Escape to 23 million dollars

The fugitives from the New York prison could not get to the Canadian border

Last weekend, two criminals were caught in New York who escaped from the New York prison in a maximum security prison. Both the escape and the search for prisoners deserve a high -budget film adaptation, the state governor Andrew Kuomo, who oversaw a three -week operation to capture the fugitives, is convinced. One of the fled, Richard Matt, was killed during the detention; His partner David Sveta was seriously injured, he has already begun to testify. "Medusa" tells how the fugitives were caught.

In addition to police, federal marshals, FBI officers and helicopter crews, local residents took part in search of fugitives - more than a thousand people were involved in the operation. The operation turned out to be one of the largest in the latest US history; At least 23 million dollars were spent on it, that is, a million for each day of searches.

Course for Mexico

On Monday, June 29, the Governor of the state of New York Andrew Kuomo spoke about the initial plan of criminals. Matt (sentenced to 25 years for the murder and dismemberment of the chief) and the Svet (was serving life-long for the murder of a policeman) for more than a year were to be prepared from the New York prison.

The accomplices during this time studied in detail the structure of the ventilation compartments of the Clinton prison and found assistants among the staff. Joycy Mitchell, a 51-year-old prison employee, often talked with 49-year-old Matt and, according to some reports, fell in love with the criminal. One of the colleagues Mitchell drew attention to the urgent relationship and complained to the authorities, but the case was not given a move - there was not enough evidence.

Mitchell bought an escape tool, and handed them to the criminals another accomplice - guard Gene Palmer. Bypassing the metal detector, he brought the criminals a parcel with a piece of meat in which Mitchell hid the tools. According to the prosecution, Palmer did not know what helped to escape. Both Palmer and Mitchell were arrested, they were charged.

According to the initial plan, the criminals were supposed to do in the van chambers with the help of tools, on the night of June 6, get out of the prison through ventilation hatches and leave for Mexico by car of Joyssi Mitchell. However, in the agreed place, they did not find Mitchell - at the last moment the woman was frightened. According to Mitchell, the idea of ​​helping the fugitives ceased to seem attractive to her after she found out that they were going to kill her husband.

Spare plan

Without finding an accomplice, Matt and Svet decided to head to the border with Canada, which passes 30 kilometers north of the prison. In the vicinity, by that time the search for the fled already began, a reward of 50 thousand dollars has been announced for information about criminals.

For more than three weeks at large, the fugitives moved away from the prison by only 50 kilometers, but their searches dragged on due to a hard-to-reach forest in the north of New York. They entered the forests almost immediately - the dogs in such conditions poorly helped.

On June 24, the fugitives were divided. According to the investigation, the 35-year-old Sveta was slowed down by his more adult comrade who, due to illness, could not move quickly. Matt settled in a hunting house in a deaf area; Its location was established in the wakes left in other shelters, and thanks to the testimony of local hunters.

When Matt was discovered, he held a weapon in his hands and refused to give up. The man received three mortal injuries in the head, none of the police officers were injured. The forensic examination found that the fugitive was drunk and seriously ill due to a long stay in the forest.

Two days later, the second fugitive was also found - David Svet was only three kilometers from the border with Canada. The criminal was delayed not a special search patrol, but a police sergeant who noticed a criminal on a rural road. The Svet did not obey the order to stop and tried to escape, so the policeman had to open fire. The fugitive was hospitalized with two gunshot wounds of the body. Svet had no weapon with him; His backpack was stuffed with cards, food and pepper - to knock down the dogs of dogs.

The escape of David Sveta and Richard Matt was the first for more than 150-year history of the Clinton strict regime prison.