Vicky White and Casey White's Indiana motel room now has waiting list and higher price
The motel room in Indiana used as a hideout by a former corrections officer from Alabama and the capital murder suspect she is alleged to have helped escape has generated a waiting list and is drawing higher prices, a motel receptionist said Monday.
The former corrections officer, Vicky White, and the inmate, Casey White, fled together from the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Alabama, on April 29 and managed to elude trailing authorities for 11 days.
Authorities said the two had a relationship for at least two years. Vicky White, 56, and Casey White, 38, were not related.
Their time as fugitives ended May 9 in Evansville, Indiana, about 300 miles north of the Alabama jail, when authorities tracked them down at Motel 41 and a short car chase ensued.
Casey White was driving a Cadillac sedan when authorities rammed it and it tipped on its side in a ditch. Shortly afterward, Vicky White took her life with a self-inflicted gunshot and Casey White was arrested.
Casey White had planned to get in a shootout with police, officials said.
The couple had stayed at Motel 41 in room 150 for a week, planning to stay there another week, before their plan was foiled. They initially checked into the motel with the help of a transient man whom they paid to book the room.
A desk receptionist, who asked not to be named, said Monday that people are interested in renting room 150.
“It’s quite a few people,” the receptionist said about the waiting list. “It’s pretty strange.”
The average room costs $63 per night, the receptionist said. But room 150, on the ground floor, now costs $75 to $100 to book. The receptionist said interest from the media has also been high.
“I’m getting, like, a million phone calls for it,” the receptionist said.
Casey White faces capital murder charges in the stabbing death of Connie Ridgeway. He was already serving time in state prison on other convictions when he was indicted in the 2015 killing, officials said. He has been extradited back to Alabama, and it was unclear Monday whether he had retained an attorney.
The day they disappeared, Vicky White cleared out deputies who transported inmates from the jail, officials said.
She then escorted Casey White by herself, even though policy required that two deputies transport such inmates, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said.
Their cover story was that Casey White had to go to court for a mental health evaluation. But no such evaluation was ever scheduled.
After they were found in Indiana, investigators discovered a cache of weapons. Four handguns and several semi-automatic weapons, including an AR-15, were recovered from their car, the sheriff said. Officials also discovered about $29,000 in the car and multiple wigs.
