Two Convicted Murderers Escape in N.Y.

[Rose Siding]

Two Convicted Murderers Escape in N.Y.

ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Two inmates convicted of murder escaped from a maximum-security prison early Monday, officials said.

Guards at the Elmira Correctional Facility discovered the men, who shared a prison cell, were missing during a routine inmate count at 6:30 a.m., said Jim Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services.

Guards later found sheets tied together that led down an outside wall of the 1,856-bed prison, 75 miles southwest of Syracuse in the western part of the state, Flateau said.

The inmates were identified as Timothy Vail, 35, who is serving 49 years to life in the 1988 rape and murder of a pregnant secretary, Mary Kopyar; and Timothy Morgan, 26, who is serving 25 years to life for the 1998 murder of cab driver Joseph Boop.

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