According to a Facebook post from the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), Vicky White, the assistant director of corrections, and inmate Casey Cole White are missing. Despite sharing a last name, they are not related.

Deputies say Casey White an inmate who went missing was being held on capital murder charges for the 2015 death of Connie Ridgeway. If you see them, call 911 immediately. He confessed to the murder in 2020 while in state prison for other crimes.

Vicky White has been with the department for 16 years. In a news conference Friday, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said Vicky, armed with a 9mm, left the detention center with the inmate around 9:41 a.m. and headed to the courthouse for what she said was a mental health evaluation for Casey. She was alone with Casey, which the sheriff said was in direct violation of the department policy.

Vicki White now has a warrant out for her arrest and has been charged with permitting or facilitating an escape of an inmate in the first degree. The vehicle the officer and the inmate were in when they left the detention center was found at a nearby shopping center parking lot, according to the sheriff’s office.