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She has been a police officer for 25 years and he has been sentenced to 75 years in prison: Vicky White and Casey White
Photo: LAUDERDALE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE HANDOUT/EPA
It was a routine job - which ended with the disappearance of a prisoner and a policewoman: In the US state of Alabama, a suspected murderer and a policewoman have disappeared on the way from prison to an alleged court date.
Police officer Vicky White was scheduled to take an inmate from jail to the local court in the Lauderdale Borough on Friday.
The detainee, Casey White, was said to be there for a psychological evaluation.
According to the authorities, the policewoman and the prisoner are not related to each other.
Vicky White picked up the inmate from prison - but the two did not show up at court.
Since then they have disappeared.
This is how several US media report it unanimously.
In the meantime, it has emerged that no psychological examination was ordered for Casey White.
The authorities are now trying to find the two.
The man may be armed and extremely dangerous, it said.
It is still unclear whether Vicky White helped the prisoner escape or whether he took her hostage.
A $10,000 reward has been offered for information on their whereabouts.
According to County Sheriff Rick Singleton, Vicky White picked the inmate out of jail at 9:30 a.m. local time to take him to court.
After that she wanted to see a doctor, he said, because she wasn't feeling well.
At 3:30 p.m., police noticed that Casey White had not been returned to prison.
When they tried to call Vicky White, all they got was her answering machine.
Shortly after eleven o'clock someone saw Vicky White's car in the parking lot of a shopping center.
On Saturday, the police said they saw video footage of the parking lot, but could not see whether the two had switched to another vehicle.
According to the police, it is currently unclear where the two are - one does not even know if they are still in Alabama.
It is also not known in which vehicle they may be traveling.
The prisoner should actually always be accompanied by two police officers
The policewoman is an "exemplary employee" who, after 25 years of service, submitted her pension entitlement last week, it said.
According to the media reports, White is the deputy director of the prison.
By taking Casey White with him unaccompanied, she is said to have broken the rules that applied to his prisoner transports: After an attempted breakout two years ago, the prison then introduced a rule that he had to be under the supervision of two police officers at all times.
According to the police, White is more than two meters tall and weighs almost 120 kilograms.
Casey White was reportedly serving a 75-year sentence since 2019 for multiple offenses in 2015, including attempted murder, kidnapping and burglary.
He is also said to have confessed in prison to having stabbed a woman.
He then pleaded "not guilty" because he was not responsible for the crime.
The process in this case is still pending.
"The man is in prison for murder and has nothing to lose," the sheriff in charge said.
Vicky White is definitely in danger, regardless of whether she helped Casey White escape.
"We don't know if she helped him, and we won't discuss it until we have definitive proof that it did," he said.
"We're assuming she was kidnapped against her will until we can prove otherwise."
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