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By Jason Hanna, Elizabeth Wolfe and Amanda Watts, CNN
Vicky White, a fugitive Alabama corrections officer, has committed suicide, the Indiana coroner’s office said Thursday, backing up authorities’ suspicions that she shot herself after a monday car chase which concluded 11 days on the run with an inmate she is accused of freeing.
White, 56, who authorities say released prisoner casey white In late April from the Alabama jail where he worked, he died of a single gunshot wound to the head, the coroner’s office in Indiana’s Vanderburgh County said.
No further details were available on the office’s findings. A spokesman said the coroner’s office will not release the full report because it is part of an ongoing investigation.
Authorities had said they believed Vicky White fatally shot herself after the car they were traveling in collided while police were pursuing them in Evansville, Indiana.
Casey White, a 38-year-old defendant in an Alabama murder case, was arrested after Monday’s crash and transported to an Alabama state prison.
The manhunt ended a multi-state manhunt that began on April 29, when authorities say Vicky White, then deputy director of corrections at a jail in Lauderdale County, Alabama, took Casey White out of the detention center with the pretext of taking him to court.
Investigators believe the two fostered a romantic relationship while Casey White, normally in state prison, was periodically transferred to the Lauderdale County Jail to attend hearings related to the case. 2015 stabbing death of Connie Ridgeway, for which White faces capital murder charges. The county sheriff has said the two maintained communication when he was transferred back to state prison.
On Wednesday, Evansville officials released audio of a 911 call they say Vicky White made during Monday’s chase, audio that gives insight into the seconds leading up to her death but doesn’t seem to clarify how or when she suffered. the gunshot wound.
What the 911 call reveals
While officers were chasing a Cadillac driven by Casey White on Monday afternoon, they rammed the Cadillac into a ditch and the vehicle flipped over, authorities said. Investigators believe Vicky White shot herself “once the vehicle crashed,” Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said Tuesday.
The 911 audio appears to start near the end of the chase. It starts with someone saying something unnoticeable and the dispatcher says “Evansville 911”. No one appears to address the dispatcher, who says “911” and “hello” apparently without being answered.
Instead, a woman’s voice, which authorities say is Vicky White’s, is heard within the first six seconds saying things including: “Stop” and “Wait, stop…the air bags will explode and we’ll will kill”.
Twelve seconds later, a loud noise is heard, the first of at least four loud noises that occur in about 15 seconds. It’s not clear in each case what the noises represent, and it’s not clear from the audio when the car was rammed, when it flipped over, and when a gun was fired.
“God,” the woman says after the first noise. “The air bags are going off. Let’s get out there and run.” She mentions a hotel.
The second noise is heard and the woman screams. At least two more noises arrive, followed, now 30 seconds into the recording, by another shriek.
For the next 30 seconds, usually only muffled sounds of sirens are heard. A minute into the recording, a soft voice is heard, perhaps a moan, but it is unclear whose voice it is.
Shortly after, distant voices and occasional movements are heard, although it is not clear if it is inside or outside the vehicle. About a minute and 40 seconds into the recording, someone begins to repeatedly say phrases like “she’s breathing” and “she has a gun in her hand.”
The phone line remains open as officers work to remove the couple from the vehicle.
Vicky White was transported to a hospital, where she died, US Marshals said.
On Tuesday, Wedding told CNN that Vicky White had indicated in a call with police dispatchers that she had a gun. Also, in Evansville Police dispatch audio released earlier this weekthe dispatcher can be heard advising law enforcement units “we could hear her on the line saying she had her finger on the trigger.”
The 911 recording does not appear to reveal Vicky White mentioning a gun or her trigger finger. However, other people on the recording presumably responding officers can be heard saying her finger was on the trigger when they found her.
CNN has sought comment from the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office on how to reconcile the 911 audio with the sheriff’s and dispatcher’s comments.
No law enforcement officers fired shots during the pursuit, according to Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton.
When officers pulled Casey White out of the car and took him into custody, he allegedly told them to help “his wife” who had shot herself in the head and insisted he didn’t do it, according to U.S. Marshal Marty Keely, who said they knew, the couple was not married. Authorities previously said the officer and inmate were not related.
Casey White indicated that pretended to have a shootout with police if his car hadn’t been rammed into a ditch, Wedding said Tuesday, citing White’s interviews with investigators after his capture.
“(Casey White) said he was probably going to have a shooting, at the risk of both losing their lives,” Wedding said.
What will happen to Casey White?
Casey White was returned to Alabama Tuesday night to attend an arraignment in Lauderdale County.
Judge Ben Graves told White at the hearing that he will be charged with first-degree flight, as well as capital murder charges he was already facing related to Ridgeway’s death. White allegedly confessed to killing her but later pleaded not guilty due to insanity, authorities said.
After the hearing, White was transferred directly to the William E. Donaldson Correctional Center, a state prison in Bessemer, Alabama, a little more than 100 miles south of Lauderdale County.
White was already serving a 75-year sentence for a series of crimes he committed in 2015, including a home invasion, carjacking and police pursuit, according to the US Marshals Service.
White’s murder trial is scheduled for June. During Tuesday’s court appearance, White’s attorney, Jamy Poss, said he would file a motion to change venue, which the judge said he would consider.
The CNN Wire
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CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Jamiel Lynch, Eric Levenson, Jaide Timm-Garcia and Nadia Romero contributed to this report.
Reference-ktvz.com