Police shifted their focus overnight as the manhunt for two escaped killers in New York entered its 16th day.

The search for David Sweat and Richard Matt now zeroes in on a mountainous area west of the maximum security prison they escaped from in the far northern part of the state, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

Sources tell CBS News that DNA from the escapees was found in a cabin that had been broken into near Wolf Pond, in the Saranac Lake region, in the last 24 hours.

In addition, CBS News has confirmed that a second employee at the Clinton Correctional Facility who may also have been involved in the escape plot has been suspended from his job. The employee, identified as Gene Palmer, was questioned by officials over his possible role. Police vehicles were seen parked outside his home Saturday.

Palmer’s lawyer, Andrew Brockway, denied his client’s involvement.  “I can 100 percent confirm that he did not know these two people were planning to break out of the prison. They are master manipulators. They are obviously in prison for life so they have nothing but time to take advantage of innocent people.”

Another employee, Joyce Mitchell, faces charges of aiding Sweat and Matt.

State police set up a command center in Owls Head, New York, some 25 miles from the prison, to pursue the latest lead.

The police presence in the area increased dramatically overnight, Werner says. Uniformed officers and military trucks could be seen blocking roadways and searching vehicles.

The new lead comes a day after police moved into parts of Allegany County, in western New York along the Pennsylvania border, after a woman claimed to have seen two men matching the escapees’ descriptions walking near railroad tracks close to her home.

More than 300 officers were deployed to the town of Friendship, New York, setting up roadblocks and conducting door-to-door searches.

After nearly 36 hours, the lead turned up empty and the search was called off.