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"Credible Sighting" of Two Most Wanted Fugitives. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired June 20, 2015 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[19:00:09] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Seven o'clock Eastern, I'm Poppy Harlow. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin this evening with breaking news. A possible major breakthrough in the intense two-week manhunt for two murderers who broke out of a maximum security prison two weeks ago. There is a huge, huge spike in southwestern New York states, specifically in Allegheny County, right near the town of Friendship.

Police are converging on what they call a credible sighting, a credible tip that two men fitting the descriptions of Richard Matt and David Sweat were seen or near the town of Friendship.

All reporters, all none police personnel are being told to leave the perimeter, to leave the perimeter, because the police call it a, quote, "hot spot".

Matt and Sweat are both convicted murderers, considered to be very, very dangerous and desperate. Hundreds of police officers are manning road blocks and checking inside every vehicle that tries to drive in and out of this area.

Friendship, New York, to give you some context here, look at the map. Friendship, New York, is about 300 miles from the prison in Dannemora, New York, where the two convicted murderers escaped back on June 6th.

And just into CNN, we have a press release. It reads, "The New York state police investigating a possible sighting of two men in Allegheny County who may fit the description of Clinton correctional facility escapees, David Sweat and Richard Matt."

It goes on to read, "On the afternoon of June 20th, a witness spotted two men along the railroad line that runs along Route 20 in the town of Friendship. State police, U.S. marshals and officers from the Department of Environmental Conservation, state parks police, Allegheny County sheriff's department, and other law enforcement are currently searching along an area on I-86 and Route 20 in the town of Friendship."

It goes on to say that aviation, K-9 and special operations teams are assisting in the search. While this is an unconfirmed sighting, the statement reads, the state police is asking residents who live along this area on the New York/Pennsylvania border to be on alert. If these men are spotted please call 911 immediately, do not approach as both are considered to be very dangerous. Media in this area are asked to stage outside of SP Amity, that is located at 5591 State Route 19 in Belmont, New York.

So, they're basically saying that the media has to move out of that area to a safe position as they create a parameter.

If any one has any other information regarding the escapees, please call 1-800-GIVE-TIP. Again, for our viewers, we'll put that up on the screen, that is 1-800-GIVE-TIP, if you have any, any tips.

New York state is offering a reward of $50,000, this press release goes on to say, for information leading to the capture of either suspect.

This goes on to read: The U.S. Marshal Service has placed Sweat and Matt on their 15 most wanted fugitives list, as you know.

Let's go straight to Sara Ganim. She joins us now outside of the Clinton correctional facility in Dannemora, New York.

Sara, what can you tell us?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People on the ground, Poppy, are telling us that town of Friendship is essentially shut down by the search, a very active search, helicopters in the air and K-9 units on the ground. Police swarming it, checkpoints set up along that highway and all throughout town.

One resident there telling me this is a very rural area surrounded by forests. He told me that there is a one-traffic light town essentially, and no one is being allowed in or out, without going through a checkpoint, without going through a car search that one of his friends tried to come in town and police checked their driver's license to make sure that they actually live there.

Another man, who is -- Eddie Gold (ph), a cemetery caretaker, who is very close to the concentrated area where the search is actually happening, where the grid searches are taking place, he told me that he is scared, that he is sitting there with his rifle watching this unfold, hoping that it ends soon.

Now, of course, this is an unconfirmed sighting, but there are several things to take note of here. Last week, police in a neighboring county received tips that there are unconfirmed sightings that there were two men matching the description of the two escapees who were walking along railroad tracks about 80 miles east of there.

Now, state police who have been on this investigation from the start, leading this investigation, didn't receive that tip until Tuesday, and it wasn't until yesterday that they were able to find surveillance video from a business. This was just hours after the search here near the prison essentially went cold.

[19:05:01] They got this tip, they went and looked at the video. They could not confirm it. It wasn't high quality enough. They sent it to the state police crime lab for further analysis and enhancement.

And then, just hours later, this afternoon, residents telling me around 4:00, police converged on Friendship with another similar sighting, although still unconfirmed, where they are now concentrated, hoping that this may end the two-week long search -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Sara Ganim, thank you for that. Stay with us as we bring in CNN national correspondent Deborah Feyerick who joins me on the phone. She's been working her sources.

