WASHINGTON (AP) — It was about three hours after sheriff’s deputies in Alabama became aware that a capital murder suspect and a top jail official who had taken him in for a mental health evaluation were missing when sheriff Rick Singleton called the federal marshals.
At first, law enforcement officials believed the suspect, Casey White, may have kidnapped Vicky White, a Lauderdale County deputy director of corrections and a 17-year veteran of the sheriff’s office. (The two were not married or otherwise in a relationship.) But they quickly realized that her cover story was false (the mental health evaluation was fabricated) and a manhunt began.
US Marshal Marty Keely called the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force into action. Fugitive hunters took to the streets and quickly began gathering clues.
Keely’s account of the 11-day search, in an interview with The Associated Press, is the most detailed and comprehensive account to date of the U.S. Marshals Service’s investigation of law enforcement agencies trying to piece together how the escape might have occurred. .
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 him to pick her up at an Academy Sports + Outdoors store in Florence, Alabama. White said she had left her keys in her car and needed a ride to work, Keely said. The employee thought he was strange, they would tell investigators later, but he wanted to help 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 Casey White handcuffed in the back seat, according to Keely. It was also where surveillance video showed that she had staged a getaway vehicle, an orange Ford Edge that she had bought just days before the getaway with a handful of cash.
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 that the two were involved in a “prison romance.” authorities said. Weeks before the escape, she sold her house for $95,000, well below market value, sold her car and filed for retirement, Keely said. She had also purchased an AR-15 rifle and shotgun to add to her 9mm service weapon and a .45-caliber handgun that investigators believe she had.
Other clues surfaced as well: He bought men’s clothing at a local Kohl’s store and also visited a store that sold sex toys.
They also learned that Vicky White was released from jail with Casey White earlier in what investigators believe was an escape attempt, two law enforcement officers told the AP. She had gotten him out of jail for about 40 minutes, officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation.
The search was launched for a burly fugitive, a jailer and his orange car. But investigators had no idea the duo had already left the state and were nearly 200 miles away.
Tips reached the Marshals Service and sheriff’s officials, but nothing worked until a Tennessee tow truck driver called. He had towed the Ford Edge three or four days earlier and it was still in his towing yard, Keely said.
Task force investigators rushed north to Williamson County, Tennessee. They had the right car, but the next question was where were Vicky and Casey?
Authorities scoured rural Tennessee looking for clues and turning up photos of Vicky and Casey. They discovered a house with some cars and trucks for sale on the lawn, Keely said. The owner instantly recognized a photo of Casey White and helped authorities piece together what had happened. He told investigators that he sold White a Ford F-150 pickup truck for cash. The truck had no license plates, but White didn’t care, the man told authorities.
“He’s like, ‘Yeah, I sold him a truck,'” Keely said of the owner. “And so we learned that he sold her a truck the same day they escaped from the Lauderdale County Correctional Center. And it was only a few hours after they escaped.”
During the sale, a woman in an orange Ford pulled up and the two drove off one after the other, the man told authorities. And the owner provided one more clue: the truck’s vehicle identification number, or VIN, according to Keely.
The two ditched the Ford Edge and headed to Evansville, Indiana, where Casey White eventually abandoned the truck in a car wash parking lot.
In Evansville, investigators believe, the two paid a homeless man to use his ID to rent them a hotel room, paying cash in advance for a 14-day stay. They lived under the assumed alias at the motel and had acquired a third car, a Cadillac sedan.
The car wash manager first noticed the abandoned van on Tuesday, May 3, and realized something was wrong when it was still there the next morning. He called the police and an officer came out, checked the license plates, took a report and left. The car was not stolen and the local police could not do anything.
On Sunday there was a break because the officer had written the VIN on a report. Keely’s team saw it while they were going through the databases. The fugitive team descended on Evansville, working with other deputy sheriffs in Indiana.
Surveillance video from the car wash showed the Cadillac. Task force investigators began driving around checking motels and restaurant parking lots, Keely said.
Eventually, they found the car at a local motel and placed it under surveillance. Vicky White soon appeared in a wig, alongside the 6-foot-9 Casey, Keely said. They got into the Cadillac and drove away with the marshals secretly following them, but the officers were seen, according to Keely.
The brief chase ended when officers rammed the car. The Cadillac flipped over and, at some point, Vicky White shot herself in the head, authorities said.
As officers pulled them out of the rubble, Casey White blurted out, “Please help my wife, she just shot herself in the head,” Keely said. It was not clear why he referred to Vicky as his wife. Investigators quickly handcuffed him and began assisting Vicky as medical teams rushed to the scene.
The chase was over. Sheriff’s officials in Indiana said the two had about $29,000 in cash, four handguns and the AR-15 rifle. Vicky White was pronounced dead at the hospital and Casey White was returned Tuesday night to Alabama, where he was expected to face additional charges in addition to the murder case and the 75-year prison sentence he was already serving for attempted murder and other charges. . If he is found guilty at trial for murder, he could face the death penalty.
He told investigators he was prepared to have a shootout with police when he was captured, authorities said. An attorney representing White in the murder case, Jamy Poss, declined to comment.
“This case was solved with just boots on the ground, good police work,” Keely said.
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