Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Hunt Continues for Surviving Escaped Prisoner in New York by VOA News Hundreds of heavily armed police officers are scouring dense forest in a remote part of New York state for the second of two prisoners who escaped a maximum security prison three weeks ago. Officials say convicted killer David Sweat may have a tougher time eluding authorities now that he is alone. His fellow escapee, Richard Matt, was shot and killed by police Friday. Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill said Sweat was alone, fatigued and tired, and was "going to make a mistake." Authorities have said there is no evidence to suggest the two had split up before Friday's shooting, so searchers are concentrating their search near the spot where Matt was killed. The search had its biggest development Friday when a man towing a camper heard a loud noise that he thought was a blown tire. He stopped a short time later and found a bullet hole in the trailer. A police team smelled gunpowder inside the trailer and saw evidence that someone had fled out the back door. A short time later Matt, who was 49 years old, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for kidnapping and dismembering his former boss in 1997, was found by police and shot when he failed to follow an order to put his hands up. The prisoners escaped with the help of tools hidden in packages of frozen hamburger meat that they received. Once out of their cells, they traveled through a maze of internal passages and catwalks built for prison maintenance work and eventually emerged from a sewer outside the maximum-security compound. Two prison employees have been arrested for helping Matt and Sweat escape. Gene Palmer and Joyce Mitchell are accused of helping to smuggle the tools, including hacksaw blades and bits for power drills, to the pair. Sweat, who is 35, was serving a life sentence without possibility of parole parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in 2002. New York state had offered a reward of $100,000 for their capture, or half that amount for information leading to the return of one of the men. __________________________________________________________________ [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/hunt-continues-for-surviving-escaped- prisoner-in-new-york/2840494.html References 1. http://www.voanews.com/content/hunt-continues-for-surviving-escaped-prisoner-in-new-york/2840494.html