Search intensifies for escaped N.Y. convicts
FRIENDSHIP, N.Y. -- Multiple law enforcement agencies have converged on an area near the New York-Pennsylvania border in their search for two convicted killers who escaped from a maximum security prison two weeks ago.
William Duffy, a spokesman for the New York State Police, told CBS News a perimeter has been set up after a possible sighting of Richard Matt and David Sweat near Friendship, New York and Amity, Pa. Additional information was not immediately available.
CBS affiliate WIVB-TV reported a resident told the Allegany County Sheriff's Dept. they saw two men resembling the the inmates near Interstate 86. Checkpoints were set up along the highway as a helicopter searched from the air, according to the station.
When a WIVB-TV crew arrived on scene, state troopers asked them to leave the East Maple Grove area, calling it a "hot spot."
Matt and Sweat used power tools to break out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, on June 6, more than 350 miles away from Friendship.
Authorities have investigated other reports from Steuben County, also in southwestern New York, over the last several days.
State police said Friday they were prepared to keep searching for the "long haul." They acknowledged Sweat and Matt could be anywhere but were focusing their ground search in the heavily wooded region around the prison.
"We're no strangers to lengthy months and yearlong investigations, particularly with the federal outreach that's been so supportive of us," New York State Police Maj. Charles Guess told CBS affiliate WCAX-TV in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Friday night, officials said a corrections officer was placed on administrative leave as part of the investigation into the men's escape. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said no additional information was available.
The U.S. Marshals Service added Matt and Sweat to its list of "15 Most Wanted" fugitives on Thursday, hoping maximum exposure would reduce places they could hide.
A prison tailor shop instructor, Joyce Mitchell, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she helped the convicts escape. Law enforcement sources told CBS News Mitchell and the two men were involved in a plot to kill her husband, Lyle. Her lawyer has denied the charge.