Mitchell interview
Mitchell tells Lauer on Today that she cooperated with demands for help from Matt and Sweat because Matt had threatened members of her family.
People need to know that I was only trying to save my family.
She said she was depressed because she thought her husband on longer loved her.
I was going through depression and I guess they saw my weakness, and that’s how it all started.
Mitchell says she befriended both men and brought them cookies and brownies. She eventually smuggled tools to them in bags that the prison staff failed to search. The inmates’ escape plot included Mitchell picking them up outside the prison after the breakout, but she suffered a panic attack, and her husband took her to a hospital. Mitchell said Matt and Sweat planned to kill her husband during their getaway.
Details relationship with inmates
Mitchell details her increasing sexual contact with Matt and her deepening involvement in the plot over time. She tells her dreams of running off into the sunset with the men, only to have the fantasy unravel when she panicked on the night of the escape.
I enjoyed the attention, the feeling both of them gave me, and the thought of a different life.
Her relationship with Matt began with seemingly innocent requests for help, but soon escalated into sexual contact, including sending him nude photos to give to Sweat. Mitchell explains she had sexual contact with Matt.
I originally brought in two blades, by bending them in half and putting them in some hamburger, which I then put in the freezer. Inmate Matt asked me for hacksaw blades, he also asked for two chisels and a punch.
Practiced prison break
Sweat tells police that he and Matt conducted a practice run of their prison break the night before they disappeared. The night before they broke out, Sweat and Matt went through the tunnels and popped their heads up at a manhole, but decided it wasn’t isolated enough, so they decided to escape from a different manhole instead. DA:
To make a dry run and have the ability to escape, and then go back in, it is a little baffling.