And, Deb, I just want to caution here, because I think people can get very excited when they hear this news, but this could very easily not be them.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, you are absolutely right, Poppy. As a matter of fact, you know, there have been multiple times in the last two weeks since they escaped that there have been tips and leads and alleged sightings and people clearly want these guys to be caught.

But, unfortunately, it has turned out the tips are false sightings or just incorrect, so authorities right now, though, they are investigating that area along the railroad tracks in friendship, New York, and a law enforcement source told us earlier it appeared to be a credible sighting. Investigators did find the tracks near Friendship, New York, and so, right now what's going on, as Sara said, you've got heavily armed state and local police officers along the federal agents and U.S. marshals, walking along the railroad tracks, saturating the area as heavily as they possibly can.

But again, we have been cautioning for the last couple weeks, that these guys may be laying low, that they are hunkering down. Richard Matt is a clever man and he escaped from prison and tried to escape from the Mexican prison as well and he knows how to avoid capture now because he learned from his mistakes. This is what all the authorities are telling us.

And so, while these sightings are coming in and they are being called credible and possible, and all of those things, you've got to be very, very careful because right now as long as they lay low and they don't make a mistake, they will remain hidden.

Once they surface, once they make themselves vulnerable, mistakes may come more easily, and that's clearly one saying, if history is any guide, that Richard Matt is going to avoid that at all costs, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely.

Deb, let me ask you this because it's your law enforcement source, that -- you broke the news that they had this credible sighting. Tom Fuentes was saying to us earlier, look, if they're going to take a credible sighting, they probably met in person with whomever called the tip and verify this as much as they possibly can.

What more can you tell us about why they classify this as credible?

FEYERICK: Well, because, you know, one of the reasons simply is because I guess it seemed I guess credible for lack of a better word. It seemed that they had information and whatever the person saw, the descriptions matched the two men that are at large right now, and so, they have got to chase it down.

Again, as you remember, a couple weeks ago, two weeks ago, there was a report from a cab driver who said he dropped two men fitting their description at a train station in Philadelphia. So, again, they are doing everything they possibly can, and when we look at the investigation right now, and you see these searches that are going on, and these are so labor-intensive, and you've got rotate men in and out, men and women in and out all the time to do these searches, and you have to consider that investigators are also investigation that we're seeing, investigating prison records, they're seeing what visitors came, what calls were made in and out of the prison.

They are trying to determine whether Richard Matt or David Sweat, they've accessed another prisoner's code to make calls that (INAUDIBLE). But they are going to the library, the prison library, and they're looking at books that may have checked out, or computer searches that may have done.

So, this is very intensive, and every U.S. marshal you speak to will say, look, this is a marathon, this is not a sprint, you've got to do the most thorough investigation possible, but again, the men that are out there, they want to find these guys really badly and they are going to go into hot pursuit of tips that appear to be at the top of the level.

HARLOW: All right. Deborah Feyerick, fantastic reporting. Deborah, thank you.

Sarah Ganim, thank you as well.

We're going to take a quick break, and on the other side, I'm going to talk about this with Tom Fuentes, former FBI, Matthew Horace, former ATF, and also John Cuff, former head of the Northeast fugitive investigations division. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:13:38] HARLOW: Welcome back. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. We're continuing to follow the breaking news on this intensive manhunt for two convicted murderers who escaped from a maximum security prison two weeks ago.

The focus right now is squarely on a tiny town of Friendship. Friendship, New York, right now, on the state line between New York and Pennsylvania. It is about 350 miles south of where the main search had been going on, right around the Clinton correctional facility.

I want to bring in my law enforcement experts here.

First, to you, John Cuff, former head of investigations division of the U.S. Marshal Service. You served for 31 years with the U.S. Marshals.

You make it an important point, that is, of course, people get excited when there is a, quote-unquote, "credible threat", but we have to be very careful here.

JOHN CUFF, FORMER U.S. MARSHAL SERVICE HEAD (via telephone): Good evening, Poppy. How are you?

HARLOW: Good. Thank you, sir.

And, John, I was just saying the importance of differentiating between a credible threat and unsubstantiated threat. How much credence you give there?

