(NewsNation) — The search for escaped inmate Casey White and his apparent accomplice, corrections officer Vicky White, has come to an end. But Vicky White died by suicide in her last moments before officers got to her, and now, her sheriff is resigned to the possibility he may never really know why his best employee was in on it.
“It’s obvious now the questions we had, we’ll never get answers,” Lauderdale County, Alabama Sheriff Rick Singleton said on “Dan Abrams Live” on Monday.
As the hunt for the four-time employee of the year dragged on 11 days after they took off from Alabama on April 29, Singleton was concerned Vicky White wouldn’t make it back.
He thought Casey White, who is 6’9″, might kill her if he thought she was slowing him down. But in the end, Singleton said Vicky White’s decision to take her own life “doesn’t surprise” him.
“Knowing Vicky and what she’d be facing coming back — and more than facing the charges, facing her family and co-workers — I was just concerned that would really weigh on her and if it came down to a situation like it did today, this would be the result,” Singleton said.
Vicky White and Casey White were caught after an Evansville, Indiana car wash owner James Stinson called police about a truck that was parked in one of his bays overnight. Stinson told NewsNation he had the car towed last Wednesday. On Sunday, U.S. marshals called him, and he realized his surveillance system captured video of Casey White getting into another car. He gave the marshals a description of the car, and they found it at a hotel Monday morning.
The car rolled over during an ensuing police chase. Vicky White shot herself at some point after they crashed. Casey White was taken in with non-life-threatening injuries.
It ended the way Singleton expected it to, though not how he would have ever pictured before April 29. He said she was a friend to all of the dozens of corrections officers with whom she worked.
“We’re still awestruck as to why she would’ve pulled a stunt like this,” Singleton said. “It’s just come as a total shock to her law enforcement family in the sheriff’s office. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Casey White, who is not related to Vicky White, can provide some answers when he’s extradited back to the same jail he broke out of. Singleton pledged he’d be in a cell by himself, shackled 24/7.
“I might hear from a civil rights attorney about that,” Singleton said. “But I don’t care.”