Hunt for escaped killers targets Vermont camps
2 states join forces in search as details jell of potential accomplice
New York and Vermont have beefed up security along their border because of concern that two killers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in Upstate New York had intended to lay low in a campground in the Vermont lake area, the governors of both states said Wednesday.
Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, escaped the Clinton Correctional Facility on Friday night or Saturday morning.
Vermont State Police had begun searching camps along the shoreline of Lake Champlain, Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn said, but had turned up no sign of the escapees.
Lake Champlain splits Vermont and New York, but there are two bridges and several ferryboats connecting the states.
Authorities confirmed that a female employee of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Upstate New York had “befriended” the inmates and might have aided in their escape plans.
In a joint news conference, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, said the two states had formally agreed to coordinate the search effort, including allowing New York troopers to cross into Vermont.
“We have information that suggests they thought New York was going to be hot, that Vermont would be cooler in terms of law enforcement, and that a camp might be a better place to be than New York,” Shumlin said.
“This is not time to panic,” Shumlin said to his fellow Vermonters. “It is a time to be responsible. If you see suspicious people, don’t go near them, call law enforcement.”
He said Vermont residents should “lock your doors, make sure you are vigilant. Let’s work together to get these two dangerous men locked up once again.”
Armed with cutting tools, possibly including torches, the pair broke through walls, crossed a catwalk and cut into a steam pipe before crawling to the outside through a manhole early Saturday or late Friday.
Joseph D’Amico, superintendent of the New York State Police, confirmed that a female prison employee mentioned in the media was questioned about the escape. He said it was “obvious she had befriended the inmates and may have had some sort of role in assisting them.”
Citing unidentified sources, CNN reported earlier that Joyce “Tillie” Mitchell, 51, a married industrial training supervisor in the tailoring department, allegedly intended to be the men’s getaway driver but got cold feet and failed to show up at a rendezvous point near the prison in the small community of Dannemora.
She had checked herself into a hospital with a “case of the nerves” around the time of the escape, officials told NBC News.
Unidentified law enforcement sources alleged to Fox News that Mitchell may have provided the tools to help the men escape.
She might have helped the convicts because “she thought there was something more between” her and Matt, an unidentified source told the New York Post. “He’s a con man,” the source said.
Mitchell’s son, Tobey Mitchell, confirmed to NBC News that his mother had gone to the hospital with severe chest pains around the time of the escape but that “she’s not the kind of person that’s going to risk her life or other people’s lives to let these guys escape from prison,” he told NBC.
“She’s not the kind of person that’s going to risk her life or other people’s lives to let these guys escape from prison.”
Tobey Mitchell, son of alleged accomplice Joyce “Tillie” Mitchell