CUFF: Yes, exactly. I mean, having done many of these manhunts over the years, you always get numerous sightings and tips. And the first on this particular case that's been reported, it's about 1,500 tips or so that came in so far. So, you threat each of them with the equal level of attention.

And this issue of credible versus, you know, unconfirmed and so on, and credible can be -- I mean, the tipster is giving you what they believe credible information, which is -- which is a testament to the media and heightened level of public awareness.

[19:15:12] And it's great those tips keep coming in. However, on the immediate response of law enforcement, the first thing they need to determine is how credible is this and so on. So, they will do an immediate canvas to try and corroborate, maybe come up with any video or any other people in the community that might have seen the same thing, and then they will make a determination one way or the other on the credibility, and that's why the word unconfirmed, unconfirmed, meaning you can't really confirm it.

So, you're still going to treat it, though, until you can prove otherwise. You are going to do your canvassing. You're going to do your routine law enforcement functions that you would do in terms of searching and so on.

So, any assets and so on that are on the ground to include dogs, aviation, the parameter searches and so on, they're going to continue to do that until they prove or disprove the tip as the best they can.

HARLOW: Right, right.

CUFF: OK. Now, one thing to keep in mind, too, parallel to this and in the background you have the future investigation going as well, OK? So leads are going to be developed out of that as well, but it's so important the public keeps up this calling with sightings and let law enforcement determine the credibility of it.

HARLOW: Right. Right. Thank you very much. Stay with me, John Cuff, if you would.

Let me bring in Rick Schwein, former FBI special agent. He led the manhunt for Eric Rudolph, the Centennial Park bomber back in 1996.

Rick, when you look at this, Sara Ganim made a very good point, who's on the ground there, that a big thunderstorm expected tonight in Friendship, New York, and a big thunderstorm last week is what really, really delayed the search around the prison because the scent trails, et cetera, essentially washed away. How much harder does that make this search?

RICHARD D. SCHWEIN JR., FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, if you're using dogs, it makes it hard for the short term and the dogs can reacquire the scent several hours after the storm passes, depending on how quickly the ground dries. But it also makes the two fugitives extremely miserable and uncomfortable until they are under cover, can also force them into cover which can contain their activities and provide law enforcement maybe a bit of tactical advantage.

HARLOW: Very good. On both ends, it makes it tougher. Let's hope it makes it tougher for those convicted murderers than for all the person search for them. Stay with me, Rick.

To you Tom Fuentes and Matthew Horace, what's the hardest part about it? Is it getting the manpower there quickly enough?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think that's part of it, Poppy, to get the parameter established before dark, to get all of the assets that we talked about there, the dogs, the helicopters, the search teams, special operations teams, and to get the enthusiasm back up. These guys were out, you know, night after night, in horrible, miserable weather up in the Dannemora area those several nights, and now, they are going to start all over again, give up another weekend, give up, you know, being with their families, and all of that, to come back out, and you're trying to get them, just as you know, excited again, that it's not a false lead.

And as John Cuff mentioned, you really don't know until you exhaust all the investigation. And if you don't find, I guess maybe it wasn't a good lead, or maybe they were and got away. In some of these cases, you just don't know what happened. You just don't find them.

HARLOW: Nightfall comes at 8:53 p.m. Eastern Time, and that is not but an hour and a half from now, Matthew. What does that do to change the search?

MATTHEW HORACE, FORMER ATF AGENT: Well, it's going to be limited to some extent, but as Tom eluded to earlier, we have technology now that we can use overnight, and if it does rain we will re-engage that in the morning to try to determine if they are in that area.

But we're also be doing planning, about what happens at dawn, when the sun comes back up.

HARLOW: What is that technology they are using at nightfall?

HORACE: Well, you're talking about infrared techniques that they could use to identify --

HARLOW: These planes, right?

HORACE: Exactly, with planes and helicopters, weather might impeded the ability to use that stuff. But you best believe now that we are on the ground there, the planners and everybody involved will be planning what happens at daybreak and how we approach this thing on Sunday morning.

HARLOW: Rick, to you, how long -- I mean, when you talk about somebody like Eric Rudolph, who was able to live, the Centennial Park bomber, for five years out in the wilderness, someone who was very prepared for this. It's very different for these two escapees, but would you expect them to hunker down if they are in this area, this parameter being formed, do they hunker down? How long are they able to survive like that?

