Related: New York prison break - how two murderers escaped  A prison worker who was due to appear in court on Thursday afternoon, accused in connection with the escape of two convicted murderers almost three weeks ago in a remote northern part of New York state, will now be arraigned on Monday.  The news came as more details emerged about how the inmates fled from a hunting cabin where they were hiding.  The uniformed prison guard, Gene Palmer, 57, was arrested on Wednesday evening and briefly appeared in local court close to the prison in Dannemora, New York, where the audacious prison breakout was staged on 6 June.  Authorities believe Palmer was given a block of frozen meat by civilian colleague Joyce Mitchell, who is already in custody, which contained a hacksaw blade to take to the two inmates. They also believe he gave the inmates access to a narrow steel “catwalk” behind the cells to do some repairs – they eventually broke out that way.  The inmates, Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, have been on the run for 20 days since escaping from Clinton correctional facility.  Law enforcement were hopeful on Thursday that the two were still within a 75 sq mile perimeter formed by personnel and vehicles in the region around a cabin in a remote area called Owls Head, where DNA from both was found at the weekend.  “The brush and woods are so thick and it’s such a huge area to cover, but they still believe they are within that perimeter,” a law enforcement source familiar with the manhunt told the Guardian.  The police admit that they have not had a confirmed sighting of the men and they could be anywhere. But they are encouraged by the credible report that one of the inmates was seen fleeing the cabin in Owls Head last Saturday, about 30 miles west of the prison.  The cabin is part of a rural hunting camp that is co-owned by five local men, four of whom, ironically, are prison guards in a region scattered with state-controlled correctional facilities.  One of them, John Stockwell, 47, a guard from the Dannemora area who does not work at Clinton, turned up at the cabin last Saturday and disturbed at least one of the fugitives, a law enforcement source told the Guardian. The cabin is so remote it can only be reached by hiking or by all-terrain vehicle (ATV).  “The owner drove his ATV in there and as he got off and walked up to the cabin he could see a peanut butter jar and other food stuff on the table inside,” said the source.  He is understood to have unlocked the door and, carrying a firearm, shouted to ask if there was anyone in the cabin, calling “If you are here, get out”, the Guardian was told.  The owner reportedly heard a noise to the rear of the cabin and when he ran around to the back, he saw a man run off into the woods.  Stockwell, who had to drive “some distance” before he was able to get any cellphone coverage in the deeply rural region, then called the police, the source said.  It has not been possible to establish whether the fleeing man was Matt or Sweat, or neither, but DNA from both men was found on some of the objects that they appear to have left behind in the cabin.  These included at least one sock with blood on it, as the Guardian revealed three days ago. It also included a pair of boots that were wet through, uncooked noodles and some prison-issue underwear.  “A pair of dry shoes had been taken from the cabin,” the source said. The police also suspect the fugitives may have stolen weapons from this or another cabin. The owners of the Owls Head cabin have been unable to confirm if there were weapons there to steal.  Stockwell was not immediately available for comment.  The likely sighting had an element of unlucky timing. At the time law enforcement’s attention was being called to Owls Head, personnel were racing to a location 350 miles to the south-west, close to the Pennsylvania border near the small town of Friendship, after a sighting of two men walking near railway tracks.  That split resources but the trail near Friendship went cold and with the discovery of the inmates’ DNA at Owls Head, that area became the hottest spot in the manhunt so far on Monday.  The 1,000 officers involved in the dragnet are up against hundreds of thousands of acres of rugged terrain and frequent thunderstorms soaking the land and swelling streams.  There have been no credible sightings of the fugitives since Saturday.  Palmer was due to make his second appearance in court on Thursday afternoon. He faces up to seven years in jail on charges relating to smuggling contraband and tampering with evidence, but was released on bail on Wednesday. He has pleaded not guilty.  His lawyer, Andrew Brockway, said: “I can 100% confirm that he did not know they were planning on breaking out of the prison.”  District attorney Andrew Wylie has confirmed that Palmer passed a lie detector test to that effect.  Palmer was given the meat to pass to the prisoners by Mitchell, 51, who was arrested on 12 June and is in custody facing charges relating to smuggling tools to the inmates and being involved in their escape plan.  Mitchell was supposed to drive a getaway vehicle once the inmates emerged through a manhole cover in a public street having drilled holes in their cell walls and heating pipes, the authorities have said. She got cold feet the day before the escape, but did not alert the prison to what was about to happen, police say.  Matt and Sweat escaped in the early hours of 6 June. They took a guitar case full of food with them – they had access to musical instruments in the prison. It is not known what provisions they may still have with them or what they have managed to steal from unoccupied hunting and holiday cabins, which are scattered in the woods by the thousands.  Police on Wednesday warned the public that they had “every reason to believe” that the men could be armed with hunting weapons stolen from cabins.  “We hope they will make a mistake or come out into the open and be spotted, without anyone getting hurt,” the police source told the Guardian. “But these woods are so dense it’s hard, normally, to find someone who’s lost even when they want to be found. They could die out there and we may never even know.”
Gene Palmer accused of delivering tools inside frozen meat to escaped inmates who police say they have ‘every reason to believe’ could now be armed