Michael Virtanen

A new superintendent has been named at the maximum-security prison in upstate New York where two inmates escaped last month, and a range of new security measures has been put in place.

Squads of law enforcement officers on Friday began a seventh day of trying to track down two murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in northern New York and could be hiding out in swampy terrain swarming with blood-sucking insects. Search teams slogged knee-deep through marshes and steams and endured the Adirondacks' biggest warm-weather nuisances: swarms of black flies and mosquitoes.

Authorities searching for two escaped killers who have been on the loose for the better part of a week acknowledged being in the dark about their whereabouts or doings, even as the hunt for the men expanded past state borders.

Police plan to resume searching homes located near the maximum-security prison in northern New York where two killers escaped using power tools, authorities said Wednesday as they renewed their plea for help from the public.