Clinton Sheriff says 'Shawshank' escapees would've murdered Joyce Mitchell

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EXCLUSIVE: 'She would have been killed within a week.' Clinton County Sheriff says that the 'Shawshank' escapees would have murdered 'lover' Joyce Mitchell, who is now on SUICIDE watch in prison
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Clinton County Sheriff David Favro told DailyMail.com that the former prison worker's life 'was in danger absolutely'
Referring to David Sweat and Richard Matt, he said: 'They abused her both physically and emotionally'
Mitchell is segregated and under 24-hour watch by prison guards
Officers are monitoring her for any 'distress or physical issues'
It has also been revealed that the convicts may have worked out in the prison gym to reduce their body size
They crawled through a 24-inch diameter steam pipe to freedom on June 6

By Shekhar Bhatia In Plattsburgh, New York For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:08 EST, 16 June 2015 | Updated: 18:02 EST, 16 June 2015

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On-the-run killers David Sweat and Richard Matt would have murdered prison employee Joyce Mitchell within a week of their escape, a top law enforcement official believes.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said: 'Her life was in danger absolutely.

'These two inmates would have asked, "Would she phone her husband, would she phone her son?" They would probably have killed her within a week.

'They abused her both physically and emotionally and used her. They had got what they had set out for from her.

'Would they have existed as a three? I don't think so. They had set out a plan and I don't think it would have involved her for long had she gone along with it.'

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Joyce Mitchell, pictured at a court hearing on Monday, was abused both physically and emotionally by the two 'Shawshank' escapees, according to Clinton County Sheriff David Favro

On-the-run killers David Sweat (left) and Richard Matt would have murdered Joyce Mitchell within a week of their escape, a top law enforcement official believes. The pair escaped 11 days ago

Sheriff David Favro, speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, thinks Mitchell is safer in jail than on the outside

The experienced detective, speaking at the jail cells at Plattsburg where 51-year-old Mitchell is being detained, added: 'She would have been seen as a sign of weakness.

'She assisted them in escaping prison but she has escaped with her life. She should consider herself very fortunate. She truly is better off in a cell at this prison with everything going on. It is the best thing for her.'

Sweat and Matt allegedly lured Mitchell into having sex with them and won her over emotionally, then they convinced her to help them flee the Clinton Correctional Facility and go with them.

But their plan would have been to murder the grandmother and dispose of her body to prevent her from leading cops to them, according to senior officers.

They have told DailyMail.com that she would have been seen as 'a liability and baggage' and the ruthless convicts would have thought nothing of killing her to protect themselves.

Mitchell is currently segregated and under 24-hour watch by prison guards, with officers assigned to watch her closely for any 'distress or physical issues'.

Sources describe her as a 'wreck' - and fear she could harm herself.

She was arrested after reportedly getting cold feet on the day of the escape and checking herself into hospital in the realization that her life was at risk at the hands of the cold-blooded killers.

It has been alleged that Sweat and Matt first persuaded the prison seamstress to help them in October 2013 - and the escape plan was worked on until the day they broke out on June 6.

An intricate blueprint was formulated by the convicts and Mitchell is said to have been sworn to secrecy - although she was only given sketchy details of the escape plan - and was asked to bring in basic tools, including protective eyewear and speed bag gloves.

Joyce Mitchell appears in court wearing a bulletproof vest

Mitchell, seen in prison garb on Monday, is segregated and under 24-hour watch by prison guards. Officers have been assigned to watch her for any 'distress or physical issues'

More arrests are set to follow with every person who came into contact with them inside the prison at Dannemora to be questioned.

Detectives are investigating which books the inmates looked at in the prison library and whether they worked out in the gym to lose weight and reduce their body sizes so that they could crawl through a 24-inch diameter steam pipe to freedom.

Police have also not been able to rule out the possibility that the escapees used the internet to research the layout of the 170-year-old prison's underground piping system and that they had maps and drawings.

Prison officials, contractors, kitchen staff and other inmates are being quizzed for clues in an investigation which is focusing on who may have helped in the background.

Mitchell, who has been charged in connection with the escape, is said to have had sexual relations with both men - and wanted them to kill her husband Lyle once they had fled the prison. He has been interviewed as a witness.

But it is believed the two men falsely promised to kill the unsuspecting husband who also worked at the prison, and they would have instead regarded her as expendable.

The Sheriff, whose team is working alongside the FBI and police to capture the escapees said he believed the men had probably fled the area around the prison where a huge search costing $1million-a-day is ongoing.

He added: 'There hasn't been a lot of concrete or specific evidence.

Mitchell is accused of bringing in tools like hatchet saws for the two men

'Sometimes you get people who are careless or complacent and they will break into a home using force. They will steal a car, they will use violence right to the extreme of murdering people.

'These two have not engaged in that activity yet that has been reported or that we can find.

