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Law enforcement officers with bloodhounds stand guard at an entrance to the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Photo: AP
A frantic manhunt was on yesterday for two convicted murderers who busted out of New York state's biggest maximum security prison by cutting through cell walls with power tools and escaping along tunnels.
Killers Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, sneaked out of the all-male Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora some time between Friday night and early Saturday, with police saying the discovery was made during morning "roll call" and warning the duo should not be approached.
They reportedly left a taunting note behind saying: "Have A Nice Day".
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter he had toured the daring route the pair took to freedom, posting images of the path the men were believed to have cut to escape.
The pair used power tools to drill through walls and pipes, he said, and left sweatshirts and other clothing in their beds as decoys to make it appear they were still in their cells.
No one has ever previously escaped from the maximum security portion of the prison, which opened in 1845, according to Cuomo.
"These are two dangerous individuals, one was incarcerated for killing a sheriff, so these are dangerous people," said Cuomo, who cancelled a scheduled appearance at the Belmont Stakes horse race to instead travel to the prison.
"And they are nothing to be trifled with."
He added: "By definition, it was an extraordinary act."
More than 200 law enforcement officers were deployed in the frantic search, assisted by a variety of tactical support, including K-9 units, Swat teams and helicopters.
Heavily armed police set up road blocks in an attempt to hunt down the two men.
Matt and Sweat were found missing during a 5.30am bed check, according to state police.
"Both are considered to be a danger to the public. If located DO NOT approach them. Contact 911 or the New York State Police immediately," authorities said in a statement referring to the US emergency number.
It was unclear whether the men were armed or had received help in plotting their escape.
After cutting through the steel back walls of their cells, they reportedly clambered along a six-foot-high catwalk to access a twisting series of pipes and tunnels, which they also cut their way into.
They then made their way through the pipes and climbed up through a manhole onto a nearby street, the New York Post said.
The strapping Matt, who is 1.8 metres tall and has multiple tattoos - including a US Marine corps insignia on his right shoulder - was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for kidnapping a man and beating him to death.
He also has tattoos on his back with the words "Mexico Forever".
Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy.
About 3,000 inmates are held at the prison, according to the Village of Dannemora's website.
Dangerous murderers on run fourth day from US jail
AFP
June 10, 2015, 5:13 am
Two dangerous American fugitives eluded capture for a fourth day after escaping from a maximum security jail, one of whom murdered and dismembered his elderly boss, while the other killed a sheriff's deputy.
Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, are the targets of an international manhunt after using power tools to cut through walls at the Clinton Correctional Facility in the small town of Dannemora in New York state.
Officials have warned that the men are violent and vicious. Photo: AFP
Officials say the men are violent and vicious, raising fears that the longer they remain on the run the higher the risk to members of the public, either at home or possibly across the border in Mexico or Canada.
Matt, six feet tall with multiple tattoos, is serving a 25-year to life sentence for the 1997 kidnapping and dismembering of his former boss, 76-year-old William Rickerson, in a horrifying 27-hour ordeal.
Matt reportedly hit his victim, bound him with duct tape and threw him into the trunk of a car. He then beat and assaulted the elderly man multiple times before twisting his neck, and fleeing to Mexico.
There he killed an American and was sentenced to 20 years, before being extradited back to New York state in 2007.
Before killing Rickerson, he had served time for rape and stabbing a nurse, in separate cases.
Although no one had previously escaped from the maximum security portion of the prison at Dannemora, it is Matt's second jail break.
In 1986, he spent four days on the run from Erie County Jail, where he was serving time for assault.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22 years old.
He and two accomplices were sharing out a cache of stolen weapons, when the deputy approached them. Sweat and an accomplice shot him multiple times and reportedly drove over him with a car.
As a teenager, Sweat was also charged with attempted second-degree burglary and burglary in two separate incidents.
- 'Lucky to be alive' -
Matt has multiple tattoos -- including a Marine Corps insignia on his right shoulder and one on his back with the words "Mexico Forever."
Sweat has tattoos on his left bicep and his right fingers.
The pair, who were reported to enjoy special privileges in jail for good behavior, escaped before dawn Saturday in a conspiracy likened to Hollywood movies such as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Escape from Alcatraz."
They cut through the walls of their cells with power tools, then crawled to freedom through an underground pipe system, coming up through a manhole and leaving behind a taunting note saying "Have a Nice Day" next to a toothy grin.
Police backed by sniffer dogs and helicopters have scoured the area, setting up roadblocks and alerting officials on the Mexican and Canadian borders, but admit they have no idea where they are.
Two local residents claim they confronted the felons shortly at around 12:30 am Saturday.
One had a buzz cut and wore a white T-shirt with a black guitar case slung over his shoulder, one of the witnesses told ABC News.
"I go look at him and I ask him 'what the hell are you doing in my yard, get the hell out of here.' And he was like, 'sorry, I didn't know where I was. I'm on the wrong street,'" the witness said.
"Lucky to be alive, man," said his female friend when asked how she felt.
On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo described the pair as "truly dangerous, desperate men" whose escape "could have been a movie script."
Cuomo said he believed they had help, "primarily from the inside" and US media have reported that a female prison worker has been questioned, although not charged in connection with the investigation.
"I'd be shocked if a corrections guard was involved in this but ... they couldn't have done this on their own," Cuomo told NBC television.
A $100,000 reward for information has led to 300 leads, which state police told AFP that more than 250 officers and the FBI were chasing down.
Search for escaped inmates shifts to town 30 miles away
By MICHAEL HILL and MICHAEL VIRTANEN
Jun. 9, 2015 3:27 PM EDT
Heavily armed law enforcement agents patrol the edge of road during a search for two escaped killers near Boquet, N.Y., Tuesday, June 9, 2015. State and federal law officers are searching for David Sweat and Richard Matt, two killers who used power tools to break out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannnemora, close to the Canadian border. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
DANNEMORA, N.Y. (AP) — State and federal law officers searching for two killers who used power tools to break out of a maximum-security prison poured into a small town 30 miles away Tuesday after getting a report of a possible sighting.
Dozens of officers with arms linked pushed through woods and fields in the town of Willsboro in an apparent attempt to drive their prey toward a road in a neighboring community. The road was lined with officers with rifles.
State Police Capt. John Tibbitts Jr. would not say if authorities believed they were closing in on the inmates.
The officers descended on the town just west of Lake Champlain after residents reported seeing a couple of men walking on a road late Monday during a driving rainstorm.
