Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office has Issued an Arrest Warrant for Deputy White
BREAKING UPDATE: Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office has issued an arrest warrant against missing deputy Vicki White.
Sheriff Rick Singleton said the warrant issued for White is for permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree.
Officials have obtained video showing the patrol car Vicky White and inmate Casey White took from the jail Friday morning. According to the timestamp on the video, it shows the patrol car just eight minutes after it left the jail.
"What that tells us is that the patrol car left the detention center and went straight to the parking lot" where it was abandoned and later found by officials, the sheriff said. "There was not enough time for them to even attempt to try to come to the courthouse."
Video security footage in the area where the patrol vehicle was found didn't turn up any evidence showing what happened to Vicky White and Casey White, the sheriff said.
"We're still aggressively pursuing every lead that we get," he said. "The biggest obstacle we have right now is we still do not have a vehicle description for whatever vehicle they may have transferred into."
Vicky White was known as an "exemplary employee" with "an unblemished record," the sheriff said.
"All of her co-workers, all the employees in the sheriff's office, the judges, all have the most utmost respect for her," Singleton said.
The sheriff said Vicky White is a widow with no children, and her mother and two brothers live in Lauderdale County.
After about two decades with the department, Vicky White submitted her retirement papers last week, the sheriff said. Friday was supposed to be her last day at work and had recently sold her house, Singleton said Monday.
The corrections officer would have had money from the recent sale of her house, the sheriff said, but her retirement fund paperwork had not yet been processed.
She had talked about retiring for three or four months before Friday's incident, and thought about moving to the beach, the sheriff said.
Despite her stellar professional reputation, Vicky White violated protocol Friday when she removed Casey White from the detention center by herself, the sheriff said. The policy required Casey White to be escorted by two sworn deputies.
"All precautions were in place," Singleton said. "The questions we have for Director White is why she violated policy."
The sheriff said there's no clear evidence as to whether Vicky White and Casey White had a personal relationship.
As the county's assistant director of corrections, Vicky White "was frequently throughout the cell blocks, has contact with all the inmates at one time or another," Singleton said.
"But as far as a romantic relationship or something like that, we have no evidence or proof that that was the case, although it's a possibility."
The US Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the location of Vicky White and the capture of Casey White.