‘Come home’: Alabama DA sends message to fugitive prison official who disappeared with murder suspect
Chris Connolly says missing corrections officer Vicki White is in danger
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An Alabama district attorney who has worked with fugitive corrections officer Vicki White for two decades says he believes she is in danger and has pleaded with her to “come home”.
Lauderdale County DA Chris Connolly told CNN that law enforcement officials who knew Ms White were “shocked” that she vanished while escorting murder suspect Casey Cole White to a non-existent court hearing on Friday. The two are not related.
“Professionally, she was the most solid person,” Mr Connolly said.
“She wasn’t a big talker but if we needed something at the courthouse she was somebody we could call and make those things happen,” he added.
“That’s why myself and everybody else who knows her are just shocked by this.”
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Ms White had waited until the route out of the prison would be unguarded in order to take the inmate from the county detention centre undetected, he told CNN.
“Clearly, lots of planning has gone into this. She exploited the transport system that Friday.”
When asked if he had a message for his former colleague, the district attorney said: “I would hope she would come home. I think she’s in danger, so come home.”
Sheriff Rick Singleton told CNN on Thursday that Ms White had a non-physical “special relationship” with the inmate, including giving him special privileges.
Ms White sold her home for well under asking price and filed for retirement just days before the pair disappeared.
A huge manhunt is underway for the pair, and Ms White is wanted on charges of permitting or facilitating escape of the inmate. The US Marshals Service offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their capture.
The inmate is currently serving a 75-year sentence for a 2015 crime spree across two states where he shot one person and held six at gunpoint.
He is also awaiting trial over the stabbing murder of a 58-year-old woman that same year.