Murderer Danelo Cavalcante was serving a life sentence for brutally killing his ex-girlfriend in front of her two children when he escaped from a Pennsylvania prison, evading more than 500 police officers who chased him for two weeks.
Cavalcante, 34, was taken into custody Wednesday morning in a wooded area near South Coventry Township after thermal images from an aircraft pinpointed a possible location Tuesday evening.
He was reportedly hiding with the gun he stole Monday when he was found under a pile of logs and subdued by a K-9.
The Brazil resident, who was in the country illegally, escaped from the Chester County Jail, 30 miles west of Philadelphia, by crab-walking up a wall just days after being sentenced to life in prison for the murder on 33-year-old Deborah Brandão. in 2021.
Cavalcante stabbed Brandão 38 times in April in front of her then seven- and four-year-old children. She had brought the children to the US from Brazil for a better life. Prosecutors say he killed her to prevent her from telling police he was wanted in Brazil for a separate murder.
He had already been accused of killing a friend before fleeing authorities in his home country, but Brandão and her family didn’t know it when he moved in with them in Chester County.
Murderer Danelo Cavalcante was serving a life sentence for brutally killing his ex-girlfriend in front of her two children as he escaped from a Pennsylvania prison. He is pictured after being arrested on Wednesday
The Brazil native, who was in the country illegally, escaped from the Chester County Jail just days after being sentenced to life in prison for the 2021 murder of Deborah Brandão.
The killer was reportedly hiding with the gun he stole Monday when he was found under a pile of logs and subdued by a K-9.
Brandão’s sister Sarah told CNN Cavalcante initially seemed like a friendly young man, but soon became jealous and violent towards Brandão, adding that he became a different person when he drank, and told her that he would do “the worst thing” to her if she cheated.
Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said Wednesday that she called the Brandão family as a son when the killer was found.
“They were screaming with joy and happiness that he was stuck,” Ryan said. “They lived their own personal nightmare.”
Sarah, who now cares for her sister’s children, had expressed fears that Cavalcante would come after her family again, telling CNN: ‘I was desperate, desperate, very scared. Of course I was thinking about my children.’
Meanwhile, the killer’s mother defended his actions, claiming Cavalcante had “no choice” but to kill the mother of two.
‘Did it happen? It happened,” the mother told The New York Times. “But it happened because of the stranglehold she exerted on him, the position she took towards him… It was not femicide. He had to, he had no other choice.’
Speaking from Brazil, Iracema Cavalcante expressed concern about what would happen to him if he was caught, suggesting he would be better off dead than in prison.
“I know what my son did was wrong. I know my son has to pay for his mistake. But I want my son to pay for his mistake with dignity, and not with his life,” she said.
Brandão’s sister Sarah said that Cavalcante initially seemed like a friendly young man, but soon became jealous and violent towards Brandão. The sisters are in the photo together
Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said Wednesday that she called the Brandão family as a son when the killer was found
Cavalcante stabbed Brandão 38 times in April in front of her then seven- and four-year-old children. She had brought them to the US from Brazil for a better life
“If (the choice is) to go to a place to suffer and die there, it is better to die quickly… You don’t have to suffer so much to die later.”
Cavalcante’s sister, who has overstayed her status, was detained by ICE and initiated deportation proceedings after choosing not to cooperate with the investigation, Bivens said Tuesday.
It is still unclear how the killer entered the US and made money after fleeing Brazil following the murder of his friend Walter Junior in Figuéiropolis, Tocantins, on November 5, 2017.
Evaldo Feitosa told Brazilian news channel G1 that he was talking to Cavalcante when the killer approached Junior at a corner table. He recalled that they had a conversation before he heard several shots and someone yelled, “Man, that guy killed his friend.”
TV Globo also reported that the murder was related to money Junior owed Cavalcante.
Two months after the assassination, he managed to slip past authorities at Brasilia President Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport.
According to Brazilian news channel G1, it took a Tocantins state court exactly eight days for the city’s prosecutor to approve the arrest warrant.
The Brazilian newspaper also reported that the Tocantins court failed to immediately file the arrest warrant with the National Prison Bank and did not do so until June 2018.
About 25 officers were able to surprise him as they surrounded him, but Cavalcante still tried to escape by crawling through tall grass with the rifle.
It is still unclear how the killer entered the US and made money after fleeing Brazil following the murder of one of his friends.
If the arrest warrant had been registered with the registry, customs authorities at the airport would have been alerted and Cavalcante would have been stopped as he boarded the flight in January 2018.
Cavalcante’s arrest on Wednesday ended a two-week manhunt that sowed terror in the Pennsylvania community.
About 25 officers were able to surprise him Wednesday morning when they surrounded him, but Cavalcante tried to escape again by crawling through the tall grass with the stolen rifle.
Officials then released a police dog to catch the killer. He was bitten and treated for his injuries at the scene, police said. After a bloodied Cavalcante was captured, the search team’s SWAT officers paraded him as a trophy and lined up for a photo with him around 8 a.m. EST.
The arrest of the killer, which took about five minutes, brings relief to concerned residents of southeastern Pennsylvania who endured sleepless nights as he hid in the woods, broke into suburban homes for food, changed his appearance and came under gunfire. fled with a gun he had stolen from a car. garage.
When asked about officials taking photos with the convict, State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said, “Those men and women worked incredibly hard under very difficult circumstances…I have no problem at all with them taking a photo have made. with him.’
Residents of Pocopson Township had been told to stay alert and indoors as more than 500 officers actively searched for Cavalcante, who somehow managed to escape from the original search zone around the jail.
In a statement, Chester County Commissioners told DailyMail.com: ‘The capture of Cavalcante puts an end to the nightmare of the past two weeks, and we thank every law enforcement officer at regional, state and federal level who was out in all weathers , all day and night – as well as everyone in the Incident Command Center, our County Department of Emergency Services and County Sheriff’s Office – for their tremendous efforts.