Richard Matt

Officers continued to focus Saturday on rugged terrain 30 miles west of Clinton Correctional Facility as they looked for David Sweat, who escaped from the maximum-security prison June 6 with Richard Matt. 

Police manned roadblocks in the neighbouring towns of Malone and Duane as a helicopter buzzed over the woods.

Matt was shot to death Friday by a border patrol team responding to a civilian complaint about a gunshot fired at a camping trailer. 

Authorities say Matt was armed and failed to respond to an order to raise his hands.

An official with knowledge of the manhunt says Richard Matt was killed and David Sweat is still on the run. The official wasn't authorized to talk about the development publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on Friday on the condition of anonymity.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH'-moh) says Matt and Sweat used power tools to saw through a steel cell wall and several steel steam pipes, bashed a hole through a 2-foot-thick brick wall, squirmed through pipes and escaped early on June 6 from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, near the Canadian border.

State police Maj. Charles Guess says the items were found Thursday at a cabin and Friday morning in a field, both in the town of Malone, 30 miles northeast of the maximum-security prison David Sweat and Richard Matt broke out of June 6. Guess says the items have been sent to a forensic lab for testing.

As the search for the convicts entered its 20th day Thursday, Gene Palmer was released on $25,000 bail after his arrest on charges of promoting prison contraband, tampering with evidence and official misconduct.

Palmer, 57, became the second Clinton Correctional Facility employee to be charged since Richard Matt and David Sweat used power tools to cut their way out of the maximum-security prison in far northern New York on June 6.

Prison tailor shop instructor Joyce Mitchell, 51, stands charged with helping them break out.

Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wiley has told reporters that Joyce Mitchell told investigators she put hacksaw blades and a screwdriver in the meat, then placed it in a refrigerator in the tailor shop where she worked at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

Spurred on by fresh evidence, law enforcement officers methodically combed through heavy woods on Tuesday looking for inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt.

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. 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 Clinton County Correctional Facility.

Authorities began committing heavy resources to the remote woods days ago after leads from a hunting camp that was apparently broken into led to "good evidence, DNA data" regarding inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

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 Clinton County Correctional Facility.

State Police Maj. Charles Guess said at a news conference that authorities had "specific items" from the Adirondack cabin some 20 miles west of the prison and sent them to labs for DNA and other testing. He would not elaborate on the items but characterized the latest search effort — one of many over the past 17 days — as a confirmed lead.

"There are a number of factors that make this a complex search: the weather, the terrain, the environment and frankly the vast scope of the north country of the Adirondacks," Guess said.