Escaped murder Danelo Cavalcante has been captured and is in custody, police sources told the Philadelphia Inquirer Wednesday morning.
State police sources confirmed the capture and said Cavalcante was taken alive. They provided no further information but said a news conference was scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
The Associated Press said that crews tracked the escapee with thermal imaging in the night and then ground crews made the capture this morning.
Video from WTXF showed a disheveled and tired-looking Cavalcante wearing a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt. The video shows law enforcement cutting off the shirt and pants before loading him onto an armored truck.
WTXF said the fugitive was taken down in a shed at a John Deere dealership in Pottstown by a heavily armed tactical team from the Border Patrol. He was holding the rifle he took from a resident Monday night.
In a joint statement, Chester County’s three county commissioners said that the capture “ends the nightmare of the past two weeks.”
“Chester County Prison officials have made some immediate changes to bolster security in the prison, have brought in security contractors to make permanent changes to the exercise yards, and are reviewing and — where needed — changing procedures for both security measures and communication to residents who live close to the prison,” Commissioners Marian Moskowitz, Josh Maxwell, and Michelle Kichline said in the statement.
The state Department of Corrections said that Cavalcante would be in state police custody for a medical evaluation before he is brought back to prison.
Cavalcante has been on the run since his August 31 escape from Chester County Prison. For 10 days, police focused their search nearby, in and around Longwood Gardens botanical garden, but on Saturday, he broke out of their perimeter, stole a dairy delivery truck from nearby, and drove about 20 miles away to the Phoenixville area, as CrimeOnline reported.
There, he tried unsuccessfully to contact two former coworkers and shaved his beard and mustache to alter his appearance. The van he stole was found abandoned in a nearby field, out of gas.
Searchers again tightened the perimeter Monday night, when a motorist spotted him crouched by the road at about 8 p.m. Investigators who quickly responded weren’t able to locate him but found footprints in the mud and then Cavalcante’s prison shoes. A nearby resident reported that a pair of work boot was stolen from her porch.
Two hours later, Cavalcante entered a garage, where he encountered the resident inside. He grabbed a rifle leaning in the corner and fled as the homeowner drew a pistol and fired at him. Police said they don’t believe he was struck, but they found a white t-shirt and a green sweatshirt — that he was seen wearing on doorbell cameras on Saturday — by the resident’s driveway.
Cavalcante, 34, was convicted in the 2021 murder his ex-girlfriend last month and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was at the Chester County Prison awaiting transfer to a state facility when he escaped by scaling a wall in the exercise yard, dashing across the roof, and jumping down.
He was also wanted for a 2017 murder in his native Brazil.
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[Featured image: Fox 29]
