Investigators believe prison employee was in on escape plot

DANNEMORA, N.Y. -- Investigators believe a female prison employee had agreed to be the getaway driver in last weekend's escape by two killers but never showed up, a person close to the case said Thursday.

The manhunt, meanwhile, dragged into a sixth day with a renewed burst of activity by searchers in the woods close to the prison after bloodhounds were said to have picked up the convicts' scent. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said investigators are "talking to several people who may have facilitated the escape."

David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, used power tools to cut through steel and bricks and crawled through an underground steam pipe, emerging from a manhole outside the 40-foot walls of the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, authorities said.

The person close to the investigation said authorities believe Joyce Mitchell -- an instructor at the prison tailor shop, where the two convicts worked -- had befriended the men and was supposed to pick them up Saturday but didn't.

The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mitchell has not been charged. Her son Tobey Mitchell told NBC on Wednesday she checked herself into a hospital with chest pains Saturday. He said she would not have helped the inmates escape.

Hundreds of police using dogs and helicopters blocked off a main road and concentrated their search on a swampy area just a couple of miles from the prison. Schools were closed, and residents received automated calls warning them to lock their doors, close their windows and leave outside lights on.

The governor said investigators had received tips the convicts were in the area, and tracking dogs had picked up the scent Thursday morning. State police said they bolstered the force looking for the fugitives to 500 officers.

Jennifer Hilchey-Reyell, who lives on the edge of the search area, heard low-flying helicopters all night and watched state police SUVs race by all day. She said she now carries a .22-caliber gun and relies on her pit bull, Layla.

"My dog will slow them down, and that's all I need," she said.