Authorities have fielded numerous tips since the weekend escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, close to the Canadian border, but appeared to have jumped hardest on this one.
David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, cut through a steel wall, broke through bricks and crawled through a steam pipe before emerging through a manhole outside the prison grounds.
They were discovered missing early Saturday after stuffing their beds with clothes to fool guards on their rounds and leaving behind a taunting note: "Have a nice day."
Given the meticulous planning that went into the breakout itself, there was speculation that the inmates had lined up a ride for themselves outside the prison and were long gone from the area. On Monday, authorities said the inmates could be anywhere — perhaps Canada or Mexico.
On Tuesday, Willsboro dairy farmer George Sayward said he saw troopers parked next to his barn around 5 a.m., and they told him they were there because of a possible sighting of the convicts. Around 7 a.m., Sayward said, he heard one trooper tell another to call in 100 more men.
"The next thing I know, there were a ton of them, by the busload," Sayward said.
The escape from the 3,000-inmate state prison immediately raised suspicions the men had help on the inside.
Investigators questioned prison workers and outside contractors to try to find out who may have supplied the men with the power tools. Contractors have been doing extensive renovations at the 170-year-old prison, a hulking, fortresslike structure that looms over Dannemora's main street.
Among other questions raised: Didn't someone hear the noise from the tools? How did the inmates hide the hole, the dirt and dust from work that probably took days to accomplish? And did they have blueprints or other inside information to find their way through the bowels of the prison?
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said other inmates claimed they didn't see or hear anything. "They're all heavy sleepers," he said sardonically.
And state Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, chairman of the Correction Committee, said any inmate who heard drilling wouldn't dare report it. "That will get you killed — that's the kind of environment it is," he said.
A $100,000 reward was posted over the weekend for information leading to the men's capture.
Sweat was convicted in the 2002 killing of a sheriff's deputy and was doing life without parole. Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping and dismembering his boss in 1997.
___
Virtanen reported from Albany. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz, Jake Pearson and Verena Dobnik in New York City contributed to this report.
The Latest on prison escape: Woman seen as level-headed
By The Associated Press
Jun. 11, 2015 6:41 PM EDT
Heavily armed law enforcement officers stand near an area during a search for two escaped prisoners near Dannemora, N.Y., Thursday, June 11, 2015. Police have blocked off the main road outside a northern New York village as authorities concentrate their sixth day of searching for David Sweat and Richard Matt on a swampy area just a couple miles from the prison the convicts broke out of last weekend. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
6:30 p.m. (EDT)
A neighbor of a New York prison worker under scrutiny says she can't believe her lighthearted but down-to-earth neighbor would have been involved in two convicted murderers' escape.
A person close to the investigation has said authorities believe prison tailor-shop instructor Joyce Mitchell was supposed to be the escapees' getaway driver but didn't show up. The person wasn't authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity.
Neighbor Sharon Currier says Mitchell is always happy to help people, but she's "not somebody who's off the wall." She says Mitchell has worked at the prison for five or more years.
Officials say Mitchell has been questioned. She hasn't been charged.
Her son has told NBC that his mother wouldn't have helped them escape.
___
5:30 p.m. (EDT)
A New York state lawmaker whose committee oversees the prisons says many questions remain about the escape of two killers from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility.
Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, who chairs the Assembly Corrections Committee, visited the prison last year. The Manhattan Democrat says the prison is "the most dangerous place" in the system and it's "rank speculation" to say that staffing is the issue in last week's escape of David Sweat and Richard Matt.
Officials say Clinton has 1,236 employees, including 1,005 security personnel.
The prison has 2,687 inmates, 703 kept in an adjoining lower security annex.
Two weeks ago, a fight erupted among 30 inmates in the prison yard.
O'Donnell says the state will need to review what was supposed to be happening as Sweat and Matt escaped and what actually did happen.
___
3:55 p.m. (EDT)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says bloodhounds caught the scent of two escaped killers, leading searchers to a rural area a few miles from an upstate New York prison.
For much of Thursday, hundreds of officers have been walking arms' length apart through mixed terrain including muddy areas, woods and thick underbrush.
By late afternoon, Cuomo said he wasn't sure if the dogs were still on the scent of Richard Matt and David Sweat, but the search is continuing.
The governor also says investigators are "talking to several people who may have facilitated the escape" from the Clinton Correctional facility.
The only person named so far is a civilian employee who apparently was supposed to be the escapees' getaway driver but didn't show up.
No one has been charged.
___
3:10 p.m. (EDT)
Clinton County Sheriff David Favro says more than 400 officers are continuing a grid search Thursday afternoon through a mostly rural area not far from the prison in northern New York where two convicted killers escaped last weekend.
Favro says several houses are located in the area where searchers are walking arms' length apart through mixed terrain including muddy areas, woods and thick underbrush.
If the escapees aren't found or the grid search completed, Favro says searchers will keep the area cordoned off Thursday night in the hunt for Richard Matt and David Sweat.
The sheriff says residents were sent a reverse 911 call Wednesday night advising them to lock doors, close windows and leave outside lights on.
He says there have been no reports of stolen or abandoned vehicles, break-ins or abductions.
___
2:30 p.m. (EDT)
Police say surveillance video shows two men picked up by a Philadelphia cabbie were not the escaped New York killers.
The cabbie alerted police Wednesday morning after driving men matching the descriptions of missing inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat to the city's Amtrak station.
Police questioned the driver and reviewed surveillance video of the trip before determining they were not a match.
The 48-year-old Matt and 34-year-old Sweat were discovered missing Saturday.
Authorities say they used power tools to cut through a steel wall and break through bricks at the 3,000-inmate Clinton Correctional Facility in far northern New York. They say the men crawled through a steam pipe to an outside manhole.
Police are searching the woods a few miles from the maximum-security prison.
___
11:30 a.m. (EDT)
A person close to the investigation says authorities believe a New York prison employee was supposed to be the getaway driver for two escaped killers but didn't show up.
The person tells The Associated Press that's one reason the search is focused now in dense forest only miles from Clinton Correctional Facility.
The person says investigators believe prison instructor Joyce Mitchell befriended the men and was supposed to pick them up Saturday morning but didn't. The person wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity.
Officials say Mitchell has been questioned and may have helped the men. She hasn't been charged. Her son has told NBC that his mother wouldn't have helped them escape.
David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped through holes cut in wall of their cells and an underground steam pipe.
—Associated Press writer Michael Virtanen contributed to this report.
