Sandy MaloneFlorence, AL – Investigators found the getaway car used by Alabama murder suspect Casey White and a female jail official in Tennessee on Thursday night.
Police said that the rust-colored Ford Edge recently purchased by Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky White was found at about 11 p.m. on May 5 in a towing lot in Williamson County, Tennessee, Cox Media reported.
Authorities believe Casey White and Asst. Dir. White swapped the sheriff’s patrol vehicle that they left the jail in for the Ford SUV at a shopping plaza located about eight minutes away before fleeing the area.
Officials said it appeared they tried to spray paint the SUV before they ditched it.
Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly told ABC News that investigators had determined that Asst. Dir. White withdrew about $90,000 in cash from area banks prior to helping Casey White escape.
Asst. Director White had filed her retirement papers a day before she disappeared with Casey White.
Court records showed she sold her house far below market value on April 18, NBC News reported.
Lauderdale County records showed the home’s total parcel value to be $204,700, but it sold for just $95,550, WVTM reported.
Authorities think the corrections official was trying to get her hands on fast cash.
🚨 WANTED: Vicky White has long blonde hair, but newly released photos show what the former corrections officer would look like with dyed or longer/shorter hair. Vicky is 5-feet, 5-inches tall, weighs approximately 145 pounds and reportedly has a waddling gait. pic.twitter.com/ayauOKeHyX
— KWTX News 10 (@kwtx) May 6, 2022
Casey White is 6-feetm 9-inches tall and weighs about 330 pounds.
The U.S. Marshals Service released pictures of Casey White’s tattoos and edited images that showed what Asst. Dir. White would look like with dark hair, AL.com reported.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Casey White, WHNT reported.
Ivey also announced a $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of Asst. Dir. White.
Sheriff Singleton announced on Monday that a warrant had been issued for the jail official for first-degree permitting or facilitating an escape.
Asst. Dir. White, 56, was supposedly transporting 38-year-old capital murder suspect Casey White to the courthouse for a hearing at approximately 9:30 a.m. on April 29 when they both disappeared, the sheriff’s office said in a press release on the afternoon of April 29.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton released a statement on Thursday that said Asst. Dir. White had been in contact with Casey White, no relation, for two years while he was incarcerated in a state prison in Donaldson, WVTM reported.
“He was here in 2020 for an arraignment and preliminary hearing, and when he finished that, he went back to state prison,” Sheriff Singleton said. “We do know they remained in touch while he was in state prison.”
The sheriff said prison records revealed Asst. Dir. White regularly spoke to Casey White on the phone while he was incarcerated, NBC News reported.
Casey White was serving a sentence of 75 years for violent crime convictions.
He allegedly confessed to the 2015 murder of Connie Ridgeway while he was serving a state prison sentence for other offenses in 2020, the Associated Press reported.
The inmate was still facing capital murder charges for allegedly stabbing that 58-year-old woman to death when Asst. Dir. White allegedly helped him escape from the Lauderdale County Detention Center.
Sheriff Singleton said that it wasn’t unusual for Asst. Dir. White to personally transport an inmate to court if all of the other transport officers were already gone when a judge requested the presence of an inmate in court, WVTM reported.
So when she told a correctional officer to get Casey White ready for transport on April 29 because she was taking him to the courthouse for a mental health evaluation, it didn’t raise any suspicions, the sheriff explained.
VIDEO: U.S. Jailbreak: Newly released security footage shows the moment an Alabama corrections officer, Vicky White vanished with murder suspect Casey White out of a detention center, setting off a manhunt for the pair. pic.twitter.com/obqBDj3Wuz
— BCOS TV (@bcos_tv) May 5, 2022
It wasn’t until Asst. Dir. White never arrived with Casey White at the courthouse and couldn’t be raised on the radio or her telephone that an alarm was raised.
Investigators later discovered there was no mental health evaluation scheduled for Casey White the day of the transport.
Asst. Dir. White had also told her co-workers she had a doctor’s appointment of her own on April 29, but the clinic confirmed she never showed up.
Sheriff Singleton said the escape had been carefully planned out, NBC News reported.
A nationwide manhunt is underway for the pair and U.S. Marshals have warned Casey White is “extremely dangerous,” Cox Media reported.
The U.S. Marshals service said the pair “may be armed with an AR-15 rifle, handguns, and a shotgun,” ABC News reported.
Holly Matkin
