Inside the manhunt for an escaped murder suspect and jailer

WASHINGTON >> It was about three hours after sheriff's officials in Alabama realized a capital murder suspect and a senior jail official who had taken him for a mental health evaluation had disappeared when Sheriff Rick Singleton called in the U.S. marshals.

At first, law enforcement officials believed the suspect, Casey White, might have kidnapped Vicky White, the assistant director of corrections for Lauderdale County and a 17-year veteran of the sheriff's office. (The two were not married or otherwise related.) But they quickly learned that her cover story was phony — the mental health evaluation was made up — and a manhunt began.

U.S. Marshal Marty Keely sprung the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force into action. The fugitive hunters hit the streets and quickly started gathering leads.

Keely's account of the 11day search, in an interview with The Associated Press, is the most detailed and comprehensive account to date of the U.S. Marshals Service investigation in a nationwide manhunt that ended with Vicky White dead, Casey White back in custody and law enforcement agencies trying to piece together how the escape could have happened.

The task force received its first lead early in the investigation when a fellow jail worker reported that Vicky White had called them and asked the coworker to pick her up at an Academy Sports + Outdoors store in Florence, Alabama. White said she had locked her keys in her car and needed a ride to work, Keely said. The employee thought it was strange, they would later tell investigators, but wanted to help out a friend.

In the parking lot of the sporting goods store, investigators found Vicky White's patrol car — the same vehicle in which she left the sheriff's office hours earlier with a handcuffed Casey White in the backseat, according to Keely. It was also where surveillance video showed she had staged a getaway vehicle, an orange Ford Edge she had purchased just days before the escape with a fistful of cash.

The investigators interviewed family members and coworkers, examined financial and other records and learned from other inmates that Vicky White had a “special relationship” with Casey and the two were involved in a “jailhouse romance,” officials have said. Weeks before the escape she sold her house for $95,000, far below the market value, sold her car and filed for retirement, Keely said. She had also bought an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun to add to her 9mm service weapon and a .45-caliber pistol investigators believe she had.

Other clues also emerged: She bought men's clothes at a local Kohl's store and had also visited a store that sold sex toys.

They also learned Vicky White left the jail with Casey White previously in what investigators believe was a dry run for the escape, two law enforcement officials told the AP. She'd taken him out of the jail for about 40 minutes, the officials said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation.