Searchers comb through woods after escaped killers' DNA found in cabin

DANNEMORA, N.Y. (WABC) -- Hundreds of searchers spurred on by fresh evidence methodically combed through heavy woods in far northern New York on Tuesday hoping to finally close in on two elusive murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison more than two weeks ago.

Authorities began committing heavy resources to the remote woods days ago after leads from a hunting camp that was apparently broken into led to "good evidence, DNA data" regarding inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Roadblocks were in place Tuesday around the remote hamlets of Owls Head and Mountain View in an area of rugged terrain about 20 miles west of Clinton County Correctional Facility.

Searchers were checking ATV trails, logging roads and railroad beds and going door-to-door and conducting grid searches in the thick, mosquito-infested forests, said Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill. He said people were checking seasonal properties for signs of intruders.

Authorities hoped that an 18-day search punctuated by fruitless tips - officers spent part of the weekend scouring a rural area by the Pennsylvania line more than 300 miles away - might finally be close to the end.

"If they're here, we're going to find them," Mulverhill said. "I really believe it's going to come down to old-fashioned police work and the public."

Clinton County DA Andrew Wylie told ABC News the discovery of the hunting cabin where the prisoners are believed to have stayed is the best lead authorities have had since the prison break.

He also said prison worker Joyce Mitchell has described assisting the inmates by taking hacksaw blades and some other tools and putting them inside hamburger meat.

Then, she would place meat in the tailor shop refrigerator at the Clinton correctional facility. Then, Gene Palmer a corrections officer assigned to the honor block would collect the meat and give it to Matt and Sweat in their cells.

Palmer, who has been placed on paid leave and could face charges, says he didn't know the tools were inside. Joyce Mitchell told investigators she also believes he didn't know.

Wylie said he is looking into whether Sweat or Matt overheard corrections officers talking about the cabin or whether they just found it.

Several corrections officers from different prisons in the area are members of the hunting club that uses the cabin and they are all being questioned.

Meanwhile, Mitchell's husband said in an interview aired Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show that he's "absolutely 100 percent" certain the pair would have killed him and his wife if his wife had been their getaway driver, as initially planned.

Lyle Mitchell said Joyce told him Sweat and Matt offered to give her pills to knock him out so she could pick them up after they escaped, but she refused because she said she still loved her husband.

"Do I still love her? Yes. Am I mad? Yes," Lyle Mitchell said in the interview aired Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show.

Joyce Mitchell remained in custody on charges she helped the two men escape by providing them hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools. She has pleaded not guilty.

An official briefed on the search told ABC News a positive DNA match was found at a hunter's camp in Owls Head, New York in Franklin County.

The DNA samples were confirmed from both suspects from some kind of food found at the camp, likely peanut butter from a spoon.

The new revelation explains why the focus of the search for David Sweat and Richard Matt abruptly shifted to the location about 20 miles west of Dannemora.

ABC News has confirmed that John Stockwell was the eyewitness at the cabin/hunting camp. Stockwell is a corrections officer, but not at Clinton Correctional Facility from which Matt and Sweat escaped.

He was at the hunting cabin Saturday morning with his dog, and saw signs of entry when he walked into the cabin. He called out and saw at least one person running away. He then called authorities, touching off the new focus in the search. A quick field test for DNA returned a positive match for both escapees.

The cabin is a share in Owls Head, New York, used by several corrections officers. "I hope and pray no harm comes to the public and law enforcement community, and I tip my hat to the men and women of law enforcement," Stockwell said.

Authorities said Matt and Sweat may have been staying in a house in the camp that had shotguns in it and may have been forced to quickly leave after being discovered.

One may have fled without shoes. Prison-issued underwear was also found in the cabin.

The forensic evidence recovered confirms they had been there within the last 48 hours of being located.

Tuesday's search area was about 20 miles east of the Mitchells' home in Dickinson Center.

Sweat and Matt escaped from the prison in Dannemora on June 6. Authorities say they cut through the steel wall at the back of their cell, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall, cut their way into and out of a steam pipe, and then sliced through the chain and lock on a manhole cover outside the prison.

Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.

There were no new confirmed sightings by Tuesday afternoon.

But Scott Noel watched with amazement as helicopters hovered over an area near his family's camp in a rural hamlet, and dozens of officers swarmed in to check out what turned out to be a false alarm.

"My family has been here 100 years, and nobody ever heard of Mountain View," Noel said. "It's surreal."

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)