By Jui Bhatia, Co-Opinion Editor
On Aug. 31, convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison by scaling a wall in the exercise yard and crawling through a barbed wire fence. After evading authorities across eastern Pennsylvania for nearly two weeks, officials caught Cavalcante in the Pottstown area on Sept. 13.
In April 2021, Cavalcante was convited of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Deborah Brandao. Prosecutors in Brazil are also looking to charge him in another homicide case. He was awaiting transfer to a state prison when he escaped.
Officials spotted Cavalcante around 25 miles south of Berwyn at Longwood Gardens on Sept. 4, prompting the gardens to close as police activity in the area increased. Two days later, officials closed schools in the Kennett Consolidated and the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Districts as a precautionary measure due to reported sightings in the area.
Officials finally narrowed down Cavalcante’s location in the early hours of Sept. 13, when search helicopters, scanning the Pottstown area for heat signatures, detected Cavalcante’s presence. Police surrounded the area, but their efforts were delayed by a storm. At around 8 a.m., officials managed to capture Cavalcante with the help of a police dog.
Following his capture, officials escorted Cavalcante to the State Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in Montgomery County, where he will serve out his life sentence. After a court appearance on Wednesday, Sept. 13, the courts charged Cavalcante with felony escape and denied his bail.
Jui Bhatia can be reached at [email protected].
