Vicky White, the former prison officer who helped an Alabama inmate escape and then absconded with him for more than a week, has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Vanderburgh County Medical Examiner's Office said Tuesday night. .
Coroner Steve Lockyear said in a statement that White died at 7:06 pm local Indiana time from a single gunshot wound and the mode of death was ruled a suicide.
Vicky White, 56, and Casey White, a 38-year-old inmate homicide suspect, fled the scene on April 29 after she helped him escape under the guise of a fake doctor's appointment.
For more than a week they became one of the most wanted people in the entire country.
[“Please help my wife. She shot herself in the head and I didn't do it." They investigate the tragic end of the ex-officer and the escaped prisoner]
Authorities' search ended Monday when their getaway car crashed after a pursuit with officers in Evansville, southern Indiana.
As authorities pulled the inmate out of the crashed car, White exclaimed at the time, “Please help my wife.
She shot herself in the head and I didn't do it."
Vicky White was found in the passenger seat
with a gunshot wound
, and she was pronounced dead hours later at a local hospital.
The authorities clarified that they were not related or married.
Casey Cole White, left, and Vicky White. US Marshals Service, Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office via AP
Evansville Police released body camera video Tuesday of one of the officers who participated in the pursuit of the van in which Vicky and Casey White were fleeing.
In the recording, officers are seen trying to free the former guard from the overturned vehicle.
For most of it, White's body cannot be seen as officers struggle to open a door to get her out.
Almost five minutes later they manage to remove her body from the vehicle and place it on the grass.
[This prisoner said he would kill his ex-girlfriend if he escaped. Now he has fled and an officer with "a special relationship" was able to help him]
In the vehicle, officers found four handguns
, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and three magazines
.
Wedding also told a news conference that Casey White planned to open fire on police if he was hit.
“Any of these weapons could have been used to ambush our officers as they attempted to capture a murder suspect,” the sheriff said.
The police believe that the prisoner and the ex-officer were ready to unleash an intense firefight when they found them
May 10, 202201:54
The vehicle was able to be stopped after another police car caused the crash.
"We later found out that if we hadn't, the fugitive was going to go into a shootout with the police," Wedding said.
The couple also had $29,000 with them, which would be part of money obtained by her before fleeing, and had paid 14 days in advance for lodging in a motel in Indiana at the time of their arrest.
