NY offers $100K reward for escaped killers

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" on Sunday, called the escape “elaborate” and “sophisticated.”

“These are killers. They are murderers,” the governor said. “There's never been a question about the crimes they committed. They are now on the loose, and our first order of business is apprehending them.”

David Sweat, 34, was serving a sentence of life without parole for the 2002 killing of a sheriff's deputy. Richard Matt, 48, had been sentenced to 25 years to life for kidnapping, killing and dismembering his former boss in 1997.

Officials gave no details on how the men managed to avoid detection while cutting their way out.

After the search is over, “we'll go through the exact details of what they did and how they did it to ensure this never happens again,” Cuomo said later.

Authorities set up roadblocks and brought in bloodhounds and helicopters. Hundreds of law enforcement officers fanned out around the prison following up on dozens of tips.

But authorities acknowledged they did not have a good idea where the convicts could be.

“They could be literally anywhere," New York State Police Major Charles Guess told a news conference. “We presume that they may have had access to a vehicle as well as they may have had assistance in their escape effort,” Guess said.

Dubbed “Little Siberia” by local residents, the prison houses nearly 3,000 inmates, guarded by about 1,400 correction officers. Surrounded by farmland and forests, the prison is only about a 45-minute drive by car to Montreal.

A spokesman for the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada said an alert was issued to all police agencies to be on the lookout for the escapees.

Prison officials found the inmates' beds inside the 150-year-old Clinton Correctional Facility stuffed with clothes on Saturday morning in an apparent attempt to fool guards making their rounds. On a cut steam pipe, the prisoners left a taunting note containing a crude Asian caricature and the words "Have a nice day."

Officials said the inmates 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.

Wire services