New York--Two American fugitives on the run four days since escaping a maximum security jail are described as "dangerous, desperate" murderers -- one kidnapped and beat his elderly boss to death, and the other killed a sheriff's deputy.
Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, are the objects of an international manhunt after using power tools to cut through the walls at the Clinton Correctional Facility in the small town of Dannemora in New York state.
Officials portray them as violent and vicious, raising fears that the longer they are on the run the higher the risk to members of the public, either at home or possibly across the border in Mexico or Canada.
Matt, six foot tall with multiple tattoos, is serving a 25-year to life sentence for the 1997 kidnapping, dismembering and murder of his former boss, 76-year-old William Rickerson in a horrifying 27-hour ordeal.
Matt reportedly hit his victim, bound him with duct tape and threw him into the trunk of a car. He then beat and assaulted the elderly man multiple times before twisting his neck, and fleeing to Mexico.
There he killed an American and was sentenced to 20 years, before being extradited back to New York state in 2007.
Before killing Rickerson, he served time for rape and stabbing a nurse.
Although no one had previously escaped from the maximum security portion of the prison at Dannemora, it is Matt's second jail break.
In 1986, he spent four days on the run from Erie County Jail, where he was serving time for assault.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22 years old.
He and two accomplices were sharing out a cache of stolen weapons, when the deputy approached them. Sweat and an accomplice shot him multiple times and reportedly drove over him with a car.
As a teenager, Sweat was also charged with attempted second-degree burglary and burglary in two separate incidents.
AFP
