Capital Murder Suspect and Corrections Officer Missing - Lauderdale County, AL

[otterhere]

Oooh; the wheelchair and an RV on BLM land are excellent ideas. As for clothing, I'd think she'd just make due with Goodwill, paying cash. Casual clothes don't have to fit precisely; he's not ordering a tuxedo for the wedding. And, if they make it to that beach, just surfer shorts/cut-offs and XL t-shirts will do.

[L00k4ward]

Originally Posted by otterhere

Oooh; the wheelchair and an RV on BLM land are excellent ideas. As for clothing, I'd think she'd just make due with Goodwill, paying cash. Casual clothes don't have to fit precisely; he's not ordering a tuxedo for the wedding. And, if they make it to that beach, just surfer shorts/cut-offs and XL t-shirts will do.

Great points!

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by L00k4ward

She seems to think of everything - was her beach/Fl talks with relatives an attempt at diversion?

What are their options?

Driving South of the border and hoping to settle in one of the South American countries? The government won’t go against the US- they get extradited - unless it is Venezuela?

He can’t fly- he doesn’t have passport? So only driving or private planes arrangements should be checked.

Or was the intention to sneak into Canada? To ensure he doesn’t face a death penalty?
Canada won’t extradite to a death penalty country unless it has a guarantee that it won’t be applied?

Or are they still in the US- holed up somewhere?

They have to look back into any shops she visited far away to buy clothing for him- she must have paid cash and was trying to be unnoticed by cameras: not every store is selling clothing for 6`9” man.

Know from the experience - not easy - the Secret Service has to start there first.
Did she have an access to other peoples Amazon, etc accounts or could use someone’s shipping address to obtain the clothing on-line?
Wonder what his shoes size

Would they pretend that he is disabled in a wheelchair? To hide his height? - easy to do
Check if she visited/attempted to buy a wheelchair…

Did she buy an RV and stashed it somewhere on BLM? They could move unnoticed among the campers for years.

Scary to think of them obtaining different IDs from people without close family - murder doesn’t look like a problem for him.
Could she have obtained some former prisoner information and some paperwork to obtain a new I’d for him?

Wow, that's some pretty good brainstorming!

Shoe size: if he's 6'9" (are we sure? he's also been reported as 6'6"), he'd have one of the largest shoe sizes.

She could have gotten clothes for him at yard sales. Cheap, and many people don't have surveillance cameras.

US border personnel (and Mexican) have probably been alerted. They probably have photos of the two. Even if she dyes her hair and cuts it, her round face would be recognizable. And his, too. To try to escape by sea would be tricky, too. Coast guard.

But, in view of what a thorough job she seems to have done re: the escape, planning out all the details, who knows what kind of scheme she may have come up with for the next steps?

[Mr B Kind]

This reminded me of a case from upstate NY in 2015
____

They shared more than just an escape plan.

Married prison worker Joyce “Tillie” Mitchell had dirty prison sex with each of the inmates she helped bust out, sources told The Post on Monday.

Mitchell, 51, first hooked up with convicted cop-killer David Sweat, whom she supervised in the sewing shop at the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate Dannemora, sources said.

Sweat got transferred out of the shop after an inmate tipped off authorities to their relationship — and she landed in the arms of his fellow murderer Richard Matt, sources said.

Matt and the dumpy granny got hot and heavy behind the same prison walls — and she fell in love with him, sources said.

Matt — whom an ex-detective has described as “well-endowed” — allegedly persuaded Mitchell to smuggle in tools that he and Sweat used to break out of the maximum-security slammer.

They have been on the run since June 6, eluding a massive manhunt by an army of law enforcement officers.

“They both played her,” a source said.

Mitchell had reportedly plotted with the inmates to kill her husband, prison maintenance worker Lyle Mitchell, as part of a plan that also involved fleeing to a cabin in Vermont.

Clinton County Sheriff David Favro speculated that Joyce Mitchell would have wound up dead if she hadn’t backed out of meeting Sweat and Matt with a getaway car when they climbed out of a manhole beyond the prison walls.

“Joyce Mitchell, in my mind, would have just been luggage and would have slowed them down,” Favro said.

“If she went with them, I believe she would have been killed. I mean, why keep her? It makes no sense.”

Favro said the men had clearly “played on her emotions.”

“They looked at her characteristics and they took advantage of her. They knew they could get something out of her,” he said.