___
9:40 a.m. (EDT)
Police have blocked off the main road outside a northern New York village as authorities concentrate their sixth day of searching for two escaped murders on a swampy area.
The area being searched is about 2 miles east of the prison where the convicts broke out last weekend.
State police have closed Route 374 Thursday morning as wells as other nearby roads just east of Dannemora, where 34-year-old David Sweat and 48-year-old Richard Matt used power tools to cut their way out of maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility.
A police helicopter is flying over a heavily wooded area dotted with swamps. Local schools are closed and residents have been told to lock their doors.
The escape was discovered early Saturday morning by guards checking the inmates' neighboring cells.
___
8:45 a.m. (EDT)
A Philadelphia cab driver says he picked up two men matching the descriptions of the killers who escaped from an upstate New York prison.
WCAU-TV reports (http://bit.Iy/1FL7QzX) police are questioning the cab driver, who says he dropped off the passengers at the city's Amtrak station early Thursday.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey tells the station sightings have been reported in several cities and he has no reason to think the inmates are in Philadelphia.
More than 450 law enforcement officers have joined the search for 48-year-old Richard Matt and 34-year-old David Sweat. They have closed roads and schools near the prison.
The search also has expanded into neighboring Vermont.
___
7 a.m. (EDT)
A road east of Dannemora where Clinton Correctional Facility is located remains closed as police investigate a lead involving two escaped killers. New York State Police closed a stretch of Route 374 Wednesday night.
Troopers say the road is expected to remain closed through Thursday morning and residents are told to expect an increased police presence.
The 1,500-student Saranac Central School District called off classes Thursday because of all the police activity in the area just four miles east of the prison. District Superintendent Jonathan Parks says state police requested he close the schools.
The district offices are just a half mile from the prison's walls.
US prison worker arrested for helping killer duo escape
AFP
June 13, 2015, 9:25 am
New York (AFP) - Police in New York state arrested and charged a female prison worker Friday for allegedly helping two convicted killers escape by smuggling tools to them, authorities said, as police stepped up their week-long manhunt.
Swarms of state, local and federal agents combed thick woods east of the Clinton Correctional Facility, which Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, busted out of -- using power tools to cut their way out, before crawling along pipes and out to freedom via a manhole.
Investigators have focused on who helped Matt, who was convicted of dismembering his 76-year-old former boss, and Sweat, who shot dead a sheriff's deputy.
Joyce Mitchell, 51, who worked at a tailoring shop at the sprawling prison, was charged with "promoting prison contraband" and criminal facilitation.
She "provided some form of equipment or tools" that allowed the two murderers to escape, the Clinton County district attorney Andrew Wylie earlier told CNN.
Mitchell's arrest was "one large piece of the puzzle" in the hunt of the duo, Major Charles Guess of New York State Police told a press conference, adding: "We have a message for David Sweat and Richard Matt. We're coming for you and we will not stop until you are caught."
- 'Dangerous and desperate' -
US media reported that Mitchell's husband, another prison employee, was also being investigated for possible involvement in a search that has captivated America.
He had not been charged and was not in custody, Guess said, adding that wet weather and the rolling woodlands and hills where the search is focused were complicating the hunt.
But that might also slow the killer pair's progress, too, he cautioned.
"If they have not escaped the area or they have not availed themselves of shelter, we've got to assume they're cold, wet, tired, and hungry," he said.
"I would advise and remind the community and the residents that that makes these individuals even more dangerous and desperate."
Authorities "do not have any conclusive evidence that either of the inmates has left this area," he added, referring to the land around the town of Plattsburgh, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of the prison.
Hacksaw blades, drill bits and two pairs of spectacles with attached lights were among the items Mitchell allegedly gave the convicts, CNN quoted two unnamed law enforcement sources as saying.
Officials have suggested that Mitchell may have been charmed by Matt and Sweat, and agreed to pick them up by car from the manhole where they emerged in the early hours last Saturday.
Instead, she changed her mind and checked into a hospital -- reportedly suffering from a panic attack.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Mitchell had also been under investigation in the last year for allegedly forming a relationship with Sweat while they worked together in the prison tailoring shop.
There was not enough evidence to take action, but Sweat was pulled out of the shop, the newspaper reported.
- Search intensifies -
Police said the search was continuing for a second day along state highway 374 and a section of the highway would remain closed until the search was completed. Local schools were also closed until Monday to allow the manhunt to continue unimpeded.
Police said that more than 800 officers -- an increase of 300 personnel -- were mobilized, including FBI agents and forest rangers, backed by K9 units and helicopters, chasing more than 700 leads.
One local newspaper, the Press-Republican, said dogs had picked up the convicts' scent on Wednesday and traced it from outside a convenience store and gas station through the woods.
There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the duo's arrest, and the public has been warned to call 911 immediately if they spot anything suspicious and not to approach either man.
Matt, six feet (1.83 meters) tall with multiple tattoos, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping and dismembering of his former boss in a 27-hour ordeal.
He fled to Mexico after the murder and killed an American, before being sentenced to 20 years and extradited back to New York.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22.
The pair's escape has been likened to Hollywood movies such as "The Shawshank Redemption" or "Escape from Alcatraz."
After cutting through walls and crawling through an underground pipe system, they left behind a note saying "Have a Nice Day."
The prison sewing teacher 'charmed' by fugitive killer
Date June 15, 2015 - 12:35AM
Raf Sanchez
Washington: With handcuffs on her wrists and eyes downcast, Joyce Mitchell looks less like a plotter in one of America's most audacious jail breaks and more like a woman who has realised she has made a terrible mistake.
Prosecutors allege that the 51-year-old prison sewing instructor fell under the charms of Richard Matt, a killer serving a life sentence for dismembering his former boss with a hacksaw.
The two met in the prison tailoring shop, where Mrs Mitchell taught convicts how to use sewing machines. Here, police believe that Matt "made her feel special" and coaxed her into providing the tools that he needed to dig his way out of Clinton Correction Facility in New York state.
Joyce Mitchell is led into court on Friday. Photo: AFP
More than a week after Matt, 48, and his accomplice David Sweat, another killer, made their escape, police appear no closer to finding the fugitives.
But investigators have gathered enough evidence to charge Mrs Mitchell with aiding the escape, telling a court that she had provided "hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit" to the two murderers.
She pleaded not guilty to charges which could see her imprisoned for eight years.
Pictures of escaped prisoners Richard Matt and David Sweat are displayed at a press conference in New York. Photo: AFP
Her second husband, Lyle Mitchell, who also works at the prison, is said to be under investigation but has not been arrested or charged.
