Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - ON THE RUN: Beautiful Blonde Warden "Missing" With Killer

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

Corrections officer Vicky White helped murder suspect Casey Cole escape, according to Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton. Singleton joined Crime Stories today saying what's not known is if Vicky White did it willingly. Singleton pointed out Vicky White broke several protocols to facilitate this escape. Casey White, (no relation) who was serving a 75-year prison sentence for a multi-day, multi-state string of violent crimes in 2015, was also awaiting trial on capital murder charges. Friday — the day of the escape — was supposed to be Vicky White’s last day of work, as she had recently put in for retirement and sold her house. A warrant for Vicky White’s arrest charging her with assisting in the escape has been issued. US Marshals have offered a $5,000 reward offered for information leading to her arrest. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Sheriff Rick Singleton - Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office, Facebook: "Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office"  Matthew Mangino - Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Former Parole Board Member, Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States"  Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, www.drbethanymarshall.com, New Netflix show: 'Bling Empire' (Beverly Hills)  Percy Pitzer - Former Federal Warden, 30-year career in Corrections, Founder 'Creative Corrections Education Foundation' www.creativecorrections.com D'Quan Lee - Multimedia Journalist / Reporter, WAFF 48 (Huntsville, AL), Twitter: @DQuan_Lee, Instagram: @DQuanLee  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A murder takes place. The sheriffs, the police, investigators move heaven and earth to catch the killer, bringing some peace to the murder victim's family. And he goes to jail. Right? Wrong. Enter a female jail warden.

Somehow, she and the killer disappear together. What? Yes. Disappear together. What? Yes, disappear together. A female jail guard apparently helps a killer age 36 escape and both have seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. Now, what about this? What if he forced her to help him and now they're on the run together? How much longer is she going to be alive? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. The clock is ticking. Tick, tock, tick, tock. How long will he keep her alive now that he's escaped and no longer needs her?

First of all, take a listen to our friends at WVTM 13. Happening now in North Alabama, the search continues for an escaped inmate and missing sheriff's deputy. A blue alert was issued yesterday, hours after Deputy Vicki White failed to show up with Casey White who was not related to her the Lauderdale County Sheriff says the inmate was never scheduled to be in court and says their disappearance is comes with plenty of unanswered questions did she assist him in escaping that's obviously a possibility so we're looking into that as one angle of the investigation was she kidnapped in route to the courthouse and, you know, taken against her will? Well, the inmate, Casey White, is currently facing capital murder charges.

He's considered to be armed and dangerous, as Deputy White was armed at the time. So now we believe they are armed to the hilt. She has her service weapon. And what does he have? Again, thank you for being with us as the clock is ticking down on the disappearance of Connie Ridgeway. She has two sons. Then you've got the Connie Ridgeway victim in the original murder case who has two sons who are totally distraught by this. You have the murder suspect, Casey White, on the run. And you have the female guard, Vicki White, no relation.

Joining me in an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now, but first I want to go to Sheriff Rick Singleton. He is the Lauderdale County Sheriff. Thank you so much for being with us, Sheriff. And guys, you can go on Facebook if you have any information to the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office. Lauderdale as in Fort Lauderdale, but this is in Alabama. Sheriff, thank you for being with us. I know you are in the middle of a manhunt right now, so your time is extremely valuable.

Sheriff, tell everybody where is Lauderdale County? Lauderdale County is in northwest Alabama. We border the Tennessee River. We border Tennessee on our north end and Mississippi to the west. It's a county of about 95,000 population. Florence is the county seat with about 45,000 population. Also home of the University of North Alabama and the same recording studio. I guess the area is more known for music than anything. Muscle Shoals are just right across the river from us. Ah, now I get it, Muscle Shoals.

