David Sweat and Richard Matt: Police Dogs Found Evidence of Escapees

Police dogs have found where fugitives David Sweat and Richard Matt may have spent the night after they escaped from New York prison six days ago.

Food wrappers and other evidence were discovered in the woods nearby Clinton Correctional Facility.

Police have been receiving hundreds of tips from the public, and a sighting has been reported in Philadelphia.

The manhunt in northern New York and surrounding areas has now extended to campsites and boat slips in neighboring Vermont.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a joint press conference outside the maximum security prison from where the men escaped.

“New York was going to be hot. Vermont would be cooler, in terms of law enforcement,” Peter Shumlin said, referring to the unspecified information about the men’s whereabouts.

Rainstorms have complicated efforts by masking scents detectable by search dogs and forcing officers to wade through swamps.

Officials at the Saranac Central School District, less than a mile from the prison, closed schools on June 11 “in order to assist law enforcement personnel with their search efforts, and due to the closure of a number of roads”.

Police are also interviewing a cab driver in Philadelphia, who says he may have given a ride to the men early on Thursday morning.

Philadelphia is about 400 miles from the prison.

Police have received hundreds of tips from the public, but the Philadelphia police commissioner says there is no reason to believe David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, are in the city.

Richard Matt was given a jail term of 25 years to life for beating a man to death in 1997.

David Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of Broome County Sheriff’s Deputy, Kevin Tarsia.