Danelo Cavalcante escape update: Murder convict spotted in Pennsylvania town as search enters eighth day

Residents of Pocopson and Pennsbury townships have voiced fears that Cavalcante, who was recently sentenced to life in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend, could break into their homes.

A West Chester resident previously said the fugitive, described by authorities as “extremely dangerous,” gained access to his home in the middle of the night and stole food and supplies.

Jennifer Briggs, who lives about a mile and a half from Chester County Prison, told CNN that the past week has been unsettling.

Ms Briggs said that her children, who are attending classes virtually after their school was shuttered over the manhunt, are sleeping in the same bedroom with her.

“Anytime you would leave, they were searching your car to make sure he wasn’t in the car,” Ms Briggs recounted. “I had my kids in the car with me, so that was probably the most unsettling moment.”

Two suburban Philadelphia school districts remained shuttered and one of the nation’s premier botanical gardens was closed Wednesday as authorities worked to flush out a convicted murderer who escaped from prison last week.

Danelo Cavalcante, 34, has been spotted five times since he escaped Thursday from the Chester State Prison. The most recent sighting came Monday night at Longwood Gardens, where trail surveillance video captured him walking through the area with a duffel bag, backpack and hooded sweatshirt he apparently stole while on the run.

Pennsylvania authorities have released footage of the moment murder convict Danelo Cavalcante escaped from prison.

At a press conference on Wednesday, state police said that Cavalcante managed to escape from Chester County Prison by jumping onto the facility’s roof from an exercise yard. Surveillance video shows Cavalcante crawling up a wall before he disappears from the frame.

Cavalcante was last spotted near Chandler Road in Pennsbury Township on Tuesday evening. Local and federal law enforcement agencies searched the area for hours but were not able to locate Cavalcante.

Mr Bivens said that search units were experiencing challenges while canvassing the vast wooded area where Cavalcante is believed to be hiding. A K-9 unit had to be hospitalised on Tuesday, Mr Bivens said, after suffering a heat-related medical incident.

“I don’t think he has more ability than we initially gave him credit for, I think it’s a very challenging area,” Mr Bivens said. “We have had some searches like this in the past … some take hours, some take days, some take months.”

Authorities are facing mounting questions over two escapes by Danelo Cavalcante – one from prison and a second from a search perimeter.

Danelo Cavalcante remains on the run a week after the convicted murderer managed to escape Chester County Prison on 31 August. The jailbreak has prompted a full-scale manhunt and local school closures after officials confirmed that Cavalcante snuck past the initial two-mile search perimeter.

District Attorney Deb Ryan said the incident was under investigation but declined to elaborate on how Cavalcante — who was recently sentenced to life for murdering his former girlfriend — was able to bypass security at the correctional facility.

Police sources who spoke to The Philadelphia Inquirer under the condition of anonymity have now shed light on the circumstances surrounding the 34-year-old’s escape. According to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the escape, Cavalcante climbed onto the prison’s roof from one of the exercise yards.

The eighth day of the search for Danelo Cavalcante concluded with a significant development — a confirmed sighting of the convicted murderer near Longwood Gardens.

At approximately noon, a resident reported a sighting of Cavalcante, 34, running in a wooded area near Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania State Police Lt Col George Bivens said.

This location is close to the region where a trail camera captured images of Cavalcante hiking through the woods twice in the span of an hour late on Monday.

Mr Bivens told the media: “This is an amazing operation going on here. This is not a situation where we have a police dispatcher sitting and waiting for calls to come in.”

Two suburban Philadelphia school districts remained shuttered and one of the nation’s premier botanical gardens was closed as authorities worked to flush out a convicted murderer who escaped from prison last week.

Danelo Cavalcante, 34, has been spotted several times since he escaped Thursday from the Chester State Prison.

The most recent sighting came Monday night at Longwood Gardens, where trail surveillance video captured him walking through the area with a duffel bag, backpack and hooded sweatshirt he apparently stole while on the run.

That sighting led officials to move the search area farther south on Tuesday after they determined that Cavalcante had likely slipped through the original perimeter set by hundreds of local, state and federal law enforcement officers, but they said his movements show he’s feeling the pressure of the massive search and that his options are dwindling.

The sister of Danelo Cavalcante’s victim has revealed that her life has been tarnished with overwhelming fear since the convict’s escape from prison last week.

Sarah Brandao, sister of the victim Deborah Brandao said in an interview that since Cavalcante’s jailbreak last week, “I have been waking up with fright at night”.

Deborah Brandao was stabbed 38 times by her ex-boyfriend Danelo Cavalcante with a kitchen knife in Schuylkill Township Chester in County, Pennsylvania, back in April 2021.

Sarah Brandao told CNN: “I haven’t slept for many days.” She also recounted the day she was told about her sister’s murder. She said her “world ended”.

“She kept saying that he was extremely jealous, that when he drank he became a different person, that he kept going through her cell phone,” Sarah Brandao said.

The daughter of Danelo Cavalcante’s victim told police that he showed up at their house and said he was going to do “something bad to their lives”, according to an affidavit.

The seven-year-old daughter of Deborah Brandao told police that he “pulled two knives out from a black bag that was behind his back”.

She started screaming and Cavalcante hit her with a rock, police wrote in the affidavit.

Cavalcante is also a suspect in a 2017 homicide case in Brazil, according to US Marshals Service.