After they eluded authorities for greater than 10 days and made it about 300 miles north from Alabama to Indiana, the top got here swiftly for former corrections officer Vicky White and the capital homicide suspect she was accused of serving to escape, Casey White.
Police discovered Vicky White and Casey White, who are usually not associated, hiding out at a motel in Evansville, Indiana, the place they’d hunkered down for a number of days after fleeing collectively from an Alabama jail on April 29, in accordance with Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Sheriff Dave Wedding ceremony.
In six totally different automobiles, police chased the pair for about 2 miles, with a number of regulation enforcement automobiles ramming the Cadillac sedan the couple had been touring in till it flipped onto its facet in a ditch, Wedding ceremony stated.
Shortly afterward, Vicky White fatally shot herself within the head, authorities stated. 911 audio launched Wednesday caught a few of her final feedback.
“Airbags are going off,” she is heard saying within the audio launched by police. “Let’s get out and run. Ought to have stayed on the … lodge.”
Casey White was taken into custody after the crash.
4 handguns and a number of other semi-automatic weapons, together with an AR-15, had been recovered from the couple’s automobile, authorities stated. Casey White meant to have a shootout with police, Wedding ceremony stated.
NBC Information has pieced collectively the actions of Vicky White and Casey White throughout their days on the run by interviewing officers and reviewing public statements and data from the time they disappeared till they ran out of luck this week in southwest Indiana.
Vicky White, 56, the previous assistant director of corrections on the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Alabama, has been referred to as the “mastermind” behind the escape by Lauderdale Sheriff Rick Singleton.
Singleton stated White, a as soon as extremely revered worker who deliberate to retire the day of her disappearance, made strikes that morning that gave the pair a head begin on trailing regulation enforcement.
Authorities stated she was concerned in a two-year relationship with inmate Casey White, 38, who was going through capital homicide expenses within the stabbing dying of Connie Ridgeway, 58.
He was already serving time in state jail on different convictions when he was indicted within the 2015 killing, officers have stated. He was taken again to Lauderdale County for trial within the homicide case.
The day they disappeared, Vicky White cleared out deputies from the jail who transported inmates, Singleton stated. She then escorted Casey White by herself, though coverage required that two deputies transport such inmates, he stated.
Their cowl story was that Casey White needed to go to courtroom for a psychological well being analysis. However no such analysis was ever scheduled. The plot unfolded on a Friday — the courtroom’s busiest day, Singleton stated.
Vicky White’s data of the internal workings of the jail and the courtroom system gave the couple a six-hour head begin earlier than the sheriff’s division even realized the 2 had vanished collectively, Singleton stated.
He added that earlier than her disappearance, Vicky White offered her dwelling and had entry to about $90,000.
She purchased a Ford Edge the pair used to get out of the state. It was certainly one of a number of vehicles the couple purchased, then ditched, throughout their time on the lam.
Vicky White was additionally seen at a division retailer shopping for males’s garments earlier than the pair went lacking, Singleton stated.
On the morning of the disappearance, officers stated, Vicky White was seen on video trying out of a High quality Inn in Florence, Alabama.
“That is in all probability essentially the most weird factor I’ve ever been concerned in,” Singleton stated. “I’ve seen numerous stuff over my profession. This isn’t the primary escape that I have been concerned in. However I’ve by no means seen something that was calculated and deliberate and executed the best way this escape was.”
Singleton stated the couple’s alleged plotting was like “chipping away at a rock wall.”
Most different escapees “do not have the type of sources that Vicky and Casey had,” he stated. “They do not have money. They don’t have a automobile ready on them. They do not have a change of garments. Most escapes don’t have these parts. It didn’t assist any that we had been six hours behind the eight ball already.”
The fugitives remained a step forward of authorities for the higher a part of every week.
On Could 1, two days after the couple disappeared, investigators started piecing collectively that Vicky White had just lately purchased the 2007 Ford Edge, Singleton stated. The next day, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service, authorities confirmed the pair had fled in that car.
The following large break within the case got here Thursday, when investigators discovered the Edge deserted on the facet of a street in Williamson County, Tennessee. Authorities stated the couple ditched the Edge the day they disappeared.
With tens of hundreds of {dollars} on them, Vicky White and Casey White bought a Ford F-150 close to Bethesda, Tennessee. They used it to get out of the state and had been subsequent tracked down in Indiana, officers stated.
A desk worker at Motel 41, the place the couple had been hiding out earlier than they received caught, stated a person rented a room for the couple on Could 2.
The worker, who requested to not be named, stated the motel didn’t have the names Vicky White or Casey White on its logs. The fugitives had paid a transient man to e book the room for them, stated Wedding ceremony, the Vanderburgh County sheriff.
On Monday, the couple paid money for a further week’s keep on the lodge, the motel employee stated. She famous she had seen Vicky White sporting a wig round.
“No one knew they had been escaped or fugitives or none of that stuff till yesterday once they received caught,” the employee stated.
Each day charges on the motel had been about $63.
The couple seemed to be in Indiana for a few week.
Safety video obtained by investigators confirmed Casey White on Could 3 at an Evansville automobile wash, the place the F-150 pickup bought in Tennessee was deserted. Video additionally exhibits the Cadillac utilized by the pair, which officers say was bought in Indiana, on the automobile wash.
The pair used a minimum of three vehicles, two of which had been ditched, throughout their time on the run, officers stated.
Along with the weapons discovered within the couple’s Cadillac, authorities stated there have been additionally wigs and $29,000 within the car.
Neither sheriff, Wedding ceremony nor Singleton, stated they knew what the couple’s final plan was or whether or not their path north from Alabama had any actual vacation spot.
The U.S. Marshals Service stated that when Casey White received out of the Cadillac on Monday, he exclaimed: “Please assist my spouse. She simply shot herself within the head, and I did not do it.”
Singleton stated: “I do not know if Casey White goes to be cooperative in that regard or not. … It will be good to know what they’d in thoughts.”
Singleton believes their plan to flee stalled in Indiana as a result of they realized they had been in peril each minute they had been in public.
“All of the nationwide media consideration drove them underground. They needed to lay low as a result of their descriptions are on the market,” Singleton stated. “That is why they had been holed up in that motel for a number of days.”
