for(CNN)Authorities in Alabama are searching for a corrections officer and an inmate who is charged with murder after they went missing on Friday.
Vicky White, assistant director of corrections for Lauderdale County, took Casey White, the inmate, from jail Friday morning, saying she was taking the prisoner to the county courthouse.
The two, who officials said are not related, have not been seen since, and the US Marshals Service is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the inmate’s capture and the location of the officer, the service said Sunday.
A warrant for Vicky White’s arrest was issued on charges of permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said Monday.
Here’s what we know.
The officer and the inmate left the jail
Vicky White said she was taking Casey White for a mental health evaluation when she checked him out of the jail. She said she was going to get medical care after dropping the inmate off at the courthouse because she wasn’t feeling well.
Authorities found out later no such evaluation – or any court hearing – was scheduled for Casey White that day, and Vicky White never made it to the place where she was to get medical attention, according to Singleton.
That afternoon, concerned officers at the jail tried to reach Vicky White, but her phone went straight to voicemail. It was then they found out Casey White had not been returned to the jail.
Lauderdale County
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Authorities are looking at all possibilities, including whether the corrections officer willingly helped Casey White escape, which Singleton said Monday is looking likely.
“If she did this willingly, and all indications are that she did,” Singleton told CNN’s Ryan Young. “I guess we’re trying to hold on to that last straw of hope that maybe for some reason she was threatened and did this under coercion… but absolutely you’d feel betrayed,” Singleton said Monday.