“In reality, she was the fallout that was going to take the heat off.”

Monday marked Day 10 of the search for the killers, which Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said was costing taxpayers “upwards of a million dollars a day.”

The manhunt now involves more than 800 local, state and federal law enforcement personnel who are focusing on a stretch of Route 374 that runs from the prison through Cadyville, about five miles southeast.

The state police said part of the road would remain closed to traffic at least through Tuesday.

Mitchell, who was busted Friday, appeared briefly Monday in Plattsburgh City Court, where she was brought in wearing handcuffs and leg irons.

The disgraced prison employee wore black-and-white-striped jail clothes under a blue bulletproof vest, and a pair of bright orange rubber clogs.

She stood stone-faced and spoke only once, softly saying “Yes” when the judge asked whether she agreed to have her lawyer, Keith Bruno, replaced due to an unspecified conflict of interest.

Her new lawyer, Stephen Johnston, waived Mitchell’s right to a preliminary hearing, and she was hauled back to jail to await indictment by a grand jury.

Johnston didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Favro said Mitchell, who is being held on $200,000 bond, was “under direct, one-on-one supervision” with “an officer several feet away from her at all times.”

Favro also said she was put in the bulletproof vest as protection from potential assailants outraged over her alleged crimes.

“There is a lot of fear in the community . . . There are people out there who may feel hostility towards Ms. Mitchell,” he said.

“I can’t have those people fully informed and lining up outside ready to throw stones or, even worse, shower us with bullets.”

Also Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he had ordered the state Inspector General’s Office to hire “a respected outside expert in corrections and law enforcement” for a top-to-bottom review of how Sweat and Matt were able to pull off their elaborate escape.

https://nypost.com/2015/06/15/prison...scaped-killer/

As to what happened to the 3 of them

Cop-Killer David Sweat was captured and returned to prison

Fellow murderer Richard Matt was located in the woods and shot three times in the head after he refused to surrender and died from severe skull fractures and brain injuries

As for Joyce Mitchell...She was released from prison 5 years after helping convicted killers escape

https://abcnews.go.com/US/joyce-mitc...ry?id=68789748

[Metlakatla]

Can't drive into Mexico without a passport. And yeah, the border personnel on both sides will be looking out for them.

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...icoborder.html

[otterhere]

Alabama isn't far from the border (not as far as, say, New York, anyway). Could they have driven or flown there before authorities even realized the "appointment" wasn't real and they were gone?

[K12144]

Originally Posted by Javacoffee

I know, right?! Maybe a young, rookie officer could be swayed by a savvy inmate, but an older experienced one? That's difficult to accept. She was all set to retire comfortably and enjoy the rest of her life in peace.

Also, I read that none of her coworkers ever saw evidence of an affair between the two. Nothing!

Not necessarily. Older people aren't immune from making bad choices. All set to retire... yep... interesting coincidence that this happened the day before she was supposed to retire, eh?

I read one news story that said inmates claimed to have seen a relationship-- but that was only one story and haven't seen it elsewhere (not that I've read that many).

(The real twist, with everyone afraid he killed her, would be to find out she sprung him in order to off *him*. No, I don't even remotely think that's what happened, but if this was a movie, that would be the way to end it...)

Originally Posted by L00k4ward

Her first priority now should be just to stay alive..
What a waste of hard earned reputation, pension, house..
There is no fool like an older fool, except older romantically inclined woman? fool…
They never learn…

No worries-- if it was a male cop and some young hot thing, it would be the same story. Fools come in many genders and all ages.

[Suburban_Guy]

Such a great job she did escorting that prisoner


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qd752zdvoeY

[Javacoffee]

I don't think these two will be able to hide anywhere for too long. They'll slip up. The entire nation is on the lookout. Probably Mexico and Canada too.

I suppose they could hide out in any American woods (Adirondack?), in an isolated cabin or RV, but eventually they've have to venture into town to buy groceries. I noticed a distinctive stiff gait in her, but it's hard to tell if it's permanent. He's a grizzly bear. He'll get bored with hiding out.

[Basiliximab]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/03/us/al...day/index.html

The sheriff said, other inmates reported noticing there was a "special relationship" between VW and the inmate, in that she gave him special privileges, would put extra food on his plate, and so on.