SCHWEIN: Yes, they are going to have to hunker down for the short term because now there is an intensive law enforcement interests in the geographic area.

[19:20:04] So, if they're out moving around, they're going to expose themselves. But, yes, there are three phases of this, right? They successfully escaped, that's phase one, and showed some imagination their ability to escape from a prison that nobody had escaped from in over 100 years.

Phase two, they've got to evade. And really, this is early in the evasion phase. It's two weeks. People can live for two weeks by their wits. Eventually, they're going to have to reach out for the social network and get help. They're going to have to rely on somebody, they're going to have to trust somebody, either somebody they know or perhaps even a perfect stranger.

And then, the third phase, they have to simulate back into society. Very few prison escapees, very, very few in our history have ever done that, been able to escape and been able to evade, and then assimilate back into society and live a normal life.

These two guys are not the kind of people that can assimilate back into our society. They hardened criminals and they belong back behind bars.

HARLOW: All right. Rick Schwein, John Cuff, Tom Fuentes, Matthew Horace, thank you. Stay with me. We've got to get a break in here.

Much more of the breaking news on this intensified manhunt for those two convicted murderers, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: We continue to follow the breaking news here on CNN. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

Police in a search for two convicted murderers who escape from prison two weeks ago today.

[19:25:03] New York state offering a reward of $50,000 for information that leads to the capture of either suspect, Richard Matt or David Sweat. A total of $100,000 is being offered for both. The U.S. Marshal Service also placing Sweat and Matt on their 15 most wanted fugitives list. They are also offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to either man being captured. If anyone has any information regarding their escape, or their

whereabouts, please call 1-800-GIVETIP. Again, that number at the bottom of your screen there, 1-800-GIVETIP.

This as daylight is running out, the sun setting at 8:53 p.m. tonight, about an hour and a half from now.

On the phone with me, Casey Jordan, criminologist, behavioral analyst, and attorney.

Casey Jordan, we've been talking through the weeks since they've escaped about their mentality, their state of mind as prisoners who have escaped maximum security prison. They have been on the lam now for two weeks.

What's going through their minds?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST/BEHAVIORAL ANALYST (via telephone): Well, you're still going to have a lot of desperation, but, you know, when you're talking about almost two weeks later, the adrenaline has calmed down and they are thinking clearly and strategically, and they are also a little bit or maybe a lot elated because they are getting away with it. So, this is going to make them bolder and hopefully a little less careful, which might explain these sightings, if indeed it is them.

HARLOW: Also, if you think about people that were so cunning, so convincing, that they were able to convince allegedly Joyce Mitchell, the prison seamstress, to help them, to risk her own life and her freedom to help, what does that tell us about what they could do on a run?

JORDAN: Well, these guys are the most master manipulators. They really are con artist to the extreme. And it means they are going to probably start using this strategy of talking people into thinking they are someone they are not, if they run into somebody.

I don't think they are confronted. Let's say they are trying to steal clothes off a clothesline or shoplift at a store, and somebody confronts about their crime, they're going to try to talk their way out of it as a first resort, and then, of course, if things go south, they will not hesitate to use violence if they need to.

HARLOW: Very good point. That's why police are warning these are dangerous men. Stay away. If you see them, call 911. Do not do not approach them.

Casey Jordan, thank you very much. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:31:09] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news in upstate New York with a little more than an hour until sunset. Police are intensifying their search for two escaped murderers. Sources telling CNN there was what police are calling a credible sighting near the town of Friendship, that is in New York state, just north of Pennsylvania state line.

We should note state police say this sighting is, quote, "unconfirmed." Again unconfirmed but they believe a credible tip as to where these two convicts may be. Heavily armed police carrying shotguns, long rifles and other firearms, now walking along local railroad tracks. This is all based on a call from a tipster.

The area is located in Allegany County, New York, That's about 350 to 400 miles south of the Clinton Correctional Facility where Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out two weeks ago. Today's search following two possible sightings last weekend.

Let's go straight to Sara Ganim who has new information. She is on the ground right outside of the prison.

Sara, what have you learned?

