US authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for any information about an inmate and a guard who went missing from a north Alabama jail.
The inmate is Casey Cole White, 38, who was being held for murder at the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence, Alabama, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) west of Huntsville.
The inmate and the prison’s deputy director, Vicky White, 56, left the site Friday morning for court, police said in a Facebook post on Saturday. Authorities say there is no relationship between the two.
“Casey White is considered a serious threat to the officer and to the entire community,” US Marshal Marty Keely, US Marshal for North Alabama, said in a statement Sunday.
While in state prison in 2020, Casey confessed to stabbing Connie Ridgeway to death in 2015, WHNT-TV reported.
Vicky White has been with the department for 16 years. At a news conference Friday, Singleton said she was armed when she left the scene with the inmate, whom she was taking to court for what she said was a psychological evaluation. She was alone with the inmate at the time which violated department policy.
“Our policy is that any inmate accused of such crimes has to be escorted by at least two police officers. And that’s not what happened,” Singleton said.
He added that there was no psychological evaluation scheduled for the inmate that day in court.
The vehicle the two took on their way out of the detention center was found in the parking lot of a nearby shopping center, police said.
Vicky White had told her colleagues that she had a doctor’s appointment that day, which was confirmed, but police said she never went to the appointment. Authorities say no one realized the two were missing until about six hours after they left the prison. The police tried to call Vicky White but only received the answering machine.
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