Ex-jail official with inmate kills herself at end of chase
The escaped convict is taken back into custody in Indiana.
A former Alabama jail official on the run with a murder suspect she was accused of helping to escape shot and killed herself Monday as authorities caught up with the pair after more than a week of searching, officials said. The man with whom she fled surrendered.
The death of Vicky White, 56, only deepened the mystery of why a respected jail official would free Casey White, 38, a hulking inmate with a violent history. The two were not related.
The two fugitives were caught — following a manhunt through three states — in Evansville, Ind., when U.S. Marshals who were chasing them crashed into their vehicle, authorities said. Casey White gave himself up, and Vicky White shot herself and was taken to a hospital, authorities said. Vanderburgh County Coroner Steve Lockyear said she died from her injuries.
Before Vicky White’s death, authorities celebrated the fugitives’ apprehension.
“We got a dangerous man off the street today. He is never going to see the light of day again. That is a good thing — for not just our community; that’s a good thing for our country,” Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton of Alabama said.
The manhunt began April 29 when Vicky White, the assistant director of corrections for the jail in Lauderdale County, allegedly helped engineer the escape of Casey White, who was awaiting trial in a capital murder case. Vicky White had told co-workers she was taking the inmate from the jail for a mental health evaluation at the courthouse, but the two instead fled the area.
The car in which they took off was found abandoned in Tennessee, but there was no trace of the pair until U.S. Marshals received a tip Sunday that surveillance photos from an Evansville car wash showed a man who closely resembled Casey White.
He was serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other charges at the time of his escape and was awaiting trial in the stabbing of a 58-yearold woman during a burglary in 2015. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.