Alabama capital murder suspect Casey Cole White claimed that he had also been shot in the head as he was pulled from the car wreck where his jailhouse lover Vicky White lay dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a police report.
New documents, filed by Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office and seen by The Independent, reveal that the 38-year-old also had “a small amount of blood” on the back of his head when he was taken into police custody on Monday at the end of a 10-day manhunt, according to police.
An account from one officer on the scene also indicates that Ms White shot herself after the car came to a stop and that her convict lover appeared to have his hands out of the window at the exact moment that she pulled the trigger.
Casey White and Vicky White, who are not related or married and are said to have been in a relationship for the last two years, had finally been tracked down to Evansville, Indiana, on Monday afternoon where they led police on a brief car chase, before officers rammed the couple’s Cadillac off the road into a ditch.
White surrendered to authorities and was taken into custody, while the 56-year-old corrections officer was found suffering a gunshot wound to the head. She was rushed to hospital where she died from her injuries hours later.
On Tuesday night, the Vanderburgh County Coroner ruled Ms White’s death a suicide and said the autopsy found she had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Dramatic police dashcam and bodycam footage shows White being cuffed and detained by officers while Ms White’s limp body is pulled from the vehicle, with the gun still in her hand.
Officials also released a 911 call made from the fugitives’ car during the chase, where the 56-year-old is heard saying they should “get out and run” moments before she is said to have shot herself.
Several law enforcement officers on the scene of Monday’s capture filed supplemental reports with the sheriff’s office.
While some of the reports are heavily redacted, they shed some new light on Ms White’s final moments, including when she shot herself and what White was doing at the time.
In one report, Evansville Police Officer Sam Shahine details how he was assisting in the chase of the couple’s Cadillac and saw it being rammed off the road by another officer.
Officer Shahine said that he then pulled up on the scene of the crash and exited his patrol car his gun drawn, pointing it at the windshield of the couple’s getaway car.
At that point, the officer said he “saw a male driver attempting to stick his hands out of the driver’s side window”.
According to the report, the officer gave multiple commands to the couple to show their hands but, due to the tint on the windows and angle of the vehicle, he could not clearly see who was inside, the report said.
While the officer was giving verbal commands, he said he heard one gunshot come from inside the vehicle.
Officer Shahine said he approached the vehicle and saw White sitting in the driver seat “screaming for help”.
After White was pulled from the vehicle by officers, he said that his “wife” had shot herself in the head.
Officials have since confirmed that the couple were not married.
When White was taken into custody, the officer said he could see a small amount of blood on the back side of the fugitive’s head “to which he stated he had been shot also”.
Despite claiming he had also been shot, White allegedly urged officers to treat “his wife”.
“The offender was adamant that he was okay and that we needed to tend to his wife,” the officer said.
It is not clear if White was shot or if his injuries were caused when their getaway vehicle flipped and landed in a ditch.
It is also unclear if he was suggesting that he had shot himself or if Ms White had shot him and then herself or if he had been grazed by the bullet that killed Ms White.
Only one gunshot was heard by the officer.
Sgt Erik Nilssen also noted in his supplemental report about the incident that White had blood covering his shirt and coming from the back of his head when he was detained.
The 38-year-old was treated for a head injury on the scene and his bloodsoaked shirt taken as evidence, the report said.
Supplemental reports filed by two other officers also corroborated Officer Shahine’s account that a single gunshot was fired as officers approached the vehicle after it had come to a stop in the ditch.
According to Sgt Nilssen, White continued to ask about the condition of his “wife” after he was taken to hospital for treatment.
Officials said on Tuesday that the 38-year-old had shown no remorse over her death.
The convict, who is currently serving 75 years for a crime spree, also repeatedly told the sergeant that he didn’t kill the 58-year-old mother-of-two who is charged with murdering.
“Mr White also kept stating that he did not kill Connie Ridgeway,” the report said.
White is currently awaiting trial for the murder of Ms Ridgeway, who was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Rogersville, Alabama, on 23 October 2015.
The case went unsolved for five years until White sent a letter to the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office confessing to the crime in 2020.
During a subsequent interview with authorities, he allegedly gave details about the crime that had not been made public and which only the killer could have known and he was charged with two counts of capital murder.
Prosecutors say he was paid to carry out the hit on his victim.
After confessing to the murder, he initially pleaded guilty before changing his plea to not guilty by reason of mental illness.
His trial is slated to begin in June and, if convicted, he faces the death penalty.
He is already serving a 75-year sentence after being convicted of a crime spree where he tried to kill his ex-girlfriend and shot another woman.
White is now back behind bars in Alabama after he was transported back from Indiana on Tuesday night.
He appeared in Lauderdale County Courthouse in Florence where he was charged with escape in the first degree.
A nationwide manhunt was first launched back on 29 April when Ms White picked the inmate up from Lauderdale County jail claiming that she was taking him for a mental health evaluation at Lauderdale County Courthouse.
She told her coworkers that once she had escorted him to court she was going to seek medical attention for herself as she felt unwell.
The pair never arrived at the courthouse and White had no scheduled court appearance or appointments that day.
Several hours later, the alarm was raised when Ms White failed to return to the jail and could not be reached by her colleagues.
With Ms White now dead, many questions remain unanswered around both the shock prison escape and the alleged suicide of the 56-year-old widow who had a two-decades-long “exemplary” career.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said that the couple had been in what he described as a “jailhouse romance” or “special relationship” for the last two years.
Ms White had also sold her home just five weeks earlier for well below its market value, withdrew $90,000 in cash from her bank accounts and filed for retirement days before the pair vanished.
Her last day of work was the day she disappeared, though her retirement papers had not been finalised.
After selling her home, she moved in with her mother who previously said that she knew nothing about her daughter’s plans to retire and had never heard her speak of White.
In the early aftermath of the prison escape, Ms White was described as an “exemplary employee” who had repeatedly won employee of the year awards. She was due to be honoured again with the award this week.
