Escapee killer captured after 2-week manhunt, police say
▶ Watch Video: CBS News Philadelphia
The two-week search for a convicted murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison ended Wednesday after Danelo Cavalcante was captured, police said. The Pennsylvania State Police said they would hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. ET announcing details of the capture.
Cavalcante was arrested in a wooded area inside the perimeter set up by law enforcement, a law enforcement source told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton. He was arrested without incident around 8am today by members of the task force.
Authorities said Tuesday Cavalcante stole a rifle from a Chester County garage and evaded shots fired by the homeowner as he fled the scene. Cavalcante, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2021, escaped from Chester County Prison in West Chester at around 8:45 a.m. on Aug. 31.
Chester County Prison’s acting warden Howard Holland said that Cavalcante escaped from the exercise yard by climbing up a wall to the roof area, which is the same escape route that another inmate, Igor Bolte, used in May. Surveillance footage from the prison grounds, which authorities released about a week into their search, showed Cavalcante hoisting himself up from the ground by balancing between a fence and a brick wall, and using a crab-walk to climb upward until he disappeared from the camera’s view. His escape is under investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
A 34-year-old Brazilian national, Cavalcante was convicted last month of first-degree murder and sentenced to serve life in prison without parole for killing his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in April 2021. He allegedly stabbed her to death, and the woman’s young children witnessed the crime, CBS Philadelphia reported at the time, citing police. Cavalcante is also wanted in connection with a homicide in Brazil, according to the U.S. Marshal Service, and he was repeatedly described as “extremely dangerous” by law enforcement throughout that manhunt that involved hundreds of local, state and federal officers.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.