A convicted murderer’s escape from a Pennsylvania prison outside Philadelphia kicked off a manhunt that dramatically evolved in recent days after he slipped a police perimeter and turned up in northern Chester County, where authorities say he was sighted Monday night and is now armed with a rifle.
Approximately 500 law enforcement officers have been searching for Danelo Cavalcante, 34, who escaped August 31 from Chester County Prison, where he was held after his conviction last month in the 2021 killing of his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandão.
Here’s a timeline of his escape and the search so far.
Cavalcante is convicted, sentenced to life in prison
On August 16, about two weeks before he absconded, a jury convicted Cavalcante of first-degree murder in Brandão’s killing – a crime that in Pennsylvania carries a mandatory life sentence without parole, according to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.
The two were neighbors and dated for about a year and a half, the victim’s sister, Sarah Brandão, told CNN. He was kind at first to Brandão and her children, Sarah said, but that changed over time. Sarah said her sister told her he was “extremely jealous” and “became a different person” when he drank.
A probable cause affidavit indicates Brandão filed a protection from abuse order against Cavalcante in 2020. But Cavalcante murdered Brandão in April 2021, prosecutors said, stabbing her 38 times in front of her two young children. They are now in Sarah’s care.
Cavalcante is also wanted in his native Brazil in a 2017 homicide case, according to the US Marshals Service. When Brandão learned of the case, she threatened to expose Cavalcante to police, the district attorney’s office said in a statement on August 23, after he was formally sentenced. That was his motive for the murder, according to prosecutors.
Thursday, August 31: The escape
Cavalcante fled the prison within days in an escape that was partially captured on camera.
Surveillance footage showed him in a narrow space between two walls in an exercise yard, placing his hands and feet on either side and “crab-walking” up, out of view. He then ran across a roof, scaled a fence and pushed his way through razor wire to escape, the prison’s acting warden, Howard Holland, later said.
Friday, September 1: Sighting in Pocopson Township home
The first known sighting of Cavalcante after his escape occurred the next day, when Ryan Drummond says he saw the fugitive inside his home in Pocopson Township, not far from the prison.
Describing the sighting as an “acute moment of terror,” Drummond told CNN’s Michael Smerconish that his family was getting ready for bed when he heard a noise downstairs around 11:30 p.m. and noticed a door was slightly ajar.
“That’s when my stomach dropped,” he told CNN.
Drummond switched the light on and off several times to signal to the intruder that he was being watched, and “after a little bit of a pause,” the intruder switched the light again in the kitchen. Drummond told his wife to call 911, he said, and then saw Cavalcante “walking methodically” out of the kitchen into his living room before leaving the house.
Saturday, September 2: Sighting near the prison
Cavalcante was spotted early the next morning around 12:30 a.m. on a residential surveillance camera about 1.5 miles from the prison, the district attorney’s office said on Facebook.
Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police, which is leading the search, said later that a state trooper also saw Cavalcante in the area.
Monday, September 4: Sighting at botanical gardens
A security camera captured the fugitive in the evening two days later at Longwood Gardens, a botanical garden that sits several miles from Chester County Prison and would soon become the epicenter of the search effort.
The camera captured the fugitive twice, once walking north and then about an hour later going south.
By that time, Cavalcante had obtained several items, Bivens said, including a backpack, a duffle sling bag and a hooded sweatshirt.
Tuesday, September 5: Creek bed sighting
The next night, Cavalcante was spotted by a resident in a creek bed on the resident’s property in Pennsbury Township, Bivens said, a few miles southeast of the prison. He fled into the woods before police could capture him.
Wednesday, September 6: Trail camera sighting
A trail camera image showed Cavalcante in or around Longwood Gardens but officials learned about this sighting Thursday evening, according to Bivens.
Friday, September 8: Two sightings within search perimeter
Authorities reported two sightings of Cavalcante within the perimeter of their search area, which encompassed Longwood Gardens.
Saturday, September 9: Cavalcante slips perimeter
The manhunt shifted significantly over the weekend after authorities said Cavalcante managed to escape their search perimeter and steal a van about three-quarters of a mile away.
According to Bivens, the owners – who identified themselves as a local dairy farm – had left the keys inside their delivery van, which Cavalcante used to flee some 20 miles north to East Pikeland Township.
There, Cavalcante attempted to contact an acquaintance he’d known years prior, Bivens said. He spoke with the acquaintance on a Ring doorbell camera, which captured his new clean-shaven look, but the person wasn’t home and did not respond to meet Cavalcante, Bivens said.
The fugitive then went to nearby Phoenixville to contact another acquaintance. That person was also not home but called police after a female resident saw the escaped inmate.
Sunday, September 10: Abandoned van located
State police didn’t learn about the sightings until about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Bivens said, giving them their first indication Cavalcante had gotten out from under them and changed his appearance.
Additionally, the second sighting that night indicated he was using a white vehicle, which investigators eventually narrowed down to the dairy’s stolen 2020 Ford Transit van.
They located the stolen van later in a field that morning, around 10:40 a.m., abandoned behind a barn in East Nantmeal Township, slightly west of the sightings the evening prior. Bivens said it had run out of gas.
The search then shifted to this area, in the northern part of Chester County.
Monday, September 11: Cavalcante steals rifle, police say
The next spotting occurred in Chester County’s South Coventry Township, around 8 p.m. Monday, when a motorist told police she saw a man crouched at a wood line on Fairview Road, Bivens said in a news conference Tuesday morning. She went back, but the man was gone.
Authorities formed a perimeter around that area, Bivens said, and a Border Patrol tactical team saw footprints identical to the prison shoes Cavalcante was wearing. The shoes were found soon after, and a resident told authorities work boots had been stolen from her porch.
Then, police received another call from a resident on Coventry Road, Bivens said, reporting a short, Hispanic male who was not wearing a shirt had entered his garage while the resident was inside and stole a .22 caliber rifle. The resident drew a pistol and fired at the man as he fled. Cavalcante’s sweatshirt was found near the edge of the driveway.
Cavalcante was always considered dangerous, Bivens said, but he’s now “armed and extremely dangerous.”
“He’s killed two people previously. I would suspect that he’s desperate enough to use that weapon,” Bivens said.