Post by Admin on Jun 9, 2015 17:54:10 GMT -4
That's all I will say about this story.
(CNN)—Authorities scoured farms and fields around an upstate New York town on Tuesday, looking for a pair of convicted murderers who escaped from a prison days earlier, a local official said.
The search was prompted by a citizen who spotted two "suspicious men" walking down a road in Willsboro in the middle of a "driving rainstorm" overnight "in an area that's all ... large farms and fields and wooded lots," Town Supervisor Shaun Gillilland said. As the citizen's car approached them, they took off.
"They were walking down the road, not dressed for the elements," Gillilland said. "They ran into the fields, from what I understand. So this behavior ... was suspicious."
Given the meticulous detail involved in the escape, there were concerns fugitives Richard Matt and David Sweat put a similar level of planning into their getaway, including transportation.
But a law enforcement source close to the investigation doesn't think that's what happened, saying a witness and other indicators suggest the men have been on foot since springing themselves from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, about 40 miles north of the search site in the southern part of Willsboro.
Local, state and federal authorities set up a search perimeter there, with Gillilland noting that it was his understanding that people outside that area aren't in special danger. As of 2 p.m., the town supervisor wasn't aware that any clothes, vehicles or other evidence had been found, but it was still relatively early in the process.
The stormy overnight spotting in Willsboro, a town of 2,000 people on Lake Champlain, is one of the first big potential breakthroughs since prison guards found Matt and Sweat's beds empty at 5:30 a.m. Saturday.
Until then, the closest might have been an account from two Dannemora residents' about two men, whom they now believe to be the escaped killers, walking through their backyard shortly after midnight Friday.
"I go look at him (and) I say, 'What the hell are you doing in my yard? Get the hell out of here,'" one of the residents told ABC's "Good Morning America" of that encounter.
The two men complied, one apologizing that he'd been on the wrong street. It wasn't until the next day that the resident, who asked not to be named, and his female friend realized who the trespassers probably were.
Richard Matt, left, and David Sweat were discovered missing at the 5:30 a.m. "standing count" of inmates at Clinton Correctional Facility.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, shown during a tour of the prison, said of the escapees: "These are dangerous people. They are nothing to be trifled with."
The hole the inmates cut into a cell wall to escape. The men had side-by-side cells and apparently had obtained power tools to cut through the steel wall, authorities said. <br />
Looking from the catwalk, this is the hole the inmates cut into the wall. The pair followed the catwalk toward a series of tunnels.
Cuomo examines the escape route of the prisoners. "It was elaborate, it was sophisticated," he said.
The inmates used power tools to drill through steel pipes as they made their escape.
Gov. Cuomo examines a pipe the inmates cut through. Authorities don't know how the prisoners got the power tools.
Officials look at the manhole through which the inmates crawled to freedom.
Matt and Sweat have killed before, and authorities fear they could kill again -- knowing they have no reason not to go down fighting, given they'll face life behind bars if caught.
Elizabeth Ahern, who lives in Plattsburgh, about 5 miles from the prison and 25 miles south of the Canadian border, isn't taking any chances. The North Country, she says, is a place where people usually don't bother locking their doors and have guns to hunt, not to guard themselves against criminals. But not anymore.
"It's a scary situation," Ahern told CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday. "We are now closing our doors and locking them, and making sure we have knives and guns ready to go, just in case."