SARA GANIM, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, yes, we're just learning the kinds of leads the police are following up on the ground there in Friendship, New York. Just a little while ago, scanner traffic via Broadcastify.com we heard that a four-door sedan with Pennsylvania plate blasting at 5:50 p.m. going southbound on I- 390 probably near a rest area near Exit 7, occupants being described as female driver, dark hair and a female passenger with dark hair with -- this is the key part right here.

Two males reported to match the description of the escaped prisoners, David Sweat and Richard Matt. One male wearing a hooded black T-shirt with tattoos on his arm. The second male described as wearing a medium colored shirt without pants and multi-colored socks with subject destination may be PA. That was from scanner traffic. Emergency response teams on the scanner heard via Broadcastify.com about a little more than an hour ago.

Poppy, now I want to give you some context. Scanner traffic not always reliable. Sometimes a lot of calls come in, flood emergency response when something like this is happening in a town like this where people know the police are converged on an area are searching heavily and start to call in, you know, everything they see that might seem out of the ordinary. We know that there has been an active search since the late afternoon hours in this small town, one traffic late town, very rural area, very intense search near a railway, near a creek, near a highway that runs through the town.

We know from witnesses, residents there on the ground that the town is essentially in lockdown, that no one is getting in or out without a car check, without showing their driver's license. One man who is there says a chopper has been hovering overhead near a creek, specifically.

And I mentioned the railroad because we know that all of this information comes just about 24 hours after state police here near the prison announced that their leads had essentially gone cold.

HARLOW: Right. GANIM: Then we learned overnight that they had a lead from last

weekend, in an area about 80 miles east of here. There were two unconfirmed reports of sightings of men walking along railroad tracks matching these two men's descriptions. And then we hear today about 80 miles west of there that there two more again unconfirmed sightings but leads that the police are clearly taking seriously based on the witnesses on the ground telling us how many police officers have converged on the area -- Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Sara Ganim, thank you very much.

So let's bring in our law enforcement experts to talk about this. Matthew Horace, former ATF is with me. Tom Fuentes, former FBI.

You heard what Sara just said, talking about what the scanner traffic picked up. I have that here as well so I'm just going to take a look at it, but they're saying that scanner traffic, again, you know how much credence do we give this but saying that they spotted two females in the front seat of a car and then two males that purportedly matched the description of the escaped prisoners sitting in the back.

Tom, how does this change the search?

[19:35:10] TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: And these two males in the backseat, they were able to see their socks? You know, that's kind of strange credibility to me. So I wouldn't put --

HARLOW: That strikes you?

FUENTES: That strikes me is that this might be a made-up broadcast by somebody to give that to the police to fool them. You know, because for them to have seen all of what they're wearing they would have had to have gotten out of that car and walked around. If they know they're being hunted in this intense manhunt, they're going to be walking around the car, maybe go on a rest area.

HARLOW: That's not going to happen.

FUENTES: Go in and get a hamburger. Go back to the (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Yes, it's a great point.

FUENTES: Just sounds -- it sounds phony to me.

HARLOW: Matthew Horace, are you concerned about the fact that when you talk about this new search area, it is so far away from the previous search area? Are we talking about new teams of people that would be sort of mobilized down here and therefore have to go through the ropes, learn the ropes again?

MATTHEW HORACE, FORMER ATF AGENT: Sure, as we were talking about during the break, if we bring in people that were totally uninvolved with the last process they'll need to be brought in and engaged early in morning and given all the information that everyone had up at upstate New York. It's been done before for major events and major investigations. It can be done again, but it is something you have to go through because they are not privy to everything that happened during the last 14 years.

And this is a good distance. It's 350 miles away. There's a lot of real estate up there on that Pennsylvania and New York border.

HARLOW: Rick Schwein, if you're still with me, former FBI special agent, what do you make of this scanner traffic that Sara just reported about?

RICHARD D. SCHWEIN JR., FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, I don't know that it's -- it would be -- it can't be characterized like the last tip which is a credible tip, a credible sighting. This one is not a credible sighting until it gets checked out. You know, certainly it's going to put law enforcement on alert and if they find that car they'll try and interview the occupants. But I wouldn't -- if I were running this fugitive investigation, I wouldn't let that shift my focus from the area where I had the credible sighting of the two fugitives.

