Missing Alabama inmate Casey White spotted in Indiana close to abandoned vehicle
Surveillance footage captured Casey Cole White at a car wash in Evansville, Indiana, last week along with second getaway vehicle used by fugitives
The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
Missing Alabama inmate Casey Cole White has been spotted in Indiana close to where investigators found a second abandoned vehicle tied to him and his corrections officer lover.
Surveillance footage captured the capital murder suspect entering the Weinbach Car Wash in Evansville, Indiana, back on Tuesday.
The 38-year-old, who is said to be armed and dangerous, is seen wearing a light pink t-shirt, beige pants and a black baseball cap, with his heavily tattooed right arm clearly visible in the image.
US Marshal Commander of the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force Chad Hunt told The Independent that officials had confirmed that White is the man in the image.
Corrections officer Vicky White, who is believed to have been in a romantic relationship with him for the last two years, was not spotted at the car wash, he said.
Investigators descended on the business on Monday following a tip off that a 2006 Ford F-150 had been found abandoned there last Wednesday.
The owner of the car wash then provided investigators with the images of White from the surveillance cameras.
US Marshals believe the truck has been used by the inmate and corrections officer during their time on the run.
Evansville is about 175 miles north of Williamson County, Tennessee, where the couple abandoned their first getaway car – a rust-coloured 2007 Ford Edge.
On Friday, the US Marshals Service announced that the Ford Edge had been found along a rural road in Tennessee around a two hour drive north of the Lauderdale County jail where the inmate was being held prior to his 29 April prison break.
Officials said the couple left the jail in Ms White’s patrol car before abandoning the vehicle in the parking lot of a nearby shopping centre and changing into the getaway car.
However, officials believe they were forced to switch vehicles again after the Ford Edge broke down.
The Ford Edge was actually located just hours after the pair disappeared and was taken to a tow lot in Williamson County – but its connection to the case was only realised on Friday.
The second getaway vehicle had been reported missing near Nashville, Tennessee, sometime after the Ford Edge was found abandoned.
Officials admitted that the time lapse in identifying the Ford Edge as the getaway car marked another “setback” in the manhunt after the couple already had a six-hour headstart before jail staff even noticed them missing.
Monday’s sighting comes as the huge manhunt for the fugitives entered its second week and new charges were filed against Ms White, who – prior to the prison break – had been described as a star employee.
The 56-year-old was slapped with new charges of identity theft and second-degree forgery on Monday for allegedly using an alias to buy the Ford Edge which was “used to facilitate the escape”.
An arrest warrant was first issued last week charging her with one felony count of permitting or aiding an escape.
New details continue to emerge indicating the high level of planning that went into the escape, with surveillance footage showing Ms White at a hotel just hours before they vanished.
The video, shared by the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday, shows Ms White pacing in front of the reception desk at a Quality Inn at around 5.21am on Friday 29 April.
The 56-year-old, who is dressed in a dark sweatshirt with her blonde hair worn loose around her shoulders, peers over the counter before walking away.
The footage was captured on the morning of the prison breakout, with officials saying Ms White stayed at the budget hotel for two nights before going on the run with convict Casey Cole White.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said that the Quality Inn is next to the shopping centre where the couple abandoned Ms White’s patrol car in the parking lot and transferred into the getaway vehicle.
Separate security footage has also shown Ms White allegedly buying men’s clothes for White at a department store and also visiting an “adult store” not long before they went on the run.
Sheriff Singleton told CNN that she “obviously had a change of clothes” for White and that it points to the escape being “very well planned and calculated”.
The sheriff said that the couple had been in what he described as a “jailhouse romance” or “special relationship” for the last two years.
He said that there is evidence that they had been in contact since 2020 when White was transferred out of the county jail after he was rumbled plotting another prison escape.
Ms White allegedly communicated with him by phone before the inmate was then transferred back to the local jail in February.
On his return, White had received special treatment from the corrections officer including being given extra food on his trays, officials said.
Ms White had also sold her home just five weeks earlier for well below its market value, withdrew $90,000 in cash from her bank accounts and filed for retirement days before the pair vanished.
Her last day of work was the day she disappeared, though her retirement papers had not been finalised.
After selling her home, she moved in with her mother who previously said that she knew nothing about her daughter’s plans to retire and had never heard her speak of White.
A warrant is out for the arrests of both the inmate and corrections officer and a reward of $15,000 is being offered for information leading to their capture.
The sheriff’s office said that Ms White, who is not related to the inmate, picked him up from the detention centre at around 9.30am on 29 April claiming that she was taking him for a mental health evaluation at Lauderdale County Courthouse.
She told her coworkers that once she had escorted him to court she was going to seek medical attention for herself as she felt unwell.
They never arrived at the courthouse and neither the corrections officer nor the inmate have been seen since.
Sheriff Singleton said that they later learned that White had no scheduled court appearance or appointments that day.
Ms White’s 2013 Ford Taurus patrol car was found abandoned in the parking lot of a shopping centre not far from the jail at around 11am that day.
Sheriff Singleton said that Ms White, who coordinates all inmate transportation, broke protocol by taking the inmate out of the jail alone.
Due to the severity of charges against Mr White and his previous prison break attempt, it is policy that he must be escorted by two sworn deputies at all times including when he is transported to and from the courthouse.
But, despite the breach, the alarm was only raised several hours after the pair left the jail on Friday morning.
At around 3.30pm that afternoon, Ms White’s coworkers grew concerned that she hadn’t returned and they were unable to reach her by phone.
It was only then that they also realised that Mr White had also not returned to jail.
Members of the public have been urged to call authorities and not to approach the escapees, who are considered “dangerous” and may be armed with an AR-15 rifle, handguns and a shotgun.
White is awaiting trial on capital murder charges over the 2015 stabbing murder of 58-year-old mother Connie Ridgeway.
Ms Ridgeway was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Rogersville, Alabama, on 23 October 2015.
The case went unsolved for five years until Mr White sent a letter to authorities confessing to the crime.
At the time he was already behind bars serving a 75-year sentence after being convicted of a crime spree in both Alabama and Tennessee.
The spree includes a home invasion, carjacking and a police chase, with White shooting one person and holding six at gunpoint.
In 2020, Mr White was charged with two counts of capital murder over the killing of Ms Ridgeway.
The Marshals Service said that White had also threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and her sister in 2015, and previously said that he wanted to be killed by police.
In the early aftermath of the prison escape, the sheriff described Ms White as and “exemplary employee” who had worked as a corrections officer for more than two decades.
It has since emerged that she helped to orchestrate the escape of the man she is in some sort of relationship with, according to officials.
Authorities have released images of how Ms White would look if she changed her blonde hair to a darker colour or shorter cut.
They also released pictures of White’s distinctive tattoos including symbols tied to white supremacist groups and what appears to be a Confederate flag.