While police tramp through forests and search house-by-house for the missing inmates, the prison authorities are left to grapple with uncomfortable questions.
How could one of their own have helped two killers break free? Who else was involved in the plot? How were the men able to escape from what was supposed to be one of New York's most secure facilities?
Joyce Mitchell looked less like a plotter in a jail break and more like a woman who realised she had made a terrible mistake. Photo: AP
Richard Matt should be an easy man to dislike. In 1997, he kidnapped a 76-year-old man and beat him savagely before driving him around in the boot of his car for 27 hours.
Eventually he snapped his victim's neck with his bare hands and chopped his body into pieces before throwing it into the Niagara River, where it was discovered by fisherman. "He is the most vicious, evil person I've ever come across in 38 years as a police officer," Gabriel DiBernardo, a retired police detective who led the murder probe, told The New York Times.
But despite his viciousness, Matt is said to possess a certain cunning charm. He impressed prison staff with his artistic abilities and liked to sketch pictures of Oprah Winfrey, according to the Daily Beast.
He is believed to have worked his powers of persuasion on Mrs Mitchell and befriended her.
It is not clear if Mrs Mitchell fell in love with the convicted killer, whose body is covered in tattoos, or if she was just won over by his charisma.
Either way, prosecutors say, she supplied the tools which Matt and Sweat used to cut through the steel walls of their cells and into a pipe that led to the outside world. In addition, they say that her mobile phone was used to call people related to Matt.
Mrs Mitchell may also have agreed to give the two killers a lift in her car, but she appears to have lost her nerve and backed out at the last minute. She spent part of last weekend in hospital for a panic attack.
Mrs Mitchell's son, Tobey, insisted that his mother loved her work and would never betray her colleagues by helping inmates escape.
"She is not the kind of person that's going to risk her life or other people's lives to let these guys escape from prison," he told NBC.
But her first husband, also called Tobey, has painted a less flattering portrait, accusing of her of being unfaithful during their five-year marriage.
Mrs Mitchell, who lived an hour east of Clinton Correction Facility, seems to have taken pride in her job and posted on Facebook in 2013: "It takes balls to work behind the walls. No guns ??? just pure guts." She has been cooperating with police but authorities have so far been unable to locate Matt and Sweat, who were found to be missing last Saturday after they bought time by leaving dummies made of clothes in their beds and left a mocking note featuring a crude, racial caricature.
Hundreds of heavily-armed officers continued to search the Dannemora area immediately around the prison, where bloodhounds are believed to have picked up the scent of the fugitives.
Around 800 police, backed by helicopters were combing the area yesterday, but the authorities admitted that while their focus remained near the Clinton Correctional Facility, the two men could have slipped into the neighbouring state of Vermont or even crossed the border into Canada.
New York prison employee Joyce Mitchell arrested as accomplice in escape plot
Date June 14, 2015 - 10:24AM
JESSE McKINLEY and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Prison worker had been investigated before the escape about whether she had become too close to escapers.
Cadyville, New York:
A prison worker who befriended two killers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in far northern New York state last weekend was arrested on Friday for providing them with "material assistance," the authorities said.
On May 1, more than a month before the two escaped, the worker, Joyce E. Mitchell, 51, of Dickinson Center, New York, brought "hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and screwdriver bit" into the prison, according to a criminal complaint. She was charged with promoting prison contraband in the first degree, a felony, and criminal facilitation in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor.
Law enforcement agents line up along a road after emerging from the woods during a search of a wooded area near Cadyville, New York, on Friday. Photo: CHRIS WATTIE
Ms Mitchell, a civilian employee at the prison, had been under surveillance after being identified by the authorities soon after the escape as a possible accomplice, perhaps as the pair's planned getaway driver. But she had sought hospitalisation at about the same time as the escape, complaining of a panic attack, the authorities said.
At the same time, investigators have begun examining the role that other prison staff and correction officers at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, might have played in the escape, several people with knowledge of the inquiry said on Friday. That included questioning other civilian prison employees and uniformed correction officers.
"They're crawling all over everybody," one of the people said. The people with knowledge of the inquiry spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the ongoing investigation.
In brief remarks to reporters assembled at a blockaded state highway, Andrew Wylie, the Clinton County district attorney, said on Friday that Ms Mitchell had been speaking regularly with his office in recent days.
"We're continuing to work with her, learning more and more information each day from her as far as establishing a timeline, how this process occurred and what her involvement was," Mr Wylie said, adding that she had become more forthcoming as to "what her relationships were" with the killers.
"And from that we're just developing leads we continue to investigate," he said.
Mr Wylie said on Friday that published reports that Ms Mitchell had smuggled in electrical grinders or other equipment to the inmates were false – "She has not brought power tools into the facility," he said – and other investigators concurred.
The fugitives, Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, escaped late on Friday, June 5, or early the next day. They crawled to freedom through a hole that had been cut in the side of a 60 centimetre steel pipe that ran beneath the prison's walls.
But it does not appear that investigators have determined what tools were used to cut through the walls and the pipe, the people with knowledge of the inquiry said.
Powerful cutting tools were among those in the prison's inventory, but all of the prison's tools, and any that may have been in the facility for use by contractors have been accounted for, the people have said. Investigators have not eliminated the possibility that the prisoners had used tools from inside the prison to cut through the pipe, their cell walls and break through brick walls, and returned them to the prison's tool inventory before they fled, the people said.
An analysis by the FBI will show not only what sort of cutting tool was used, but the direction of the cuts to the pipe, one of the people said.
Mr Wylie said Ms Mitchell, who lives in Dickinson Corner, a town about 100 kilometres west of here, had smuggled contraband into the prison. He would not provide additional details, noting that contraband can include a wide range of items.
Ms Mitchell has not been arrested but is under surveillance, Mr Wylie said, adding that she was facing felony charges related to her involvement in the escape, punishable by 2⅓to seven years in prison.
Mr Wylie confirmed that Ms Mitchell had been the subject of an investigation before the escape about whether she had become too close to Matt and Sweat. "Action was taken to separate" Ms Mitchell from one or both of the inmates "for a period of time", he said.
Prison worker allegedly plotted for escaped inmates to kill her husband
Caitlin Dickson
June 16, 2015, 7:28 am
Ahead of Joyce Mitchell’s expected court appearance, reports reveal new information about the prison worker who has been accused of helping two inmates escape from upstate New York’s Clinton Correctional facility.