I was with you on the Tennessee line and many more of the things you identified, but Muscle Shoals, that's big, especially in the recording world. To Sheriff Rick Singleton who's taking time out of the manhunt right now and guys Bolo Bolo on Casey White and with him we believe still alive no relation jail warden Vicki White um Sheriff yeah you said about 90,000 that's a lot bigger than where i came from tell me about

lauderdale and one thing that really caught my attention is when you said tennessee line you know they're way gone over the tennessee line don't you think the first way they would go is to get out of alabama uh you would think so um you know the tenn Tennessee line is just 12 miles from the city of Florence. And so, you know, it's easy access across the state lines. We have people commute back and forth, you know, obviously on a daily basis. So it's a very

close proximity to us. So that's definitely one of the directions of travel that they could have taken. What interstate would they be on, Sheriff? And the reason I say just naturally, I think they'll cross the state line is because authorities in Tennessee, while they may be trying to help you,

this is not an emergency for them. It's an emergency for Alabama. So the further away they can get from the Alabama boundaries, that's what they're going to try to do. That's just my speculation. What do you think? I think so.

You know, they could obviously by now be anywhere, anywhere in the country, even out of the country. Our biggest obstacle that we've run into is we're working hard to identify a second getaway car. The patrol car was abandoned within 10 minutes of the time they left the detention center. And obviously, they got in another vehicle and we're having a really difficult time trying to identify that vehicle. We do have some leads that were following up on. A couple of them look very promising. So we're hoping that we can get a positive confirmation as to what vehicle they could possibly be in. Sheriff Rick Singleton is with me, and I'm going to bring in the rest of the panel in just one moment.

Let me give you the tip line, everybody. It is 800-336-0102. Repeat, 800-336-0102. There's also the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office, 256-760-5757. I'm going to keep giving you that. And Fox Nation, if you don't mind, just keep flashing that up on the screen. Because I really believe this woman, even if she helped him, and I don't know that she did or didn't. Even if she helped him, her life is in danger.

You don't think he'll kill her in a New York minute if she slows him down or if she has second thoughts and decides to turn around and go back home to mommy? Who knows what could happen? He will show no mercy because he is not going back to jail alive in his mind and he will take her straight to hell with him. Guys, for those of you just joining us, a female guard escapes with a 38-year-old murder suspect. In the last hours, cops now sharing new photos of the inmate facing the death penalty

over a 2015 hit on a woman. He murders a mother of two, then later claims, couldn't keep his yap shut, that it was a woman. He murders a mother of two, then later claims, couldn't keep his yap shut, that it was a hit. Okay, maybe, maybe not. Guys, you were just hearing our friends at WVTM 13. Now take a listen to John Pepepke at WVTM 13. That's our cut to the search continues for a missing murder suspect and deputy this morning. Casey White is facing a capital murder charge. He was last seen just before 10 Friday morning with correctional officer Vicki White at the Lauderdale County Detention Center. Investigators say the two were heading to a mental health evaluation.

But the Lauderdale County Sheriff says there was no appointment schedule. He says they're looking at the investigation from a few different angles. The first possibility is White kidnapped the deputy, while the other could be that the deputy aided his escape. I don't know if she was coerced, threatened to carry that plan out, or if she did it willingly, or of course, you know, if somehow he overpowered her in the four blocks from the detention center of the courthouse and took control of the vehicle and her. The sheriff's office has tried getting in touch with her but her phone

goes straight to voicemail. Right there I'm trying to find out one more thing before I go to special guest joining us Daquan Lee from WAFF48 in Huntsville. Sheriff Rick Singleton joining me, the sheriff in Lauderdale County. Sheriff, again, thank you for being with us in the midst of the manhunt. Regarding her phone, has it been pinged to its last location? Well, of course, we're using all the technology available to us. Our federal partner, U.S. Marshals Fugitive Passport is sort of leading the search. We also have access to the FBI, Secret Service, and the ATF, and the state law enforcement agencies helping us. So we're using all the technology available to us to try to get a location on them. So far, those efforts have been unsuccessful.

Oh, you know, Sheriff Singleton, I've known of a lot of lawmen that do not want to call in anybody to help them. This is now, I believe, over state borders. I am so glad you're bringing in the U.S. Marshals. Don't mess with them. I'm just telling you that much. You see a U.S. Marshal coming, you might as well just lay down on the ground and put your hands up in the air. Because they have all this technology. I mean, Sheriff, I'm from Bibb County, unincorporated Bibb County, which is outside of Macon, Georgia.

