Net closes in on prison break killers on run for 2 weeks

The net yesterday appeared to be closing on two killers who escaped a maximum- security New York jail two weeks ago.

Hundreds of police backed by sniffer dogs and helicopters stepped up the hunt saying they were probing a possible sighting of Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, who have been described as highly dangerous and manipulative, and not to be approached.

David Sweat

Police said the possible sighting was in Allegany County, about 650km south of Clinton County Correctional Facility, the sprawling prison the duo escaped from sparking a huge search across mainly difficult, rural terrain in New York state.

Two men “who may fit the description”, were spotted along a railroad line in the town of Friendship, said state superintendent Joseph D’Amico.

Richard Matt

“While this is an unconfirmed sighting, the state police is asking residents who live in this area along the New York-Pennsylvania border to be on alert,” he said in a statement, adding that the pair should not be approached.

Reporters on the ground were asked to clear a “hot area”, WIVB reported, in the first major breakthrough in a week in an investigation that appeared to be flagging.

“They are near railroad tracks and a culvert,” a state police spokesman told The Wellsville Daily Reporter of two supposed wanted men.

Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff’s deputy and Matt was given 25 years to life for kidnap, torture, and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss in 1997.

Prison worker Joyce Mitchell remains in custody accused of helping the men escape by providing them with hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools. She has pleaded not guilty.