NBC10’s Deanna Durante explains how law enforcement was able to track down and apprehend convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante two weeks after he escaped a Chester County prison.
A murderer who brazenly escaped from a Pennsylvania jail was captured Wednesday by a team of tactical officers, bringing an end to an intensive search that terrified residents as the fugitive broke into homes for food, changed his appearance and stole a van and rifle during two weeks on the run.
Danelo Souza Cavalcante's capture came overnight as a plane fitted with a thermal imaging camera picked up his heat signal, allowing teams on the ground to secure the area, surround him and move in with search dogs.
But who is Cavalcante? Here's everything we know starting from his crime history
Who is Danilo Cavalcante?
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According to police, Cavalcante, 34, is a Brazilian-born man who was accused of killing a man in Brazil in 2017 and convicted of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in Pennsylvania in 2021.
Brazilian police allege Cavalcante killed Válter Júnior Moreira dos Reis in 2017 over a vehicle-repair debt Moreira dos Reis owed him.
But before Brazilian authorities could apprehend him, Cavalcante fleed illegally to Puerto Rico, BBC reported. A warrant for his arrest was issued in Brazil in June 2018.
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During his Pennsylvania sentencing, Cavalcante's lawyers said he was a victim of abuse himself and began to turn to alcohol, drugs and gangs at a young age.
Pennsylvania crime history
Once in the United States, Cavalcante was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in front of her children in 2021. Prosecutors say he wanted to stop her from telling police he was wanted in the Brazil killing.
According to previous reporting, Cavalcante was arrested in April 2021 after stabbing Brandao more than a dozen times in the chest and upper torso in front of her 7-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.
Brandao died in the hospital later that day after her daughter ran to a neighbor’s house and was able to call 911.
Cavalcante was arrested in Virginia as he was trying to flee to Mexico to then return to Brazil, authorities told NBC News.
Cavalcante was convicted of first-degree murder on Aug. 16 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He still faces an outstanding warrant in Brazil in a 2017 murder.
Cavalcante's prison escape and capture
According to authorities, surveillance video showed Cavalcante escaping a Chester County prison after stretching himself between a pair of parallel walls on Aug. 31.
Officials said Cavalcante stretched his 5-foot, 120-pound frame across the brick and cinderblock walls to push himself to the roof at the Chester County Prison in Pocopson Township before he made his way out of custody.
Igor Bolte, another inmate, also got away by scaling the walls on May 19.
Nearly two weeks later, Cavalcante was arrested in South Coventry Township after police set an 8- to 10-square-mile perimeter in northern Chester County.
Cavalcante's arrest came after tactical teams picked up a heat signal around 1 a.m. Wednesday and started to track him until his capture.
