Well this is, you know, more than a little alarming:

Lauderdale County, Alabama, authorities are searching for a sheriff's office employee and an inmate who went missing on their way to the courthouse on Friday at around 9:30 a.m.

Missing Assistant Director of Corrections Vicki White broke protocol when she escorted inmate Casey White from jail this morning to apparently take him to the courthouse in Lauderdale County, said Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton. The inmate and the corrections officer are not related.

When they say Vicki White "broke protocol," they're not kidding:

Authorities said Casey White was being held on capital murder charges and two sworn deputies should have been with him at all times, including during transportation to court.

Vicki White coordinates all transports from the detention center to court and therefore knew the protocol, the sheriff added.

What on Earth?

What could possibly lead an experienced guard to break the rules so flagrantly? What exactly is going on here?

Wait wait, it gets even weirder:

Singleton said that although Casey White was supposedly being transported for a mental health evaluation at the courthouse, they have since learned that no such evaluation or other court hearing for him was scheduled for Friday.

"Knowing the inmate, I think she's in danger whatever the circumstances... He was in jail for capital murder, and he had nothing to lose," Singleton said.

Aaaaand:

When Vicki White escorted Casey White out of the jail, she told the guard she was going to drop him off at the court and then go seek medical attention because she wasn't feeling well.

Just...what?!?

Prison authorities are considering it a possibility that Vicki helped Casey escape, though they admit that they do not have enough evidence to make that claim definitively.

My money's on her helping him escape in some way. Time will surely tell.

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