Two convicted murderers escape from New York max-security prison using power tools and tunneling;

leave 'have a nice day' note

In a sensational “Shawshank Redemption”-style prison break, a pair of cunning convicted murderers used power tools and tunnels to escape an upstate maximum-security penitentiary near the Canadian border.

A massive manhunt was underway Saturday after killers Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, were discovered missing from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, about 25 miles from Canada, officials said.

The inmates made their extraordinary dash to freedom after faking out guards with makeshift dummies made out of hooded sweatshirts to appear as if they were still sleeping inside their cells. And once officials discovered they were gone, they found a note from convicts telling them to "Have a nice day!"

“It was an elaborate plot,” Gov. Cuomo said after joining law enforcement authorities inside the prison, retracing the prisoners’ route.

“These are dangerous people,” he said. “They are nothing to be trifled with.”

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/convicted-killers-escape-n-y-prison-article-1.2248902


The escaped inmates left prison officials a note saying "Have a nice day!" on one of the steel pipes they apparently used to exit Clinton Correctional Facility, officials say.