Both the New York Daily News and New York Post have reported that, according to a source, Mitchell, had planned to drive convicted killers Richard Matt and David Sweat away from the prison and to her home, where they would then kill her husband, also an employee at Clinton. Photo: AP
Prosecutors say Mitchell, who worked in the prison tailor shop, provided Matt and Sweat with the tools for their escape, including hacksaw blades, drill bits and chisels. The 51-year-old had allegedly planned to be the pair’s getaway driver, but backed out at the last minute and checked herself into a hospital instead, later confessing her involvement in the prison break to State Police.
“Basically, when it was go-time and it was the actual day of the event, I do think she got cold feet and realised, ‘What am I doing?’” Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie told the Associated Press over the weekend.
“Reality struck. She realised that, really, the grass wasn’t greener on the other side.”
Richard Matt (L) and David Sweat busted out of the Clinton Correctional Facility, using power tools to cut their way to freedom. Photo: AFP
When contacted by the Daily News, Wylie would not comment on the prisoners’ alleged plan to kill Mitchell’s husband. But the prosecutor did confirm that Mitchell had previously been investigated for a sexual encounter with David Sweat, one of the escapees, but Wylie said there had not been enough evidence to discipline her or remove her from the prison at the time.
NBC News reported that, following the earlier investigation, Sweat’s accomplice Richard Matt began to work his charm on Mitchell, gaining her affection to the point that she “thought it was love,” according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Sources also told NBC News that the post-it notes have been found along the prisoners’ escape route.
Though no vehicles have been reported stolen since the June 6 outbreak and investigators have reported no evidence that the two men had a backup plan for Mitchell's cold feet, the manhunt is now entering its second week.
Mitchell, who was arrested by state police on Friday on a felony charge of promoting prison contraband as well as criminal facilitation, a misdemeanor, is being held on $110,000 bail. She's pleaded not guilty to the charges and is slated to make her second court appearance today.
This combination of photos released by the New York State Police shows progression images of what convicted murderers Richard Matt(left) and David Sweat might look like after being on the run for ten days.
This combination of photos released by the New York State Police shows progression images of what convicted murderers Richard Matt(left) and David Sweat might look like after being on the run for ten days. Photo: AFP
Montreal: Canadian federal police say they are on the lookout for two escaped prisoners from New York state after receiving several tips they may have crossed the border into Canada.
Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, escaped almost two weeks ago from a maximum security jail in New York state, 40km south of the US-Canada border.
"We received information that we're trying to collaborate that the pair entered Canada," Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Corporal Francois Gagnon said on Wednesday.
A task force of US Marshalls and police officers go door to door searching for two escaped convicts outside Dannemora, New York. Photo: Getty Images
He added that the RCMP is "working with several American partners, including the FBI," on the case.
The daily Journal de Montreal reported that police believe the fugitives may have crossed the border from the town of Jackman in the US state of Maine into Canada's Quebec province.
The region is heavily wooded and mountainous.
Helped inmates escape prison ... Joyce Mitchell appears before Judge Buck Rogers in Plattsburgh City Court, New York. Photo: POOL
Matt was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping and dismembering of his former boss in a 27-hour ordeal.
He fled to Mexico after the murder and killed another American there, before being sentenced to 20 years and extradited back to New York.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22.
Correction officers check out a flatbed truck at a road block looking for escaped convicts Richard Matt and David Sweat in Dannemora, New York. Photo: AP
Joyce Mitchell, who worked at a tailoring shop at the Clinton Correctional Facility, has confessed to giving them hacksaw blades and other contraband used in the June 6 maximum security prison break.
Despite an exhaustive search by some 800 officers in the United States chasing more than 1000 leads, there have been no confirmed sightings of the pair.
The two convicted murderers could be nearby or "in Mexico by now," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says.
The intense man hunt focused on the fields and Adirondack woods near the prison in upstate New York after the inmates' escape was apparently hampered by a prison employee's decision to back out as their getaway driver nine days ago.
The inmates, David Sweat and Richard Matt, planned to have the now-jailed prison worker drive them about seven hours away to an unknown destination, District Attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN.
But prison tailor shop instructor Joyce Mitchell backed out of the plan at the last minute, Wylie said.
"One of the reasons that she didn't show up was because she did love her husband and didn't want to do this to him," he said.
Even as hundreds of law enforcement workers stalked the rural area about 30 kilometres from Canada, Cuomo said it was unclear if the men were still nearby.
"We don't know if they are still in the area or if they're in Mexico by now," Cuomo said.
Roads on the western edge of Plattsburgh were open only to local traffic and a state police helicopter was parked in a field where 24 hours earlier a contingent of 40 officers had marched into the adjacent woods on yet another grid search.
Many local residents were very much on edge, with some saying they were keeping firearms handy just in case.
Escaped New York convicts added to 'most-wanted' list
AFP
June 19, 2015, 11:06 am
New York (AFP) - US Marshals have added the two killer convicts who escaped a maximum-security prison two weeks ago to a 15 most-wanted list of "the worst of the worst" fugitives.
Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, escaped 13 days ago from New York's Clinton Correctional Facility in an elaborate prison break that has been likened to a Hollywood movie.
Joyce Mitchell, who worked in the tailor shop at the prison in the village of Dannemora is in custody charged with facilitating their escape, which saw them use hacksaw blades to bust out of their cells before crawling along pipes and out into freedom via a manhole cover.
Police say they have 1,400 leads in the hunt for the duo, described as dangerous and not to be approached in any circumstances.
"The agency?s 15 Most Wanted fugitive list is reserved for the worst of the worst," said US Marshals Service Director Stacia Hylton.
"There is no question David Sweat and Richard Matt fall into this category.
"While their brazen prison escape has left the public on edge, it has only ignited our sheer determination to bring them back to justice."
New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said putting the on-run pair on the notorious list was a way of garnering public attention and generating new leads.
"We are absolute in our commitment to apprehend these dangerous escapees and will leave no stone unturned," added Northern District of New York US Marshal David McNulty.
"Sweat and Matt have violent criminal histories and pose a significant threat to anyone who may come in contact with them."
Matt, six feet (1.83 meters) tall with multiple tattoos, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping and dismembering of his former boss.
He fled to Mexico after the murder and killed another American there, before being sentenced to 20 years and extradited back to New York.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22.
The Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading directly to the apprehension of either man.
