Prison Break: Jail Employee At Center Of Investigation As 2 Convicts Remain At Large –– All Of The Latest Developments In Shocking Escape
Jun. 9 2015, Updated 11:23 a.m. ET
A woman named Joyce Mitchell has been identified as the prison employee who's under investigation in the escape of convicted killers David Sweat and Richard Matt.
Mitchell, a 51-year-old who works at Dannemora, New York's Clinton Correctional Facility supervising inmate work details in the facility's tailor shop, has not been accused of any crime, as officials probe into the shocking prison break.
ABC News reported that Mitchell, who's worked at the institution since 2010, spoke with investigators Sunday. A neighbor of Mitchell's told the NY Daily News that officials "were going through her trash" as part of their investigation.
The two "definitely had help" in their shocking getaway, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had previously said.
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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the inmates who escaped were David Sweat, a 34-year-old man sentenced to life with no chance of parole in the 2002 killing of a police officer; and Richard Matt, a 48-year-old man serving a 25-year-to-life sentence in for a 1997 conviction in the kidnapping and killing of a man.
In a shocking sequence reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption, authorities said that on Saturday, the criminal pair, using power tools, cut through their steel cell wall, snaked across a catwalk, broke a brick wall, through a steam pipe, and out of a manhole cover outside the maximum-security correctional facility.
The two left a note upon their escape that read, "Have a nice day."
Jeffrey Getman, a former inmate at the facility, described the lockdown conditions at the prison in a chat with NBC News.
"It's most definitely tight security, very tight movement as far as when you're allowed out of your cell," Getman said. "You're watched pretty much all the time."
Officials said it's possible the two have already fled as far as Canada or Mexico in the time that's passed since their escape. Authorities with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are also on the lookout for the two, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection have installed checkpoints near the border.
New York officials, who have taken significant security measures at schools in the area, have put up a $100,000 reward for info leading to the recapture of the inmates.