HARLOW: What would -- what would the number one priority be right now for these new teams, as Matthew Horace was saying, a lot of these new teams are going to have to get back, sort of up to speed, if you will. They haven't -- some of them won't have been on this hunt for the last two weeks. What is the number one thing that you tell them leading a search like this right now?

SCHWEIN: So you've got to give them complete situational awareness. You've got to let everybody that's flowing into the area know what's going on and where are the parameter is established, and you've got to de-conflict with many different law enforcement organizations that are converging on this point on the ground. And you've also got to rely on the local expertise. You know, the local police and -- you know, one of the things I heard in the news release from the New York authorities is that they have park police.

We used U.S. Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the North Carolina State Park Police extensively in the Rudolph case because they had advanced man tracking skills, so trying to leverage those capabilities may give you that tactical advantage that allows these guys to be captured hopefully before sundown but certainly in the near future.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes?

FUENTES: Yes. One of the things that comes up that makes these cases very difficult, we experience those in all kinds of operations, radio communications, you're bringing in all these different counties, maybe bringing in authorities from Pennsylvania, police districts coming from a variety of areas, and one of the big problems we always had in this type of operation which is just radio traffic, being able to communicate with everybody, being able to get the information in to the command post. And they have to establish a new command post now down there.

But to get the leads in, the information in, the leads put out, and just talk to each, it's very difficult to get everybody on the same page. HARLOW: Absolutely. The complexity of leading something as big as

this.

Thanks, guys, very much. Appreciate all of you.

We're going to take a quick break. When we're back I'm going to talk to a local reporter on the ground who has new information about this search. He's really in the midst of it. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:42:50] HARLOW: All right. Updating you now on our breaking news. The search for two escaped killers who have been on the lam for two weeks, it has significantly intensified, folksing on a very small town, the town of Friendship, New York, right on the border with Pennsylvania.

Joining me now, John Anderson, regional editor for the "Wellsville Daily Reporter."

John, you are in Allegany County. That is where Friendship is. You're really in the middle of the search, right by the command post there. What are you seeing?

JOHN ANDERSON, WELLSVILLE DAILY REPORTER: Well, at first it looked like they were calling the search off a little bit, maybe backing off because a lot of the top investigators with the local state police barracks came back to the station. However I think they were just getting a short break and then a bunch of them went right back to the command center in Friendship.

I was able to talk to one of the troopers before he left and he said they are still very convinced that that was a creditable sighting at 1:30, and that's kind of what has them still looking and not giving up hope in the Friendship area.

I think the big concern out there, two suspects were spotted at 1:30, and this -- what you saw on TV, all of the -- you know, the troopers and the different police agencies all working together, that didn't all happen in two seconds. So these two may have had time to get away, get in a car, you know, head south towards Pennsylvania, or head north towards Buffalo.

HARLOW: What can you tell us about the public there, the public safety? Right? The police are saying stay away from these guys. If you even think you see them, they're incredibly desperate, they're incredibly dangerous. How do people in this community feel?

ANDERSON: That's been the number one thing the troopers are telling us on the record. There's quite a gathering of media and that's just the main thing they're trying to get out is, you know, please -- they're concerned about public safety. There is a reward, you know, a large reward, people are talking about this. $100,000 just leading the tip to catch them, this isn't leading to the arrest and conviction. This is just if you happen to see them. $100,000, that's a lot of money, I don't care where you live. So

that's why they're preaching public safety. They're concerned about all the traffic that's been going into Friendship and people looking around.

[19:45:12] HARLOW: All right. John Anderson, local reporter on the ground there for us on the scene.

John, thank you. I appreciate that reporting.

Let's talk a little bit more about it with our law enforcement experts.

To you, Tom Fuentes. The weather, the weather tonight, it is supposed to thunderstorm. That really hampered, slowed down the search around the prison. What does that do to this?

FUENTES: Same thing. It slows down the officers that are out there. And I don't -- I wouldn't expect them to be doing any search in the wooded area. I think the main concentration now would be to get that parameter up and established and hope that they didn't get out of it as John Anderson just mentioned. They've had a long time to have moved on since 1:30 this afternoon, so that will be the priority, is to get that parameter, get everybody set, and the planning that's going to go into the grid searches that they'll start doing in the morning, probably.

