Hundreds of searchers checked ATV trails and logging roads and went door-to-door in far northern New York trying to close in on two murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison more than two weeks ago, while investigators look into reports that a gun was missing from the cabin where sources say one of the killers left their underwear.
Spurred on by fresh evidence, more than 1,000 law enforcement officers continued to methodically comb through heavy woods on Wednesday looking for inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt, who escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6.
Authorities began committing heavy resources to the remote woods this week after leads from a hunting camp that was apparently broken into led to "good evidence, DNA data" regarding the inmates, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Sources confirmed to NBC News that among the items found in the cabin was a set of underwear belonging to one of the inmates.
Some news outlets had reported that a shotgun was missing from the cabin, but state troopers said at a news conference Wednesday it's not clear if one was actually taken because the cabin's inhabitants didn't know how many weapons were in the dwelling.
A spokesman said Wednesday that the two killers are dangerous and it wasn't outside reason that they would attempt to arm themselves.
Roadblocks were in place Tuesday around the remote hamlets of Owls Head and Mountain View in an area of rugged terrain about 20 miles west of the prison.
Investigators conducted grid searches in the thick, mosquito-infested forests and also checked railroad beds, said Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill. He said people were going to seasonal properties looking for signs of intruders.
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"If they're here, we're going to find them," Mulverhill said. "I really believe it's going to come down to old-fashioned police work and the public."
About 140 New York state corrections officers were bused approximately 8 miles north of the hamlets to the village of Malone on Wednesday morning. They went door-to-door checking residences in what state police said was part of the expanding search operations.
Cuomo said, "I believe we will get these guys." But the governor also cautioned that they've had a number of leads and the more than 1,000 officers involved in the search have to follow each as though it's the one that's going to bring authorities to the escapees.
Authorities say Sweat and Matt cut through the steel wall at the back of their cell at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora June 6, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall, cut their way into and out of a steam pipe, and then sliced through the chain and lock on a manhole cover outside the prison. Prison worker Joyce Mitchell, who has been charged with helping them escape, allegedly smuggled them hack-saw blades, drill bits, and a hole punch in ground beef.
Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
