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Items recovered from NY cabin as police seek escaped killers

Corrections officers stop a vehicle as the search for two escaped prisoners from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora continues Monday, June 22, 2015, in Owls Head, N.Y. Searchers on Monday swarmed the heavily wooded area about 20 miles west of the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Corrections officers stop a vehicle as the search for two escaped prisoners from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora continues Monday, June 22, 2015, in Owls Head, N.Y. Searchers on Monday swarmed the heavily wooded area about 20 miles west of the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) Corrections officers stop a vehicle as the search for two escaped prisoners from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora continues Monday, June 22, 2015, in Owls Head, N.Y. Searchers on Monday swarmed the heavily wooded area about 20 miles west of the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

By Associated Press 4 min read

BELLMONT, N.Y. (AP) – Items recovered from a remote hunting cabin have been sent to labs for DNA testing to determine if they are linked to a pair of convicted killers who escaped from a nearby prison more than two weeks ago, authorities said as searchers converged on a wooded area in the hamlet in far northern New York.

State Police Maj. Charles Guess on Monday characterized the latest search effort – one of many over the past 17 days – as a confirmed lead. He said at a news conference that authorities had “specific items” from the Adirondack cabin about 20 miles west of the prison where inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped on June 6.

Guess would not elaborate on the items, but said they were sent to labs for DNA and other testing.

Acting Franklin County District Attorney Glenn MacNeill told WPTZ-TV on Sunday that a hunter had reported seeing a person fleeing from a camp in the area.

Terry Bellinger, owner of nearby Belly’s Mountain View Inn, said the hunter told him he saw a man run into the woods as he approached the camp Saturday on an ATV. When the hunter went into the cabin, he noticed two things out of place: a jug of water and an open jar of peanut butter on a table. Bellinger said the hunter went to his restaurant, where he talked to police for several hours.