HARLOW: Rick Schwein, to you, why is it so hard to catch these guys? I know it sounds like a simple question, but never before have escaped prisoners in the history of this prison, been -- you know, been on the lam for, like, more than two days?

SCHWEIN: Well, that's a great question. You know, these guys obviously are extremely clever, and they have had some luck. But, see, that's what differentiates how this will end. They have to be lucky with every single decision that they make.

HARLOW: Right.

SCHWEIN: Every person that they trust, every decision about which way to go, what route to take. Law enforcement just has to have luck with them one time. And they'll be back behind bars. So I think ultimately this will have a good ending. Right now the -- as Tom said the perimeter has to be maintained. They've got to do -- go through their law enforcement planning steps in order to do a good grid search when they have light again in the morning, and hopefully they are still within that perimeter.

They've also got to have contingency plans for any leads that come in placing the two fugitives outside of the parameter and follow those up as quickly as possible.

HARLOW: Matthew, do you believe it's possible for the two of these men to have been on the lam for two weeks with no help on the outside? Because these aren't, you know, men of the woods who have all these survival skills, et cetera, like we saw in the Eric Rudolph case, the Centennial Park bomber. That's not these guys. These guys have been incarcerated for a long time. They didn't have the ability to stash things away. Could they have done this without help from the outside?

HORACE: Well, they could have, but if they did, it remains to be seen. But remember, they've got to come across people who had no access or very limited access to social media or a television, that didn't know. They could have asked for favors. They could have found food in some of those cabins or homes.

And I can't help but think, just like Rick said earlier, remember, if it rains tonight and the weather is bad and we're uncomfortable, they're uncomfortable. They have a 12-hour head start before anyone realized they were gone, we still don't know if the story that they gave, the main suspect, is a good story or a bad story, or otherwise, and the area where they're in right now is not inconsistent with an escape route. They're still on the Pennsylvania-New York border. And it might be plausible that they are in fact in that area.

HARLOW: So if they are, Tom, why would they go south and not north into Canada?

FUENTES: I think they may have just had what they thought was a better opportunity for support from either other friends or family or people they made arrangements with in the United States. Without going into another country. Because, you know, the Canadians are just as intense in their search abilities to try to look for them and they would be just as cooperative with U.S. law enforcement.

HARLOW: And then you would have to cross the border.

FUENTES: Yes. Well, if they're walking through the woods, there's many ways to walk into Canada that won't, you know, put them at a border checkpoint. But then once they're in the country, it's still going to be hard to make phone calls back to the U.S. to get the kind of support that they're eventually going to need.

And again, you know, it was possible that when they are spotted in prison with phones, you can go to the grocery store and buy a phone that's not registered. Somebody could have done that for them. Even Joyce could have brought them phones.

HARLOW: Right. Right.

FUENTES: That would not registered to them. They could make phone calls that no one would be tracking.

HARLOW: Yes.

FUENTES: No one would have a clue who they called or where to look for the records of who they called. And so they could have had all kinds of arrangements in place before they ever left the prison.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, Matthew Horace, and Rick Schwein, thank you, gentlemen, very much. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with much more news in just a moment.

[19:49:26]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Happening now in South Carolina, you are looking at the -- at Charleston and the March for Black Lives. Let's pull that up so that you can see what we're talking right here. I believe we have video of it. All right. I don't think we do. But there is a march going on. There you go, in Charleston, South Carolina. That is going on alongside of another rally there in South Carolina today.

Meantime, a racist manifesto coming to light, purportedly written by the shooter, Dylann Roof, a very, very troubling document. CNN working to fully authenticate that he was indeed the author of it, but the statement is laden with racist remarks. It lays out why Charleston was the target for this horrific massacre.

Our Alina Machado is on the ground live in Charleston.

And, Alina, you know, it's incredibly troubling to read this, to hear what he purportedly had to say, at the same time there in Charleston you see this beautiful evidence of this community continually coming together.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy. There is no doubt that the focus here today and the focus here has been since the moment this incident happened has been on the victims, on healing, on unity, and that is what we have been seeing all day today here in front of the church where this horrific massacre happen. Now even though this manifesto surfaced online today, the talk here really hasn't been about the manifesto and what's in it, but about the victims and mourning and healing this community.

