(NewsNation) — The search for escaped Alabama inmate Casey White and his apparent accomplice, corrections officer Vicky White, has ended. Vicky White died from a gunshot wound before officers talked to her following an 11-day manhunt.

The national search placed Florence, Alabama, the tight-knit town of 40,000 people, on edge, leaving many of Vicky White’s family members and co-workers stunned by her involvement.

Now, Vicky White’s death only deepens the mystery of why a respected jail official would leave everything to help free Casey White, an inmate with a violent and frightening history.

Before her death was announced, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said he hoped to get answers from his once-trusted jail employee about her actions but acknowledged those answers might not come.

Singleton and Vicky White worked together for 16 years. Singelton told NewsNation that he considered Vicky White family.

Singleton said Vicky White was responsible, dedicated and hardworking and he believes she must have been coerced. However, investigators uncovered that Vicky White visited Casey White in prison for 1 to 2 years under different aliases.

Singleton said he was shocked. “How could Vicky could do something like this? We trusted her.”

He also said he’s accepted that Vicky White wasn’t who he thought she was.

“We thought we knew Vicky White. We are still struggling with it; she put all this together and it’s all on her,” Singleton said.

Meanwhile, investigators told NewsNation Casey White is mentally unstable and a very dangerous person when he’s on drugs. Allegedly, his drug of choice was meth. However, others referred to Casey White as a “big teddy bear.”

At the time of Casey White’s escape, he was charged with capital murder for a deadly stabbing and was already serving a 75-year sentence for a 2015 crime spree that involved a home invasion, carjacking and police chase.

Before her death, officials intended to charge Vicky White with permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree, forgery and identity theft.