After they eluded authorities for greater than 10 days and made it about 300 miles north from Alabama to Indiana, the finish 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 aren’t 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 keeping with Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Sheriff Dave Wedding.
In six totally different autos, police chased the pair for about 2 miles, with a number of legislation enforcement autos ramming the Cadillac sedan the couple have been touring in till it flipped onto its facet in a ditch, Wedding mentioned.
Shortly afterward, Vicky White fatally shot herself in the head, authorities mentioned. 911 audio launched Wednesday caught a few of her final feedback.
“Airbags are going off,” she is heard saying in the audio launched by police. “Let’s get out and run. Should have stayed at the … hotel.”
Casey White was taken into custody after the crash.
Four handguns and a number of semi-automatic weapons, together with an AR-15, have been recovered from the couple’s automotive, authorities mentioned. Casey White supposed to have a shootout with police, Wedding mentioned.
NBC News 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 information from the time they disappeared till they ran out of luck this week in southwest Indiana.
Preparing the escape
Vicky White, 56, the former assistant director of corrections at the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Alabama, has been referred to as the “mastermind” behind the escape by Lauderdale Sheriff Rick Singleton.
Singleton mentioned 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 legislation enforcement.
Authorities mentioned she was concerned in a two-year relationship with inmate Casey White, 38, who was dealing with capital homicide prices in the stabbing loss of life of Connie Ridgeway, 58.
He was already serving time in state jail on different convictions when he was indicted in the 2015 killing, officers have mentioned. He was taken again to Lauderdale County for trial in the homicide case.
The day they disappeared, Vicky White cleared out deputies from the jail who transported inmates, Singleton mentioned. She then escorted Casey White by herself, despite the fact that coverage required that two deputies transport such inmates, he mentioned.
Their cowl story was that Casey White needed to go to courtroom for a psychological well being analysis. But no such analysis was ever scheduled. The plot unfolded on a Friday — the courtroom’s busiest day, Singleton mentioned.
Vicky White’s information of the interior 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 two had vanished collectively, Singleton mentioned.
He added that earlier than her disappearance, Vicky White offered her residence and had entry to about $90,000.
She purchased a Ford Edge the pair used to get out of the state. It was one in all a number of automobiles 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 mentioned.
On the morning of the disappearance, officers mentioned, Vicky White was seen on video trying out of a Quality Inn in Florence, Alabama.
“This is probably the most bizarre thing I’ve ever been involved in,” Singleton mentioned. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff over my career. This is not the first escape that I’ve been involved in. But I’ve never seen anything that was calculated and planned and executed the way this escape was.”
Singleton mentioned the couple’s alleged plotting was like “chipping away at a rock wall.”
Most different escapees “don’t have the kind of resources that Vicky and Casey had,” he mentioned. “They don’t have cash. They don’t have a car waiting on them. They don’t have a change of clothes. Most escapes don’t have those elements. It didn’t help any that we were six hours behind the eight ball already.”
The fugitives remained a step forward of authorities for the higher a part of per week.
The couple flee north
On May 1, two days after the couple disappeared, investigators started piecing collectively that Vicky White had lately purchased the 2007 Ford Edge, Singleton mentioned. The following day, with the assist of the U.S. Marshals Service, authorities confirmed the pair had fled in that automobile.
The subsequent massive break in the case got here Thursday, when investigators discovered the Edge deserted on the facet of a street in Williamson County, Tennessee. Authorities mentioned 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 have been subsequent tracked down in Indiana, officers mentioned.
A desk worker at Motel 41, the place the couple have been hiding out earlier than they acquired caught, mentioned a person rented a room for the couple on May 2.
The worker, who requested to not be named, mentioned 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, mentioned Wedding, the Vanderburgh County sheriff.
On Monday, the couple paid money for a further week’s keep at the resort, the motel employee mentioned. She famous she had seen Vicky White carrying a wig round.
“Nobody knew they were escaped or fugitives or none of that stuff until yesterday when they got caught,” the employee mentioned.
Daily charges at the motel have been about $63.
The couple gave the impression to be in Indiana for a couple of week.
Security video obtained by investigators confirmed Casey White on May 3 at an Evansville automotive 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, at the automotive wash.
The pair used not less than three automobiles, two of which have been ditched, throughout their time on the run, officers mentioned.
In addition to the weapons present in the couple’s Cadillac, authorities mentioned there have been additionally wigs and $29,000 in the automobile.
The supposed plan stays unclear
Neither sheriff, Wedding nor Singleton, mentioned 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 mentioned that when Casey White acquired out of the Cadillac on Monday, he exclaimed: “Please help my wife. She just shot herself in the head, and I didn’t do it.”
Singleton mentioned: “I don’t know if Casey White is going to be cooperative in that regard or not. … It would be nice to know what they had in mind.”
Singleton believes their plan to flee stalled in Indiana as a result of they realized they have been in peril each minute they have been in public.
“All the national media attention drove them underground. They had to lay low because their descriptions are out there,” Singleton mentioned. “That’s why they were holed up in that motel for several days.”