A prison official from Alabama was missing after escorting an inmate to a courthouse for a hearing.
The Lauderdale county sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post on Saturday that Vicki White, an assistant director of corrections, disappeared while escorting an inmate being held on capital murder charges. The inmate was also missing.
On Saturday morning the sheriff, Rick Singleton, confirmed the Alabama law enforcement agency, FBI and US marshals were assisting in the investigation.
White, 56 and who has been with the department for 16 years, left the detention center with inmate Casey White on Friday morning and neither has been seen since.
The pair are not related. The vehicle they were traveling in when they left the detention center was discovered at a nearby shopping center parking lot, according to the sheriff’s office.
Casey White, 38, was being held on capital murder charges in the 2015 death of Connie Ridgeway. He confessed in 2020 while in state prison for other crimes, WHNT-TV reported.
At a news conference on Friday, Singleton said Vicki White, armed with a 9mm pistol, left the detention center with the inmate around 9.41am, headed to the courthouse for what she said was a mental health evaluation for Casey White. She was alone with the inmate, which the sheriff said was in direct violation of department policy.
“Our policy is for any inmate with those kinds of charges to have two sworn deputies escort them. And that did not happen,” Singleton said.
Singleton also said there was no mental health evaluation for the inmate scheduled at the courthouse.
Vicki White also