There's no way that rural law enforcement has all this technology that the feds have, for Pete's sake. That was so smart. But still, even what they're doing, you can't. they haven't been able to get a ping on her phone? No, we have not. And, you know, as I said, you know, they have been tremendous. We had the U.S. Marshal's Security Task Force. I actually have a deputy assigned to that task force. And they've been on it.

They got on it within two hours of when we were made aware of what we had going on. And guys, when you hear the sheriff say he's got a deputy assigned to that task force sheriff, I'll never forget. One of my very best investigators went on assignment to the ATF. Never saw him again. You know, once they go to the feds, they don't go back. So brace yourself. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Straight out to Daquan Lee joining us. He is with WAFF48. Daquan Lee, thank you for being with us. How in the hay did this happen?

You know, right before we went to air, Daquan, I was telling you guys about the Fulton County Courthouse Massacre where several of my friends were murdered in the courthouse because an inmate overpowered a female sheriff. She was armed as they were coming up the courthouse elevator. We still don't know how it happened exactly, but he did it. This guy came in and gunned down Judge Roland Barnes, who was a friend and a colleague. I played softball with him on the same softball league, my longtime court reporter, others, and it's just out of the blue.

How do we think this happened, Dequan Lee? Now, this situation is pretty remarkable. We have a lady who recently just filed for retirement the day before this escape happened and just recently sold her house. So the situation, and as we start getting more details about it, it really boggles my mind, for one thing. It's another thing to see how coordinated this attempt, well, this escape has been from top to bottom.

What do you mean by coordinated? Well, I'm not necessarily saying she is aiding and abetting, but when you look at too many circumstances that seem so TV-ish. I like that, TV-ish. You're right. Go ahead. Now, imagine you're selling Netflix a TV series, a miniseries, a docuseries, if you will, where you have this correctional officer and you have this inmate that's accused with murder,

and they escape together. She recently sold her house. She recently filed for retirement. Netflix would eat this up. They would actually tell you it's too cliche and too cheesy to actually put on their lineup. But here we are today, and you have this situation

playing out in front of us right here. Around 10 o'clock, they say they're getting ready to head to a mental health evaluation session that we now know is bogus. And now we have two people on the run for the past couple of days. And now we've got all the bigwigs involved trying to figure out where these two could have possibly gone. It's absolutely ludicrous, if you ask me.

Well, you know what I say, Sheriff Rick Singleton, the elected sheriff there in Lauderdale County, when you don't know a horse, look at his track record. This guy has already murdered a woman at least once that we know of. And now he's alone with a woman on the run, whether she helped him or not. Her life is in danger. I mean, there is no two ways about it, Sheriff. Oh, exactly. And, you know, talking about the way that this was orchestrated, of course, we now know

that she obviously assisted him escape. The facts that we've been able to put together. Director White was the assistant director of operations at the detention center. Part of her responsibilities were to coordinate all transports, all inmate transport. Hold on, Sheriff. I don't think the rest of the world knows how difficult a task that is. I remember at the courthouse, Sheriff, I'd be pulling in at quarter of eight and I'd see buses, fortified buses, coming in from the Fulton County Jail and all around if people had been extradited,

going under guard underneath the jailhouse, where then a giant gate would come down behind them so they couldn't get out. They'd go under the courthouse and then brought up to the courtrooms on special secured elevators. So transporting, you just said she was in charge of all that transport. That is no easy thing. So she had to be really responsible and really smart to do all that. Exactly. Just about a few minutes before she left the detention center with inmate Casey White, two vans of inmates had left the detention center. The first van had two deputies

and seven inmates. About 10 minutes later, the second van left with two deputies and seven inmates. About 10 minutes later, the second van left with two deputies and five inmates headed to the courthouse, which is about four blocks up the street. Just minutes after that second van left, Director White instructed one of the corrections deputies to bring Casey White up and prepare him for transport. By that, we mean that he was handcuffed, leg shackles were put on him. She then advised the booking officer that he was the only certified deputy, firearm certified deputy, available to carry him, and that she was going to carry him up to the courthouse, turn him over to other deputies. And from there, she was going to get a medical checkup because she wasn't feeling well

so when you say you said something else that's really critical double shackle he's got handcuffs and leg shackles the only other thing you could have done is put a chain around his waist and put the leg shackles and the handcuffs chained to the waist shackle. And that was in place. He did have the waist chain on. Gosh. She had to help him. You can't get out of a triple shackle like that. Just like, unless you've got the key.

