How the authorities managed to locate Casey White and Vicky White 2:37
(CNN) --
The 11-day manhunt for former Alabama corrections officer Vicky White and the inmate she helped escape ended Monday in Indiana with her dead from a gunshot wound and him in handcuffs, authorities said.
However, the end of the saga leaves a number of questions unanswered, including the most obvious: Why?
Why did Vicky White, a 56-year-old prison officer nearing retirement, decide to sell her house, accumulate cash, and run away with an inmate nearly two decades her junior who was serving the first part of a 75-year sentence? years in prison?
Some answers may be provided by Casey White, the 38-year-old inmate, who spoke freely with investigators after his capture, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Sheriff Dave Wedding told CNN.
"Last night he was pretty candid with the investigators. They had a pretty long interview," Wedding said Tuesday.
This is a look at a series of open questions regarding search.
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Why did Vicky White help Casey White to escape?
This is the essential question of this story, and one that Vicky White, who was pronounced dead Monday night after investigators say they believe she shot herself, will not be able to answer.
Officials have said that she had a "special relationship" with the prisoner, providing him with extra food on occasion.
But no further details of their relationship are known.
Vicky White had a "special relationship" with inmate Casey White.
These are other people who fell in love with prisoners
Although the "why" is unknown, the how of the escape makes it clear that Vicky White "was basically the brains of the whole scheme," Lauderdale County, Alabama, Sheriff Rick Singleton said.
She took Casey White out of the detention center on April 29 after falsely telling her colleagues that she was taking him in for a mental health evaluation for the court.
"He was behind bars, he couldn't really plan too much behind bars, but, yeah, I think she personally was the one who put the plan together," Singleton told CNN's John Berman on Tuesday.
Vicky White was second-in-command at the detention center and used her position to execute the plan, he said.
She sold her house for below market value before the run, and she had also gone shopping for men's clothing.
"She scheduled a van ride that morning, made sure all the other armed sheriff's deputies were out of the building and busy in court. She knew she wouldn't be questioned by the registrar, nor by the deputy sheriff when he told her that I was going to take him to court and leave him with other employees," Singleton said.
"She set up -- she bought the getaway car, she sold her house, she got cash, she went shopping, she bought clothes for him. She ... obviously put the plan together," Singleton said.
"Casey White didn't run away from the center, they basically let him out," the sheriff said.
Case timeline of jailer Vicky White and Casey White, the inmate she ran away with
Why did Casey White refer to Vicky White as his wife?
A car chase Monday in Evansville, Indiana ended when a US Marshals Service task force member crashed into the Cadillac carrying Casey and Vicky White.
His vehicle crashed and flipped into a ditch, Sheriff Marty Keely said.
Agents were able to get Casey White out of the car, but Vicky White was pinned down inside and had a gunshot wound to her head, Keely said.
Casey White immediately announced that his "wife" had shot herself in the head and that he had not, according to Keely.
To the best of investigators' knowledge, Casey White and Vicky White were not married, Keely said, and investigators previously said they were not related.
Why was the couple in Evansville since May 3?
Evansville, in the southern tip of Indiana, is about a five-hour drive north of Lauderdale County.
The officer and escaped inmate are believed to have been in Evansville since May 3, Wedding said.
The escapees had paid for a 14-day stay at an Evansville motel, she said.
Casey White indicated in an interview with investigators that they were trying to avoid publicity by staying there, according to Wedding.
"He said he was just trying to find a place to hide and stay low," Wedding said.
"They thought they had driven long enough that they wanted to stop for a while, get their bearings and figure out their next stop."
Investigators do not believe they had any friends, acquaintances or relatives in Evansville.
Why did they go to a car wash in Evansville?
The US Marshals Service on Monday released photos of a man believed to be Casey White at a car wash in Evansville, Indiana.
Officials were able to track down the couple thanks to a tip from the public on Sunday, Singleton said.
Investigators were alerted to a 2006 Ford F-150 that had been discovered at an Evansville car wash Sunday night.
US Marshals on Monday released photos of the vehicle and of a man they said was Casey White at the car wash.
Vicky White is not seen in the images.
The images, taken from surveillance video, were dated May 3 just after 4 p.m.
The Ford F-150 was the third of four known vehicles Casey and Vicky White used in the getaway.
They first left the Alabama detention center on April 29 in a patrol car, then quickly transferred to an orange 2007 Ford Edge that Vicky White had purchased and left in a parking lot the night before.
The Edge was found May 6 in a Tennessee tow truck parking lot, and had been abandoned in the woods without any identifying information a week earlier.
They were seen on May 3 in the Ford F-150 at the car wash.
Surveillance video showed them leaving the Ford pickup at the car wash and then getting into a Cadillac vehicle, Wedding said.
Investigators then tracked the Cadillac to an Evansville hotel and began surveilling the premises.
Keely, the sheriff, said that Vicky White then left the hotel wearing a wig, and that she and Casey White got into the vehicle and drove away.
Shortly after, a chase began with the fugitives in the Cadillac.
Hunt said the vehicle is believed to have been purchased in Evansville.
How did Vicky White die?
An image of a damaged car at the location where the chase ended.
The chase for the fugitives ended with their vehicle flipping onto its side in a ditch.
Authorities said Vicky White was found inside the vehicle with a gunshot wound to the head.
Casey White denied shooting him and turned himself in.
Wedding said he understood Vicky White was on the phone with 911 during the chase and indicated during a call with police dispatchers that she had a gun.
On dispatch audio from the Evansville Police Department, a dispatcher says, "We could hear her on the line saying she had her finger on the trigger."
Wedding said he believed he fatally shot himself, but investigators will wait for an autopsy to confirm that conclusion.
"When we arrived at the scene, she still had a firearm in her possession," he said.
"She had been discharged."
Casey and Vicky White had four handguns and a semi-automatic rifle in their vehicle with them, authorities said.
Casey White told investigators that if their vehicle hadn't been rammed in a ditch, they planned to "exchange gunfire with law enforcement," Wedding said.
-- Jamiel Lynch, Miguel Marquez and Jaide Timm-Garcia contributed reporting.
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