EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) – Vicky White, the corrections officer believed to have helped dangerous suspect Casey White escape from an Alabama jail, has died Monday night at Evansville Deaconess Midtown Hospital.
Authorities say she was hospitalized for a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a police chase and crash in Evansville, Indiana.
An autopsy for Vicky White will be performed Tuesday morning.
U.S. Marshals chased down Casey White, 38, and Vicky White, 56, in a vehicle in Evansville, Indiana, said Alabama officials. Casey was driving and Vicky was a passenger, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said. (While the two have the same last name, they are not related.)
Casey White was in custody and Vicky White was taken to the hospital for treatment, the sheriff said.
“We hope she survives this,” Singleton said of Vicky. The Alabama sheriff did not elaborate on the extent of her injuries, but Indiana authorities told Nexstar’s WHNT she was suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
They were caught more than 200 miles from the Lauderdale County Detention Center.
Police say Vicky White drove to the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence, Alabama on April 29, telling colleagues she was taking inmate Casey White to the courthouse for a mental evaluation. When she did not answer her phone or return in the afternoon, authorities realized the pair had gone missing.
Authorities eventually learned that the evaluation was never scheduled and said it was just a charade to allow her to sneak the inmate out of the jail without suspicion. The discovery triggered a nationwide manhunt.
Casey White was awaiting trial in a capital murder case and Vicky White was assistant director of corrections for Lauderdale County.
“You just don’t know people sometimes,” Singleton said Monday. “You think you do and you really don’t know who they are.”
Vicky White faces up to 10 years in prison if she is convicted for helping an inmate escape, Alabama officials said.
After the escape, police say they found the police cruiser used by Vicky White abandoned in an area near the detention center. An SUV purchased by Vicky White was later impounded in rural Tennessee.
Earlier in the day Monday, surveillance images were released of a man matching the description of Casey White, including a large tattoo on his right forearm, from a car wash in Evansville. U.S. Marshals said investigators were notified Sunday night that a 2006 Ford F-150 was discovered at the car wash.
The time stamp on the video appears to show May 3 as the date. No female is seen in the surveillance pictures provided by authorities, included below.
The car wash manager told WHNT that a woman who looked like Vicky White was also there, and that they abandoned one vehicle and got into another.
According to a release from U.S. Marshals, investigators determined the vehicle was used by Vicky White and Casey White.
Federal investigators believe they had been planning the escape for at least several months.
The Associated Press and NewsNation contributed to this report.
