DANNEMORA, N.Y. – Authorities said Saturday they believe the two killers who escaped from prison in northeast New York State a week ago are still in the area and won’t be able to elude a massive police dragnet much longer.

State Police Maj. Charles Guess said unless the fugitives secured transportation, searchers are operating on the assumption they are not far away and getting desperate for food and water.

He said there have been no reports of stolen or hijacked vehicles since Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, broke out of the maximum security facility June 6 by drilling through steel and brick walls and crawling through a two-foot steam pipe to emerge from a manhole outside the prison walls.

“They’ve got to be cold, wet, tired and hungry,” said Guess. “We are not letting up on finding them around here. We will not stop until they are caught.”

Joyce Mitchell, 51, a civilian worker in the prison who befriended the killers, was charged Friday with helping them escape by slipping them hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit one month before the breakout.

Mitchell pleaded not guilty in court to a felony complaint of promoting prison contraband and a misdemeanor charge of criminal facilitation. She was initially taken to the Clinton County Jail near the prison but later moved to the Rensselaer County Jail 150 miles south. Bail was set at $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond.

District Attorney Andrew Wylie said investigators continue to question other prison workers, including Mitchell’s husband, and guards to determine if anyone else helped Matt and Sweat escape.

A handcuffed Mitchell wore a green, short-sleeved shirt and jeans at her court arraignment. She did not speak and appeared physically drained. Her attorney entered the not guilty plea on her behalf. She was suspended without pay from her $57,697 per year job supervising inmates in the prison’s tailor shop and could face seven years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors said additional charges may be filed against Mitchell once the investigation into the escape is completed. They suspect Mitchell agreed to drive the getaway car for the convicts but got cold feet at the last minute and instead checked herself into a local hospital for a panic attack.

Residents of Dickinson Center, a small community west of the prison where Mitchell lives, were surprised that she had been charged as an accomplice to the escape that has attracted national attention.

Sharon Currier, a neighbor, told the Associated Press that Mitchell gave every appearance of being “a good person. She’s not off the wall.”

Mitchell was elected twice as the town’s tax collector, and actively participated in civic affairs, including helping at the annual town picnic to raise funds for police and firefighters. She had worked at the prison since 2008, teaching convicts how to sew and overseeing the tailor shop.

At one point, prison officials thought she had become too friendly with prisoners Matt and Sweat. But an inquiry into their relationship failed to turn up any wrongful conduct.

More than 800 local, state and federal law enforcement officials continued over the weekend to search a five-mile zone near the prison for the escapees. They used bloodhounds and helicopters to scour the heavily wooded Adirondacks landscape acre-by-acre.

“We do not have conclusive evidence that either of the inmates has left this area,” said Guess, the State Police spokesman.

Details for this story were provided by the Plattsburgh, N.Y., Press-Republican