(NewsNation) — Casey White, the inmate who escaped from an Alabama jail with help from his corrections officer lover in April 2022, claims he killed a woman while the two were on the run.
The “confession,” which authorities dispute, was offered up by White during a phone call he made from jail in December to NewsNation senior national national correspondent Brian Entin.
“I got a woman and a baby girl buried up in Evansville, Indiana,” White said.
Several times he reiterated the claim that he killed a woman. Casey White said he did it while he and corrections officer Vicky White were hiding at a motel in the area.
“There is a dead body up there that ain’t been buried yet,” he said.
Local authorities believe White is lying.
A detective with the Evansville Police Department pointed out White has made false confessions before and said there were no missing women.
Investigators said it’s possible White was trying to muddy the waters before his murder trial later this year.
NewsNation did its own open records request for missing people in the Evansville, Indiana, area and didn’t turn up anything that matched the timeline.
White’s attorneys also doubt their client killed someone while he was on the run.
“I think that is highly unlikely,” said Robert Tuten, one of the attorneys representing White. He believes White may have lied in an effort to get transferred out of prison.
Just hours after White’s initial confession, he called again and talked about his mental state.
“I’m alive and well. I’m sober. I’m clear thinking. I ain’t suicidal, I’m not homicidal,” he said.
White did not provide any details about the woman he claims to have killed and would not say how old he thought she was.
When asked why he would confess to murder during an unannounced phone call, White said he “had to get it off (his) chest” and “do the right thing.”
He said he wouldn’t talk to anyone about the incident except for the FBI who “handled (his) case.”
Casey White and Vicky White had evaded authorities for nearly two weeks before police caught the couple near Evansville, Indiana in May 2022. That’s when investigators say the longtime employee at the Lauderdale County jail turned a gun on herself.
Casey White was charged with murder in connection to Vicky White’s death. That charge was dropped last month when White agreed to plea guilty to first-degree escape.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, June 8.
At the time of his escape in April 2022, White was being held at the Lauderdale County Detention Center for allegedly stabbing a woman named Connie Ridgeway to death in 2015. He confessed to that killing, but later recanted.
That trial is set to begin in August.
