Alabama sheriff from Casey-Vicky White manhunt visits Evansville

EVANSVILLE — The intense multi-state manhunt for Alabama fugitives Casey and Vicky White came to Evansville last year — and on Friday, so did the public face of the drama that riveted the nation.

Rick Singleton was sheriff of Lauderdale County, Alabama, and designated spokesman to national and international media when Vicky White, assistant director at the Lauderdale County Detention Center, walked inmate and accused murderer Casey White out of jail on April 29, 2022. The Whites, who were romantically involved, were not related.

But on Friday, a relaxed Singleton was a former sheriff enjoying retirement and seeing Evansville for the first time on the way to visit his adult daughter and her family in Indianapolis.

It wasn't just a pit stop. Singleton was in town to visit another of the most-recognized — and controversial — figures in the saga, Weinbach Car Wash manager James Stinson. The two men became friends after the drama ended in Evansville on May 9, 2022, with Casey's capture and Vicky's death by self-inflicted gunshot.

More: The stories you've never heard about Casey and Vicky White's time in Evansville. Here's Part 1.

Singleton, whose second and final term as sheriff ended in January, told Stinson and a small welcoming committee that retirement agrees with him. They immediately noticed his weight loss.

"I've lost about 50 pounds — I'm not doing any of that stress eating anymore," Singleton caroled.

Stinson showed Singleton a corner of the garage dedicated to mementoes from the White case, including framed letters Stinson has received commending him for reporting a Ford F-150 truck the fugitive couple abandoned at Weinbach Car Wash. Stinson also framed a photo of a uniformed Singleton and him in Florence, Alabama, and a Lauderdale County sheriff's patch.

"There was a couple here in Evansville on Halloween night dressed up like Casey and Vicky," Stinson told Singleton. In turn, the 72-year-old former Alabama lawman showed off photos of his younger self wrestling as a character named "Dr. Death."

More: The stories you've never heard about Casey, Vicky White's time in Evansville. Here's Part 2.

But soon the two men got down to business. With Stinson narrating, Singleton saw for himself the wash bay where Casey White famously loitered beside the fugitive couple's truck on May 3, 2022. White was waiting for Vicky White to pick him up in a charcoal gray 2007 Cadillac sedan they had bought in Evansville earlier that day. The footage, widely publicized by Stinson, shows the Whites abandoning the truck and driving off in the Cadillac.

As if he were any other true crime buff, Singleton eyeballed the car wash and surrounding streets, transporting himself back in time to imagine the events of that day. Stinson took him through the story. The Cadillac seemed to be shadowing the truck, which dipped briefly into a nearby gas station before heading over to the car wash. But the Cadillac drove north on Weinbach past the car wash, disappearing from view for about two minutes and leaving Casey in the wash bay.

Casey White stepped outside the wash bay, looking up Weinbach as if to wonder whether the Cadillac had abandoned him. More than a minute later the Caddy reappeared, turning east onto adjoining Graham Avenue to pick him up, apparently having turned back south toward the car wash.

The Whites were gone, not to be seen by law enforcement again in Evansville until the day they were brought to ground, May 9.

More: The Evansville fugitives, Part 3: How one cop's different drive home changed the manhunt

Singleton took a long look down Graham Avenue. He was trying to see the woman who was second-in-command at his jail driving off with Casey White, who was doing a 75-year prison stretch for a string of violent crimes when he came to Lauderdale County.

Singleton hadn't wanted to believe that Vicky White, a highly decorated and high-ranking detention officer, could have gone with Casey White voluntarily. Standing at Graham and Weinbach, he recalled "trying to come up with every reason in the world" to absolve her of blame. But he eventually swallowed his bitter disappointment, fired her and set his resolve to helping fugitive hunters.

"My only concern was that they were off the street," he said.

A suspicious character

In the weeks and months that followed the end of the Alabama fugitive saga in Evansville, James Stinson was celebrated by many who thought he should get reward money. But privately and publicly, marshals task force members and law enforcement in Alabama and Indiana criticized him for allegedly blowing their chance to apprehend the Whites without bloodshed and exaggerating his role in the case.

Stinson stepped into the story on the morning of May 4, 2022, the day after the Whites showed up at Weinbach Car Wash. He called Evansville-Vanderburgh Central Dispatch to report he had found a dark, four-door Ford F-150 truck with a Tennessee license plate abandoned in a wash bay, the keys still inside and windows down.

Casey would later say he'd hoped someone would steal the vehicle. But Stinson didn't know all that then.

