Source: Female Prison Worker Was Supposed To Pick Up Escaped Killers

DANNEMORA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A female prison employee was supposed to pick up the two convicted killers who escaped from an upstate prison last week, but failed to do so, a law enforcement source confirmed to CBS News.

The source said the woman went to a hospital instead after apparently suffering from a panic attack. When the woman was released from the hospital, she went to authorities and told them of her involvement in the escape plans for 34-year-old David Sweat and 48-year-old Richard Matt, the source said.

The prison worker has been cooperating with authorities, but she apparently did not know their entire plan for after they escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

The source also told CBS News the woman is believed to have helped Sweat and Matt acquire the power tools used in the escape.

CBS News has previously reported that investigators are looking into the alleged role prison employee Joyce Mitchell, 51, played in the escape.

A cellphone owned by Mitchell, the prison tailoring shop supervisor, was reportedly used to contact people with ties to Matt. CNN reported that investigators believe Mitchell was lured into a scheme as the getaway driver for Matt and Sweat.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other officials said interviews are ongoing with inmates, correction officers and contract staff at the prison on Wednesday, but would not elaborate on the specifics of those interviews.

"She was befriended or befriended the inmates and may have had some sort of role in assisting them, but I'm not prepared to go into details," State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said.

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Retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Tabman said the sophistication with the use of power tools points to help on the inside.

"If they suspect it, they're going to go back and track her movements," Tabman told WCBS 880's Paul Murnane. "Was she looking around somewhere she shouldn't have been looking? Was she asking about equipment she shouldn't have been asking about?"

As the hunt continues, Cuomo and Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin held a joint news conference Wednesday.

Gov. Cuomo said authorities have gained information that suggests Vermont was a possible destination for the inmates.

"We need to find these escapees," Cuomo said. "These people are dangerous. They're dangerous to New York residents and dangerous to the people of Vermont."

Cuomo said Vermont is fully "engaged and mobilized."

"Cuomo and I are committed to doing everything we can to keep the folks of Vermont and New York safe," Gov. Shumlin said.

Shumlin also asked the people of Vermont to remain vigilant.

"This is no time to panic. This is a time to be sensible," he said.

A colonel with the Vermont State Police said they believe Sweat and Matt may have had plans to head to remote sections of the state and in response have deployed authorities to patrol remote camps and lake shores.

On Tuesday, reports of two men walking along a road brought hundreds of law enforcement officers to a small town in the Adirondack foothills for a sweep that seemingly turned up no signs of the two killers, but state police said leads continued to be generated and there would be an increased police presence in the area.

The hunt for Sweat and Matt that began over the weekend focused on Willsboro, close to 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 breakout Saturday from the 3,000-inmate state prison located about 20 miles from the Canadian border, but appeared to have focused the most on this one.

Searchers walked shoulder-to-shoulder, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying sidearms as they went through hilly woods, fields and swamps, checking every home, garage, shed and outbuilding, then yelling, "Clear!'' when there were no signs of the inmates.

Residents were told to stay inside and lock their doors.

"If they are cornered and they are desperate, they're going to go into someone's house," said resident Jessica Souza. "Someone could get hurt, and that's my only fear."

By early evening, it appeared the sweep had come up empty, and there was no confirmation from police that the escaped convicts had been there.

Even Matt's son says he has no clue where his father is, though he admits to not knowing the man very well, CBS2's Alice Gainer reports.

"It might just be in his nature. It's not the first time. He escaped from Attica before too, so I don't know," Matt's son Nick Harris said.

New York State Police issued a statement Tuesday saying that more than 400 corrections and other law enforcement officers were in the area and planned to go door to door, checking homes and seasonal camps.

Sweat and Matt 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.''

Investigators have been questioning prison workers and outside contractors to try to find out who may have supplied the power tools. Contractors have been doing extensive renovations at the 170-year-old prison, a hulking, fortress-like structure that looms over Dannemora's main street.

Gov. Cuomo said there are two tracks authorities are traveling down simultaneously: one is finding the inmates, the other is figuring out how the escape happened and make sure it never happens again.

A $100,000 reward has been posted 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.

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