I mean, maybe somebody could get out of handcuffs like they do in the movies. That does happen. You can actually wrangle around sometimes and get out of them. But out of a waist and a leg shackle? Which was right. this guy's a it is a killer of course he should be triple shackled but but to do that he'd had to be in in a houdini he's got five minutes less than five minutes a four block drive to get out of a waist chain with handcuffs leg shackles somehow get into the control of the vehicle in her in a four block area that's very heavily

traveled as far as traffic goes so there's just no way but they never headed toward the courthouse she went through the intersection and instead of going left to go the courthouse she turned right and went to the shopping center where they abandoned the car you know and another thing about this guy this ain't his first time at the rodeo. Take a listen to our cut seven, our friends at WAFF Huntsville. Casey Cole White was arraigned today, but not without complications. We got information yesterday that he had made a shank, and he intended to escape today and take a hostage. Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly says they found

two shanks in the shower belonging to White before the arraignment. During the arraignment, he pled not guilty to both charges by reason of insanity. The judge also released him back into custody of the Department of Corrections, where he was in prison for a string of other unrelated charges. Our deputies did a great job, found the shank and eliminated that threat this morning. So we obviously aren't equipped to house somebody like that long term in our jail. So we're happy that the judge ordered him to go back to the Department of Corrections. Now, when you hear the words jail and DOC or CI, Department of Corrections, Correctional Institute, jail is the local jail.

The penitentiary is much bigger with a lot more wardens, as they're commonly called, to handle the jail population. So that's one jail I'm sure that was glad to see, the last of him. Joining me, Percy Pitzer, former federal warden, 30-year career in corrections, and founder of Creative Corrections Educational Foundation. You can find him at ccefscholarships.org. Percy, so great to have you with us today. Well, thank you for having me. What protocols are typically in SAFE? Now, you're a fed, but what protocols would typically be set in place so a single warden, as I'm calling her, would not be tempted in any way to help an inmate? And this guy can be charming.

All right. Did you hear what? Let me back up. You hear what happened with two shanks. I'm sure you've seen your share of shanks, and they are mean as hell. They can kill you. I mean, explain, how do you make a shank, Percy? Let's just start with that.

Well, you know, I think even more important is how was she allowed to get out of that jail? You know, it doesn't make sense. I was a warden, and there's no way a newest correctional officer would not push that button to let me out with it in me. Well, I mean, she had the indicia of reliability and authority. But first, Percy, explain what is a shank? A shank is a homemade knife. And they can be made out of? Oh, I've seen them made out of bed springs, just about anything. And they're deadly. They're deadly.

Oh, yeah. And I'm going to pose your question to Sheriff Singleton. Percy Pitzer is saying no way would, under optimal conditions, anyone buzz them out. But this woman, Vicki White, was in charge of transport. She had the guy triple shackled in the back of the vehicle, which I assume is an armored vehicle. In other words, it's got the metal between the driver and the passenger around the window so they can't jump out of a window. Why not let her out with him? You know, as assistant director assistant director of course she's also their supervisor and uh you know the unfortunate thing about the corrections profession is it's

hard to find people that take that job it's a very stressful job a very challenging job and it's not a job that anyone can do i hired a correction correctional deputy about a month ago. He came into work at six o'clock in the morning, left for lunch, never came back. I said he just couldn't handle it. It's a very stressful job and so we have a lot of turnover. A lot of our staff are young and experienced and it also is not uncommon for us to get a van to court and a judge say, oh by the way, i need this inmate and that's primarily what director white would do if that happened then she would typically take that one inmate in her patrol car because she couldn't get multiple inmates in there

and drum the courthouse and turn them over to other deputies now in this case where you got a capital murder suspect that was strictly against policy. You know, she knew the policies. She's the assistant director. She knew the policies, but you got a got a relatively young deputy working the booking there. And she tells him this is what I'm going to do. And he don't question her. So Nancy, is that you jumping in, Percy? Jump in.

