BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — It's been 10 years since two convicted killers escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, setting off one of the largest manhunts in New York State history.
"These two convicted killers were able to escape with the help of somebody on the inside," 7 News I-Team reporter Ed Drantch said.
The 2015 prison break of Richard Matt and David Sweat captivated Western New York and the nation as law enforcement officials searched for the dangerous fugitives in the mountains of the Adirondacks.
"A very violent, vicious murderer who tortured one of his victims," said Steven Nigrelli, former acting superintendent of the New York State Police.
I spoke with Nigrelli and two of my colleagues about what it was like while Matt and Sweat were on the run.
Nigrelli, who was a captain in Western New York at the time, said he was getting ready to run a race when he heard the news.
"Instantly I thought of Ralph Bucky Phillips, we'd previously apprehended who was in the prison at the time," Nigrelli said.
Phillips prompted a massive manhunt a few years earlier, but this prison break seemed even more outrageous.
Matt and Sweat dug a hole in a wall, climbed through pipes and escaped through a manhole.
"When the information came forward, how they escaped, it sounded kind of unbelievable, like Hollywood-esque…like really?" Nigrelli said.
There was genuine fear that Matt and Sweat could be headed for Western New York because Matt grew up in the City of Tonawanda, Drantch said.
"So I spent a Saturday night into Sunday morning in the Southern Tier in the Village of Friendship in Allegany County, literally sleeping on the ground outside the state trooper barracks trying to develop more information to bring to our viewers for special coverage," Drantch said.
7 News Political Analyst Bob McCarthy was a reporter at the Buffalo News at the time and was sent to the Adirondacks to cover the search.
He recalled driving through four checkpoints in the Adirondacks and troopers searching through the trunk of his vehicle.
"I'm looking behind every tree, everywhere, are these guys gonna jump out and, you know, do their, do their thing?" McCarthy said. "It was really kind of spooky."
Almost three weeks after the prison break, Matt was spotted.
"He was in a wooded area behind a cabin, he was armed, and they engaged him and ultimately he was killed by a border patrol sniper," Nigrelli said.
Two days later, Sweat was shot but only wounded near the Canadian border.
"And now Matt is dead and David Sweat, he's not gonna see the outside of a supermax prison for a long, long time if ever," McCarthy said.
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