Their operation seems to have been thought out down to the smallest detail. And the surprise effect was total. Who would have thought to be wary of Vicky White, who has never made waves within the prison administration of Florence, a small town in this state in the south of the United States? “She never did anything. I bet she never even had a speeding ticket,” her mother said in disbelief. Sheriff’s ‘model employee’, described by county attorney as ‘most trusted person in jail’, who oversaw prisoner transfers for Lauderdale County Sheriff is now one of the most wanted people from the country.
Distanced
When she shows up at the Florence prison on Friday morning to take Casey White away, under the false pretense of a psychological evaluation in court, a vehicle is already waiting for her parked in the parking lot of a nearby shopping centre, which she bought in anticipation of the run. On the remote surveillance images of the prison, however, nothing suggests that the tattooed giant and the prison official are in cahoots. She holds the door for him but doesn’t give him a look until the moment to get him in chains, feet and hands, aboard his police car. Then, she carefully closes the door and the vehicle drives away shortly after 9:30 a.m.
AFP
Their disappearance will only be discovered several hours later, around 3:30 p.m. The investigators in pursuit of them seem to be left behind. The fugitives were last seen on Friday, the day of the escape, about 40 miles from prison in a rust-colored Ford SUV. The hunt fascinates Internet users in the region, who went back to the dealership where Vicky White had bought this car.
The seller was bombarded with criticism, so much so that the authorities assured that he had provided valuable assistance in the investigation and that « no one at the dealership (was) suspected of having helped » the two White. The elements unfavorable to the official have accumulated for six days. We learned that she recently sold her house on the cheap, pocketing $95,000. After 17 years of good and loyal service to the sheriff, she had also announced that she was retiring… and Friday was precisely her last day.
» Preferential treatment «
The story, possibly of love, had begun in 2020. Casey White, who was serving a 75-year sentence in state prison for kidnapping, burglary and attempted murder, among other things, suddenly comes out responsible for the murder of a woman five years earlier. The confessions are short-lived – he will eventually plead not guilty in this still ongoing case – but trigger his transfer to Lauderdale County Jail, where he is served with arraignment for the murder and where he meets Vicky White for the first time. He is sent back to his original prison after an escape plan, but the pair keep in touch.
AFP
« He told me he was writing to someone but I had no idea who it was, » his mother, Connie White, told the New York Post. He returned to Florence prison in February this year, to attend a court hearing nearby. For several months the inmate then took advantage of what Sheriff Rick Singleton described as a « special relationship » with Vicky White. “We have no evidence of any physical relationship,” notes the sheriff, but the other prisoners denounced “privileges”, the “rab” in the canteen and the “things she did for him and not for the others « .