The arrest of a former prison employee and murder suspect whom she is believed to have helped escape custody ended in tragedy on Monday.

Vicki White, 58, shot herself to death immediately after she and Casey White, 38, her namesake, were found and detained in Indiana.

The couple spent over a week on the run.

Officials said the fugitives were apprehended near Evansville, Indiana, after a car chase ended in an accident.

Casey White turned himself in, and Vicki White shot herself and later died in the hospital. Casey White is in custody.

The fugitives have been hunted across the country since April 29, after Vicki White, an assistant corrections officer in Lauderdale County, Alabama, is believed to have helped organize the escape of Casey White, who was awaiting trial for capital murder.

Vicki White told her colleagues that she was picking up a prisoner from prison and taking her to the courthouse for a psychiatric evaluation. White and White then fled.

It was Vicki White’s last day of work before she retired. Shortly before that, she sold her house for about half the market value and bought a car, which she hid without numbers in the garage of the mall. They were seen in this car last Friday in Alabama.

On Sunday, bailiffs received word that a Ford F-150 pickup truck had been spotted at a car wash in Evansville. Surveillance photos show a man who looks very much like Casey White getting out of his car at a car wash.

Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said the car was found outside his office on Monday. When the cops arrived, Casey and Vicki White escaped in a car and tried to get away, according to Wedding.

To stop the chase, the police rammed the car of the fugitives. Casey White suffered minor injuries while Vicki White shot herself, seriously injuring herself.

The escape took place on the morning of April 29. Vicki White herself took the prisoner out of prison, telling the authorities that she was taking him to court for a consultation with a psychiatrist.

As it turned out later, no consultation was scheduled that day, and White herself did not act according to protocol: according to the rules, two guards must accompany a dangerous criminal outside the prison.

White told her colleagues that, leaving the criminal in court, she would go to the doctor herself because she felt unwell. Later it turned out that she had not been scheduled to see a doctor that day either.

The guard and the perpetrator left the prison around 9 am on Friday, and at about 11 am, her empty patrol car was found in the parking lot of the mall.

On May 2, an arrest warrant was issued for Vicki Sue White, charging her with facilitating a first-degree escape.

US authorities have offered $10,000 for information about escaped prisoner Casey Cole White and a “missing” corrections officer.

Family members and colleagues of Vicki White said they were stunned by her involvement in the escape.

Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton told a press conference: “I can tell everyone in our department is shocked by her disappearance and everything that happened. All of her colleagues, all of the sheriff’s department, the judges – they all respected her very much.”

According to him, during the investigation it became clear that the couple had been developing an escape plan for quite some time. Other inmates said the couple had a special relationship and Vicki treated Casey White better than the other inmates.

“This escape was clearly well planned and calculated. It took a lot of time and effort. They had enough resources, money, vehicles,” Singleton said.

Casey White was serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other crimes. He was awaiting trial for stabbing a 58-year-old woman during a burglary in 2015. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.

According to Sheriff Singleton, White had previously planned to escape from prison by taking a hostage, but in 2020 his plan was revealed – he did not have time to make an attempt to escape.