Who is Danelo Cavalcante? What crime did the prison escapee commit?

After a two-week manhunt, Pennsylvanian authorities have announced that escaped convict Danelo Cavalcante has been captured.

Police confirmed to the media that Cavalcante was arrested at around 8am ET on Wednesday, in a wooded area inside a perimeter set up by law enforcement. Aerial footage taken by CBS Philadelphia shortly after the 34-year-old’s capture showed a large group of agents leading the criminal, seen wearing a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie and black trousers, to an armoured vehicle.

What was Danelo Cavalcante convicted of?

Cavalcante, who is a Brazilian national, was last month convicted of the first-degree murder of his girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, whom he had fatally stabbed in April 2021. After a jury took just 15 minutes to find him guilty of Brandao’s killing, Cavalcante was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

According to the US Marshalls Service, he is also wanted in his native Brazil over a 2017 homicide.

How did Cavalcante escape?

Nine days after his sentencing, Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison, located just outside Philadelphia, as he awaited transfer to a state penitentiary in Pennsylvania. The prison’s acting warden, Howard Holland, revealed to reporters that Cavalcante escaped at about 8:45am ET on Thursday 31 August by scaling a wall in the facility’s exercise yard - just as another inmate, Igor Bolte, had in May.

“I think there are questions that Chester County officials are going to have to answer as to how this suspect was able to escape, particularly given the history at that jail,” Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro told a press conference on Tuesday.

How was Cavalcante caught?

In the wake of his escape, security cameras picked up Cavalcante moving around Chester County and the surrounding area, leading to local schools being closed and residents being told to stay inside and secure the entrances to their homes.

The manhunt was stepped up on Monday, after a woman reported seeing a man matching Cavalcante’s description by a road close to Route 100.

When the police arrived on the scene, they found footprints consistent with the soles of the shoes issued to inmates at Chester County Prison, with searchers following the prints to the spot where Cavalcante had discarded the footwear. Almost at the same time, a local resident reported the theft of a pair of boots from their front porch.

The following day, another resident reported seeing Cavalcante in their garage, from which the Brazilian stole a .22 calibre rifle. The witness fired at the escapee, who fled the scene unharmed.

Finally, Cavalcante was captured early on Wednesday.

Cavalcante treated for search-dog bite after arrest

“Shortly after midnight, a series of events started to unfold,” Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police told a news conference on Wednesday.

“Close to 1am, [searchers] picked up a heat signal that they began to track. And shortly after 8am, tactical teams converged on the area where the heat source was. They were able to move in very quietly. They had the element of surprise. Cavalcante did not realise he was surrounded until that had occurred.

“That did not stop him from trying to escape. He began to crawl through thick underbrush, taking his rifle with him as he went. One of the customs and controls teams, the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, had a dog with them. They released the dog. The dog subdued him and team members […] immediately moved in.

“He did sustain a minor bite wound. We had medical personnel at the scene and they took a look at that.”