“Vicki, you’ve been in this business for 17 years, you’ve seen this scenario happen more than once, and you know how it always ends,” Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton told ABC Good Morning America on Wednesday. “Continue and finish now. Get on the phone, call 911, surrender, and help us get Casey White back behind bars, because you know he’ll end up there. ”
Authorities found last week that 56-year-old police officer and 38-year-old inmate Casey White had a romantic relationship and that Vicki White had visited him several times during his non-working hours while in state prison, according to Singleton.
The two non-relatives disappeared on Friday morning when the correctional officer said he was taking Casey White to court before going to get medical treatment because he was feeling unwell. But the two never showed up at the courtroom and the policeman did not reach the medical facility.
In the days after his disappearance, investigators found that the officer and the prisoner had a “special relationship” in which Vicki White granted the prisoner special privileges, including extra food. The investigation was aided in part by inmates who briefed officers on their relationship over the weekend.
“Some of the inmates here at our facility have sent a message to our investigators that there is a connection between the two,” Singleton told CNN on Wednesday. “We took their statements, what they said, we followed it and confirmed that there was actually a connection there.
Vicki White, who was due to retire the day she disappeared, had also made some major financial moves that led to her escape.
She sold her home on April 18 for well below market value. The house sold for $ 95,550, according to documents, but Lauderdale County records show that the total value of the home’s plot is $ 204,700.
Relatives and colleagues say they are stunned by the sudden disappearance of the correctional officer, whom Singleton described as a “model officer” with a “spotless file.”
Vicky White has an active arrest warrant on charges of allowing or facilitating first-degree escape. She is also no longer at work in Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office, according to a statement Wednesday. While Friday was her last working day, her retirement documents were never finalized, the office said.
Here are the main developments in the investigation, while the authorities are desperately looking for the couple.
The video captures a quick escape
Officials say Vicki White, who was the assistant director of the Corrections, brazenly violated the department’s policies when she took Casey White out of jail on Friday morning.
The facility had a policy that required two sworn deputies to accompany the prisoners at all times, including during transportation to the courthouse. Singleton said the policy was highlighted by Casey White after authorities discovered he had a conspiracy to escape arrest and take hostage in 2020 and uncovered an improvised knife on him.
But that morning, Vicki White asked an officer to prepare Casey White for transportation, saying she would take him to the courthouse herself, as other police officers had already gone to court and she was the only officer available with a certified firearm, Singleton said.
Surveillance video shows Casey White handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit escorted to the back of Vicki White’s patrol car on Friday morning.
The investigation revealed that the couple then went to a mall parking lot in less than 10 minutes, left the patrol car in the park and fled in a gold or copper Ford Edge SUV with minor damage to the rear left bumper, authorities said.
“We know that there was never any effort to go to the courthouse. “They went straight to the Florence Square car park, abandoned the patrol car, got into the other vehicle and left,” Singleton said.
The relationship began in 2020, the sheriff said
Investigators have been tracking the connection until early 2020, when Casey White was brought to Lauderdale County on charges of murder he faces in the death of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway in 2015, according to the sheriff.
“As far as we know, this was the earliest physical contact they had,” Singleton said.
Authorities then found the prisoner’s homemade prison knife and uncovered his escape plan, which prompted the Lauderdale detention center to tighten its policy that he should be accompanied by two deputies at all times while in custody.
Casey White was returned to state prison after being charged with continuing to serve a 75-year sentence for a series of crimes he committed in 2015. The sheriff said the officer and prisoner maintained communication, including visits by Vicki White during off-hours.
Casey White was returned to Lauderdale County Jail in February to attend court hearings related to his murder charges.
In the course of the investigation this week, inmates said Casey White was “getting extra food on her trays” and “getting privileges that no one else has.” And it all came from her, “Singleton said.
The investigation was stopped with the release of the trail
Leading them to escape, Vicki White bought a 2007 Ford Edge SUV in Rodgersville, about 25 miles east of Lauderdale County, according to Singleton. The night before she disappeared with Casey White, a police officer parked the car in the mall parking lot, where the couple would travel until the next day and escape in a jeep.
When investigators finally managed to confirm the description of the escape vehicle on Monday, they intended to send it internally to other law enforcement agencies, but the trail was accidentally released to the public.
“The description of the car is something we’ve been working hard on all weekend because we had no idea what kind of vehicle they left,” Singleton told CNN’s Don Lemon on Wednesday night. “We told law enforcement to be vigilant and inadvertently one of these agencies sent the description publicly. That really repelled us.
Singleton said the couple had probably already abandoned the car because the description was widely shared.
But investigators have gathered other evidence of the possible whereabouts of the prisoner and police officer, he said.
“We have some advice … especially east of the Mississippi,” the sheriff said, but added that authorities still have “no idea where they are.”
CNN’s Michelle Watson, Jamiel Lynch, Chuck Johnston, Amara Walker, Jade Gordon, Ryan Young, Jade Tim-Garcia, Tina Burnside
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