A prison officer has been suspended as part of the investigation into the escape of two convicted murderers from the maximum security wing of a facility in upstate New York.
The male officer was placed on administrative leave late on Friday night, becoming the second member of staff to be taken off the job under suspicion since civilian worker Joyce Mitchell was removed from her post at the Clinton correctional facility in Dannemora, New York, on 7 June. Mitchell was formally arrested on 12 June, in connection with the breakout on 6 June. She remains in custody.
The development came as New York state police announced two possible sightings of the escaped inmates. The possible sightings were made a week ago on the state’s border with Pennsylvania, 350 miles south-west of Dannemora.
Two men – possibly the fugitives Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35 – were reportedly seen on 13 June walking near a rail yard in Erwin, close to Interstate 99 in Steuben County, about 10 miles from the state border.
Another possible sighting, of two men walking along a road in the nearby town of Lindley, in the direction of the state border just two miles away, was reported on 14 June.
Neither sighting has been confirmed or dismissed. Surveillance video recovered by state police was inconclusive and has been taken to the state capital, Albany, for further analysis, state police said on Friday night.
It was not immediately explained why the authorities waited almost a week to reveal the reported sightings. Officers have been interviewing local residents in hopes of gaining further clues as to the whereabouts of the escaped prisoners.
There have been no confirmed sightings since Matt and Sweat broke out of the maximum security wing at Clinton in the early hours of 6 June, after an audacious escape that involved cutting through the steel wall at the back of their adjoining cells and cutting through pipes in the facility’s heating system, before emerging through a manhole into a public street and fleeing.
Up to 800 officers and rangers, helicopters and dog teams have been searching for the fugitives. New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has said they could be anywhere, including as far away as Mexico. Authorities from Canada to Mexico and across the US have been put on alert.
The New York department of corrections officer who was suspended on Friday evening was not immediately named and details of why he was under investigation were not immediately released.
The Clinton County district attorney’s office did, however, confirm that the officer was not Lyle Mitchell, the husband of Joyce Mitchell. Lyle Mitchell also works at the facility in Dannemora; he has been on leave since his wife was taken in for questioning.
According to CNN, Lyle Mitchell has been cleared by the district attorney, Andrew Wylie, of involvement in Matt and Sweat’s escape. Wylie had hinted previously that other prison workers could be questioned.
Joyce Mitchell has been charged with crimes relating to smuggling tools to the inmates and being involved in their escape plan. She was allegedly supposed to have driven a getaway car for them, only to get cold feet at the last minute. She then attended a hospital in the hours before the two men escaped, instead of alerting the authorities.
The total reward offered for information leading to the arrest of Matt and Sweat has risen to $150,000. The US marshal service has put the fugitives on its list of 15 most wanted criminals and offered $25,000 a head for their capture. New York state police have offered $50,000 a head.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping, torturing and dismembering a former boss. Sweat was serving life without parole for shooting dead a sheriff’s deputy.
Requests for comment on Saturday morning to the New York department of corrections, New York state police, Clinton County district attorney and the office of Governor Andrew Cuomo were not immediately returned.
