Pennsylvania fugitive captured after two-week manhunt
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Convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante was forcibly taken into custody after being subdued by a police dog.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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PHILADELPHIA – A convicted murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania jail was captured on Wednesday with the help of a heat-sensing aircraft and a police dog, ending an intense two-week manhunt
Tactical teams surrounded the fugitive, Danelo Cavalcante, at around 8am local time in a rural area about 50km west of Philadelphia.
A police dog named Yoda subdued him as he tried to crawl away, and he was forcibly taken into custody, said Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant-Colonel George Bivens.
Cavalcante was armed with a rifle that he had stolen
Lt-Col Bivens said no shots were fired during the fugitive’s capture.
Cavalcante broke out of the Chester County Prison two weeks ago by climbing between two walls that formed a narrow corridor in the jailhouse yard and scrambling onto the roof, according to the police.
“It’s never easy to find someone who doesn’t want to be found in a large area,” Lt-Col Bivens said in response to a question about the extended manhunt during a Wednesday news briefing.
Cavalcante survived on watermelon that he found at a farm and drank water from streams, Mr Robert Clark, a supervisor with the United States Marshals Service fugitive task force, told CNN. He was relaying information his officers learnt while questioning Cavalcante after his capture.
“He was hiding his faecal matter under leaves and foliage so that law enforcement could not track him – he was a desperate man,” Mr Clark said.
Cavalcante’s “endgame was to carjack somebody and head north up to Canada, and he intended to do that in the next 24 hours”, he added.
Cavalcante escaped on Aug 31 while waiting to be transferred from the county lock-up to a state correctional institution to begin serving a life sentence for killing a former girlfriend.
His capture began shortly after midnight on Wednesday, when the police responded to an alarm that went off at a nearby home.
About an hour later, a Drug Enforcement Administration aircraft flying overhead picked up a heat signal and tactical units converged.
After he was captured, about two dozen police officers in tactical gear posed for a group photo with Cavalcante standing in front with his arms pinned behind his back.
When asked about the photograph, Lt-Col Bivens said he was not bothered by it.
“We are proud of their work,” he said.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks to reporters after Danelo Cavalcante’s arrest.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
Cavalcante’s escape unsettled many in the region. After he was seen on security-camera video walking on a trail, school districts cancelled classes for a day. The police expanded their search and urged residents to keep their doors locked, but he was able to slip away.
More than a week after his escape, he stole a van and drove about 40km before abandoning the vehicle. By that time, he had shaved off his beard using a razor that he found in a backpack he had stolen from a home.
During his flight, Cavalcante tried to contact several people for their assistance. This included his sister, but she did not help him, the police said. She was later taken into custody for an immigration violation.
A jury found Cavalcante guilty of first-degree murder in April 2021 for killing his girlfriend by stabbing her dozens of times in front of her children at her home in Schuylkill Township. He fled the scene after the murder, according to the authorities. Hours later, the police arrested him in Virginia.
Cavalcante, a Brazilian national, is also a suspect in a 2017 murder in Brazil, according to the US Marshals Service. REUTERS
