Authorities converged Tuesday on the small upstate New York town of Willsboro in search of Richard Matt and David Sweat, the convicted murderers who busted out of a maximum-security prison over the weekend with power tools.
Beau Duffy, a spokesman for the New York State Police, told NBC News that police responded with a heavy ground and aviation presence Tuesday after they got a specific tip from the Willsboro area, which is across Lake Champlain from Burlington, Vermont, and about 40 miles southeast of Clinton Correctional Facility, from which the men escaped overnight Friday.
RELATED: New York prison break: Everything you need to know
FBI agents, state troopers, forest rangers, sheriff’s deputies, K-9 units, at least three dozen Corrections Department agents and a helicopter all responded along Middle Road in Willsboro, NBC station WPTZ of Plattsburgh, New York, reported.
Please lock house and car doors tonight. Avoid walking around town if possible. There will be increased police patrols tonight.
— Town of Willsboro (@TownofWillsboro) June 9, 2015More than 250 local, state and federal officials have pursued hundreds of leads in the search for Matt and Sweat. They busted out by cutting holes in the steel backs of their cells, seemingly with power tools, and climbing through pipes and tunnels until they reached and broke open a manhole cover a block away.
The New York State Police continue to work with state, federal and local law enforcement agencies in the search for the…
Posted by New York State Police on Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said all of the prison’s tools were accounted for after the escape, presenting the question of where the men got the equipment they needed to cut through steel.
“They definitely had help,” Cuomo said Monday. “Otherwise, they couldn’t have done this on their own, even from the equipment point of view.”
Tobey Mitchell, the son of Joyce Mitchell, a Clinton Correctional Facility employee, confirmed that state police were questioning his mother in connection with the brazen escape. But he said Joyce Mitchell — who authorities said checked herself into a hospital Saturday — would have never played a part in helping the prisoners break free.
“She’s not going to risk her life or other people’s lives to help these guys escape,” he said.