Manhunt for escaped killers shifts after possible sighting
Jun. 21, 2015 4:17 PM EDT
FILE - At left, in a May 21, 2015, file photo released by the New York State Police is David Sweat. At right, in a May 20, 2015, file photo released by the New York State Police is Richard Matt. New York State Police are investigating a possible sighting of the two convicted killers who escaped from an upstate New York prison two weeks ago. In a news release posted late Friday, June 19, 2015, State Police say two men fitting the description of inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt were seen a week ago in Steuben County, New York, over 300 miles southwest of the prison in Dannemora. (New York State Police via AP, File)
FRIENDSHIP, N.Y. (AP) — Investigators tracking two murder convicts who escaped from a northern New York prison scoured a rural area near the Pennsylvania border Sunday, saying an unconfirmed but credible report of a sighting had shifted the search across the state.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers walked railroad tracks and checked car trunks as a helicopter flew back and forth over the town of Friendship, where state police said a woman on Saturday reported spotting two men who resembled the convicts near a railroad line that runs along a county road.
While state police called the sighting unconfirmed, the intense hunt that had focused for two weeks around a prison near the Canadian border was quickly refocused on a rural, mountainous area 350 miles away, dotted with sheds, trailers, summer homes and other potential hideouts.
"We will search under every rock, behind every tree and structure until we are confident that that area is secure," State Police Maj. Michael J. Cerretto said at a news conference Sunday.
Concentrating in the area along County Route 20 and Interstate 86, officers set up roadblocks and deployed search dogs. At one point, state police outfitted in camouflage could be seen heading into some woods.
David Sweat and Richard Matt broke out of the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6 using power tools and leaving behind dummies under bedcovers in their adjoining cells.
Until Saturday, the search was concentrated in a several-mile radius around the prison in the Adirondacks. Up to 800 law enforcement officers combed woods, went door-to-door and set up roadblocks.
After getting the call about the possible sighting Saturday, police interviewed the witness at length and decided she was credible and the tip bore investigating, Cerretto said. He said 300 officers were involved in the search in Friendship and neighboring Amity.
Authorities also said Friday that two men fitting the descriptions of Sweat and Matt had been seen a week ago in Steuben County, east of Allegany County. Two men were seen walking near a rail yard in Erwin on June 13, and then seen the next day in Lindley, heading toward the Pennsylvania border.
Investigators conducted interviews in both communities and sent surveillance video to Albany for further analysis. Cerretto wouldn't say whether there had been any further reports of sightings Sunday.
Two railroads in the area, the Western New York & Pennsylvania and the Norfolk Southern, referred inquiries Sunday to the state police. Another, the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad, hadn't been contacted by authorities but had advised its employees to be extra-vigilant in looking for anything out of the ordinary, general manager J.L. Pope said.
If the two escapees are still roaming the woods together, that's not surprising, said Patrick Patten, who trains law enforcers on woodland tracking and has been involved in high-profile manhunts including the search for Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph. Patten said fugitives in the wilderness often stick together, unless they have pre-planned to split up and come back together at a camp or other hideaway.
State police asked residents who live around Friendship to be on alert, warning that the escapees are "very dangerous" and should not be approached.
"I was a little concerned. You have these guys running around. You don't know where they are," resident Darryl Ross told The Leader newspaper. "I have a house with a big cellar and a big garage. I cleared the house. I had firearm protection."
Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
Prison worker Joyce Mitchell remained in custody on charges she helped the two men escape by providing them hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools. She has pleaded not guilty.
Officials said a corrections officer also has been placed on administrative leave as part of the investigation into the men's escape.
Items recovered from NY cabin in hunt for escaped murderers
By MIKE GROLL
Jun. 22, 2015 3:52 PM EDT
Map and timeline shows sightings and areas of search.; 2c x 5 inches; 96.3 mm x 127 mm
BELLMONT, N.Y. (AP) — Items recovered from a remote hunting cabin might be linked to a pair of convicted killers who escaped from a nearby prison more than two weeks ago, authorities said Monday as searchers swarmed rugged woods in the hamlet in far northern New York.
State Police Maj. Charles Guess said at a news conference that authorities had "specific items" from the Adirondack cabin some 20 miles west of the prison and sent them to labs for DNA and other testing. He would not elaborate on the items but characterized the latest search effort — one of many over the past 17 days — as a confirmed lead.
"There are a number of factors that make this a complex search: the weather, the terrain, the environment and frankly the vast scope of the north country of the Adirondacks," Guess said.
He urged residents and seasonal camp owners to call police if they notice anything out of place or capture footage on trail cameras of any suspicious activity.
Acting Franklin County District Attorney Glenn MacNeill had told WPTZ-TV on Sunday that a hunter had reported seeing a person fleeing from a camp in the area.
Terry Bellinger, owner of nearby Belly's Mountain View Inn, said the hunter told him he saw a man run into the woods as he approached the camp Saturday on an ATV. When the hunter went into the cabin, he noticed two things out of place: a jug of water and an open jar of peanut butter on a table. Bellinger said the hunter went to his restaurant, where he talked to police for several hours.
"He was visibly shaken. He wanted a glass of water," Bellinger said.
Inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped June 6 from the Clinton County Correctional Facility. Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
Prison worker Joyce Mitchell remained in custody on charges she helped the two men escape by providing them hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools. She has pleaded not guilty.
Authorities say she had talked to the inmates about killing her husband, Lyle, who also works at the prison. Andrew Wylie, Clinton County district attorney, said Joyce Mitchell told authorities that she and Matt discussed having Matt and Sweat go to her house after they escaped to kill Lyle Mitchell.
Monday's search area is about 20 miles east of Mitchell's home in Dickinson Center.
Busloads of officers, search dogs and helicopters began arriving in the Adirondack hamlet of Bellmont late Sunday as a parallel search more than 350 miles away from the prison wrapped up with no sign of the inmates.
The search had been focused over the weekend on two towns in Allegany County along the Pennsylvania state border. An unconfirmed but credible report came in that two men resembling the prisoners had been spotted near a railroad line that runs along a county road.
New York State Police said Monday morning that the search in the towns of Amity and Friendship in western New York had concluded.
Since Sweat and Matt escaped from the prison in Dannemora, more than 800 law enforcement officers have gone door-to-door checking houses, wooded areas, campgrounds and summer homes.
Vermont State Police also have joined the Adirondack-area search.
Officials said a corrections officer has been placed on administrative leave as part of the investigation into the men's escape.
Attorney Andrew Brockway told Plattsburgh television station WPTZ that the officer, Gene Palmer, was completely forthcoming during 14 hours of questioning Saturday.
