Vicky White news - latest: Recordings of jailhouse phone calls prove guard’s relationship with Casey White
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Capital murder suspect Casey White is likely to face new charges following his prison break, according to the DA prosecuting his case.
In the aftermath of his 10-day evasion — made possible with the help of correctional officer Vicky White, who died by suicide during a police chase — more details have emerged about how the couple managed to stay under the radar for more than week.
Dramatic police footage captured the moment a nationwide manhunt ended in Indiana earlier this week after White, an inmate serving a 75-year sentence for attempted murder, was apprehended and his 56-year-old lover Ms White’s body was pulled from a wrecked vehicle. She died from what a coroner ruled to be a self-inflicted shooting wound.
A chilling 911 call released following the crash revealed Ms White telling the capital murder suspect: “Let’s get out and run”. She also appeared to blame White for wanting to stay “at a f****** motel” moments before their crash.
An investigation into the ordeal is still ongoing as police face mounting questions over how the fugitives evaded capture for over a week.
How Alabama inmate Casey White and guard Vicky White stayed on the run for 10 days amid nationwide manhunt 
Attempted murder, fatal stabbing and an ex’s mystery ‘suicide’: Casey White’s long history with the law before jail breakout with prison guard lover 
From employee of the year to fugitive: Unanswered questions Vicky White takes to the grave
Police phone call recordings show relationship between guard Vicky White and Alabama inmate Casey White
Everything we know about dead Alabama prison officer and murder suspect she disappeared with
The US Marshals Service captured Casey White on Monday last week after receiving a tip on the Indiana location of the couple — Casey White and prison guard Vicky White.
In the aftermath of Casey White’s 10-day prison break — made possible with the help of the correctional officer, who died by suicide during a police chase — more details have emerged about how the couple managed to stay under the radar for so long.
Read more on what we know about the case so far:
Everything we know about dead Alabama prison officer and murder suspect
Vicky White died from injuries hours after nationawide manhunt came to an end, Indiana coroner confirms
Vicky White’s ex-husband died just three months before prison break
Vicky White’s first and only husband died just three months before she staged a dramatic prison break that ended with her death.
Ms White, 56, was married to Tommy White for around five years until they divorces in 2006.
Tommy’s mother Frances White told The Independent that the marriage came to an end due to Tommy’s issues with alcohol and drug addiction.
Frances, 88, said she couldn’t fault Ms White for ending the relationship saying that she “had a hard time” with her son.
Despite the divorce, Frances said she stayed close to her former daughter-in-law.
Ms White and her ex-husband also remained friends right up until his death at the age of 62 after a battle with Parkinson’s Disease in January.
“They stayed friends after the divorce and would talk to each other on the telephone until he couldn’t talk anymore because of the Parkinson’s,” she said.
It was just three months after his death that Ms White helped her jailhouse lover escape.
According to Sheriff Singleton, the corrections officer and the inmate had been in a romantic relationship for the last two years.
Frances said that, if her son was still alive, he would not have believed her capable of doing something like this.
“He wouldn’t have thought she would do anything like this,” she said.
Fugitives had ‘no long-term plan'
Despite the extensive planning that went into the initial escape, Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly told The Independent that the fugitive couple appeared to have no long-term plan for their future together.
DA Connolly, who worked closely with Ms White for the last 17 years, said he was shocked to discover a lack of planning in the aftermath of the 29 April escape.
“It’s a little surprising to me that she didn’t have any long-term plan about what they were going to do after they got out,” he said.
“It doesn’t seem like there was any long-term plan.”
After 10 days on the run and a headstart on law enforcement, he said it was “shocking” to find them just four hours away from Florence, Alabama, in Evansville, Indiana.
The couple had spent most of their time on the run at a motel in the town where they had paid a homeless man to check them in for a 14-night stay back on 3 May.
Vanderburgh County Sheriff told reporters after their arrest that the Whites were “just trying to find a place to hide out and lay low”.
“They thought [they] had driven long enough that they wanted to stop for a while, get their bearings straight and then figure out their next place to travel,” he said.
The couple appeared to have already burned through most of their cash, with just $29,000 cash found inside the couple’s car – out of the $90,000 Ms White had withdrawn from her bank accounts before going on the run.
Casey White claimed he was also shot in the head
Casey White claimed that he was also shot in the head when he was pulled from the car wreck where his jailhouse lover Vicky White lay dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a police report.
Several law enforcement officers on the scene of Monday’s capture filed supplemental reports with Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office about the capture of the fugitives.
In one report, Evansville Police Officer Sam Shahine says that when White was taken into custody, he could see a small amount of blood on the back side of the fugitive’s head “to which he stated he had been shot also”.
Despite claiming he had also been shot, White allegedly urged officers to treat “his wife”.
“The offender was adamant that he was okay and that we needed to tend to his wife,” the officer said.
It is not clear if White was shot or if his injuries were caused when their getaway vehicle flipped and landed in a ditch.
It is also unclear if he was suggesting that he had shot himself or if Ms White had shot him and then herself or if he had been grazed by the bullet that killed Ms White.
Only one gunshot was heard by the officer.
Sgt Erik Nilssen also noted in his supplemental report about the incident that White had blood covering his shirt and coming from the back of his head when he was detained.
