The confessed murderer who escaped an Alabama jail with the help of a guard was reportedly in love with her and is grieving her death, the Daily Mail reports.
Connie Moore, the mother of Casey White, told the news outlet that she spoke with her son one day after he and Vicky White were captured following an 11-day manhunt.
Moore, 62, told the newspaper that Casey “really loved” Vicky and shed tears during a call.
“They were just two people who really loved each other. It’s just so sad and I worry [for Casey],” Moore told the Daily Mail. “I spoke to him yesterday and he was crying and saying he couldn’t believe she was gone.”
On April 29, Vicky, 56, allegedly helped Casey, 38, escape from the Lauderdale County Jail in Alabama where she served as an assistant director of corrections. The two were found in Indiana on Monday.
As police were chasing them, their car flipped over into a ditch and Vicky fatally shot herself in the head.
The pair have the same last name but are not related.
Shortly after the crash, Casey referred to Vicky as his wife, but there is no evidence the two were married. The Daily Mail reports that Casey referred to Vicky as his wife before the escape, too.
“Vicky was really, really, good to him, just being there for him, talking with him. They had a real thing,” Moore told the Daily Mail. “He was calling her his wife even when he was in prison. I just sort of went along with it, I didn’t say, ‘You shouldn’t’ or whatever. It made him happy.”
Moore rejected suggestions that it might have been her son who shot Vicky, telling the newspaper that he is distraught about her death.
“He’s very upset. I know he loved her. He talked to me for over a year about how he had a friend, how nice she was, and how he loved her.
“He never told me her name and I was shocked when I learned who it was, but he would never hurt her. I told the FBI and the Marshalls too that he would not hurt her.”
Moore told the Daily Mail that she would tell Vicky’s family she is very sorry for what happened and that she believes Vicky was a good person.
But Moore also defended her son, who told the news outlet: “Casey is not the monster that they’ve posted him to be. I think it’s so sad that the comments that the whole world has made have made fun of both of them and a situation like this.”
Moore said her son’s troubles are because of bad decisions he made involving drugs and women.
“All of the women he’s been with have emotional problems and Casey has a big heart and just wants to help people,” Moore told the Daily Mail.
She added: “Growing up he was just a basic country kid. He was always tall, but nobody tried to pick a fight with Casey because of it. He was never violent but when there were drugs there, he would do them and it went from bad to worse.”
Casey’s criminal history includes beating his brother with the handle of an ax-sledgehammer, for which he was sentenced to more than three years in prison in 2012, according to CNN.
In 2016, Casey was convicted of attempted murder and robbery for a crime spree that included a home invasion. He was sentenced to 75 years in prison.
Casey is presently facing two counts of capital murder after he confessed to stabbing 59-year-old Connie Ridgeway to death. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Still, Moore insists her son is a virtuous soul and that Vicky helped him.
“Vicky was a good person for him. I don’t know what happened. I know that Casey wasn’t the mastermind of anything. She was the brains. We know that for sure,” Moore told the Daily Mail.
“I think maybe she was infatuated with the idea of it and the idea of Casey. I don’t know. All I know is it’s sad and it was real.”
Casey is now being held in a maximum-security detention facility back in Alabama.
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[Featured image: Vicky White and Casey Cole White/Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office]
