The intensive manhunt for the two dangerous killers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in New York with the help of a female employee, entered its ninth day on Monday.
The killers Richard Matt, 48 and David Sweat, 34 reportedly used power tools to cut through a steel wall and moved through a meander of tunnels before finding a way out of a manhole.
Both were reported missing from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, on June 6, during a 5:30 am bed check.
There might have been a relationship between prison employee Joyce Mitchell and one of the escapees, as the State Department of Corrections officials had reportedly received a complaint regarding the same.
Even though, the department did not support the claim citing lack of evidence, Andrew Wylie, the Clinton County District Attorney did not rule out the possibility of a relationship between 51-year-old Mitchell and one of the escapees named Richard Matt, 48.
According to a CNN report, Mitchell has told investigators that Matt made her feel “special”.
Joyce Mitchell, who worked as an industrial training supervisor at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, was on Friday arraigned on felony charge of promoting prison contraband and misdemeanor charge of criminal facilitation.
According to an unconfirmed report in the Albany Times-Union, Mitchell told investigators that according to the plan, she had to pick up the fugitives after they emerged out of the manhole near the prison.
After which the killers were supposed to kill Joyce Mitchell’s husband Lyle Mitchell and the trio would then drive to a cabin in Vermont.
However, Andrew Wylie, the Clinton County District Attorney, refused to reveal details and said that Mitchell told the investigators that the fugitives planned for a seven-hour drive to a pre-decided destination.
“That was the information that she was told by Matt and Sweat — that it was about seven hours away,” Wylie said.
Mitchell told the investigators that however, later she got cold feet and chose not to pick them up as planned as she did love her husband.
“She did indicate one of the reasons why she didn’t show up was because she did love her husband and she didn’t want to do this to him,” Wylie said.
In a slick escape plot, the inmates used power tools and look-alike decoys resembling their sleeping selves, to make their way out of the maximum-security prison.
More than 700 leads have been developed since the escape was reported and over 800 agents from different departments are engaged in the intensive manhunt.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced a bounty worth $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of escaped inmates.
