In an obscure Indiana city on the banks of the Ohio River, the 11-day manhunt for escaped convict Casey Cole White and his jailboss girlfriend Vicky White got here to a crashing finish.
The Alabama fugitives, who’d been in a “jailhouse romance” for almost two years earlier than Vicky broke Casey out of the Lauderdale County jail on April 29, have been discovered hiding in plain sight at a dingy, roadside motel some 300 miles away on Monday.
With cops scorching on their tail, they fled the Motel 41 in Evansville and led police on a chase that ended later that afternoon when members of the US Marshals Service rammed into the couple’s newest getaway automobile, sending it careening right into a ditch.
The pair had deliberate to finish their time on the run in a bloody blaze of glory by beginning a shootout with police — however as a substitute, Vicky turned the gun on herself the second cops closed in, whereas Casey surrendered.
Contained in the Cadillac the couple had been driving, police discovered greater than $29,000 in money, a collection of wigs they used to disguise themselves and a small arsenal, together with 4 handguns and an AR-15, police stated.
Investigators later decided they’d paid a homeless man to test them into their lodge, the place they stayed for a couple of week, so they may fly underneath the radar.
“They’re criminals. Their plan was defective and it failed. Thank God,” Vanderburgh County Sheriff David Marriage ceremony advised reporters throughout a press convention Tuesday.
“Members of the US activity power principally rammed the car and pushed it right into a ditch and we later discovered had they not finished that, the fugitive was going to interact in a shootout with regulation enforcement. That motion might have saved a lot of my deputies and fellow regulation enforcement officers’ lives.
“I commend them for a job nicely finished.”
Whereas police nabbed the couple in the long run, the star-crossed lovers left behind a path of bread crumbs on their journey north from Alabama — and it was suggestions from the general public that lastly did them in.
The start of a “well-planned” escape
On the morning of April 29, Vicky advised her coworkers it was her final day on the job because the Lauderdale County assistant director of corrections after submitting her retirement paperwork the night time earlier than.
Unbeknownst to them, nonetheless, Vicky had bought her Lexington dwelling about 10 days prior, drained her financial institution accounts and had been sleeping at a High quality Inn for the final two nights as she ready to embark on what police referred to as a “well-planned” escape.
The 56-year-old widow was wrapping up near 17 years with the division and when she advised them she’d be transporting Casey, 38, by herself to a psychological well being analysis, they didn’t query her, though it was towards protocol to drive an inmate alone.
Vicky pulled her sheriff’s cruiser into the jail’s sally port at roughly 9:29 a.m. that morning and was captured on surveillance video strolling out minutes later with Casey, who was shackled by the hands and ft and in an orange jumpsuit.
As a substitute of heading to the courthouse for the appointment, which investigators later discovered was by no means scheduled, Vicky drove to the Florence Sq. purchasing middle, ditched her sheriff’s cruiser and took off in an orange 2007 Ford Edge, which she’d purchased underneath an alias.
It wasn’t till 3:30 p.m. that afternoon that investigators realized one thing was terribly incorrect when Casey by no means returned to the detention middle and repeated calls to Vicky’s telephone went to voicemail.
By then, the couple had already crossed state strains and had seemingly vanished.
A number of hours after they left, Vicky and Casey ditched the distinctive Ford Edge, which was later discovered crudely spray painted in some elements with a camouflage-like hunter inexperienced, on a rustic street “in the course of nowhere” in Williamson County, Tennessee.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton stated the couple should’ve had a mechanical failure contemplating the conspicuous location the automobile had been left and the way rapidly they deserted it.
At 1:50 p.m. that very same day, a passerby referred to as the native sheriff’s workplace to report the deserted car, which was towed and impounded later that afternoon.
On the time, cops didn’t but know the 2 have been lacking, or that Vicky had bought the Ford Edge, and it took one other week for investigators to hyperlink the automobile to the couple.
Now on foot, the couple wanted to behave quick to get again on the street and so they quickly managed to purchase a Ford F-150 utilizing about $90,000 in money Vicky had pulled out of a collection of banks within the days earlier than their escape.
Three days later, they arrived on the Motel 41 in Evansville the place they paid an area homeless man to hire a room for 14 days, Marriage ceremony stated.
“[Casey] stated that he was simply looking for a spot to cover out and lay low,” Marriage ceremony defined.
“They thought they’d pushed lengthy sufficient and so they wished to cease for some time, get their bearings straight and work out their subsequent place to journey.”
Casey, a hulking determine at 6-foot-9 with eyes tattooed to the again of his head and a smattering of white supremacist ink throughout his physique, as a substitute determined to take the F-150 to the Weinbach Automobile Wash the next day. He was caught on surveillance footage, sporting a hat and sun shades, inexplicably washing the truck.
