Evansville car wash manager who helped nab Casey and Vicky White dies

EVANSVILLE — James Stinson, the Evansville car wash manager who was a central figure in the sensational 2022 manhunt for Alabama fugitives Casey White and Vicky White, died Thursday at age 72.

Stinson was outside his home on South Weinbach Avenue Thursday night when he suffered a medical event, Vanderburgh County Coroner Bryan Underwood told the Courier & Press.

"He was cutting grass trying to beat the rain, I think, and sat down on a park bench in front of his house, and didn't quite make it," Underwood said. "I'm pretty sure it was definitely a heart attack."

Vicky White, assistant director at the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence, Alabama, walked inmate and accused murderer Casey White out of jail on April 29, 2022. The Whites, who were romantically involved, were not related.

The resulting intense multi-state manhunt sparked a national and international media frenzy for 11 days, until the dramaended in Evansville on May 9, 2022, with Casey's capture and Vicky's death by self-inflicted gunshot.

Stinson's role in the manhunt would be hotly debated afterward.

It started with a suspicious character in a car wash bay

Stinson stepped into the story on the morning of May 4, the day after the Whites showed up at Weinbach Car Wash. He called Evansville-Vanderburgh Central Dispatch to report he had found a dark, four-door Ford F-150 truck with a Tennessee license plate abandoned in a wash bay, the keys still inside and windows down.

Casey White would later say he'd hoped someone would steal the vehicle. But Stinson didn't know all that then.

The car wash manager reported seeing a suspicious character loitering in a wash bay on video, but he did not mention Casey or Vicky White. Later he would insist he'd suspected from the start it was Casey on the video, but he didn't say so because another man ridiculed him for thinking the fugitives would come to his car wash.

On the night before the Whites were apprehended in Evansville, Stinson agreed that the next morning he would meet U.S. marshals task force members to review his video footage of Casey White. But he called local television station WEVV to the scene shortly before the fugitive hunters arrived, explaining later that he got steamed because the marshals didn't show up by the appointed time. The marshals, who rely on secrecy to avoid tipping off their targets, arrived at Weinbach Car Wash to find the news crew.

They insisted they hadn't told Stinson they were on the trail of Casey and Vicky White, butStinson insisted they had.

Later that day marshals task force members would plot to pin the Whites into their room at Motel 41 in Evansville with a heavy-duty armored rescue vehicle and force them to surrender without bloodshed or gunfire — butthe fugitives left the motel before the ARV could arrive.

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The car chase that ultimately ended with Casey White's capture and Vicky White's death by self-inflicted gunshot wound outside Anchor Industries lasted only a few minutes.

In the weeks and months that followed the end of the Alabama fugitive saga in Evansville, Stinson wascelebrated by many who thought he should get reward money. But privately and publicly, marshals task force members and law enforcement in Alabama and Indiana criticized him for allegedly blowing their chance to apprehend the Whites without bloodshed andexaggerating his role in the case.

A detailed timeline of the case later produced by the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office pointed a finger of blame squarely at Stinson.

"Casey (White) would later tell officers that they had seen on the news that the F-150 had been discovered due to the fact that Mr. Stinson notified the media," the timeline stated. "They were therefore packing up to leave."

A lasting friendship

In the immediate aftermath, Stinson formed a lasting friendship with then-Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton. As designated spokesman to national and international media during the manhunt, Singleton had become the public face of the drama.

Stinson visited Singleton in Florence and Singleton returned the favor in Evansville in October 2023. The former Alabama sheriffvisited Stinson in Evansvilleon the way to visit his adult daughter and her family in Indianapolis. There Singleton saw the car wash for the first time.

Singleton told the Courier & Press Friday that Stinson was a memorable character whose role in capturing the Whites marked a pivotal moment in the manhunt.

The fourth anniversary of the famous escape rolled around on the calendar just more than a week ago, Singleton wistfully noted.

"I was thinking about calling (Stinson), and I never did," he said. "He was a unique individual, that's for sure. He was very likable. He was a lot of fun to be around.

"I know he and the marshals didn't necessarily see eye-to-eye on some things — but at the end of the day he reported that truck, and that's what started the ball rolling."

Most people go their entire lifetimes without becoming part of a crime story that captures the public's imagination as Stinson did, Singleton said.

"After it all played out the way it did, they were captured right there in (Evansville) — it's a unique experience in a person's life," Singleton said. "It certainly was in his."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press:Evansville car wash manager who helped nab Casey and Vicky White dies