Investigators Seek Accomplices, Answers In Upstate Prison Escape
DANNEMORA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Investigators on Tuesday continued a manhunt for two escaped prisoners upstate, and sought possible accomplices as questions persisted about the brash, elaborate breakout.
As CBS News' Jill Wagner reported, dozens of officers headed into the woods around Dannemora on foot, searching for the two escaped inmates. Convicted killers David Sweat and Richard Matt have been missing since Saturday after escaping the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility.
New York State Police said late Tuesday afternoon that leads are being generated along the boundary between Clinton and Essex counties, and residents will notice an increased police presence in the area.
There was a heavy police presence Tuesday outside the village of Essex, 40 miles from the prison. Authorities said two suspicious people were in the area, but would not give any more details.
Police will continue going door-to-door in and around the area checking homes and seasonal residences. Anyone who sees anything unusual upon getting home is asked to call police immediately.
A total of 440 corrections and law enforcement officers are involved in the hunt, state police said.
"They could still be here, you know, in the area; that their getaway car or whatever never showed up," said Christina Murro of Dannemora.
Over the weekend, the inmates used power tools to cut their way out of the Clinton Correctional Facility, and investigators want to know how they got them.
Several prison employees – both uniformed and civilian – have been interviewed as part of the investigation, state police said. No arrests have been made.
CBS News has learned prison employee Joyce Mitchell is among those being questioned. Authorities said was supposed to have driven the getaway car, but she had a panic attack at the last minute.
About 5,000 people live in the town of Dannemora, which was built around the prison. And for more than a century, the prison has been the main employer in the area.
Rich Plumedore worked at the prison for 35 years doing maintenance. It bothers him to think the prisoners may have had inside help.
"It's a family; family oriented," Plumedore said.
Residents Keith and Sharron Russell have never been nervous living in the area. But they are now.
"We're scared," said Sharron Russell said. "When you're locking your doors when you leave, that's sad."
Still, the Russells said the prison is vital to the community.
Meanwhile, others figured the killers were long gone.
"We always joke about it. We're so close to the prison -- that's the last place that anyone who escaped would want to be," Jessica Lashway said as she waited for the bus with her school-age children a few doors down from the hulking, fortress-like prison.
If fresh campfires and discarded clothing are not found and the inmates are not seen on area surveillance cameras, Matt and Sweat may have a local hideout and perhaps are being sheltered nearby by an accomplice.
Retired FBI Agent Michael Tabman said if that's the case, it won't last forever. Capture could come when the pair make their move.
While the intense search persisted around the prison, authorities said Sweat and Matt could be anywhere -- perhaps Canada or Mexico.
Meanwhile, prison visitor and call logs and conversations observed between the inmates and others are a good place to find the one thing or person that can turn the page on the search.
"Whether it's just an inmate looking to make a deal or someone who was complicit and feels now they want to get out of trouble," Tabman told WCBS 880's Paul Murnane.
Questions about the nature of the escape persisted Tuesday.
How could nobody hear prisoners slicing through a steel wall, breaking through brick and cutting their way in and out of a steam pipe -- or why did those who heard stay silent? How did the inmates hide the hole, the dirt and dust from work that likely took days to accomplish? Did they have access to blueprints or other inside information to chart their path through the bowels of the prison?
And there is a deepening unknown: "what the rest of the plan was," said Rick Mathews, the director of the University at Albany's National Center for Security and Preparedness.
Investigators Seek Accomplices, Answers In Upstate Prison Escape
Sweat, 34, and Matt, 48, ultimately emerged through a manhole to make their escape, discovered early Saturday, authorities said. They had stuffed their beds with clothes to fool guards making their rounds and left behind a taunting sticky note that read, "Have a nice day."
The prisoners surely had help, and the noise must have been heard, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, though officials have given no details on how the men managed to avoid detection.
Cuomo said other inmates claimed they didn't see or hear anything. "They're all heavy sleepers," he said sardonically. 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.
In looking for those who may have aided the escape, Cuomo said investigators were focusing first on civilian employees and contractors who have been doing extensive renovations at the 170-year-old prison -- not on guards.
"I'd be shocked if a correction guard was involved in this, but they definitely had help," the governor said.
Investigators say Matt might have sweet-talked a woman working in the prison's tailor shop to help get their hands on the power tools, 1010 WINS' John Montone reported.
Corrections officials said an inventory of the prison's tools has so far shown none missing. But contractors typically come in with truckloads of equipment, said Peter Light, a retired guard who now runs a museum inside the prison.
A $100,000 reward was posted over the weekend for information leading to the men's capture.
"They are killers, and they're not going to want to go back, I can assure you that," Cuomo said.
Across the state in Broome County, where Sweat was convicted in the 2002 killing of a sheriff's deputy, authorities warned people involved in the case to stay alert. Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police advised officers to be on the lookout close to the border, 20 miles from the prison.
And the governor noted that Matt had a connection to Mexico: He was convicted of killing a man there while on the lam after being accused of dismembering his Buffalo-area boss in 1997, the crime for which he was serving 25 years to life.
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