‘Everyone is on high alert’
Small town near prison is focus of search for escaped convicts
OWLS HEAD, N.Y. — A dog that doesn’t usually bark pulling a fit in the middle of the night.
A rummaging sound coming from the shed, or the cracking of branches in the forest behind.
Possible but unconfirmed sightings.
These were the kinds of tips or leads — roughly 2,100 overall — that police were investigating in the Franklin County region in New York Wednesday as the manhunt for prison escapees Richard Matt and David Sweat continued into its 19th day.
“We’re checking every lead and running all of them to their conclusions,” New York State Police spokesperson Beau Duffy said.
When a man returned to his hunting cabin in Owls Head, N.Y., about 40 minutes from the Quebec border, for the first time this season Saturday, he saw someone run away behind it. Inside, he found signs of someone having lived there. Monday, news emerged that DNA matching both Matt and Sweat had been found in the cabin. There were a number of guns in the cabin, Duffy said, but the owners couldn’t confirm if any were missing.
“Still, these men are very dangerous, and should be treated as though they are armed.”
The discovery led to a swarm of 1,000 federal, state and local police troopers making their way through Owls Head, knocking on every door and systematically combing through its thick forests. The searches continued through Wednesday — with police convoys rushing from lead to lead — leaving residents on edge.
Michael Gagnon, 68, was sitting down for breakfast Tuesday when eight or 10 police officers came knocking at his door, asking questions and searching through his backyard.
“Everyone is on high alert,” Gagnon said.
Living across the street from the post office, he’s noticed how people who usually walk to deliver their mail now drive. In a town where no one ever locks their homes, you couldn’t find an unlocked door if you tried, he said.
A phone message from police was sent to all homes telling residents to do so.
Chris Fountain, a retired law enforcement officer, has been telling his kids and wife to sleep upstairs while he sleeps downstairs and keeps an eye out.
“People are getting a little edgy, a little scared,” he said. “They want it finished, want it done.”
He’s hunted the grounds in the area many times, he said, and understands why finding the escapees could be nearly impossible: the maple trees grow more dense than one could imagine and the pine trees hang right to the ground. “It’s so thick,” he repeated. The scariest part, he added, is the number of rifles he knows are tucked away in unused cabins in the woods. He said the DNA discovery “really woke people up.”
“Everyone in town who has a licence is carrying a pistol in their pocket,” he said, “I don’t care who it is.”
And anyone who hunts, he added, has a rifle in his or her truck.
“People need to keep their eyes open. These guys are dangerous killers. It’s not like chasing your next-door neighbour.”
Matt and Sweat used power tools and an accomplice to escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., June 6. Late Wednesday, authorities charged prison guard Gene Palmer, 57, with taking ground beef to Matt’s cell, in which prison seamstress Joyce Mitchell has already told investigators she smuggled escape tools.
Though most said the intense police force presence has been comforting, the dangerous nature of the escapees isn’t lost on any Owls Head residents. Many fear the longer the escapees are out, the more desperate and dangerous they’ll become.
Bill Dampier’s daughter has slept in a hotel with her two young children while her husband was out of town on work, afraid to stay at home alone.
“She’s concerned,” Dampier said. “A lot of people are.”