"I can 100 percent confirm that he did not know they were planning on breaking out of the prison," Brockway said.
New York (AFP) - A DNA breakthrough in the manhunt for two US escaped murderers shows they may have broken into a cabin near the maximum-security New York jail from which they escaped, police said Monday.
Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, escaped 17 days ago from a maximum security jail close to the Canadian border, in a carefully rehearsed, elaborate prison break that has been likened to a Hollywood movie.
Police said they had a "confirmed lead" following a search in the remote Owl's Head area, around 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of the Clinton Correctional Facility in the village of Dannemora.
It is the strongest lead in the investigation since the pair cut through their cell walls using power tools, and crawled their way through pipes to emerge from a manhole before dawn on June 6.
"We have developed evidence that the suspects may have spent time in a cabin in this area," said New York State Police Major Charles Guess told reporters.
He said "specific items" had been recovered from that cabin and sent to laboratories. "We run conclusive tests, which include DNA and anything and everything we can send to laboratories," he said.
US media reports said the DNA evidence suggested that the cabin may have been broken into as little as 24 hours earlier. Boots, bloody socks and toiletries were found, local newspaper the Press-Republican reported.
Police called on the public to take "safety precautions."
"If you return to your camp and anything is out of place, call 911 immediately," he said.
"It's a confirmed lead for us. It's generated a massive law enforcement response, as you can see and we're going to run this to ground," added Guess.
- Second prison worker on leave -
There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the men's arrest.
Matt and Sweat used hacksaw blades supplied by a 51-year-old married female prison worker, who reportedly had a relationship with both men, and equipment stolen from a toolbox left by construction workers.
Joyce Mitchell, who worked in the prison's tailor shop, is in custody charged with facilitating their escape.
A second, male prison employee has been placed on administrative leave and is part of the investigation, police confirmed Monday.
Mitchell allegedly confessed to giving the pair tools and to planning to meet them with a getaway car, but changed her mind at the last minute and checked into a hospital suffering from a panic attack.
She also told investigators that the two escapees also plotted to kill her husband, Lyle, officials have said.
Police have abandoned a separate search, 350 miles southwest of the prison, where a witness on Saturday saw two men fitting Matt and Sweat's descriptions walking along a railroad line in the town of Friendship.
Police said the area was clear.
Matt, six feet (1.83 meters) tall with multiple tattoos, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping and dismembering of his former boss in a 27-hour ordeal.
He fled to Mexico after the murder and killed another American there, before being sentenced to 20 years and extradited back to New York.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22.
Officer arrested in prison escape accused of exchanging tools for paintings
Date June 26, 2015 - 1:22PM
Susanne Craig
A New York State Police officer, right, with suspended Clinton Correctional Facility guard Gene Palmer. Photo: AP
Plattsburgh: A corrections officer has been charged with bringing a screwdriver and pliers into the Clinton Correctional Facility in exchange for paintings given to him by two convicted killers who escaped from the maximum-security prison in northern New York, according to a criminal complaint.
The arrest of the officer, Gene Palmer, on Wednesday, marks a dramatic widening of the investigation into the breakout, suggesting that the breakout was facilitated by multiple prison workers and that serious lapses at the prison made the escape possible.
A photo released by police shows what Richard Matt and David Sweat might look like after being on the run for ten days. Photo: AFP
In a sworn statement to the New York state police, Palmer describes giving the inmates a flat-head screwdriver and needle-nose pliers, as well as access to the catwalk behind their cells and to an electrical box that allowed them to change the wiring. He denied knowing that the inmates, David Sweat and Richard Matt, were planning an elaborate breakout, instead portraying himself in his statement as a dupe of crafty and generous inmates.
On four occasions between November 2014 and the escape in early June, Palmer, 57, is accused of bringing the tools, described in the complaint as "dangerous contraband", into the prison in Dannemora, New York. In exchange, the complaint says, Palmer accepted several paintings from the inmates, whose escape has set off a sprawling manhunt in remote terrain in northern New York.
Beyond the tools, Palmer told police he bought paint brushes and tubes of white zinc and white titanium paint for Matt. In May, he said, he delivered a package of frozen hamburger meat to Matt that officials have said concealed tools inside it. He received the package from Joyce Mitchell, 51, a supervisor in the prison's tailor shop who has also been charged in connection with the escape.
Police search in Mountain View on Thursday. Photo: AFP
Palmer told police he helped Matt hide the paint supplies in the catwalk, which the inmates later used during their escape to climb down from their cells into a system of tunnels underneath the prison. He said in his statement that he let them alter the electrical boxes and gave them the package of meat because Matt "provided me with elaborate paintings and information on the illegal acts that inmates were committing within the facility".
The goal of letting them change the electrical boxes, he told police, "was to enhance their ability to cook in their cells".
After the breakout, the complaint says, Palmer destroyed a number of the paintings he was given, apparently to try to conceal his relationship with the two killers. He worked as a corrections officer at the prison for almost 28 years before being placed on administrative leave.
Police search in Mountain View on Thursday. Photo: AFP
The escape has raised serious questions about security at the prison. Shortly after Sweat and Matt cut through their cell walls and emerged from a manhole near the prison, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, "I'd be shocked if a correction guard was involved in this". He has since ordered the state inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, to investigate all aspects of the inmates' escape.
Escaped killer Richard Matt shot dead by police less than 16km from Canadian border
The inmates used power tools to cut their way out of their prison cells before dawn on June 6, triggering an intense weeks-long manhunt across the heavily wooded surrounding area.
A convicted killer who broke out of a maximum-security New York prison three weeks ago was shot dead by authorities on Friday, police said, as they continued to hunt for his fellow escapee.
Richard Matt, 49, was killed in the upstate town of Malone, less than 16km from the Canada border, officials said.
New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said authorities found Matt near a cabin after he apparently had fired at a passing camper van.
D’Amico did not say why Matt would shoot at a vehicle, but the New York Times cited a source as saying he was attempting to carry out a carjacking.
“We were able to get into the cabin, where we discovered the smell of gunpowder and realized a weapon had been fired,” D’Amico told reporters.
“As we were doing the ground search in the area, there was movement detected by officers on the ground... A tactical team from Customs and Border Protection met up with Matt in the woods, challenged him, and he was shot dead by Border Patrol at that time.”
Officers recovered a 20-gauge shotgun from Matt’s body.
D’Amico said Matt’s fellow escaped killer, 35-year-old David Sweat, was still at large.
The men busted out of Clinton Correctional Facility, about 40 miles from Malone, on June 6 in a spectacular, Hollywood-style prison break.
