New York prison break: Tailor used baked goods to help killers, source says

Cadyville, New York (CNN) For months before a pair of convicted murderers made their brazen escape from a maximum security facility in upstate New York, prison tailor Joyce Mitchell used baked goods to win favors for Richard Matt and David Sweat, going so far as to ask prison officials to put the inmates in cells next to each other, a law enforcement official told CNN.

Among the apparent favors: asking one guard to pass frozen hamburger meat to Matt, bypassing the Clinton Correctional Facility 's metal detector in a violation of policy, the source said Tuesday.

Mitchell, who has been charged with aiding the escapees, has admitted she smuggled hacksaw blades into the meat, the official said.

Gene Palmer, the guard on the block where Matt and Sweat were held, was unaware of the meat's contents when he was asked to get it to Matt, according to Palmer's attorney Andrew Brockway, who says his client was conned by Mitchell. Palmer is now on paid leave but hasn't been arrested or charged with anything.

"The only mistake he made was trusting Joyce Mitchell," Brockway told CNN's Anderson Cooper, saying his client feels "extremely guilty" about his unwitting role in the breakout.

At the time of their escape, Matt, 48, and Sweat, 35, were housed next to each other on the prison's honor block, which awarded inmates who showed good behavior special privileges such as having hot plates and refrigerators in their cells.

The two convicts cut holes through steel cell walls, then sneaked along catwalks and through pipes before clambering out of a manhole beyond the prison gates and disappearing June 6. The vast manhunt for them is now in its 19th day.

Accused of helping the fugitives by supplying the blades, chisels, a punch and a drill bit, Mitchell is in jail and has pleaded not guilty. Her attorney did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections said Tuesday there were "a number of ongoing probes" into how the pair escaped, but she wouldn't comment on the details of those investigations.

Prison escape puts staff-inmate relationships in the spotlight

Police trying to close the net in manhunt

The new revelations come as law enforcement officials chase the most promising lead yet in the manhunt for the pair. DNA from Matt and Sweat was found in a burglarized cabin not far from where the convicted murders broke out more than two weeks ago, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Personal items, including boots, were discovered Saturday inside the cabin in Mountain View, some 20 miles west of the prison, another law enforcement source briefed on the investigation told CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

The items left behind, and the manner in which they were left, suggest the pair were surprised and left in a hurry, according to the source.

The boots left in the cabin suggest one of the fugitives may be barefoot, the source said, possibly hindering his ability to move through the dense brush. But there may have been other boots and shoes in the cabin that were taken by the pair.

Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill told CNN that the search area is about the size of the town of Bellmont, New York -- roughly 170 square miles. Authorities have flooded the area with helicopters, cruisers and all-terrain vehicles.

As many as 1,000 people are working the search as law enforcement officials try to close a net around the escapees.

"Every rock, every nook, every cranny's going to be looked at here," former U.S. Marshal John Cuff said on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. "And it's going to be very difficult with the challenges that are presented in the woods up there."

Ravines, bogs, creeks and cliffs

Those challenges include a densely forested landscape riddled with ravines, bogs, creeks and cliffs -- terrain that makes it very difficult to spot a person on foot, even if they're only a short distance away.