Posted on 06/22/2015 10:01:34 AM PDT by Jim Noble
MOUNTAIN VIEW — Police have confirmed that DNA evidence proves two escaped killers are in the Mountain View area, sources tell the Press-Republican, and searchers are closing in on them.
A break-in and sighting of a man Saturday at a remote hunting camp prompted police to begin searching in and around Mountain View, near Malone.
The small community is located about 20 to 25 miles from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, from which Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, escaped on June 6, launching a massive manhunt that has had area residents living on edge for 17 days.
BOOTS, BLOODY SOCKS
Sources are telling the Press-Republican that law-enforcement officials have DNA confirmation on both men that leads them to believe that the sighting was valid.
No capture had been made as of this morning, but this is a strong lead, multiple sources said.
Boots, bloody socks and toiletries were found, along with a water jug and jar of peanut butter that had been opened at the camp, the Press-Republican has been told.
The agencies involved in the search are getting fast turnaround on forensics information because this is a high-profile, highly dangerous case.
At a news conference on Monday, State Police Troop B Commander Major Charles Guess would say only that authorities have "developed evidence" that escapees may have spent time in an Owls Head area cabin.
CLOSING IN
Law-enforcement officials who were not authorized to speak on the record said the net is closing in on Matt and Sweat.
"The dogs have got a good track, and we are tightening the perimeter," one official told the Press-Republican, "so within the next 24 to 48 hours, we're confident they will be caught."
It looks like Matt and Sweat followed the power lines and an old railroad bed from Dannemora to Lyon Mountain and into Standish, the sources said.
"And from that, it looks like Mrs. Mitchell was Plan A (as their ride out of Dannemora). There was No Plan B," one said.
"They don't have a plan now, other than to evade us."
"The energy (among law enforcement) is just fantastic," another said.
At the news conference, Guess said the Dannemora region remains the primary target of the investigation and that the Allegany County area, focus of a possible sighting over the weekend, has been cleared.
He said the weather, terrain, the environment and the scope of the Adirondacks have complicated the search for the escaped killers in this area.
Asked about the growing cost of the search, Guess said: "I don't concern myself with the cost of the search; I concern myself with finding the inmates."
'VERY BUSY UP HERE'
Mountain View, a hamlet of the Town of Bellmont with a population of 2,444, was abuzz with action throughout Sunday night and again this morning.
Mike Carley, who lives on the east side of Mountain View Lake just 2 or 3 miles from where the camp in question sits, was speaking on the phone to the Press-Republican this morning when he looked out his window and saw state troopers emerge from the woods.
He described how officers were bending down and inspecting objects, weapons drawn and at the ready. Before getting off the phone, he said the searchers were approaching his house.
One of the few permanent residents of the area, Carley explained how it is swarming with search team members.
"It's been very busy up here," he said.
Police were working their way through the area last night in the pouring rain, he said, even visiting his side of the lake and knocking at his door.
He said officers checked the buildings on his property just as they had those neighboring his home, making sure locks were secure, windows were unbroken and that no traces of a break-in were present.
"Like everybody else up here, we're prepared," he said about the possibility of confronting either Matt or Sweat.
Terry Bellinger, owner of Belly’s Mountain View Inn in nearby Owls Head, said police had been combing the area for the past few days, he said but their presence definitely increased Sunday.
HUNTING CAMP
Bellinger told the Press-Republican that a string of several seasonal camps are located off Wolf Pond Road on Black Cat Mountain.
He said a man, armed with a handgun, went to check on his camp on Saturday and saw a jug of water and a jar of peanut butter on the table.
Bellinger said the camp owner yelled for whoever was inside to come out.
The person saw a man run out the back but could not tell whether it was one of the fugitives, said Bellinger, who noted the camps in that area are empty most of the year and often have canned goods in them.
INDICATIONS
Another indication of progress in the search comes from the fact that the masses of police sent to Allegany County, where a possible sighting had been seen as promising, have been reassigned to the North Country.
LONG NIGHT
Press-Republican reporters watched the buildup of law-enforcement personnel from early evening Sunday into the early hours of Monday, directed from a command post at Owls Head Fire Station.
Surplus military trucks and four-wheelers rolled in, and light towers were set up at intersections all along routes 26 and 27, with trooper cars at each crossroad.
State Police officer Fred Atkinson Jr. told the Press-Republican late Sunday: “Everything is fluid. We had to move a lot of assets very fast.”
Black Cat Mountain is located between Mountain View and Standish, according to Roger Livernois, a longtime member of the Owls Head Fire Department. Firefighters from his department were not called into service during the search but did lend use of their station.
Standish, a hamlet in the Town of Saranac, is about 17 miles from Clinton Correctional in the Village of Dannemora and not far from the Clinton County border with Franklin County.
HEAVY RAIN
It was raining hard Sunday night, and flashes of lightning split the sky.
State Police troopers and other searchers headed out wearing yellow slickers and carrying maps and bottled water.
Upstate Correctional and Franklin Correctional, prisons located in nearby Malone, towed in more portable lights as darkness descended. A busload of officers from Coxsackie Correctional Facility rolled up to join the search, which involved many correction officers from the North Country and other prisons as well.
State Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Marshals Service and a SWAT unit from Vermont were among many teams on site, with about two dozen police cars parked at nearby Owls Head Fire Station.
Sheriff’s departments from Clinton and Franklin counties were using armored vehicles to search logging roads in that area.
The State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision had a mobile unit there, as well.
Bellinger, who watched State Police vehicles whiz by his business all night, said he wasn’t bothered by the influx of law-enforcement officers, who, he said, are just doing their jobs and are trained to deal with this sort of situation.
