while.”
As federal, state, and local officials continue their pursuit, Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) announced a $10,000 reward for information resulting in the “arrest and apprehension” of Vicky White and Casey White, Fox reported. According to Singleton, the total reward for the pair’s apprehension is now $25,000.
Singleton characterized the escape plan as “very well thought-out,” with Vicky White’s law enforcement knowledge putting investigators “at a loss,” ABC reported. The U.S. Marshals service said that the pair “may be armed with an AR-15 rifle, handguns and a shotgun.”
Casey White confessed in 2020 to fatally stabbing a woman named Connie Ridgeway five years earlier. The woman’s body was found by a neighbor after the neighbor noticed that Ridgeway had not been seen that day. Casey White claimed he was paid to carry out the murder.