‘Please check on my wife’: Details of capture emerge as escapee, jailer’s body returned to Alabama
Capital murder suspect Casey Cole White was returned to Alabama Tuesday, a day after he was captured in Evansville, Indiana, by U.S. Marshals and Indiana law enforcement officers.
The Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office confirmed that Vicky Sue White's body was released Wednesday morning for return to Alabama. White shot herself Monday afternoon as an 11-day run from the law came to an end.
Vicky White was assistant director of corrections at the Lauderdale County Detention Center when she apparently orchestrated Casey White's escape and accompanied him out of state, first to Tennessee and then to Indiana. Police say the two weren’t related.
Their time on the lam came to an abrupt end Monday afternoon. Leaving a trail of abandoned vehicles and security camera footage, the pair was tracked down at an Evansville hotel and put under surveillance. When officers saw them leaving the hotel, they engaged in a brief chase that ended with U.S. Marshals ramming their Cadillac Deville, pushing it onto its side in a ditch.
Related: Escaped inmate Casey White captured, jailer Vicky White dead after U.S. Marshal chase in Indiana
'Convinced she orchestrated this': Vicky White flew under the radar before escape with Casey White
The sheriff's office made officer reports available to the public; some are redacted but many are not. The officers' account provide details from their vantage in the chase and its aftermath. One officer wrote of approaching the car after the crash.
VCSO Officer S.L. Shahine had his duty pistol pointed at the windshield, and he saw the male driver attempting to stick his hands out the driver's side window. He wrote that he gave multiple commands to the occupants to "show me their hands."
Because of his angle on the car and the tint on its windows he couldn't clearly see the other occupant. While he was issuing those commands, he wrote, "I heard one gunshot come from inside the vehicle." As he and two other officer approached, Shahine saw a male sitting in the driver's seat "screaming for help."
As he was pulled from the car, Casey White told officers his wife had shot herself in the head, and he'd been shot also. Reports noted blood on the back of his head and on his shirt.
"The offender was adamant that he was okay and that we needed to tend to his wife," Shahine wrote.
Sgt. Erik Nilssen placed handcuffs on Casey White after he was pulled from the car, escorting him away from the car and calling firefighters to treat his head injury. He, too, noted that White asked repeatedly about his "wife," and he repeatedly said he not kill Connie Ridgeway.
Casey White was serving 75 years in prison for other offenses when he wrote a letter confessing to the 2015 murder of Ridgeway, a Rogersville, Alabama, woman stabbed to death in what police say was a murder-for-hire scheme. That brought him back to the Lauderdale County Detention Center to face the capital murder charge. It also brought him closer to Vicky White, a jailer who'd written to him in state prison since 2020.
Casey White arrived at the Lauderdale County Detention Center on Feb. 25, just two months before the April 29 escape with Vicky White. They were on the run 11 days before the chase and capture.
A final 911 call
At some point during their final moments on the run, Vicky White apparently called 911. In audio released from the 911 call, she can be heard urging Casey White to stop the Cadillac the pair was traveling in.
Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said Casey White later indicated to investigators that he planned to engage in a shootout with officers. The 911 recording indicates Vicky White had other ideas.
"The airbags are going to go off and kill us," she said. "The airbags are going off. Let's get out and run. Get us back to the f------ hotel."
The audio, dash and body camera footage released by the Evansville Police Department continued after the crash, and after Vicky White shot herself. Some of the sounds are muffled and indicate the uncertainty of dispatchers about what was going on. At one point a dispatcher says, "He shot himself," and that Vicky White was still armed.
Responding officers are heard as they checked Vicky White to see if she was conscious — she was not — and noting that she still held the gun.
"She's got her finger on the trigger," an officer says repeatedly, as they talk about getting the gun out of her hand safely without the trigger being pulled again.
"She's still got it in her hand," an officer cautions. "Watch it. She's still breathing."
Minutes after the officers reached the car, an officer leans into the car, on its side.
"I'm going to go for the gun,” he says, "It's out of her hand." He then tells officers he has the gun, and to "pull me out," of the car. With the gun secured, the officers pulled Vicky White out, and began treating her injuries.
By that point, Casey White had been dragged out of the car by officers and handcuffed as he laid in the roadway. As he's pulled to his feet and led to a patrol car — still wearing sunglasses — he looks back over his shoulder saying, "Please check on my wife."
As investigators reveal more about what happened when the Whites were captured, they continue a probe into what occurred during the days they spent in Evansville. So far they’ve determined that a homeless man rented the hotel room for them, paying for a 14-day stay.
How it happened: Casey White's escape with Vicky White: How it unfolded, where the investigation stands
Lauderdale escape: CO in phone contact with inmate White during his time in state prison
Photos of items found in their possession show camping gear, four handguns and ammunition, and an AR-15 style rifle, wigs and Vicky White's equipment belt.
In Florence, Casey White was arraigned on a charge of first-degree escape, and taken to state prison.
Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at 256-393-3284 or donna.thornton@gadsdentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Vicky White, Casey White back in Alabama, capture recordings released
