New York Prison Break: 9 Days Later, Source Says Search Has Gone Cold

New York prison escapees Richard Matt and David Sweat had a plan to kill prison tailor Joyce Mitchell’s husband, Lyle Mitchell, a source with detailed knowledge of the investigation told CNN’s Randi Kaye. The source could not say why the men felt the need to kill Lyle Mitchell, how they planned to do it or when. Joyce Mitchell was aware the escapees planned to kill her husband, but it’s unclear if she was aware of the details of that plan, the source said.

Nine days and hundreds of tips later, have authorities lost the trail of two convicted murderers who broke out of a New York prison?

A New York state official briefed on the investigation told CNN on Monday that the search has gone cold since last week, when investigators found what they believe were several human tracks and a bloodhound possibly picked up a scent.

There were promising clues last week, the official said, but since then, authorities have come up with little to point them toward the fugitives.

Despite the efforts of 800 law enforcement officials, popping open trucks, peering into cars and scouring heavily wooded areas, authorities seem no closer to capturing Richard Matt and David Sweat.

New York’s governor acknowledged over the weekend that the pair could be almost anywhere.

Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said Monday that they could still be in the woods near the prison in upstate New York — or long gone.

“I’m 51% they’re gone and 49% they’re still there,” he said, noting that it seems unlikely that the prisoners had so meticulously engineered their escape from the prison without hashing out a getaway plan.

And the prosecutor whose office brought charges against prison tailor Joyce Mitchell for allegedly aiding the escape said authorities can’t say for sure whether anyone else was involved or whether Mitchell knows more than she’s letting on.

“It’s apparent that she’s trying to be as truthful as possible, but in any of these investigations, we always find out that potentially somebody continues to hold things back for one reason or another and that may be the case here,” Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN’s “Erin Burnett: Outfront.”

Meanwhile, the leads keep piling up — more than 870 of them so far, according to New York State Police.

They involve a mishmash of far-flung places: Vermont, Mexico, even a few miles from the Clinton Correctional Facility, the maximum-security prison in Dannemora, New York, from which Matt and Sweat escaped on June 6.

With every credible tip comes a switch in direction.

Read more at CABLE NEWS NETWORK.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}