Here is testimony by a woman White tried to kill in 2015, who survived his attack and testified against him in court, to put him behind bars. When she learned of his recent escape, she contacted LE, because she and her family have been in hiding since then, and she's afraid for her and her family's safety. She has a message for Vicky White.
https://www.waaytv.com/news/casey-wh...e51a00bac.html

Yep, someone on here said it best. There's no fool like an old fool. Now because of this foolish woman's actions more innocent people might be murdered and lives ruined. How tragic. I at first wouldn't believe that someone with all that going for her would willingly flush it all down the toilet. Maybe like someone suggested they're trying to flee the country. Still, lives will be in danger there. And all because of her stupidity (as it appears to be more and more). What a shame. I don't have any doubt they'll be caught eventually (cameras are all over the place but not everywhere), but you never know. And if they do it'll be very satisfactory to see her behind bars (I'm hoping if she's still alive if they do get caught she'll be behind bars for the rest of her life, but probably not without actually killing someone. Still, I'm hoping it will be for at least more than a few years).

Originally Posted by L00k4ward

Would they pretend that he is disabled in a wheelchair? To hide his height? - easy to do
Check if she visited/attempted to buy a wheelchair…

That's good, never would have thought of that. That would seem like the way to go in this situation. I would hope those putting out search alerts would notify people of this possibility. It would be likely she would disguise herself too then. But then you've got people in wheelchairs possibly being harassed by other people thinking they're these people. I mean, if that's the way they went which really to me would be a good way to hide his height 'cause he's definitely going to stand out. But then I guess he'd just hide out in the car-- why would he unnecessarily expose himself, like unless to use the facilities (To me that would be when they'd use this scheme then). They could like go to a park that's not too popular to get exercise; there's a lot of those kinds of places around where I live.

(I wouldn't want to be cooped up in a car the majority of the day, especially if you're tall like that. I get the impression that that could be tiring pretty quickly. And because of that issue, I would think if they're traveling in a car and not an RV they would need to check into hotels. Unless--they got like camp equipment and are shacking up for the night in those parks where not many people are. That would seem a better way to avoid being caught because if every hotel and place like that is alerted then they're not going to get very far doing that. Unless--do you think they might like use one of those vacation rentals? No one ever--typically, I think I may have met the owners maybe once or twice but I don't recall any--sees the people they rent to. It just popped into my mind when I said they would need to check in, but you don't check in to these places. Many require a two night stay, but they could just say they're staying for two night and leave early).

Originally Posted by Javacoffee

I don't think these two will be able to hide anywhere for too long. They'll slip up. The entire nation is on the lookout. Probably Mexico and Canada too.

Man, I hope so. There are so many lives in danger because of this stupid woman.

Originally Posted by Javacoffee

I suppose they could hide out in any American woods (Adirondack?), in an isolated cabin or RV, but eventually they've have to venture into town to buy groceries. I noticed a distinctive stiff gait in her, but it's hard to tell if it's permanent. He's a grizzly bear. He'll get bored with hiding out.

Yep. I noticed the gait too. I think he'll definitely be bored with hiding out. The news clip posted above had a quote from this guy's ex-girlfriend saying that you have no idea how dangerous this guy is. I don't think he was looking for a way out in order to live a relaxing life in the countryside. I get the impression that the way he enjoys life is by killing people.

Originally Posted by otterhere

Alabama isn't far from the border (not as far as, say, New York, anyway). Could they have driven or flown there before authorities even realized the "appointment" wasn't real and they were gone?

Not sure about flying (would think that by now any international flight from that area and surrounding areas around the time they escaped would have records of these two, but you never know; they could have went on separate flights perhaps of course using different names and very well could have looked different. I would think though that the guy's height would have been the tipper and anyone that tall would have been looked into already as possibly him). But according to google maps, from Lauderdale County (which is in Northern West Alabama) to the border takes about 17 hours. Do we know exactly when the two were discovered missing? It had to be later that evening then, right? If that is the case, I do not think they would have had time to get that far (Even with speeding and good traffic, I would think that it would require at least some 13, 14 hours; you don't make up that much time by speeding and they surely couldn't have done it the entire way there). And I would surely and dearly hope that shortly after this escape was realized they would have immediately notified border authorities; I would imagine that's like the first thing you think of that they're fleeing the country.


Just looked again at the story---news that the pair failed to return hit about 3:30; figure this escape happened in the morning sometime. I would say (as long as border patrol was notified pretty soon after they realized the escape) it's fairly unlikely they made it to the border then.