Police seek North Alabama jailer who disappeared with inmate after selling home, retiring
Lauderdale County authorities on Monday obtained a warrant for Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky White, accusing her of permitting or facilitating an escape.
White, a 25-year veteran employee at the sheriff's office, and capital murder suspect Casey White, who is not related to her, have been missing since 9:41 a.m. Friday.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said Monday that White was working her last day on the job, having turned in paperwork to retire.
Singleton said efforts continue to find any video evidence of what happened after White told her subordinates she was taking Casey White to a mental health evaluation at the courthouse and left the jail with the suspect, in handcuffs and shackles.
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Surveillance cameras captured the marked vehicle Vicki White was driving at 9:49 a.m., showing the pair on a path to travel directly to the parking lot where that vehicle was later found abandoned, the sheriff said — not to the courthouse. Singleton said it shows Vicky White driving, with Casey White in the back seat.
Whatever Vicki White's actions and intentions might have been in the case, Singleton and U.S. Marshal Martin Keely warned that Casey White, 38, is the great cause of concern for law enforcement.
Somewhere, a law enforcement officer is going to come in contact with him, Singleton said. "Don't take any chances with him. He's extremely dangerous."
Keely said Casey White may have made efforts to change his appearance, but at 6 feet 9 inches tall, he will stand out.
Among details made available from the sheriff's office so far:
Two vans left the Lauderdale County Detention Center with inmates going to court Friday morning.
Minutes after that second van left, Singleton said, Vicky White called for Casey White to be brought up for transport. As assistant director, Vicky White arranged prisoner transports; when she said she was the only one certified to carry a firearm and transport Casey White — against jail protocol — no one questioned her. "She was the boss," Singleton said.
Vicky White also told coworkers she didn't feel good, that she was going to a doctor after taking the suspect to court. Singleton said there's no indication she actually had an appointment; it's been confirmed there was no reason for Casey White to be taken to the courthouse.
The search for the CO and the inmate began at about 3:30 p.m.; co-workers had not been able to reach Vicky White by phone, and they determined Casey White had not been returned to the jail.
Vicky White was armed with a 9mm handgun; Singleton said Casey White should be considered armed and dangerous, and should not be approached.
Singleton said that office has received a number of tips — including a potential lead on a vehicle the two might have switched into after abandoning the marked unit.
The U.S. Marshals Service considers the case an major one, Keely said; a $10,000 reward for information has been offered.
Co-workers are 'in shock'
Singleton said evidence indicates the escape was orchestrated, and that Vicky White played a role in that orchestration.
He said whether that was voluntary, or the result of some coercion or threat, is not known at this point.
"Those of us who've worked with Vicky White for years," Singleton said, "this is not the Vicky White we knew." She had been an exemplary employee, he said.
He described the atmosphere at the office Friday evening a "like a funeral wake," with everyone in shock.
Singleton said investigators are looking at video footage inside the jail, and checking phone records for signs of some relationship between the jailer and the inmate. Vicky White's duties, he said, took her throughout the detention center and in contact with inmates.
The sheriff said they are trying to determine whether Vicky White spent an extraordinary amount of time around Casey White.
Singleton said Vicky White had sold her home recently, so she might have access to funds from that; money from her retirement would not have been available to her yet. WAAY-TV in Huntsville reported the home sale closed April 12.
Casey White had been in the Lauderdale County jail since February, with pending court appearances related to charges in the stabbing death of 59-year-old Connie Jane Ridgeway of Rogersville, killed in October 2015 in what authorities have called a murder-for-hire scheme.
In December 2015, Casey White was charged in a a crime spree: a home invasion, two car jackings, and multiple shootings that led to convictions and a 75-year prison sentence. He was charged later in Ridgeway's death.
Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at 256-393-3284 or donna.thornton@gadsdentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Escaped inmate in Alabama: Warrant issued for Vicky White
