Authorities in Alabama announced Monday morning that an arrest warrant has been issued for correctional officer Vicki White after she left a detention center with alleged killer Casey Cole White on Friday. Investigators say the two are not connected, and Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said authorities were investigating whether Vicki White had volunteered to flee.
“We have an order for director Vicki White,” Singleton told a news conference Monday. “The charges allow or facilitate first-degree escape.”
Casey White, 38, has been jailed on charges of murder in Lauderdale County, Florence, Alabama, about 75 miles west of Huntsville. He is 6 feet, 9 inches tall, weighs approximately 260 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes, according to authorities.
“Casey White … is an extremely dangerous man and we need to find him and get him off the streets,” Singleton told reporters at a news conference Monday morning.
Casey Cole White and Vicki White are seen in a photo combination.
Casey White was already serving a prison sentence for attempted murder and burglary, and was due to stand trial next month for the death of a 58-year-old woman with a knife, a charge he would be sentenced to if convicted.
At a news conference on Friday, Singleton said Vicki White, the 56-year-old assistant director of correctional facilities, was armed when she left prison with Casey White and went to court to assess the prisoner’s mental health. She was alone with him, which the sheriff said violated the department’s policy.
The vehicle carrying the two when they left custody was found in a nearby mall parking lot, according to the sheriff’s office.
Singleton said Monday that a newly discovered surveillance video showing the vehicle at a traffic light minutes after leaving the prison led investigators to believe they went straight to the parking lot without stopping at the courthouse. Singleton also said no assessment of the prisoner’s mental health was planned.
Friday was supposed to be Vicki White’s last working day before retiring, Singleton said. She sold her home about a month ago and plotted to go to the beach, the sheriff said.
“Everyone thought she was retiring,” Singleton said. “You know, no one foresaw that.
The sheriff said authorities did not know where the two might be. “If we knew where they were, we would be there, not here,” Singleton said.
The U.S. Marshals Office said Sunday it was offering up to $ 10,000 for information to direct authorities to locate the two.
“We both consider them dangerous and in all likelihood they are both armed,” US Marshal Marty Keeley told a news conference on Monday.
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