New video shows former Alabama jail boss Vicky White at a Quality Inn hours before she disappeared with convicted killer Casey White, as authorities downplayed speculation the enormous inmate might be traveling disguised as a woman in a wheelchair.
The 14-second clip, released Saturday, shows the blond Vicky, in a black sweat shirt, pacing back and forth near the front desk. White, who is not related to the inmate, stayed in the hotel for two nights before the breakout, the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s office said.
“We know she stayed there,” said Sheriff Rick Singleton. “It’s right there next to the shopping center where she parked the getaway car and where she had parked the patrol car” that she used to drive Casey White away from the jail.
Meanwhile, two officials involved in the hunt for the pair told The Post there’s no evidence supporting local District Attorney’s theory that 6’9″, 330-pound Casey White might be traveling disguised as a woman in a wheelchair.
“That’s news to me, I haven’t heard of him trying to dress any differently,” said Chad Hunt the Commander of the US Marshal Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Marty Keely, U.S. Marshal for Northern Alabama, called the theory “not factual.”
“There’s a million theories out there about what’s happening,” he added.
Lauderdale, Alabama, County District Attorney Chris Connolly had speculated that Casey White might be dressed as a woman and being pushed by Vicky White in a wheelchair to distract from his height, according to the Daily Mail. It was also suggested that Vicky White might be disguising herself as an elderly woman with a grey wig.
Hunt said a more likely scenario was that Casey White is wearing a hat to conceal his prison tattoos, which include two eyeballs on the back of his buzzcut head, and sunglasses. Vicky White has likely changed the color of her previously bright blonde hair, he said, which is why the agency circulated mocked up photos of her with dark hair.
“We do believe that she’s altered her appearance,” Hunt said.
US Marshals told The Post they are scouring the area in Tennessee where Vicky White abandoned the getaway car she used to help Casey White escape.
The orange 2007 Ford Edge had been a focus of the search for the fugitives who disappeared April 29, but authorities were unaware until Friday that the pair ditched the vehicle just hours after Vicky White drove away from the Lauderdale, Alabama, County Jail with Casey White.
The two are not related, but local officials said they had a “special relationship” for nearly two years.
The car was found locked and abandoned on the side of a rural road in College Grove, Tennesee, about two hours north of the jail.
Hunt said the discovery of the car, which had been sitting for a week in a tow pound before officials put the pieces together, was a “setback” that compounded the six-to-seven-hour head start the fugitives got on law enforcement, but the agency is not discouraged.
“We’ve been here before,” the veteran lawman said. “These little setbacks, they’re just challenges for us. They’re expected in this investigation.”
“And it definitely does not reduce our drive in this investigation,” he added.
He had previously told The Post they “know” the pair headed north to Tennessee “for a specific reason.”
Hunt said they’re going door-to-door in College Grove, searching for any video footage from home or business security cameras that might show which direction the two went in after bailing on the car. Even a game camera set up in the surrounding woods might provide some clues, he said.
The sheriff of Williamson County, Tennessee, where the SUV was discovered, tweeted Friday that “there is NO sign the two are still in our area.”
They’re also following up on hundreds of tips, particularly those from a 100-200 mile radius of where the Edge was found. “The amount of tips that we’ve gotten in this case, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Hunt said.
Neither Hunt nor Keely would say what, if any, evidence was found in the Ford Edge.
“The car is bring processed,” Keely said.