Officials: Man comes forward, confesses to 2015 slaying of woman in her home
Published 4:47 pm Wednesday, September 2, 2020
FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama authorities have made an arrest in a nearly 5-year-old murder case.
Casey Cole White, 37, faces two counts of capital murder in the Oct. 23, 2015 slaying of Connie Jane Ridgeway, Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly announced Tuesday.
Ridgeway, 59, was found dead in her home in Rogersville, al.com reported.
The arrest came, Connolly said, after a sheriff’s investigator received a letter in June from White, who was serving a 75-year sentence at William Donaldson Correctional Facility for a multi-state crime spree that happened the same year he is accused of killing Ridgeway.
During an interview at the prison, White confessed to the Ridgeway slaying, and his statements match evidence at the scene that was not released, Connolly said.
Connolly said he did not know why White decided to come forward and talk with investigators.
“This was a horrible case,” Connolly said. “Certainly, the longer a case remains unsolved, the dimmer the hope is that you may be able to solve it.”
Connolly said White has been been charged with capital murder during a first-degree burglary and murder for pecuniary gain — meaning that he was paid to commit the slaying. White is being held without bond in the Lauderdale County Jail.
Connolly would not say whether other arrests may follow, adding only that the case remains under investigation. “He claims that he was paid to kill Mrs. Ridgeway,” he said.