N.Y. police investigate 'credible' sighting of escapees 4 Share This Story!N.Y. police investigate 'credible' sighting of escapees
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Sent!Posted!Kelly Gampel, (Elmira, N.Y.) Star-Gazette 10:35 p.m. EDT June 20, 2015
Police are investigating possible sightings of David Sweat and Richard Matt, the convicted killers who escaped from an upstate New York prison in early June. Wochit
Progression images show what escaped inmates David Sweat, left, and Richard Matt might look like.(Photo: New York State Police)
ELMIRA, N.Y. The search for two escaped convicts was focused Saturday on Friendship, N.Y., where officials said they were pursuing a "credible sighting" of the most-wanted fugitives.
Saturday afternoon, a witness spotted two men who fit the descriptions of David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, who escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility two weeks ago. The alleged sighting was along a railroad in Friendship near the New York-Pennsylvania border, New York State Police said in a statement.
Friendship is about 70 miles west of Corning and about 350 miles south of Dannemora, where the prison is located.
State Police, U.S. Marshals, officers from the Department of Environmental Conservation, State Parks Police, Allegany County Sheriff's Department and other local law enforcement were searching an area along Interstate 86 and Route 20 in Friendship, the news release said. Aviation, canine and special operation teams also were assisting.
Law enforcement officials were stopping vehicles at the Friendship/Bolivar exit on I-86.
The town of Friendship was closed while police searched, WGRZ -TV reported.
Sweat and Matt were discovered missing at the prison in Dannemora on June 7. Since then hundreds of police officers have been looking for them.
Police said the two used power tools to drill through a wall at Clinton. They worked their way to a tunnel that led to a manhole about a block from the prison.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a Broome County, N.Y., sheriff's deputy who had confronted him and others about a suspected 2002 burglary.
Matt was serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for murder, kidnapping and robbery of William Rickerson. Rickerson was Matt's boss at a food warehouse; around the time that Matt was fired, Rickerson's dismembered body was found floating in the Niagara River.
On June 13, witnesses spotted two men walking near a rail yard in Erwin, N.Y., New York State Police said late Friday. The next day, men who matched that description were seen walking along a road in Lindley, N.Y., heading toward the New York-Pennsylvania border.
New York State Police urged communities along the state border to be vigilant. People should call 911 if they see anything, police said.
Campbell resident Jim Austin said he heard about the sightings Saturday morning.
"I'll just be a little more attentive when walking, but I won't change the way I do life," Austin said.
The two men allegedly escaped with the help of Joyce "Tillie" Mitchell, who worked as a tailor shop instructor in the prison. She remained in custody Saturday and has pleaded not guilty.
Officials said Friday that a corrections officer also has been placed on administrative leave as part of the investigation into the escape. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said no additional information was available.
Contributing: Jessica Estepa of USA TODAY; WGRZ-TV, Buffalo
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