'They are not leaving a criminal trail for us to be able to trace.

'If they are still in the area and the wooded portions of the community, they are being very, very patient and low key.

'Inmate Matt is experienced in this. He had an attempt to escape that was foiled very early and he learnt from that.

'He had an escape back in the eighties where he escaped from Erie County state facility and was on the run for five days.

'He laid low, but learned from that. Now he has had several years in prison to be able to figure out how he could perfect it.

'He was sitting there every single day in jail researching this and coming up with a plan and what he was going to do afterwards as to where he was going to go and how to survive.'

The top lawman said the fugitives would have had access to powerful grinders to cut through the walls of their adjacent cells and into the steam pipe.

'They should not have had access to power tools. But there is always construction going on in the prison. They have done wall re-surfacing, ventilation, piping and foundation work. 'Several years ago we had an $11million hospital facility built inside the prison. There is always construction and contractors up there.

'There is always that jack-hammering, cutting and sawing noise throughout different areas within the prison.

'There is a lot of in-depth security checks when the contractors come in. There is a tool inventory and they go through those things constantly. But it would not be difficult and certainly not impossible for tools to go missing and they may not have immediate knowledge of that.

'I saw the pipe and the cell that was cut. I do an awful work on my own. I have owned several homes and I do a lot of construction work. There is no way they cut those with a couple of saw blades or a grinding wheel.

'It would have taken multiple grinding wheels and probably a couple of grinders would have got burned up.

'To cut it so straight and so accurately, these were very, very clean . I am thinking that there were other tools that we haven't quite discovered yet as well as possibly some help.'

Mitchell is accused of bringing in elementary tools like hatchet saws for the two men and concealing them.

Law enforecement are still focusing the search on the area around the prison - 11 days after the men fled Around 800 officers continued the search around Plattsburgh and its rambling woodlands Tuesday

The probe is looking at how more powerful tools came into the jail breaker's hands and who may have help provide them.

The grinders would have been used late at night and in the early hours in the few weeks before the escape and questions are being asked about how noise from the cutting equipment went unnoticed.

Both men left items in their beds to fool guards into thinking they were asleep and after cutting through their walls, dropped onto a catwalk and cut their way into the steam pipe.

Sheriff Favro, 54, who has been elected as the area's top law enforcement officer for four terms, added: 'We have to interview every single person we can. I don't think anybody could be ruled out. There would have to have been others because of the elaborate plan.

'They did not put together such an elaborate plan and not havie a congruent plan which would match the escape itself once they had got out there.

'It is not as if they popped up the lid and said ' wow, this is beautiful, where are we going to go.'

'They had to know and they had to have a back up system in place to help them get to where they wanted to go.'

Even senior prison officials did not have access to the underground waterworks system and the flow of steam generated from a heating plant, 500ft south of the manhole where the men emerged to freedom.

The Sheriff added: 'There is an immense amount of detail that they had to receive to know exactly where the pipe was and to know which pipe it was.

'There is steam for heating which is triggered off at 35 degrees. So they had to make sure they were on a night when it didn't hit 35 degrees, which up here is very unpredictable.

'It was 46 degrees last night and we are in the middle of June. So they had to be very careful that on that night that they went, that steam wasn't coming out.

'They couldn't have cut it too far in advance because of the fact that they would have had issues with steam coming out of the cut area which would have been detected.

'They had to have some knowledge of how the system worked; what pipe to cut and where the pipe was because once they got into the chase way down below it is just a brick tunnel.

'There are no signs saying 'steam pipe this way and six feet away'.

Mitchell, seen here with her son Tobey and husband Lyle, was visited by her spouse Tuesday, even though he is reportedly being investigated as an escape accomplice

'They had to know where that pipe was, then get the brick out from that area and get to the pipe. They had to have that kind of detailed information.

'There are really only two sources. People that work there and know it or contractors who work there and are familiar with it. Those are the only two sources that there really could be.

'There is no way that this was a shot in the dark and a lucky guess. That is definitely not the case, so they had to have blue prints, schematics, and some assistance to be able to get to the point where they got.'

Senior prison officials did not have possession of full scale underground plans and none were available on the web.

' My under sheriff is a 30-year veteran as a correction officer up there and he said he has never seen some of those caverns or schematics of the lay out of the piping.

'I would have to say that prison officials would safeguard that information and share it with contractors. But probably in a fragmented fashion like in small sections that were being worked on.'

He said contractors would have been told only the section they were working on and not where it led to.

'Most people would not know where to get these schematics and there hasn't been a lot of work carried out there over the years.

Water lines and steam lines. Heating is generated by steam and comes from a power plant, 500 ft south of where the walls are, near the manhole.

'They knew once they got in that direction, they would make it somewhere.'

Around 800 officers, some with blood hounds and supported by police helicopters, were continuing their search around Plattsburgh and its rambling woodlands today.