An arrest warrant has been issued for an Alabama corrections officer who vanished with an inmate she was transporting to court for a non-existent appointment, authorities announced Monday.
Vicki White. assistant director of corrections for Lauderdale County, is wanted for permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree, Sheriff Rick Singleton said at a press conference.
“We consider both of them dangerous and in all probability both of them are armed,” US Marshal Marty Keely said at the press conference.
White was last seen Friday when she said she was taking Casey Cole White, who was being held on murder charges, for a mental-health evaluation at the county courthouse.
Based on the evidence, the two went directly to a parking lot where their vehicle was found, the sheriff said, according to WBRC reporter Morgan Hightower.
He said the pair — who share the same last name but are not related — made no attempt to go to the courthouse.
Singleton added that Vicki White’s job was to coordinate transports, so when she told other officers she had to transport the inmate from jail she was not questioned by anyone.
The US Marshals Service has offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to Casey Cole White’ capture.
He “is believed to be a serious threat to the corrections officer and the public,” Marty Keely, US Marshal for the Northern District of Alabama, said in a statement.
The inmate was charged with two counts of capital murder in September 2020 in the stabbing death of Connie Ridgeway, 58, the agency said.
He had been serving a 75-year sentence for a 2015 crime spree, including holding six people at gunpoint — and shooting one of them and a dog, WBRC reported.
Vicki White told colleagues she was bringing the inmate to a mental health evaluation — but there was no such appointment on the court’s schedule, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said Friday.
She had also claimed that after dropping the prisoner off, she was going to seek medical attention because she didn’t feel well, Singleton said.
She was alone when she transported the accused murderer, “a strict violation of policy,” he said at a press conference.