He later deserted it and took off in a Cadillac, cops stated, however the determination finally proved deadly.
James Stinson, the automobile wash’s supervisor, observed the truck final Wednesday and instantly thought it was suspicious, he advised Information Nation.
“I walked as much as the truck and went, ‘Oh my God, it’s in all probability this man from Alabama.’ I walked and seemed within the truck as a result of I feel he may very well be useless, handed out, who is aware of? So I backed up. I opened the door, the keys are in it. I begin it up,” Stinson advised Information Nation.
“They despatched a cop out. The cop says, ‘Effectively, there ain’t nothing I can do. It’s not reported stolen.’ ”
It took one other 4 days for the US Marshals Service to appreciate the truck was related to Casey and Vicky and by then, Stinson had already had the automobile towed.
“[The USMS] requested me the place did you tow it? And I advised him, so then they stated, nicely, there are going to be flood of marshals at your home in half-hour. Effectively, he by no means confirmed up until the subsequent morning,” Stinson advised the outlet.
“The information media is what flushed them out. Y’all doing all of your job, they have been hiding in plain sight, however y’all flushed them out so that they have been in a position to get caught.”
The subsequent day, the couple was taken into custody — with Vicky barely clinging to life after struggling a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the top, cops and officers stated.
She died Monday night, the identical day she was hit with expenses of id theft and forgery, along with a allowing or facilitating escape cost filed shortly after she fled.
On Tuesday, Vicky’s trigger demise was formally dominated a suicide by Vanderburgh County Coroner Steve Lockyear, WAAY-TV reported.
Twisted legal historical past
Little is thought in regards to the couple’s plan, or the true extent of their relationship, however Singleton believes they first met in August 2020 when Casey was transferred to the Lauderdale County jail to face homicide expenses.
On the time, Casey had been serving out a 75-year sentence on the Williamson E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum-security jail, in Bessemer after he was convicted of a 2015 crime spree that concerned tried homicide, kidnapping and armed theft.
That summer time, he penned a letter to Lt. Brad Potts of the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s workplace allegedly confessing to the stabbing demise of Connie Ridgeway, 58, on Oct. 23, 2015 in a house invasion.
Potts, one of many lead investigators within the case, claims that Casey stated he was paid to homicide Ridgeway after which supplied details about the crime that had by no means earlier than been made public.
Casey’s mom Connie White disputes that Casey killed Ridgeway — and stated he simply wished to get again to the Lauderdale County lockup.
“The one cause he got here out to Lauderdale County was to get out of the jail he was in,” Connie beforehand advised The Publish.
“He wrote a letter to say that he murdered that girl however he didn’t actually homicide her, he simply finished that to get again up right here … He simply wished to be out of that jail as a result of it was so dangerous and there was no meals.”
She stated she didn’t know who Vicky was however did say that Casey had a “pen pal” that he’d been conserving in contact with.
“Respect” for Vicky
For almost two years, Casey was out and in of the Lauderdale jail the place Vicky labored as his new homicide case wound its means via courtroom. All of the whereas, the pair grew cozier and cozier and every time Casey was transferred again to the Donaldson jail, the 2 stored in contact by telephone, Singleton stated.
Throughout her tenure with Lauderdale County, Vicky gained a repute for treating some inmates “above par” and creating relationships with them, Chad Hunt, the commander of the US Marshals Service’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Job Power, advised WAAY 31.
“She handled these inmates above par, if you'll. They'd a whole lot of respect for her,” Hunt stated, as he expressed concern that a few of these inmates may’ve helped Vicky whereas she was on the run.
“A number of the issues that we've to account [for] and sit again and have a look at is 17 years’ value of contact with different inmates which can be probably out now… Is that one other avenue that she’s exploiting?”
As for Casey, his mom Connie insists that he’s no “monster” and a former legal professional of his stated he’s mentally ailing and hooked on medication.
“When he’s on remedy and in a supervised setting … he’s a good individual,” legal professional Dale Bryant advised native information station WAFF final week.
“When he will get out of incarceration, he's unable to remain on his remedy and he even self-medicates by smoking methamphetamine or taking different unlawful substances.”
Bryant precisely predicted Casey was planning suicide by cop and stated he tried the identical factor in 2015 following his crime spree.
“He was attempting to get the officers to shoot him and that's form of my worry, how this example goes to finish,” he stated Friday.
“Casey might attempt to shoot [cops] to try to get them to shoot him.”
For now, the fugitive’s plan has failed.
He’ll be hauled again to Alabama for an arraignment late Tuesday night time and really probably despatched again the place he began — a maximum-security lockup.
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