US manhunt for killers draws blank despite 1,400 leads

Nearly two weeks after their elaborate escape from a New York prison, more than 1,400 leads have failed to locate two dangerous murderers on the run, US agents admitted today.
Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, escaped 12 days ago from a maximum security jail in New York state, in a carefully rehearsed, elaborate prison break that has been likened to a Hollywood movie.
New York police released doctored photographs of the two escapees showing how they could look 12 days on with facial hair growth.
They used hacksaw blades supplied by a 51-year-old married female prison worker, who reportedly had a relationship with both men, and equipment stolen from a toolbox left by construction workers.

Joyce Mitchell, who worked in the tailor shop at the Clinton Correctional Facility in the village of Dannemora, is in custody charged with facilitating their escape.
She told investigators that the two escapees also plotted to kill her husband, Lyle, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said.

Lyle Mitchell has been questioned but there is no information he had prior knowledge of the escape or helped, Wylie added.
Officials said his wife had been moved 150 miles (240 kilometers) south to a jail in the town of Plattsburgh to Rensselaer County where she is under constant supervision.
She allegedly confessed to giving the pair tools and to planning to meet them with a getaway car, but changed her mind at the last minute and checked into a hospital suffering from a panic attack.

Local, state and federal law enforcement have scaled back the ground search in the immediate vicinity around the prison, turning the focus nationwide and alerts have gone out on the Mexico border.
"We have no information that they have been able to leave the area. That being said, it doesn't mean that they haven't been able to escape this area," said state police captain Robert LaFountain.