Matt and Sweat had taken their provided power tools and cut through the back of their cells and into a steam pipe. After 85 nights of creating their route by trial and error, they slithered through the pipe and went through a manhole just one block away from the prison on June 6, 2015. On the pipe, they left a note with a racist caricature that read, "Have A Nice Day."
Matt had provided Mitchell with narcotic pills to "knock out" her husband Lyle so that she could pick them up. She didn't appear, and the two men escaped by foot instead.