Ex-prison guard Vicky White dies after shooting herself during capture

On-the-run prison officer Vicky White has died after she and prisoner Casey White were caught following a car chase with US Marshals.

Ms White, 56, shot herself after officers deliberately crashed into their vehicle. The fugitives had been tracked to a small town in Indiana. She was taken to hospital, but Vanderburgh County Coroner Steve Lockyear said she died from her injuries.

Mr White (no relation), suffered minor injuries from the crash.

He was awaiting trial on a capital murder case when disappeared with Ms White after leaving a detention centre in Florence, Alabama on 29 April.

She had told colleagues the 38-year-old inmate needed to go to the courthouse for a mental health evaluation.

Later that day, when she was not answering her phone, the authorities discovered no such evaluation had been scheduled.

Ms White’s patrol car was also found abandoned at a shopping centre.

There was no trace of the pair until US Marshals received a tip Sunday that surveillance photos from an Evansville car wash showed a man who closely resembled Casey White leaving a 2006 Ford F-150 pickup truck, the Marshals Service said.

White stands 6 feet, 9 inches (2.06 meters) tall and weighs about 260 pounds (118 kilograms).

On Monday, officials learned that the pair were still in the area. As officers arrived, the pair fled in a vehicle. According to Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding, US Marshals collided with them “to try to end the pursuit”.

Casey White was injured, not too seriously, in the crash and Vicky White then shot herself, causing “very serious” injuries, he said. it was later confirmed that she had died.

‘Special relationship’

Mr White had been serving a 75-year sentence for a string of crimes that included attempted murder, robbery and burglary.

He was facing a further charge of murder over the stabbing of a 58-year-old woman.

Police said there had been “a special relationship” between him and Ms White in jail.

The death of Vicky White has only deepened the mystery of why a respected jail official would leave everything to help free an inmate with a violent and frightening history.

Source:   news.sky.com