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 Convicted murderers Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, escaped
from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in
Dannemora, New York through underground pipes and a manhole. They
were discovered missing early on Saturday.
More than 500 law enforcement officers, along with sniffer dogs and
aviation units, were involved in the manhunt, along with the FBI and
other agencies, New York State Police said.
A stretch of highway in Dannemora just miles from the prison was
off-limits to traffic and schools in the Saranac Central School
District were closed due to the search, officials said.
A female prison worker questioned by police thought she had a
romantic relationship with one of them and planned to drive the
getaway car, NBC News reported.
However, Joyce Mitchell, an industrial training supervisor in the
tailor shop got cold feet and checked into a hospital for nerves on
Saturday, the day the inmates were discovered missing, NBC reported,
citing unnamed senior government officials.
The older inmate, Matt, who has a history of escape attempts, wooed
Mitchell for months and established a relationship in which she
agreed to drive the getaway car, the report said.
The local Albany Times Union newspaper reported that Mitchell
admitted to investigators to smuggling power tools and providing
cell phone access to the inmates, citing anonymous law enforcement
officials.
The ground search was focused on a heavily wooded area east of
Dannemora, along New York State Route 374, following up on a lead,
New York State Police said in a statement.
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CNN, citing unidentified sources, reported that bloodhounds picked
up the scent of the escapees about 3 miles from the prison.
Mitchell's statements to police were incriminating enough to result
in her being indicted for her role in the escape, The New York Times
reported.
Mitchell, who is married to another prison worker, earns a salary of
$57,700 for the state corrections department job she has held since
2008, the Buffalo News reported.
Police have declined to comment further on Mitchell, but State
Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said at a news conference on
Wednesday: "She befriended the inmates and may have had some sort of
role in assisting them."
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg and Ellen Wulfhorst; Additional
reporting by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Cynthia
Osterman)
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