Corrections official Vicky White was in phone contact with fugitive murder suspect Casey White in prison months before escape
CBSN
An Alabama sheriff said Thursday that a jail official was in phone contact with a murder suspect in prison many months before helping him escape last week and that her actions suggest their plan had been in the works for some time. Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton previously said that Vicky White had visited Casey Cole White while he was serving time in Donaldson Prison, but on Thursday, Singleton said that was incorrect and that they were "in contact via phone."
Singleton previously said the communication indicates the two had some type of a relationship for possibly up to two years before the escape. The communication occurred after the inmate was transferred out of the county jail in 2020 because of a suspected escape attempt then and before his return to the jail in February for court proceedings in the ongoing murder case against him.
A nationwide manhunt is ongoing for Casey White, who was awaiting trial on a capital murder case, and Vicky White, the assistant director of corrections for the jail in Lauderdale County, after the pair disappeared Friday. Singleton said the ongoing contact stretched back two years and that Vicky White's actions, such as selling her house recently and purchasing an apparent getaway car, indicated there was advance planning.