A jail officer helped to break an inmate who she is thought to have had a ‘special relationship’ with out of prison.

Capital murder suspect Casey White and Vicky White, assistant director of corrections, vanished after leaving the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Alabama together on Friday morning.

The pair have gone on the run with authorities, who are trying to track them down, warning people warned not to approach the duo.

Now, it has emerged the pair may have a relationship beyond the normal contact had between inmates and officers.

Investigators from Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) say they have ‘received information from inmates at the Lauderdale County Detention Center’ that there was ‘a special relationship between Director White and inmate Casey White’.

‘That relationship has now been confirmed through our investigation by independent sources and means,’ the LCSO said in a statement.

The office did not elaborate on the nature of the relationship.

Director White, 56, told coworkers, on Friday morning, the 38-year-old inmate, needed to go to the courthouse for a mental health evaluation.

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She was captured on CCTV escorting the handcuffed inmate out of the detention facility and taking him to her car before driving off.

The alarm was raised later that day when Director White failed to answer her phone and colleagues realised the mental health evaluation never existed.

Her patrol car was found abandoned in a shopping centre car park, with the pair, who are not related, nowhere to be found.

Authorities have launched a large scale manhunt for White who was already serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other crimes.

They have also issued a warrant for Director White’s arrest on charges of assisting in an escape.

Director White had worked for the sheriff’s office for 16 years but had recently announced plans to retire.

Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said the day she disappeared would have been her last day at work.

‘This is not the Vicky White we know, by any stretch of the imagination,’ Sheriff Singleton said.

Director White’s family have also reportedly been left bewildered by the turn of events.

‘I just can’t picture Vicky running off with that man,’ her former mother-in-law, Frances White said.

Frances said she had remained fond of her daughter-in-law decades after she divorced her son in 1991. He died earlier this year.

She said her former daughter-in-law was kind and always wanted to help others, but added that she was sometimes private.

‘Vicky was a person who kept all of her thoughts and troubles to herself,’ she said.

As well as handing in her notice, it is also understood Director White, who has no children, recently sold her home.

She had originally bought the sprawling four-acre property, which included a trailer and barn, to be close to her parents, Frances said, adding that the home was ‘really too big’ for one person.

It is understood Director White sold the property just 12 days before disappearing, for well below the market price, local TV station has reported.

The U.S. Marshals Service on Tuesday said the pair may be travelling in a 2007 orange or copper coloured Ford Edge with minor damage on the rear left bumper.

Authorities have said White, who is 6 feet, 9 inches tall, should be recognisable due to his height.

The Marshal Service has warned anyone who sees the pair not to approach them, as they may be armed.

‘The subjects should be considered dangerous and may be armed with an AR-15 rifle, handguns and a shotgun,’ the Service said in a bulletin.

White was serving time for a string of crimes that included attempted murder, robbery and burglary.

While in prison, he had confessed to the 2015 stabbing death of a 58-year-old woman, authorities said, which caused him to be brought to the Lauderdale County jail for court proceedings.

The sheriff’s office said it believed White plotted an earlier escape from the jail in 2020 when they found a makeshift knife.

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