Police kill one escaped convict, search for other continues

Police in New York fatally shot escaped murderer Richard Matt this afternoon, hours after search teams discovered signs of the fugitives about 30 miles from the prison they tunneled out of earlier this month.

Matt’s fellow escapee, David Sweat, remains at large.

The two men escaped the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York with the help of at least two prison employees, who snuck tools into the prison. Matt and Sweat used hacksaw blades and a drill bit to break out of their cells and eventually to freedom.

Matt was serving 25 years to life for killing and dismembering his boss. Sweat was serving life without parole for killing a sheriff’s deputy in 2002.

Police marshaled 1,100 officers to search for the men, concentrating their efforts this morning near a cabin in Malone, N.Y. Officers found items at the cabin and in nearby woods they described as “significant” but declined to provide details. They sent the items to a lab for DNA testing.

Officials believe Matt and Sweat took shelter in another cabin last week, stealing weapons stored there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.