Authorities in New York state searching for two escaped killers who have been on the loose for the better part of a week acknowledged being in the dark about their whereabouts or doings, even as the hunt for the men expanded past state borders into Vermont.
At a news conference on Wednesday outside the maximum-security prison, New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said, “I have no information on where they are or what they’re doing, to be honest with you.”
But authorities were expanding the search after investigators learned that the inmates had talked before last weekend’s breakout about going to neighbouring Vermont.
“We have information that suggests they thought New York was going to be hot. Vermont would be cooler, in terms of law enforcement,” said Shumlin, at the news conference along with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
He and other officials would not say how authorities learned that information.
On Thursday morning, a Philadelphia cab driver reported picking up two men who matched the descriptions of the escaped killers, Richard Matt and David Sweat, and dropping them off at the city’s Amtrak station. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said such possible sightings have been reported in several cities and he had no reason to think the inmates were in Philadelphia.
Employee befriended the killers
Meanwhile, Wednesday night another search began closer to the prison.
D’Amico also said that a prison employee — identified in news reports as Joyce Mitchell, a training supervisor at the prison tailor shop — had befriended the killers and “may have had some role in assisting them.”
He would not elaborate.
Mitchell’s son, Tobey Mitchell, told NBC that she checked herself into a hospital with chest pains Saturday. He said she wouldn’t have helped the inmates escape.
A heavily armoured vehicle drives through a staging area during a search for two escaped prisoners near Dannemora, N.Y., Thursday. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)
Using power tools, inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt cut through a steel wall, broke through bricks and crawled through a steam pipe before emerging through a manhole in the street outside the 3,000-inmate Clinton Correctional Facility in far northern New York state, about 32 kilometres from the Canadian border.
The breakout was discovered early Saturday, meaning the inmates may have had a head start of several hours, Cuomo said.
Authorities suspect they had help from the inside in obtaining the power tools. Unions representing guards and civilian staff members at the prison said many have been questioned by investigators but no one has been suspended, disciplined or charged.
Vermont authorities are patrolling Lake Champlain and areas alongside it, Shumlin said. Cuomo urged the people of Vermont to be on the alert and report anything suspicious, warning: “Trust me, these men are nothing to be trifled with.”
As part of the search, state troopers and correction officers in helmets and body armor retraced their steps around the prison, checking garage doors, sheds, windows and other structures for signs of a break-in or other clues.
More than 450 federal and state law enforcement officers were taking part in the search, including customs agents, federal marshals and park rangers.
New York State Police closed a road east of Dannemora late Wednesday to investigate a lead involving the escapees. The road was expected to remain closed through the morning, state police said in a statement.
The killers’ mugshots have been put on more than 50 digital billboards in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, state police said, and a $100,000 US reward has been posted.