No, this is this is Matt Mangino. And, you know, the thing is, this appears to me to be a colossal failure of Lauderdale County. I mean, I don't know. I got to disagree with you on that, Mangino, because this woman. Tell me straight back out to you, Dequan Lee. Let me let me let me make one comment. I just want you to have these facts before you start blaming the county. Dequan Lee. isn't it true?

Yes, ma'am. This woman, this woman now we think on the run with an accused killer. Well, there's no doubt he did. He confessed. She filed for retirement. She started early in this business. And she had been employee of the year. I don't mean of the month over at Walmart where they change the

picture. They just slide your picture in. I'm talking about of the year. That's correct. Like four times in a row. She had medals of commendation. This woman was we thought pure as the driven snow. I mean, I've looked into her record. That's the one you would trust. And Sheriff Singleton can confirm this. She was highly touted amongst her co-workers.

She never was expected to be a person that could aid and abet a criminal. No. It's actually out of the blue. No. And another thing Sheriff Singleton said was that there's a high turnover. People that are not in the crime business, it's really hard to explain. When you are with the worst of the worst, day in, day out, you have got to have nerves of steel to stay in it let me tell you I mean even

at the end Sheriff Singleton there would be times I'd be in court trying I don't know a murderer or rapist a child molester and I would actually feel sick to my stomach. Even after doing it. I was into 13 years with the government. I was still just, it just can make you sick. No wonder people don't come back to work. You have got to have nerves still to do it, Sheriff. Absolutely. And Vicki White was with the department almost 17 years. She had an unblemished record.

Not a single disciplinary action in her file. She was, I've been sheriff seven years. For those seven years, she was voted by her peers and co-workers as a supervisor or employee of the year in our correction division. Everyone had the highest regard and respect for her. The director told me Friday night that it was like a funeral wake at the detention center. Her co-workers were so upset about what had happened. And, you know, people do, you know, you just have to have been part of this family, this Sheriff's Office Corrections Division family, to understand how devastating this has been to our employees.

I mean, she was highly respected. I was told the judge had to sign the warrant or cried when she signed the warrant. She was well thought of by the judges. I mean, yes, I hear you, Sheriff. So, okay, Mangino, Matthew Mangino, joining me, former district attorney, former parole board member, author of the executioner's toll. Matthew, now that you know all that, I don't know how you can say it was the county's fault. This was SOP, standard operating procedure. What she did, no one had any reason to doubt her.

That's the problem, Nancy. Standard operating procedure. No one should move out of a facility, I don't care who asked for it, without a transport order. The judge should sign an order that says this person's coming over to enter a plea, this person's coming over to be sentenced, this person's coming over for a mental health evaluation. No one should leave a facility without a court order and and without that policy in place without that procedure being there uh she was able to take this guy out uh without any real place to go she could make up a story which apparently she did and that is the problem here okay

i don't disagree with the word i don't disagree with the word he says. We did have policies in place. She ignored the policies. If a policy could prevent something like this from happening, then we wouldn't have any crime. We got crawled on the book. Let him finish, Matthew. Let him finish. People make choices. We can't control their mind and their choices.

The policy is there to give them guidance and direction on how they should do things. That doesn't guarantee they're going to do it that way. She chose to violate that policy. She knew the policy and she violated the policy, plain and simple. And there's another thing, Sheriff. There's another thing. And, man, Gina, I think you know this. You've tried a lot of cases, as have I.

When you're in court, I mean, every Monday morning, I'd have 150 new cases to be arraigned every Monday morning. And then every other Monday, a trial calendar to start trying cases, start striking juries. During all that, very often, just as Singleton, Sheriff Singleton just said, the judge would go, well, wait a minute. I'm not going to take this co-defendant plea without that co-defendant. Or the prosecutor might say that because then you've ruined your trial strategy. So right in the middle of everything, there's 300 people in the courtroom. Everything comes to a screeching halt because you got to go transport another defendant over. Or somebody gets left or somebody needs to come over for an emergency hearing. It's fluid. There's constant back and forth with the jail. And of all people,

they thought they could trust this woman who now we think is probably holed up in a motel with a killer who's already killed at least one other woman. Her family in shock, taking us to our cut 13, our friends at WAAY. She's definitely in complete shock, saying that everyone who knows her daughter, Vicki, says this just doesn't make sense. She's scared for her daughter's safety right now and says even if she did help inmate White escape, she should turn herself in and get back before anyone gets hurt. As a mother, I didn't know how to act. Because I thought at first it was a mistake. And then when I found out for sure it was, it was just disbelief.

