Search for Escaped Murderers Leads to Pennsylvanian Border
The New York State Police released information regarding the sightings Friday. The first report described two men possibly fitting Sweat and Matt’s description walking near the Gang Mills rail yard in the town of Erwin in Steuben County, N.Y., on Saturday, June 13.
On June 14, a day after the initial sighting, police say two men of the same description were observed by an unrelated party walking along County Route 115 in the town of Lindley, N.Y., toward the Pennsylvanian border.
Authorities arrived in Steuben County this week to conduct interviews and gather more information about the men. Surveillance video that may portray the escapees was initially inconclusive but has been sent to the state capital for further analysis, authorities say.
The police have received over 1,400 leads since the men’s escape on June 6. On Wednesday, Capt. Robert LaFountain said there’s been no indication they have obtained transportation or left the 16-mile region surrounding the maximum security prison from which they escaped.
“We are going to pursue every lead, and we are going to locate the individuals and they will be apprehended,” LaFountain said at Wednesday’s news conference.
David Sweat and Richard Matt are convicted murderers who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., on June 6. Matt had been serving 25 years to life for kidnapping, mutilating and killing a former boss in 1997. Sweat was serving a life sentence for killing a sheriff’s deputy. They have been at large for two weeks.
Authorities said earlier that the men cut through their cell walls, a steel plate and a 24-inch steam pipe using power tools allegedly supplied by Joyce Mitchell, a tailor who worked in the prison, and surfaced through a manhole away from prison grounds. Mitchell pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges last week.
