Corrections official and escaped inmate captured in Indiana

Alabama corrections official Vicky White and escaped capital murder suspect Casey Cole White were found Monday after a 10-day manhunt, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said. Both were apprehended alive in Indiana, and Casey White has been returned to custody, Singleton said. 

The capture came after a citizen tip led authorities to Evansville, Indiana, more than 200 miles from where they initially disappeared. Authorities pursued the pair in a Ford F-150, with Casey White driving and Vicky White as a passenger, before the truck crashed, Singleton said. 

Casey White surrendered without incident, Singleton said. Vicky suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and has since been hospitalized, the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed to CBS News. Her condition is not yet clear. 

“We got a very dangerous man off the streets today,” Singleton said. “And he is never going to see the light of day again.” 

Singleton said it’s not clear why the pair was in Evansville. 

Singleton said they will be extradited to Alabama and will be incarcerated separately, with Casey White arraigned quickly in Lauderdale County before he’s transferred to the Department of Corrections. He said Vicky White will not be detained in the facility where she used to work. 

Singleton said the escape incident showed him it’s hard to know who to trust.

“You know, I had every bit of trust in Vicky White. She has been an exemplary employee,” he said. “And what in the world provoked her or prompted her to pull something like this, I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.” 

The news comes more than a week after the pair’s April 29 disappearance. Vicky White told her colleagues that morning that she was taking Casey White to the courthouse for a mental health evaluation, authorities said. But her patrol vehicle was found in a parking lot hours later — and by 3:30 p.m., officials realized that both she and Casey White were missing. 

Authorities later said there had been no scheduled mental health evaluation, adding that it appears Vicky White — who was supposed to retire at the end of the day — drove her patrol vehicle to the parking lot where it was later found immediately after leaving the courthouse with Casey White. 

Singleton said the pair had a “special relationship” and that they were in contact over the phone for months before Casey White’s escape. Singleton said there is currently no evidence that the relationship was physical or sexual.

White had initially been charged with permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree, and was also charged Monday with forgery in the second degree and identity theft for allegedly using an alias to obtain a vehicle used in the escape. 

Matthew Mosk contributed reporting.