13/09/2023
'Nightmare finally over': Danelo Cavalcante caught with technology, police dogs. Live updates
Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted murderer who broke out of a Pennsylvania prison nearly two weeks ago, was captured Wednesday, police said, concluding an exhaustive manhunt that bore down on rural areas of the state, closed schools and jangled the nerves of local residents.
Cavalcante was apprehended around 8 a.m. after his heat signal was detected hours earlier by a plane with a thermal imaging camera west of Pennsylvania Route 100, north of Prizer Road, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a news conference.
The plane zeroed in on Cavalcante's location after a burglar alarm alerted authorities to his presence shortly after midnight. After waiting out a storm overnight, law enforcement closed in on the area early Wednesday.
“They had the element of surprise,” Bivens said. “Cavalcante did not realize he was surrounded until that had occurred.”
Cavalcante tried to escape, crawling through thick underbrush with a rifle he stole from a homeowner earlier in the week, Bivens said. A search dog was released and “subdued him,” Bivens said, adding that Cavalcante sustained a “minor” dog bite.
Cavalcante, 34, was “forcibly” taken into custody as he continued to resist, he said.
A photo displayed at Wednesday's news conference shows Cavalcante, wearing long pants and a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt, being held by uniformed authorities after his capture.
“Our nightmare is finally over, and the good guys won,” Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said.
Danelo Souza Cavalcante is taken into custody at the Pennsylvania State Police barracks at Avondale Pa., on, Sept. 13, 2023.
Cavalcante to be questioned, taken to state prison to serve life sentence
Bivens said Cavalcante was taken to the Avondale state police station to be questioned. He will ultimately be taken to a state correctional facility where he'll begin serving a life sentence after being convicted of murder last month.
Footage from a local TV station showed law enforcement officials escorting Cavalcante, draped in a silver blanket, out of an armored vehicle and into the Avondale State Police Barracks on Wednesday at about 9:45 a.m.
Onlookers got out of their cars, waving and watching from overpasses as a column of law enforcement vehicles took Cavalcante into custody.
Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison on Aug. 31 while he was awaiting transfer to a state facility to serve the life sentence for stabbing a former girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in 2021. He also is wanted in a 2017 murder in his native Brazil.
Emotional toll:The escaped prisoner Danelo Cavalcante was caught. Why the ordeal scared us so much.
Arrest caps intensive manhunt, several sightings
The fugitive's arrest ends a search involving about 500 officers who used dogs, helicopters and horses to scour dense woodlands across Chester County. Police most recently focused their pursuit on South Coventry Township in northern Chester County, roughly 20 miles north of the prison he escaped.
On Monday night, Cavalcante was spotted there several times, including when he walked into the open garage of a home in a rural area 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia, stole a rifle and fled as the homeowner shot at him several times with a pistol.
Authorities closed roads and released warnings urging residents to stay inside and lock their doors Tuesday. One local school district canceled classes twice this week. Two other school districts near Longwood Gardens, a popular tourist destination, closed twice last week after sightings of Cavalcante in the area.
Danelo Souza Cavalcante, 34, escaped from Chester County Prison in Pennsylvania on Aug. 31, 2023, prompting a massive manhunt by law enforcement of the area. He had recently been convicted of murder in the 2021 stabbing death of his former girlfriend.
Police say they thwarted attempts to aid Cavalcante
At the news conference Wednesday, Bivens said there were people intent on helping the fugitive, but law enforcement was able to forestall the aid.
“We had been successful to the best of my knowledge in preventing that assistance from reaching him," Bivens said.
Cavalcante illegally immigrated to the U.S. and found himself in Pennsylvania because he had family and friends there. Authorities have been tight-lipped about whether any of them cooperated with police or Cavalcante.
Cavalcante’s sister was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and could face deportation over "some immigration issues,” Bivens has said.
Though Bivens said Eleni Cavalcante “chose not to assist” police, he has not said whether she tried to help her brother.
Family of slain ex-girlfriend can 'sleep again'
Ryan said Brandao's family was relieved and thankful to law enforcement.
“They can now finally sleep again,” Ryan said.
Ryan had said the family had been holed up in their house and terrified during the search for Cavalcante. USA TODAY has reached out to the family.
Days before his escape, Cavalcante was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing Brandao in front of her 7-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Prosecutors say he killed her to stop her from telling police he was wanted for murder in Brazil. The jury took just 15 minutes to decide his guilt.
Cavalcante was in a relationship with Brandao for about a year and a half and "engaged in a horrific pattern of domestic violence," Ryan said. He stabbed Brandao 38 times in broad daylight, she said.
"His depravity knows no bounds," she said the day of his escape.
How Cavalcante escaped from prison
Cavalcante broke free by "crab-walking'' his way up two walls in the exercise yard, breaking through razor wire and running across a roof. A watch tower officer, who has since been fired, didn't see him slip away.
Security footage shows the moment at about 8:50 a.m. on Aug. 31 when Cavalcante used his outstretched arms and legs to brace himself between the walls and "crab walk" up before disappearing.
It was the second escape from the facility in recent months.
In May, inmate Igor Bolte broke out from the same location in a similar way but was seen by the tower officer on watch and quickly recaptured. Cavalcante's escape differed in two important ways: He had to get through razor wire that was added after Bolte's escape, and nobody saw him do it.
Cavalcante's disappearance was discovered nearly an hour later during an inmate count after the block returned from the yard.
Prison officials have since pledged to increase staff and install a fence to close the space above the prison yard wall that Bolte and Cavalcante scaled...See more
Danelo Cavalcante, who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison Aug. 31, was located by a heat signal and subdued by a search dog, sustaining a minor bite.