Missing Alabama prisoner Casey Cole White was spotted in Indiana near where investigators found a second abandoned vehicle tied to him and his police lover.
Surveillance footage captured a murder suspect entering the Weinbach car wash in Evansville, Indiana, on Tuesday.
The 38-year-old, who is said to be armed and dangerous, is seen wearing a light pink T-shirt, beige pants and a black baseball cap, with his heavily tattooed right arm clearly visible in the image.
The Marshal of the United States, commander of the regional task force for refugees on the shores of the Persian Gulf Chad Hunt, told The Independent that officials have confirmed that White is the man in the picture.
Correction worker Vicky White, who is believed to have been in a romantic relationship with him for the past two years, was not seen in the car wash, he said.
Investigators went into business on Monday after reports that a 2006 Ford F-150 was found abandoned there last Wednesday.
The car wash owner then provided investigators with images of White from surveillance cameras.
U.S. marshals believe the truck was used by a prisoner and a police officer during their escape.
Evansville is located about 275 miles north of Williamson County, Tennessee, where the couple abandoned their first escape car, a 2007 rust-colored Ford Edge.
The U.S. Marshall Office said Friday that the Ford Edge was found on a rural road in Tennessee, about a two-hour drive north of Lauderdale County Jail, where the inmate was detained before his escape from prison on April 29.
Officials said the couple left the prison in Ms. White’s patrol car before abandoning the vehicle in a nearby mall parking lot and moving into the escape car.
However, officials believe they were forced to change vehicles again after the Ford Edge broke down.
The Ford Edge was actually found just hours after the pair disappeared and was taken to a tow to Williamson County – but his connection to the case was not established until Friday.
The second escape car was reported missing near Nashville, Tennessee after a Ford Edge was found abandoned.
Officials admitted that the lapse of time in identifying the Ford Edge as an escape car marked another “failure” in the search, after the couple had already had a six-hour start, before prison officials even noticed them missing.
Casey White was spotted by CCTV footage at a car wash in Indiana
(US Marshall Service)
Vicki White was not spotted at the car wash with her alleged lover
(US Marshall Service)
Monday’s appearance comes as a large-scale search for the fugitives enters its second week, and new charges have been filed against Ms. White, who – before her escape from prison – was described as a star employee.
The 56-year-old man was charged again with identity theft and second-degree forgery on Monday for using a pseudonym to buy a Ford Edge that was “used to facilitate escape”.
An arrest warrant was issued for the first time last week, accusing her of a crime of allowing or aiding an escape.
New details continue to emerge, showing the high level of planning involved in the escape, with surveillance footage showing that Ms. White was at the hotel just hours before she disappeared.
A video shared by the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday shows Ms. White walking in front of the Quality Inn reception at around 5:21 a.m. Friday, April 29.
The 56-year-old, who is wearing a dark sweatshirt with her blond hair around her shoulders, peeks over the counter before walking away.
The footage was taken on the morning of his escape from prison, with officials saying Ms. White stayed at the budget hotel for two nights before escaping with convicted Casey Cole White.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said the Quality Inn was next to the mall, where the couple abandoned Ms. White’s patrol car in the parking lot and got into the getaway.
Separate security footage also shows that Ms. White claims to buy men’s clothing for White at a department store and also visits an “adult store” shortly before they run away.
Investigators believe this is the couple’s second escape vehicle. He was found in Indiana last week
(US Marshall Service)
Sheriff Singleton told CNN that she “apparently had a change of clothes” for White and that this showed that the escape was “very well planned and calculated.”
The sheriff said the couple had been in what he described as a “prison romance” or “special relationship” for the past two years.
He said there was evidence that they had been in contact since 2020, when White was transferred from the county jail after being directed to plan another escape from prison.
Ms White reportedly spoke to him on the phone before the prisoner was returned to the local jail in February.
Upon his return, White received special treatment from the correctional officer, including giving him extra food on trays, officials said.
Ms. White had also sold her home just five weeks earlier for well below market value, withdrew $ 90,000 in cash from her bank accounts and applied for retirement days before the couple disappeared.
Her last working day was the day she disappeared, although her retirement documents were not finalized.
After selling her home, she moved in with her mother, who previously said she knew nothing about her daughter’s plans to retire and had never heard of her talking about White.
The US Marshals Service has published new images of Casey Cole White’s distinctive tattoos
(US Marshall Service)
White has tattoos associated with white supremacy gangs and what appears to be the Confederate flag
(US Marshall Service)
An arrest warrant has been issued for both the prisoner and the police officer, and a $ 15,000 reward has been offered for information leading to their arrest.
The sheriff’s office said Ms. White, who is not related to the inmate, picked him up from the detention center at about 9:30 a.m. on April 29, claiming she was taking him to a mental health assessment in Lauderdale County Court.
She told her colleagues that after escorting him to court, she would seek medical help for herself because she was not feeling well.
They never arrived at the courthouse, and neither the police nor the prisoner have been seen since.
Sheriff Singleton said they later learned that White had no planned appearance in court or appointments that day.
Ms. White’s 2013 Ford Taurus patrol car was found abandoned in the parking lot of a mall near the jail around 11 a.m. that day.
Sheriff Singleton said Ms. White, who coordinates the entire transportation of inmates, violated the protocol by taking the inmate out of jail herself.
Due to the gravity of the charges against Mr White and his previous attempts to escape from prison, the policy is for him to be escorted by two sworn deputies at all times, including when transported to and from the courthouse.
But despite the violation, the alarm was raised just hours after the two left prison on Friday morning.
At around 3.30pm that afternoon, Mrs White’s colleagues were worried that she had not returned and could not be reached by telephone.
Only then did they realize that Mr. White had not returned to prison either.
Photos shared by employees of what Vicki White would look like with darker and shorter hair
(US Marshall Service)
The public is urged to call the authorities and not to approach the fugitives, who are considered “dangerous” and may be armed with AR-15 rifles, pistols and rifles.
White is awaiting trial on charges of the murder of 58-year-old mother Connie Ridgeway in 2015.
Mrs. Ridgeway was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Rodgersville, Alabama, on October 23, 2015.
The case remained unresolved for five years, until Mr. White sent a letter to the authorities acknowledging the crime.
He was already behind bars at the time, serving a 75-year sentence after being convicted of a crime in Alabama and Tennessee.
The riots included a home break-in, car theft and police harassment, with White shooting a man and keeping six at gunpoint.
In 2020, Mr. White was charged with two counts of murder for the murder of Mrs. Ridgeway.
The marshals’ office said White also threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and sister in 2015, and had previously said he wanted to be killed by police.
At the beginning of his escape from prison, the sheriff described Ms. White as an “exemplary officer” who had worked as a correctional officer for more than two decades.
It has since become clear that she helped organize the escape of the man she is in a relationship with, according to officials.
Authorities have released photos of what Ms. White would look like if she changed her blonde hair to a darker color or a shorter haircut.
They also released photos of White’s distinctive tattoos, including symbols associated with white supremacy groups and what appears to be a Confederate flag.
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