Law enforcement working on the ground and in the air – with the help of man’s best friend – finally tracked down escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante after a two-week manhunt across southeastern Pennsylvania.
Summary
Law enforcement working on the ground and in the air – with the help of man’s best friend – finally tracked down escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante after a two-week manhunt across southeastern Pennsylvania.
- Hundreds of law enforcement officers found Cavalcante, an illegal immigrant from Brazil, on the outer edge of a 10-square-mile search zone 14 days after he escaped from prison. The FBI, US Marshals, Border Patrol, and local police were all involved in the pursuit.
- A late-night burglar alarm alerted the police to Cavalcante’s likely location in a wooded area, and the combination of a plane mounted thermal imaging camera and a police dog helped police pinpoint his location and take him down.
- The search dog took down Cavalcante as he crawled through underbrush to try and escape from law enforcement at around 8:00 am on Wednesday.
- The convicted murderer was left with a bleeding scalp wound from his struggle with the dog and the entire arrest took approximately five minutes. Cavalcante was armed with a stolen rifle but was taken into custody without firing a shot.
- Fourteen days earlier, Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison by climbing between two walls in the jail yard and getting onto the roof.
- His sister, who is also an illegal immigrant, gave police conflicting information about Cavalcante and according to police attempted to mislead law enforcement and help her brother. She has since been detained and the process has begun to deport her from the country.
- The Brazilian national was sentenced to life in prison in August for stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandão, 38 times in front of her children in April 2021. He is also suspected of the 2017 murder of one of his friends over an unpaid debt in Brazil.
- The New York Times reported the hunt for Cavalcante rattled communities throughout Chester County in suburban Philadelphia. He was spotted several times on home security cameras and at one point exchanged gunfire with a resident after stealing a .22-caliber rifle.
- According to CNN, Cavalcante was “defiant and still resisting arrest” even after being bitten by a K-9 dog. He now faces charges of felony escape from prison in addition to his conviction for first-degree murder.
- NBC News broke down how Cavalcante was able to evade capture for two weeks. During his time as a fugitive, he “hijacked a dairy delivery van, keys left dangling in the ignition. He cut off his beard and changed his clothes, showing up on a doorbell camera with a clean-shaven smirk.” Officials blamed the weather and the terrain for the delay in bringing him to justice.
- The Wall Street Journal published video footage of Cavalcante’s escape from Chester County Prison. The 34-year-old appears to crab-walk up two walls before disappearing out of sight of the camera. Another inmate successfully escaped using the same method in May.
- The New York Post observed Cavalcante could be seen barefoot in a hospital gown after he was treated for the wounds he received from K-9 officer Yoda, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois and very good boy.
- Police quickly released Cavalcante’s new mugshot after his recapture, Fox News reported. Cavalcante has been placed in the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and sent to SCI Phoenix, a maximum-security prison in southeastern PA that once held Bill Cosby.
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