Complete shock. That's how Vicki White's mother, Pat Davis, describes what's been going through her head ever since her daughter disappeared with accused murderer Casey White Friday morning. I lay in there at night and you can't get it off your mind. And then when you wake up, if you do fall asleep, that's the first thing that you think of. You know, if you've got a kid and she's out there, it's just like, you know, she's out there it's just like you know she's in danger crime stories with nancy grace Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Back to Sheriff Rick Singleton, the elected sheriff in Lauderdale County. Sheriff, did they, could you see on video surveillance or any other check-in or check-out records at the jail, did they have a sex relationship?

That's something we're definitely looking into. You know, when something like this, and let me say this first, there's a lot of difference between a county detention center and a prison. They're not the same. Half the people in the county jail, including Casey White, are presumed innocent until they're convicted. Even though he's charged with capital murder, he's presumed innocent until he gets his day in court and that's a big difference in the county jail and and uh prison state prisons federal prisons or whatever but you know that's obviously something we're looking into and and when something like this happens anyone worked in the jail can tell you that inmates know everything you know we start getting uh inmates

start telling the deputies hey i need to need to talk to somebody. I know this, you know, I know something I need to talk to one of the investigators. And of course the motive is, Hey, I helped you out. Now, can you get my sentence reviews? Can you get me put on, help me get put on probation? Can you tell the judge I cooperated? You know, it's always a self motive, uh, when that happens. So you take that with, you know, somewhat with a grain of salt, but you can't just totally ignore it. So yes, we've had some inmates tell us that they had a thing going on. We're trying to confirm that. It has not been confirmed at this time, but we are looking into it. Well, it wouldn't be the first time. Take a listen to our cut eight, Lauren McIntyre. Does that name ring a bell? McIntyre formed a relationship with Andrew

Roberts after she was assigned to be his key worker. She claimed she started a rapport with the convicted murderer in a bid to uncover intel on what was going on inside the prison, but that spiraled out of control pretty quickly. First, McIntyre did not reveal to her superiors that Roberts had an illegal cell phone. She gave him her number and sent him a photo of herself. The prison guard claimed it was so she could pass a test and show that she could be trusted. Then the pair began regularly exchanging text messages. One message read, today was real hot and risky, but I'm so needing you.

Another message, I still keep remembering the first time you kissed me. A physical relationship began soon after. And of course, we'll never forget the Shawshank Seamstress, Joyce Mitchell. Our cut to you. Listen. Today, Joyce Tilly Mitchell in stripes, shackles, and tears, pleading guilty to helping the two murderers escape.

She was swept off her feet a bit for a period. And then when she realized who she was dealing with, everything changed. In newly released statements, Mitchell describes a deepening friendship with inmate richard matt quote he treated me with respect and was nice to me she says he made me feel special that relationship turning sexual inmate matt grabbed me and kissed me mitchell also admits sending naked pictures to the other prisoner david sweat telling police matt told her we were all going to be together. She got in over her head into something that she never should have started, but she did, and she's paying the price.

Mitchell admits smuggling hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch tool, and a screwdriver to the prisoners, hiding them inside frozen hamburger meat, Matt giving her two pills to drug her husband Lyle on the day of the escape. They referred to Lyle as the glitch. I mean, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining us from Beverly Hills at DrBethanyMarshall.com, star of a new Netflix hit, Bling Empire. Bethany, I've got so many pages of similar transactions. They're coming out of my ears of women that i know and treating me with respect what they had sex in the closet with all the other inmates in the next room i mean i don't get it what happened if this woman fell for this killer what is she thinking oh nancy the

first case i ever covered on good morning america 20 years ago was a woman who was a nurse at a prison, and she actually shot several other guards trying to help an inmate escape, and she claimed to be in love with him. She was a nurse, highly trained. So let's think about Vicki White. One of the things I don't know about her life if I was doing an assessment is did she have her own romantic life outside of the jail?

