NY State Police Expanding Search For Escaped Killers Richard Matt, David Sweat
DANNEMORA, New York (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York state police are expanding the search for two escaped murderers beyond a 16-square-mile area of woods, fields and swamps where the manhunt has been most intense, even as rainy weather hampers their progress.
The more than 800 law enforcement officers combing the rural area now have shifted their focus eastward leading from the village of Dannemora, home of the Clinton Correctional Facility where the prisoners served time.
Inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped June 6 from the maximum-security prison near the Canadian border.
PHOTOS: Manhunt For Escaped Murderers
No vehicles were reported stolen in the area, which led searchers to believe Matt and Sweat were still near the prison. Search dogs caught the scent of the men, and authorities found evidence indicating they may have spent time there.
But police say that rain has been washing away any scent dogs might find and interfering with thermal imaging devices being used to detect body heat.
New York State Police Capt. Robert LaFountain said the bottom line is, they don't know if Matt or Sweat are still in upstate New York or somewhere else, 1010 WINS' Steve Kastenbaum reported.
"We have no information that they have been able to leave the area. That being said, that doesn't mean they haven't been able to escape this area," LaFountain said.
Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole in the killing of a sheriff's deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
As part of the search, police released progression photos Wednesday of what the inmates might look like after 10 days.
Meanwhile, the prison worker charged with helping the killers flee by providing them with hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools was visited in jail Tuesday by her husband, also a prison worker.
Local police chief David Favro described 51-year-old Joyce Mitchell as "composed'' during the hour-long morning visit with her husband, Lyle Mitchell.
Prosecutors say Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who befriended the inmates, had agreed to be the getaway driver but backed out because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.
A source told CBS News that Mitchell had sex multiple times with Matt inside the prison. She gave details of the encounters, sources said.
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CBS News reported that Prosecutor Andrew Wylie would not confirm a sexual relationship but said, "Obviously, Joyce Mitchell went a step a further as far as her relationship with these two individuals. Whether it's showing them more attention than anyone else or them showing her attention or affection."
Law enforcement sources also told CBS News there was an alleged agreement between Mitchell and the two men to kill her husband, Lyle.
Wylie said Monday that there was no evidence the men had a Plan B once Mitchell backed out of the escape.
But Favro said that while he has "no concrete information,'' he doesn't believe the escapees would have counted only on Mitchell for the success of their "elaborate, well-thought-out escape plan.''
"My theory -- my theory only -- is that she was Plan B,'' he said Tuesday. "I would have viewed her as baggage, almost, for them to be able to escape into freedom because she's leaving behind a family and a husband.''
He said investigators won't be certain until the fugitives are caught.
Mitchell was charged Friday with supplying contraband, including a punch and a screwdriver, to the two inmates. She has pleaded not guilty. She has been suspended without pay from her $57,000-a-year job overseeing inmates who sew clothes and learn to repair sewing machines.
Authorities say the convicts used power tools to cut through the backs of their adjacent cells, broke through a brick wall and then cut into a steam pipe and slithered through it, finally emerging outside the prison walls through a manhole. Wylie says they apparently used tools stored by prison contractors, taking care to return them to their toolboxes after each night's work.
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