The car wash manager reported seeing a suspicious character loitering in a wash bay on video, but he did not mention Casey or Vicky White. Later he would insist he'd suspected from the start it was Casey on the video, but he didn't say so because another man ridiculed him for thinking the Whites would come to his car wash.

What happened?

On the night before the Whites were apprehended in Evansville, Stinson agreed that the next morning he would meet U.S. marshals task force members to review his video footage of Casey White. But he called local television station WEVV to the scene shortly before the fugitive hunters arrived, explaining later that he got steamed because the marshals didn't show up by the appointed time. The marshals, who rely on secrecy to avoid tipping off their targets, arrived at Weinbach Car Wash to find the news crew.

They insisted they hadn't told Stinson they were on the trail of Casey and Vicky White, but Stinson insisted they had.

Later that day marshals task force members would plot to pin the Whites into their room at Motel 41 in Evansville with a heavy-duty armored rescue vehicle and force them to surrender without bloodshed or gunfire — but the fugitives left the motel before the ARV could arrive.

More: The Alabama fugitives in Evansville, Part 4: 'Does she walk with a waddle?'

A detailed timeline of the case later produced by the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office pointed a finger of blame at Stinson.

"Casey (White) would later tell officers that they had seen on the news that the F-150 had been discovered due to the fact that Mr. Stinson notified the media," the timeline stated. "They were therefore packing up to leave."

The items found in the Whites' motel room afterward suggested they were indeed heading out of town that day — May 9. A search warrant turned up a pair of jeans, sandals, a room key, a road map, socks and room receipts. The Cadillac they were driving held everything else — bags, some $29,000 in cash, wigs, weapons, phones, documents.

In addition to Casey White's comments, there was hard evidence the fugitives originally hadn't planned to leave Evansville on May 9. Earlier in the day, they had paid Motel 41 $309.33 to extend their stay another week, according to Lauderdale County investigative records.

But then the first news reports from local media began filtering out after noon. Marshals were confirming a vehicle found at a local business — Weinbach Car Wash — was being investigated in connection to the Whites. An Alabama TV station reported that marshals based there were in Evansville.

More: Part 5: 'I’m looking straight into his eyes': Desperate chase with Whites ends face-to-face

If the Whites did see those reports, they apparently didn't know that marshals task force members had pinpointed their location at Motel 41 and had set up surveillance at High Spirits liquor store, a little more than a football field away.

The fugitives didn't emerge from their motel room until shortly before 4 p.m. Local marshals task force member Sgt. Kurt Althoff reported watching the Whites exit their room at Motel 41 in disguises but packing up the Cadillac at a leisurely pace. After they got into the car — Casey driving and Vicky riding — the fugitives still didn't pull away for "a couple of minutes," according to a report filed by Althoff.

The car chase that ultimately ended with Casey White's capture and Vicky White's death by self-inflicted gunshot wound outside Anchor Industries lasted only a few minutes.

More: Part 6: Casey White's whole story of jailhouse romance and escape comes spilling out

Singleton: There's a lesson here

James Stinson could have done nothing when he saw that truck in his wash bay, Singleton said on the scene Friday. He could have simply had it towed away without asking any questions or concerning himself with the suspicious character loitering in the wash bay.

"It probably would have been better if that (Stinson's call to WEVV) hadn't happened, but you just have to play the hand you're dealt," the former sheriff said. "I don't fault him for that. I don't hold a grudge against him for that.

"You know, all he had to do was call a wrecker. He didn't have to call the police. He had suspicions that something wasn't right about it."

More: Part 7: Alabama fugitive saga put some Evansville residents in the spotlight

U.S. Marshals may have eventually linked the Ford F-150 to the Whites, Singleton said, but the link was made faster because Stinson's call put the truck on their radar. Marshals discovered the man who sold the truck to Casey White in Tennessee. They ran its VIN number through the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System.

They were fishing in hopes that someone had checked the number over the last few days. They got a hit from Weinbach Car Wash in Evansville, Indiana — from checks by Evansville police that had been done at Stinson's insistence. EPD ran the truck's VIN too, but it didn't come back stolen because the Whites had purchased it days before. EPD didn’t yet know the car was connected to the fugitive couple.

If you see something, say something, Singleton said, repeating a phrase popularized by law enforcement.

"Call somebody," he said. "We'd rather check it out and it be a bum lead than for you to say, 'Ah, there's nothing to it' and turns out there was something to it."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Alabama sheriff from Casey-Vicky White manhunt visits Evansville