Escaped killers Richard Matt and David Sweat could be ‘riding the rails’

The manhunt for escaped killers Richard Matt and David Sweat expanded to points west and south of Clinton Correctional over the weekend as authorities responded to multiple sightings but still came up empty.

Officials are planning a briefing for later Monday to discuss the latest on the Great Escape, which happened June 6.

In the meantime, here is the latest:

THE FRIENDSHIP, N.Y. SEARCH
In a tiny New York town 375 miles south and west of the prison, authorities converged on a rural home Saturday after a woman went to go see why her dogs were barking and spotted the escaped inmates. Or thought she did.

“My heart kind of felt like it dropped just from the picture that I saw on TV,” Brandy Thompson told the local NBC affiliate . “At first I was quite scared.”

Authorities arrived eight minutes after she called 911.

The search came up empty.

Still, she is now keeping a rifle on the ready.

“It’s not coming unloaded until I hear ‘all clear,'” Thompson said.

Authorities have called the sighting “credible” but “unconfirmed.”

RIDING THE RAILS
Friendship is along a major railway stretch and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that, like old time hobos, Sweat and Matt are hiding in box cars.

“One possibility” is the escaped inmates are “are riding the rails,” he said.

“If the prisoners were actually in Allegany County and Friendship, it obviously means they didn’t walk,” he said Sunday.

“It probably means they didn’t take a vehicle because they would have stayed in the vehicle. So one possibility — not a certainty, but a possiblity — is they’re riding the rails. And there’s a long train line that connects across southern New York that they might have ridden.”

THE OWLS HEAD SEARCH
Late Sunday, authorities set up a new command center back up near the prison from where they escaped– in Owls Head, Franklin County, some 25 miles west.

A campsite in Mountain View is reportedly the focus and locals reported seeing someone.

“We all know these guys are extremely dangerous and at this point in time could be very desperate,” Acting Franklin County N.Y. District Attorney Glenn MacNeill told News Channel 5 .