“I’m not going to let two criminals change my life,” he added.
Late Sunday night, a new wave of State Police was arriving at the command center, to give a break to those who had been out all day.
The intense search continues this afternoon.
THE BREAKOUT
Matt and Sweat used power tools, over time, to cut a hole in the back of each of their adjacent cells, authorities say.
Sometime between the 10:30 p.m. standing check on June 5 and morning bed check at 5:30 a.m. June 6, they went through the holes and climbed down a six-story catwalk in the innards of the prison.
They broke through a wall, cut through a steam pipe, shimmied to a manhole and cut the lock that held the cover in place.
They climbed out to freedom on Bouck Street, within sight of the prison.
KILLERS
Sweat, originally from Binghamton, killed Broome County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Tarsia on July 4, 2002. The officer was shot 15 times and run over by a car as Sweat and his accomplices tried to flee after stealing guns from a shop.
He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. He had been at Clinton County Correctional since Oct. 30, 2003.
Matt was sentenced to 25 years to life after his conviction in Niagara County on three counts of murder, three counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery.
He kidnapped, tortured and killed North Tonawanda businessman William Rickerson, 76, his former boss, on Dec. 3, 1997. Matt fled to Mexico.
There, in 1998, he was imprisoned for the stabbing death of an American businessman.
Matt was eventually extradited to the United States and convicted in Rickerson’s murder. He had been at Clinton since July 10, 2008.
Only one other time in New York in the past 25 years has a maximum-security escapee remained on the loose longer than Matt and Sweat.
On March 26, 1991, four inmates went over the wall at Eastern Correctional in Napanoch. Two were captured an hour later, one was rounded up after three days and 10 hours, and the final man, George Gatto, eluded capture for 20 days.
THIS ARTICLE WILL BE UPDATED THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
. .
2015 isn't the 1800's where Americans felt goodness could change these monsters. It's not the 70's either - - NO it's NOT 'society's fault... it's the monster's fault.
These two lowlifes can't be ‘rehabilitated’. It's not going to happen.
Time to move out of the delusional past ... They ain't gonna become 'good'. Ever. Make the world a better place. Expand the death penalty.
To be fair to the Upstate NY police, these prisoners escaped into the 6 million acre Adirondack Park.
For example, in the late 1990’s a jet plane from the United Arab Emigrants was on it’s way to Chicago when one of it’s engines fell off and landed somewhere in the Adirondacks.
They offered a $50,000 reward for it but so far nobody has yet to find it.
So it’s very easy for a person to hide for a very long time out in those woods without ever being found
I am a former NYer. Just like most other states, there is a huge difference between people from Westchester County(where Hillary lives), NYC, Long Island and upstate New York.
Upstate NY is more like the Midwest. This area where the prison is extremely rural. Most people in this area of NY are conservative salt of the earth types. They hunt, fish, play hockey, drink beer from the can, chew and spit.
They DO NOT vacation in the Hamptons.
I grew up in western NY. We always wished everything from Westchester County south was a different state.
If they had access tocomouters while in prison would they be able to.locate cabins thru google earth? Can anyone here do the same ?
WHATS THE SURPRISE? -this stuff is great OT & a great excuse to take the MRAP out for a spin
In fact, I believe the park exceeds the land area of eight U.S. states, including every New England state, New Jersey, Delaware, and Hawaii.
This was an unusually well-written news article.
I just want to know if there were any weapons/ammo in the cabin that the thugs could have taken with them.
I like the thought of them being surprised and having to bolt out the back door empty handed.
Hopefully the people in the field will take care of this.
I believe you are correct on all of your facts.
There is an area to the west outside of the Adirondack park called the Tug Hill Plateau. It is south of Watertown and north northeast of Syracuse. It is about 30 miles across with no roads. One of my college roommates grew up on the edge of it. It is due east of Lake Ontario. It gets more lake effect snow than any other place in the east.
Most people do not realize how big NY state is.
> Boots, bloody socks and toiletries were found, along with a water jug and jar of peanut butter that had been opened at the camp
> Bellinger told the Press-Republican that a string of several seasonal camps are located off Wolf Pond Road on Black Cat Mountain. He said a man, armed with a handgun, went to check on his camp on Saturday and saw a jug of water and a jar of peanut butter on the table. Bellinger said the camp owner yelled for whoever was inside to come out. The person saw a man run out the back but could not tell whether it was one of the fugitives, said Bellinger
The camp located between markers B and L along Wolf Pond Road was broken into and water & PB stored there was consumed. Boots and bloody socks where found, presumably other footwear was also stored there and taken since they couldn’t get far barefoot. What else was stored in the cabin?
If they have a map and/or head SW they may be able to evade capture.
On second thought, Maine is larger than the Adirondack Park.
Most people don’t realize there is a state outside of NYC. LOL
The Adirondacks are gorgeous.
.
I left in 1980.
“And .. it’s easy to turn off the GPS on your phone to keep people from knowing where you are.”
Any phone that is on, GPS or no GPS is automatically tracked.
“But .. the police in NY still blab everything they’re doing .. and the murderers keep moving away from the area where they’re searching. UNBELIEVABLE ..!!!!!!!”
Well, the longer it goes on the more PR they get and the longer they get to look all SpecOps and stuff. More overtime too.
Adirondack State Park is the biggest park in the lower 48 states. About the size of Vermont.
I am about 60 miles south east of Tug Hill. They can get 300-400 inches of snow a year
Guys get lost in there and they find the bones in the Spring.
My buddy in college grew up in Lowville. I had two other friends that grew up in small towns east of Watertown. I think on was Croiden(sp?). We all went to SUNY Syracuse.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.