New York Manhunt Tightens In Adirondacks — Did Frozen Hamburger Facilitate Inmates’ Escape?


News crews and police have descended on an isolated hamlet in the northern Adirondacks of New York as a manhunt for two escaped convicts tightens, and the investigation reveals some bizarre twists in their escape: That their tools were smuggled into their prison fortress via frozen hamburger meat.

Hamburger is certainly an odd medium for smuggling, but obviously an efficient one. According to CNN, alleged escape co-conspirator Joyce Mitchell, 51 (now in jail herself) may have convinced a corrections officer to give the hamburger meat to Richard Matt and David Sweat so that it wouldn’t have to go through the metal detector. Police are looking into this possibility.

Apparently, the inmates turned fugitives were allowed to cook their own food on the honor block at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.

As this hamburger detail came to light, investigators embroiled in an over two-week manhunt across northern New York got their best lead since the search for the convicts began: Evidence that the elusive duo spent some time in an isolated cabin in the Adirondacks, used — quite ironically — by a group of COs, the Press Republican added.

As a result, media and police have descended on the isolated region for an intense, aggressive search. Though officials haven’t officially stated what items were found in the cabin, some reports have suggested they were prison-issue boxers, boots, and bloody socks. Fingerprints were also reportedly left behind.

These “specific items,” as State Police Maj. Charles Guess called them, have been sent for DNA and other testing, Fox News added. CNN reported the DNA has been linked to the escapees.

Belly’s Mountain View Inn owner Terry Bellinger said one of those COs may have seen one of the inmates run into the trees as he came up to the camp on an ATV Saturday. Inside, he found a jug of water and jar of peanut butter that told him the cabin had been occupied. The cabin is reportedly quite Spartan, with no electricity, plumbing, or phones.

Meanwhile, deputies with the local sheriff’s department in Franklin County have joined in the manhunt, adding to officials from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Vermont SWAT forces, and state forest rangers. The weather has not cooperated as authorities concentrated their efforts in the isolated and densely wooded areas of Owls Head and Mountain View, WPTZ added. Technology is reportedly being put to use to counteract this obstacle.

And by Tuesday morning, the manhunt in this rural region of New York shifted to an area called Upper Titus Mountain, after a tipoff from a resident who said Matt and Sweat were near her home, an anonymous source told the Press.

“And they’ve got dogs. They had them in the woods yesterday. The special-ops guys were all running in the woods with dogs.”

Helicopters augmented the manhunt from the sky, circling the area until well past midnight. Their presence, and the rumored sighting, was enough to worry locals. Franz Fredericks — who owns 88 acres near a local ski center — wasn’t even willing to walk his dog.

“They flew over the house all night. I mean they circled around in my back woods. I walk the mountain every morning on my property with my dog, and I (usually) let him go. But this morning I was hesitant.”

The general feeling among people who make their home in New York’s Adirondacks is that the escapees have a challenging task ahead of them as they try to navigate the wilderness. Perhaps they caught a break with that frozen hamburger meat trick, but the forests and swamps here won’t be easy.

“If they (escapees) made their way over from there, unless they took a chance on the roads, they navigated some very difficult terrain,” said local business owner Dean Savage.

[Photo Courtesy WPTZ Twitter]

Share this article: New York Manhunt Tightens In Adirondacks — Did Frozen Hamburger Facilitate Inmates’ Escape?
More from Inquisitr