And I want to get to a part of the manifesto. As you would imagine, this is a very long, rambling manifesto. It's very disturbing. There are inflammatory statements made not just about blacks but about other minorities. And we're not going to be reporting on that but there are parts of the manifesto that if it comes out that in fact Dylann Roof is the author of this manifesto, these parts that we're addressing do shed some insight into what may have been the turning point for him and also why it is that he chose this city as his target.

[19:55:12] At the end of the manifesto the author writes, "I have no choice. I am not in the position to alone go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is the most historic city in my state. And at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to whites in the country. We had no skinheads, no real KKK. No one doing anything but talking on the Internet. Well, someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me."

Chilling words, Poppy, if in fact this was written by Roof.

HARLOW: Yes. And amazing, amazing to see the strength of the families of the victims, some of them saying in that bond hearing yesterday, you have broken my heart and I will never forget but I forgive you. It is remarkable strength.

Alina Machado, thank you for the reporting all evening on this. I appreciate it.

Before we go, I do want to get back to our breaking news and recap for you what we know in terms of this possible sighting of two men, two murderers who escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York two weeks ago. Police are now swarming an area near the small town of Friendship, New York, that is in Allegany County, right on the Pennsylvania state line.

In just the past few moments we have received emergency scanner traffic in that town that a car was spotted with two women in the front, two men in the back, men who the scanner traffic said fit the descriptions of Richard Matt and David Sweat. Down to their clothes and their tattoos. Matt and Sweat are the two convicted killers that you see right there on your screen. They're considered to be not only desperate but also extremely dangerous.

Hundreds of police officers are manning roadblocks, checking inside every house, every vehicle, everything that tries to get through there. They are forming a perimeter around an area they have deemed a hot spot. Friendship, New York, is about 300 miles from the prison where they escaped.

Let's go straight to Sara Ganim. She is on the ground in Dannemora, New York. She's right outside of the Clinton Correctional Facility.

What are we learning?

GANIM: Yes. Good evening, Poppy. You know, it was just 24 hours ago that police were saying that here their leads had gone cold, and now this news of a potential sighting, a very credible potential sighting in the area of Friendship, New York, just north of the border with Pennsylvania.

You know, you talk about how far away it is from where they were searching up until yesterday and I just want to give you some context of the rail lines, the freight train lines and the customer rail, a map that we looked at. It shows all the rail lines that go through upstate New York. It's very clear. There is a freight station that's just about 15 miles from the prison where they escaped two weeks ago.

It's a five-hour walk. I'm sorry, about a four and a half hour walk to the east. That rail line would take them clear down the east part -- eastern part of the state and lead them through Irwin, New York, which is where there was an unconfirmed but potential sighting last weekend, as it was just reported to state police midweek and just being followed up on today and then from there, there is a junction, could very easily have taken these men west through the Friendship area where police are now searching.

Now of course authorities on the ground are racing the sunset tonight because with the darkness and the challenges of that brings also -- come the potential for bad weather. Stormy weather in the forecast in Friendship, and that kind of stormy weather was what really set back authorities in the first few days of their search here in the Dannemora area when rain literally washed away the scent that was originally picked up by dogs, so authorities there racing the clock tonight going through this rural area.

HARLOW: Yes.

GANIM: A town with one traffic light that is essentially on lockdown tonight -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Sara, why do authorities give this tip? This tip, it was called in, reported to us by our Deborah Feyerick. Why are they giving this one so much credibility?

GANIM: There have been a lot of leads that have not led to a capture. This is the beginning of week three. So it's unclear why this one piques authorities' interests and made them essentially move their search from this area, 360 miles away to the Friendship area. It must have been a lead that was credible enough for them to take very seriously to inundate this small town.

HARLOW: Yes.

GANIM: With troopers, with law enforcement officers. We know from people on the ground that people are told to stay in their homes, home searches are happening, car searches are happening. We know that they are taking this very seriously, Poppy.

HARLOW: Sara Ganim, appreciate the excellent reporting from you all night, five hours live here with me on this breaking news. I appreciate it so much.

Sara Ganim, to our entire team, thank you. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Thank you for being with us tonight. We are going to keep a very close eye on this breaking news on that manhunt for these two convicted murderers here on CNN. As soon as we have any updates, we will of course bring them to you. Have a good night.