Missing Jailer, Escaped Murder Suspect Had 'Special Relationship'

Surveillance video is out showing the moments when Alabama jail supervisor Vicky White and inmate Casey White left Lauderdale County Jail together in what authorities now say appears to have been an escape they planned together. Eight minutes after they drove off Friday morning, Vicky White's patrol vehicle was spotted at a nearby shopping center, where they are believed to have switched vehicles, AL.com reports. "Investigators received information from inmates at the Lauderdale County Detention Center over the weekend that there was a special relationship between Director White and inmate Casey White," the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office says in a statement cited by CBS News. "That relationship has now been confirmed through our investigation by independent sources and means."

Officials did not say whether the relationship was romantic in nature, the BBC reports, but CNN notes it was confirmed to have been "nonphysical." Vicky White is said to have given Casey White special privileges and treated him differently than other inmates, and the two reportedly communicated outside of her normal work hours. White and White, who are not related and who are believed to be armed with at least three guns, were last seen later Friday in Rogersville in a gold/copper 2007 Ford Edge with Alabama plates. Vicky White's mother-in-law tells the Daily Beast her daughter-in-law was frugal and had saved up quite a bit of money, and had mentioned wanting to move to Florida after retiring—which she was about to do, with Friday set to be her final day of work.

She "may have been brainwashed" into fleeing with Casey White, the woman, whose son White was married to until he died in January, says. "I can’t imagine her running off with that guy, but you never know." Vicky White also had cash from the recent sale of her home, and her mother, with whom White lived for five weeks after the sale, tells WAAY that their last morning together had been normal, and that she hadn't noticed anything unusual about her daughter in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. "This is just not her. This is like a total day and night," she says. "The people that know her all these years, they still can't ... they think it's something else." The sheriff has made similar comments, calling the situation a shock and White a model employee with an "unblemished record." (More Alabama stories.)