Alabama jail escapee taken into custody while accomplice dies

An escaped murder suspect and the female corrections officer who allegedly helped him break out of an Alabama jail were taken into custody on Monday in Indiana after a car chase, authorities said.

The officer, who suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, was taken to hospital and later died, they said.

Casey White, the 38-year-old inmate, surrendered after the vehicle he and Vicky White were in crashed following a pursuit by federal law enforcement officers in Indiana, Sheriff Rick Singleton of Lauderdale County, Alabama, said.

Vicky White, the 56-year-old assistant corrections director and suspected accomplice was driving and appeared to have “inflicted herself with a gunshot wound,” said Dave Wedding, sheriff of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, where the two were caught. Casey White had minor injuries; he told CNN.

Vicky White died at the hospital, the Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office said. It did not give the cause of death.

Officials said arrangements had been made for Casey White to be transported back to Alabama to be arraigned on new charges.

Casey White and Vicky White, who are not related, were considered fugitives who were armed and dangerous, and the manhunt was considered to be a top priority for the U.S. Marshals Service.

U.S. Marshal Matt Keely said the vehicular pursuit ended when a U.S. Marshals task force member drove into the Cadillac that Vicky White was driving, CNN reported. The car then rolled over, he said, according to the news outlet.

Casey White, previously accused of a September 2020 stabbing death, will face an escape charge, Singleton said. Vicky White, a 17-year corrections veteran, was near retirement.

“This escape was obviously well planned and calculated,” Singleton said, adding that there is no evidence of outside assistance.

Casey White was already serving time for 2015 crimes, including home invasion and carjacking.

He was seen handcuffed and shackled in the custody of Vicky White, leaving the jail in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, about 65 miles west of Huntsville, in late April. At the time, she was believed to be transporting him from the detention center to the courthouse for a mental evaluation.

Authorities realized the two had gone missing after the patrol car was found left in a shopping center parking lot.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Christopher Cushing)