CNN reported a law enforcement source as saying authorities believe Sweat is “contained”.
The inmates used power tools to cut their way out of their prison cells before dawn on June 6, triggering an intense weeks-long manhunt across the heavily wooded surrounding area.
“You never want to see anyone lose their life,” New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters.
“But I would remind people that Mr Matt was an escaped murderer from a state prison. Mr Matt killed two people who we know about. Mr Matt killed his boss in a dispute and dismembered him.”
The audacious escape sparked a huge search involving more than 1,100 personnel backed by sniffer dogs and helicopters to find the men, who had been spotted in several locations in recent days in upstate New York.
Officers found candy wrappers and other items believed to have been linked to the men and reports emerged that a shotgun was missing from a remote cabin.
Two prison workers have been charged over the brazen breakout, and are accused of smuggling tools and contraband items to the pair in hamburger meat.
Matt and Sweat used the power tools to cut through cell walls and crawled through pipes to emerge from a manhole in the village of Dannemora, home to the sprawling prison.
Matt, 1.83m tall with multiple tattoos, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping and dismembering of his former boss in a 27-hour ordeal.
He fled to Mexico after the murder and killed another American there, before being sentenced to 20 years and extradited back to New York.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff’s deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22.
State Trooper Is Said to Have Shot David Sweat, the Surviving Prison Escapee
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, RICK ROJAS and J. DAVID GOODMANJUNE 28, 2015
New York State Police at a roadblock in Malone, N.Y., on Sunday. Credit Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times
MALONE, N.Y. — David Sweat, the surviving prison escapee on the run in northern New York, was shot by a state trooper on Sunday, according to three people briefed on the matter. His condition was unknown.
Mr. Sweat, 35, was alive and in custody, according to two of the people.
The shooting occurred after a State Police sergeant saw Mr. Sweat walking down a road toward him, according to one of the people. The sergeant ordered Mr. Sweat to stop, but he broke into a run and the sergeant, a firearms instructor, opened fire, the person said. It was not immediately clear how many shots were fired or whether Mr. Sweat was armed.
The confrontation with Mr. Sweat, near the town of Constable, N.Y., came two days after a federal agent shot and killed the other escaped prisoner from a maximum-security prison in New York, Richard W. Matt. The agent shot Mr. Matt three times in the head with a semiautomatic weapon, according to results from an autopsy released on Sunday.
The number of officers searching for Mr. Sweat had increased to 1,300 on Sunday, according to the New York State Police, as aviation and K-9 units helped comb through a roughly 22-square-mile area around the towns of Malone and Duane.
Earlier Sunday, the State Police said the search was continuing “around the clock” and despite a pelting rain that prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood watch for the area through 8 a.m. Monday.
The agent from a tactical unit of the United States Border and Customs Protection agency who killed Mr. Matt, 49, on Friday afternoon opened fire after officials said Mr. Matt, armed with a 20-gauge shotgun, did not put up his hands when ordered to do so in the woods around Malone, N.Y., about 40 miles from the prison.
The autopsy, performed by Dr. Michael Sikirica at Albany Medical Center on Saturday, revealed the toll that weeks on the run in the dense woods near the Canadian border had taken on Mr. Matt, who escaped with Mr. Sweat from the Clinton Correctional Facility. They were discovered missing on June 6, spurring a sprawling manhunt across the state and beyond.
Mr. Matt’s body was covered in bug bites and blisters in his “lower extremities,” the autopsy found, according to a statement from the State Police, as well as “minor abrasions consistent with living in the woods for three weeks.”
An image obtained by CNN purports to show David Sweat immediately after being shot and captured. Photo: CNN
The second of two convicted murderers who staged a brazen escape three weeks ago from a maximum-security prison in northern New York state has been shot and captured near the Canadian border, two days after his fellow inmate was killed in a confrontation with law enforcement, authorities said.
“The nightmare is finally over,” Governor Andrew Cuomo declared at a news conference on Sunday.
A state police sergeant shot David Sweat in the town of Constable, about 3km south of the Canadian border and 50km northwest of the prison, after spotting him walking along a road and recognizing him, Cuomo said. Sweat fled and Sergeant Jay Cook opened fire when he couldn’t catch him on foot and noticed the fugitive heading toward a line of trees, authorities said.
Sweat was struck twice in the torso and taken to a hospital in stable condition, Cuomo said.
CNN broadcast a photo it said was of Sweat immediately after the shooting, his hands behind his back, with blood smeared on his face and soaking his dark clothing. Fellow escaped inmate Richard Matt was armed when he was killed Friday afternoon during an encounter with border patrol agents after failing to respond to an order to raise his hands.
Matt and Sweat used power tools to saw through a steel cell wall and several steel steam pipes, bashed a hole through a brick wall, squirmed through pipes and emerged from a manhole outside the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6.
Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy in 2002. Matt was serving 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss. They were added to the US Marshals Service’s 15 Most Wanted fugitives list two weeks after getting away.
The search for the escaped killers was initially concentrated around the prison and a rural community where search dogs had caught the scent of both men. The search had since been expanded to neighboring counties, and, while authorities said there was no evidence the men had gotten out of the general area, they conceded they could have been almost anywhere.
The manhunt broke open Friday afternoon when a person towing a camper heard a loud noise and thought a tire had blown. Finding there was no flat, the driver drove 13km before looking again and finding a bullet hole in the trailer. A tactical team responding to the scene of the shot smelled gunpowder inside a cabin and saw evidence that someone had fled out the back door.
A noise — perhaps a cough — ultimately did Matt in. A border patrol team discovered Matt, who was shot after failing to heed a command to raise his hands. He was shot three times in the head, according to an autopsy.
A coroner who attended the autopsy said Matt was clean, well-fed and dressed for the elements at the time he was killed.
A pair of prison workers has been charged in connection with the inmates’ escape.
Prosecutors said Joyce Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who got close to the men while working with them, had agreed to be their getaway driver but backed out because she felt guilty for participating. Authorities also said Mitchell had discussed killing her husband, Lyle Mitchell, as part of the plot.
Joyce Mitchell pleaded not guilty June 15 to charges including felony promoting prison contraband, which authorities said included hacksaw blades and chisels.
Authorities said the men had filled their beds in their adjacent cells with clothes to make it appear they were sleeping when guards made overnight rounds. On a cut steam pipe, the prisoners left a taunting note containing a crude caricature of an Asian face and the words “Have a nice day.”
