Alabama Officer Dies, and Escapee Is Caught After Crash, Officials Say

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The former corrections officer, who had helped the inmate escape more than a week ago, fatally shot herself after a police pursuit in Indiana, the authorities said.

A national manhunt for a former corrections officer and the Alabama inmate she helped to escape last month ended Monday after a police pursuit resulted in a crash in Indiana, the authorities said. The former officer fatally shot herself, and the inmate surrendered, they said.

The former officer, Vicky White, had been on the run with the inmate, Casey White, a murder suspect to whom she was not related, since April 29, when they left the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Ala., for a courthouse appointment that was later revealed to be a fabrication.

The crash occurred in Evansville, Ind., more than 200 miles north of the jail, after the authorities there heard that the Whites were in a vehicle nearby and began pursuing it.

The search narrowed to the area when, hours earlier, a police officer on patrol spotted a Cadillac resembling one that surveillance video had shown the Whites entering. The car was seen in the parking lot of a motel where the pair had stayed for about a week, according to Sheriff Dave Wedding of Vanderburgh County, Ind.

A car chase began when the Whites exited the motel, he said at a news conference on Tuesday. A U.S. marshals vehicle collided with their vehicle, causing it to roll over and crash, said Marty Keely, the U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Alabama. With the vehicle wrecked, Mr. White surrendered to the authorities, but Ms. White shot herself in the head and subsequently died at a hospital, Sheriff Wedding said.

Upon surrendering, Mr. White referred to Ms. White as his wife and said he did not shoot her, according to Mr. Keely. Sheriff Wedding said they were not married.

Mr. White told law enforcement officers that he had planned to engage in a shootout with police, Sheriff Wedding said.

“Their plan was faulty and it failed, thank God,” he said. “Once again, what was going through her mind I have no idea.” He said they were found with $29,000 in cash and four guns, including semiautomatic weapons and an AR-15. They also had several wigs in different colors.

Sheriff Wedding said that there did not appear to be a reason Mr. White and Ms. White had ended up in Evansville, adding that according to Mr. White, they had been seeking a place to hide and plan their next move.

Sheriff Rick Singleton of Lauderdale County, Ala., said he was feeling “pretty down” after learning that Ms. White, who was a widow and had no children, had died.

“The whole sheriff’s office is like family,” he told reporters on Monday. “When you have a family member that makes a bad choice, you know, you don’t like them but you still love them. She was family to us. And so yeah, it hurts.”

Sheriff Singleton added that he now believed the pair had been in a “romantic relationship,” and that Ms. White was “just as concerned about coming back and facing her family and her co-workers as she was the charges.”

It was unclear who was driving the vehicle that they were traveling in.

Ms. White disappeared with Mr. White on the morning of April 29, after she left the jail under the pretext of escorting him to the county courthouse a few blocks away for a mental health evaluation. As the jail’s assistant director of corrections, its second highest-ranking officer, she was responsible for handling transportation for inmate appearances in court. Ms. White told a booking officer at the jail that, after dropping off Mr. White, she intended to “seek medical assistance” for herself.

That did not happen, Sheriff Singleton said at a news conference on May 1. The premise for leaving the jail was “all bogus,” he said.

Ms. White’s patrol vehicle was left at a shopping center in Florence, where the pair switched vehicles, Sheriff Singleton said. The vehicle they were in, a Ford S.U.V., was found abandoned along a rural road in Tennessee later the same day.

The disappearance was not noticed until about six hours after they had left, according to the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Singleton said the authorities knew “for sure” that Ms. White had helped Mr. White flee the jail, though he initially said she might have been coerced or threatened into doing so.

An arrest warrant was issued for her on a charge of permitting or facilitating an escape. A week later, charges of forgery and identity theft were added, stemming from the use of an alias to purchase the Ford S.U.V., the Sheriff’s Office said.

At the time of his escape, Mr. White, 38, was awaiting trial in the fatal stabbing of a woman in 2015, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Mr. White had already been serving a 75-year sentence for previous convictions, including two carjackings and multiple shootings. He was awaiting trial in the 2015 murder.

The district attorney for Lauderdale County, Chris Connolly, said Mr. White would be extradited and returned to Alabama. He will be moved to the Alabama Department of Corrections, Sheriff Singleton said.

A lawyer for Mr. White declined to comment.

Ms. White and Mr. White had been in a relationship for at least two years, according to Sheriff Singleton, who said they met briefly in 2020 when Mr. White was in Lauderdale County for an arraignment before heading back to state prison.

Ms. White had recently decided to retire, and the escape occurred on her last day of work. Sheriff Singleton said it was unusual for someone her age, 56, to retire four years before her retirement benefits would become available.

Sheriff Singleton said after the capture on Monday that Mr. White would be “handcuffed and shackled” in his cell. “He’s not getting out of this jail again,” Sheriff Singleton said. “I assure you that.”