The 38-year-old was treated for a head injury on the scene and his bloodsoaked shirt taken as evidence, the report said.
ICYMI: Chilling audio captures Vicky White’s final words
Chilling 911 audio has captured Vicky White’s final moments as she told her jailhouse lover “let’s get out and run” moments before investigators say she fatally shot herself in the head.
The audio, released on Tuesday night, reveals the 56-year-old’s last words she said to Casey Cole White, the 38-year-old convict who she allegedly helped break out of jail and went on the run with for 10 days.
“The airbags are going to go off and kill us,” she cries in the audio, sounding panicked.
“Airbags are going off. Let’s get out and run,” she says.
Listen to the audio here:
Series of missed opportunities enabled fugitives to stay on run for 10 days
For 10 days, an inmate accused of capital murder and a female corrections officer with a previously unblemished record managed to dip under the radar of multiple law enforcement teams.
Armed with a trove of firearms, around $90,000 in cash and various coloured wigs as disguises, Casey Cole White and Vicky White travelled across at least four US states and switched getaway vehicles at least four times.
The couple, who are believed to have been in a romantic relationship for around two years, had finally been tracked down to a motel in Evansville, Indiana, last Monday.
The net closed in on the couple after surveillance footage captured White at a car wash in Evansville days earlier – where one of the getaway vehicles was also abandoned.
But, according to the car wash owner, authorities failed to act on his tip about the vehicle for almost a week all the while the fugitives were holed up in a motel opposite the local sheriff’s office.
Law enforcement officials were one step behind the fugitives from the get-go with a six-hour gap before they were even noticed missing and a getaway car taking a week to identify.
It seems there was a series of missed opportunities that enabled the corrections officer and the inmate to slip through the net for 10 days.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
How Alabama inmate and guard stayed on the run for 10 days amid nationwide manhunt
Law enforcement officials were one step behind the fugitives from the get-go before finally tracking them down after 10 days on the run. Rachel Sharp explains the apparent missed opportunities in the manhunt
Case reopened into mystery death of Casey White’s ex-girlfriend
The case has been reopened into the mysterious death of Casey White’s former girlfriend in the aftermath of the dramatic prison escape and death of Vicky White.
Back on 1 February 2008, White’s then-girlfriend Christy Shelton was shot in the chest by a sawed-off shotgun inside an Alabama home belonging to White’s mother.
Ms Shelton, 31, died on the scene.
White was in the home with her at the time of the shooting but was ruled out as a suspect.
At the time, officials ruled the 31-year-old’s death as a suicide and the case was closed.
But Ms Shelton’s family has always doubted that version of events, with her daughter Somer Mitchell telling News 19 that “nothing was really done” to investigate her death at the time.
Limestone County Sheriff’s Office said it was reopening the investigation into her death.
Son of Casey White’s alleged victim launch GoFundMe for car wash owner
The son of one of Casey White’s alleged victims has launched a GoFundMe to raise money for the car wash owner who helped track down the escaped fugitive and his jail guard lover.
Austin Williams, whose mother Connie Ridgeway was allegedly stabbed to death by White back in 2015, set up the campaign for James Stinson and have so far raised over $3,600 in donations.
“We’re not waiting around to see if Mr. Stinson receives reward money elsewhere,” reads the GoFundMe page.
“We’re going to do it right here, right now.”
Mr Stinson found the White’s pickup truck abandoned at his business back on 3 May and reported it to police.
The sighting ultimately led to the capture of the couple and calls have been growing for him to be given the reward money offered by authorities for information leading to their capture.
White is currently awaiting trial for the 2015 stabbing murder of 58-year-old mother-of-two Ms 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 White sent a letter to the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office confessing to the crime.
During a subsequent interview with authorities, he allegedly gave details about the crime that had not been made public and which only the killer could have known.
Prosecutors say he was paid to carry out the hit on his victim. He was charged in 2020 with two counts of capital murder.
After confessing to the murder, he initially pleaded guilty before changing his plea to not guilty by reason of mental illness.
His trial is slated to begin in June and, if convicted, he faces the death penalty.
What happens next?
Casey White is now back behind bars at a high security prison in Alabama after he waived his right to extradition last Tuesday.
He appeared in Lauderdale County court that night where he was charged with escape in the first degree.
Lauderdale County DA Chris Connolly told The Independent that he could face additional charges over the prison break and did not rule out bringing charges against him over Ms White’s death.
White’s trial for the capital murder of Ms Ridgeway is scheduled to begin in June.
If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
Vicky White remembered as a ‘solid employee'
Vicky White has been remembered as a “solid employee” by people who knew her during her 17-year career in the local jail.
Ms White, 56, spent her whole life in the close-knit community of Lauderdale County and fell into a job in local law enforcement in 2006 when a role came up and she applied.
For the next 17 years, she rose up the ranks to become assistant director for the Lauderdale County Detention Center and was looked up to by her colleagues.
Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly, who worked closely with her for the last 17 years, told The Independent that she was quit but professional at work.
“She wasn’t a big talker but she was professional in her job and did it well. That’s why she was so well respected and trusted,” he said.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton also described her as an “exemplary employee” who had won the “employee of the year” award five times over the last eight years.
Ms White was due to be honoured in this year’s ceremony this week but it has now been put on hold.