Vicky White, assistant director of corrections for Lauderdale County, took Casey White, the inmate, out of jail Friday morning and said she would take the inmate to the county courthouse.
The two, whom officials said are not related, have not been seen since, and the US Marshals Service is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the detainee’s arrest and the officer’s location, the service said Sunday.
An arrest warrant was issued for Vicky White on charges of permitting or facilitating first-degree escape, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said Monday.
This is what we know.
The officer and the prisoner left the prison
Vicky White said she took Casey White for a mental health evaluation when she checked him out of jail. She said she would receive medical care after dropping the prisoner off at the courthouse because she was not feeling well.
Authorities later found that no such evaluation — or a court hearing — was scheduled for Casey White that day, and Vicky White never got to where she was supposed to receive medical attention, according to Singleton.
That afternoon, concerned officers at the prison tried to reach Vicky White, but her phone went straight to voicemail. It was then that they found out that Casey White had not been returned to prison.
Authorities are looking at all possibilities, including whether the corrections officer willingly helped Casey White escape, which Singleton said Monday looks likely.
“If she did this voluntarily, and everything indicates that she did,” Singleton told DailyExpertNews’s Ryan Young. “I think we’re trying to hold onto that last drop of hope that maybe she was threatened for some reason and did this under duress… but you would definitely feel betrayed,” Singleton said Monday.
“Knowing the prisoner, I think she is in danger under all circumstances,” Singleton said Friday.
“He was in jail for murder and he had nothing to lose. Whether she helped him or not, we don’t know, and we won’t go into that until we have absolute proof that that’s what happened. “That she was taken against her will unless we can prove absolutely the contrary. But anyway, even if she helped him, we think she’s in danger,” Singleton said.
Patrol car video
Officials obtained video showing the patrol car that took Vicky White and inmate Casey White from prison Friday morning. According to the timestamp on the video, the patrol car can be seen just eight minutes after leaving the prison.
“That tells us that the patrol car left the detention center and went straight to the parking lot,” the sheriff said. “There wasn’t enough time to even try to get to the courthouse.”
The 2013 Ford Taurus patrol car was spotted in the parking lot of a shopping center Friday morning, according to the sheriff.
Singleton’s office has reviewed all video footage in the area where the car was seen, but there is no evidence yet that the two got into another vehicle.
“We are still aggressively pursuing every lead we get,” Singleton told DailyExpertNews on Monday. “The biggest hurdle we have right now is that we still don’t have a vehicle description of the vehicle they were transferred into.”
The officer went against the policy
In her job as the deputy director of the correctional courts, Vicky White coordinates all transportation from the detention center to the court, so she knew protocol required two sworn officers to be with Casey White at all times as he was an inmate on charges. for murder. according to Singleton.
“Every precaution had been taken,” Singleton said. “The questions we have for Director White is why she violated the policy.”
There is no clear evidence whether Vicky White and Casey White had a personal relationship, the sheriff said Monday.
As the county’s deputy director for corrections, Vicky White “was through the cellblocks often, has contact with all inmates at one time or another,” Singleton said.
“But as for a romantic relationship or anything like that, we don’t have any evidence or evidence that that was the case, although it’s a possibility.”
Vicky White is an ‘exemplary worker,’ sheriff said
After serving about 20 years with the department, Vicky White filed her retirement papers last week, the sheriff said, and Friday would be her last day on the job.
She had talked about retiring three or four months before Friday’s incident and was thinking about moving to the beach, the sheriff said.
She’s “doing a great job,” Singleton told DailyExpertNews’s Fredricka Whitfield on Saturday morning.
“All of her co-workers, all the employees of the sheriff’s office, the judges, they all have the utmost respect for her,” Singleton said. “She has an impeccable track record. She is an exemplary employee, so we are very concerned about her safety.”
Vicky White is a widow with no children, according to the sheriff.
“As a mother, I didn’t know how to behave because at first I thought it was a mistake,” Davis said. “And when I was sure it was, it was just disbelief.”
Vicky White had recently sold her house and had been living with her mother for the past five weeks, Davis told WAAY. The mother said her daughter didn’t talk much about work, never talked about retirement, and never Casey White.
“I knew nothing about him,” Davis said. “We don’t know if she was taken by force or if she was there voluntarily. But we just want her back. That’s all we want.’
Casey White considered ‘armed and dangerous’
Casey White was jailed for 75 years for a series of crimes he committed in Limestone County in 2015. The spree involved home invasion, carjacking and a police chase, according to the US Marshals Service.
In 2020, he confessed to the 2015 murder of a woman in Rogersville, Alabama, according to Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly. White then pleaded not guilty to the crime.
The Alabama Corrections Department website lists Casey White as an inmate at the William E. Donaldson Correction Facility in Jefferson County. According to Singleton, he was transferred to the Lauderdale County Detention Center in February for hearings in the murder case.
The inmate had planned to escape and take a person hostage in 2020, Singleton said, but his plan was discovered and a policy was put in place requiring two sworn officers to be with him at all times, including during transport to court.
Because Vicky White had a 9mm handgun, authorities are assuming that Casey White, who is six feet tall, is now armed and should be considered dangerous, Singleton said.
Reward offered
The US Marshals Service has taken up the matter, the agency said in a press release announcing a reward of up to $10,000. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are also involved in the investigation.
“Anyone with information about White’s location or the disappearance of White’s assistant director of Corrections is urged to contact police,” the press release said. “You can call the USMS Communications Center at 1-800-336-0102. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through the US Marshals Tip app.”
“You should not try to approach any of these individuals, as we find them both dangerous, and in all likelihood, both individuals are armed,” US Marshal Marty Keely said Monday.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Correction Officer Vicky White’s first name was misspelled.