Did she have a support system out there? It sounds like she was beloved smart intelligent did her job right i'm sorry bethany marshall but there's just no way but this support system romance my rear end none of that matters go ahead well the reason i ask all of this is people who are super smart, like Vicki White, sometimes they have a veneer of sophistication that kind of covers up a vulnerability. And she may have had a mental vulnerability that predisposed her to being manipulated by Casey White. And, you know, Casey probably drew her in just like a child molester draws in a child. You know, hey, stimulating her

to feel special feelings. You're beautiful. You're lovely. Nobody appreciates you but me. Slowly turning her against everyone around her. We know that women who help inmates escape, they're drawn into a very paranoid world. And by paranoid, I mean the inmate will have made her feel that she is the only one who understands him. I got to tell you something, Dr. Bethany. I think everything you just said is right, except one thing. What's that? She's not just a woman.

She is the law. That's right. And when you take on the mantle and you wear a badge or you carry a badge or you represent the state, you're not just a person anymore. It's like the president, whether you love him, whether you hate him, whether it's Biden or Trump or whoever is up there, that is the president. They symbolize something bigger than themselves, just like she wore a badge. And that makes her not just a person. Yeah, but Nancy, think about this. Think about surgeons who have committed botched surgeries, therapists who have sex with their patients. There are certain people who are trained in their field, but then they become corrupt

and they blur the boundaries. And there's something internal where they do not respect their certification or their degree. You know what, Bethany, maybe they can call you as a defense witness when this woman finally is caught. If she's caught and if she's alive,

let's don't forget this, the murder victim's family to wake up and read the headline of the news and say, not only has Casey White, the killer, escaped, they killed their mother, their mother. He had a female sheriff help him. Listen, if you can, listen. Seven years ago, Austin Williams lost his mother, Connie Ridgeway, after she was brutally stabbed in her home in Rogersville. My mother, she was just such a nice person, kind of everybody's friend. This is the last person you expect anything to happen to.

For years, it was a cold case until 2020 when Casey White confessed to the crime. As White sat in the Lauderdale County Jail, Williams felt there was justice for his mother and awaited the day he would go on trial. Now that hope is gone after White escaped Friday morning. It's shocking and it's just like you just wonder how it's possible because you know we really wanted it to go to trial just so that we could hear more of the story. Williams has a warning for everyone. I have someone like Casey who's six foot six, 250 pounds coming to her apartment and stab her to death. That's the kind of person this is. This is the person you need to look out for. That's our friends at WVTM 13. Straight out to WAFF 48's Dequan Lee. Dequan, describe the search for this killer and this female sheriff.

It's been ongoing for several days, as you can imagine. Everything is very fluid. As Sheriff Rick Sickleson said, the angle that they're going for now is just trying to figure out what vehicle these two may have gotten away in. They say that after they got out of the deputy's car, the transport vehicle, just before 10 o'clock, those two eventually got away and made their escape through a certain vehicle. And that's what they're trying to figure out right now. That, I think, will be the next key that maybe can turn this missing person situation into something much more. Dequan Lee, didn't she take the sheriff's vehicle? Was it a shopping mall or a strip center and park it?

Yes, it was a shopping center. Okay. Do they not have any video surveillance? I think that's what they're trying to figure out. They may have gotten it from one person, but I actually went to the spot myself before i went to the courthouse to talk to rick singleton uh it's actually in a spot where there aren't too many cameras so i can believe that they've had some trouble getting any kind of security well you know what that tells me that the whole thing was planned out you can't just go to a shopping mall and happen to to park in the one spot. There's not video surveillance.

We know that she just filed for retirement. She's pretty young, but because she's been in the business for so long, she could retire, and she sold her house. So she's got a lot of cash. What else, if anything, do we know about the possibility this was long planned? About it being long planned? I mean, what other signs do we really need? Cells are home, falls for retirement.

They do have an arrest warrant out for Vicki White right now, as of today. So, I mean, if you look at any other signs, how could you say, hey, she's a little bit rid of this twisted love situation? Of course, everything is, nothing is set in stone, but with the information we have, how can it not point to that side? We wait

as justice unfolds, and let's hope we can find Vicki White before this guy kills her. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.