The US Marshals Service said it is offering up to $10,000 (€9,500) for information about an escaped inmate and a “missing and endangered” correctional officer who disappeared last Friday after the two left a jail in north Alabama.

Casey Cole White (38) had been jailed on a capital murder charge in the Lauderdale County Detention Centre in Florence, Alabama, about 120km west of Huntsville.

The inmate and assistant director of corrections Vicky White (56) left the Lauderdale County Detention Centre on Friday morning to go to a nearby courthouse, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post on Saturday. Investigators said the two are not related.

“Casey White is believed to be a serious threat to the corrections officer and the public,” the US marshal for northern Alabama, Marty Keely, said in a statement.

While in state prison for other crimes in 2020, Casey confessed to the 2015 stabbing death of Connie Ridgeway, WHNT-TV reported.

Vicky White has been with the department 16 years.

At a news conference on Friday, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said she was armed when she left the jail with the inmate and headed to the courthouse for what she said was a mental health evaluation for Casey White.

She was alone with the inmate, which the sheriff said violated department policy.

“Our policy is for any inmate with those kinds of charges to have two sworn deputies escort them,” Mr Singleton said, adding there was no mental health evaluation for the inmate scheduled at the courthouse.

The vehicle the officer and the inmate were in was found at a nearby shopping centre.