Authorities say they have discovered items in a cabin that may be linked two convicted murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in northern New York more than two weeks ago.

State police Maj. Charles Guess says Monday that the items have been sent to laboratories for DNA and other testing to see if they are linked to David Sweat or Richard Matt. Guess wouldn't identify the items.

He says the cabin is located near Owls Head, a hamlet located about 20 miles west of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. Law enforcement teams started pouring into the area Sunday night after being contacted by the cabin's owner.

Sweat and Matt used power tools to cut their way out of their cells and make their escape June 6.

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10:15 a.m. (EDT)

The attorney for a New York prison worker placed on administrative leave says his client didn't know about an escape plan by two convicted murderers and is fully cooperating with investigators.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced Friday that a correction officer had been placed on leave. The officer wasn't named at the time.

But an attorney for worker Gene Palmer confirms that it was his client.

Attorney Andrew Brockway tells Plattsburgh television station WPTZ that Palmer was completely forthcoming during 14 hours of questioning Saturday. Brockway says he can "100 percent confirm" that Palmer did not know Richard Matt and David Sweat were planning to break out of prison.

Palmer also worked near Joyce Mitchell, a prison tailor shop employee arrested last week on charges she helped the pair escape.

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7:40 a.m. (EDT)

New York State Police say a search for two prison escapees near the Pennsylvania border has concluded as the manhunt focuses on an area west of the prison in northern New York.

About 300 officers searched a rural area of Allegany County in western New York, where two men who resembled David Sweat and Richard Matt were spotted Saturday near a railroad line.

State police say Monday morning the search in that area has been halted without finding any evidence the escapees were there.

Authorities say the primary focus of the search is still the area around Dannemora, where the two convicted murderers used power tools to escape from Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6.

Police are searching an area of the northern Adirondacks that is home to many seasonal hunting camps.