Killer Danelo Cavalcante captured in Pennsylvania with 'element of surprise': Live updates

Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted murderer who broke out of a Pennsylvania prison nearly two weeks ago, was captured Wednesday, police said, concluding an exhaustive manhunt that bore down on rural areas of the state, closed schools and jangled the nerves of local residents.

Cavalcante was apprehended around 8 a.m. after a heat signal was located hours earlier west of Pennsylvania Route 100, north of Prizer Road, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a news conference. After waiting out a storm overnight, law enforcement closed in on the area early Wednesday.

“They had the element of surprise,” Bivens said. “Cavalcante did not realize he was surrounded until that had occurred.”

Cavalcante tried to escape, crawling through thick underbrush with a rifle he stole from a homeowner earlier in the week, Bivens said. A search dog was released and “subdued him,” Bivens said, adding that Cavalcante sustained a “minor” dog bite.

Cavalcante was “forcibly” taken into custody as he continued to resist, he said.

A photo displayed at Wednesday's news conference shows Cavalcante, wearing long pants and a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt, being held by multiple uniformed officials after his capture.

Cavalcante to be questioned, taken to state prison to serve life sentence

Bivens said Cavalcante was taken to the Avondale state police station to be questioned. He will ultimately be taken to a state correctional facility where he'll begin serving his life sentence. 

Footage from a local TV station showed uniformed law enforcement officials escorting Cavalcante, draped in a silver blanket, out of an armored vehicle and into the Avondale State Police Barracks on Wednesday at about 9:45 a.m.

Onlookers got out of their cars, waving and watching from overpasses as a column of law enforcement vehicles transported Cavalcante into custody.

Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison on Aug. 31 while he was awaiting transfer to a state facility to serve a life sentence for fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in 2021. He is wanted in connection to a 2017 murder in his native Brazil.

Emotional toll:The escaped prisoner Danelo Cavalcante was caught. Why the ordeal scared us so much.

Arrest caps intensive manhunt, several sightings

The fugitive's arrest ends an exhaustive search involving hundreds of officers who used dogs, helicopters and horses to scour dense woodlands across Chester County. Police most recently focused their pursuit on South Coventry Township in northern Chester County, roughly 20 miles north of the prison he escaped.

On Monday night, Cavalcante was spotted there several times, including when he walked into the open garage of a home in a rural area 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia, stole a rifle and fled as the homeowner shot at him several times with a pistol.

Authorities closed roads and released warnings urging nearby residents to stay inside and lock their doors Tuesday. One local school district canceled classes twice this week. Two other school districts near Longwood Gardens, a popular tourist destination, closed twice last week after multiple sightings of Cavalcante in the area.

People were 'intent' on helping Cavalcante, police say

At the Wednesday news conference, Bivens said there were people intent on assisting the fugitive; however, law enforcement was able to stop forestall the aid.

“We had been successful to the best of my knowledge in preventing that assistance from reaching him," Bivens said. 

Cavalcante illegally immigrated to the U.S. and found himself in Pennsylvania because he had family and friends there. Authorities have been tight-lipped about whether any of them cooperated with police or Cavalcante.

Cavalcante’s sister was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faces possible deportation over "some immigration issues,” Bivens previously said.

While said Cavalcante’s sister “chose not to assist” police, he has not said whether she tried to help her brother.

Family of slain ex-girlfriend can 'sleep again'

District Attorney Deb Ryan said Brandao's family was relieved about Cavalcante's capture and thankful to law enforcement.

“They can now finally sleep again,” Ryan said.

Ryan previously said the family had been holed up in their house and terrified during the search for Cavalcante. USA TODAY has reached out to the family.

Days before his escape, Cavalcante was sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing Brandao in front of her 7-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Prosecutors say he killed her to stop her from telling police he was wanted in for murder in Brazil. The jury took just 15 minutes to decide his guilt.

Cavalcante was in a relationship with Brandao for about a year and a half and "engaged in a horrific pattern of domestic violence," Ryan said. He stabbed Brandao 38 times in broad daylight, she said.

"His depravity knows no bounds," she said the day of his escape.

Rafael Pinto Alamy, a homicide prosecutor in the Brazilian state of Tocantins, told USA TODAY that Cavalcante is accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Válter Júnior Moreira dos Reis in November 2017 in the rural municipality of Figueiropolis over an alleged car repair debt owed to Cavalcante.

How Cavalcante escaped from prison

Cavalcante broke free by crab-walking up wall in the exercise yard, forcing his way through razor wire and running across a roof. A watch tower officer, who has since been fired, didn't see him slip away.

Security footage shows the moment at about 8:50 a.m. on Aug. 31 when Cavalcante used his outstretched arms and legs to brace himself between two walls and then "crab walk" up before disappearing out of sight.

It was the second escape from the facility in recent months.

In May, inmate Igor Bolte broke out from the same location in a similar way but was seen by the tower officer on watch and quickly recaptured. Cavalcante's escape differed in two important ways: He had to get through new razor wire that was added after Bolte's escape, and nobody saw him do it.

Cavalcante's disappearance was discovered nearly an hour later during an inmate count after the block returned from the yard.

Prison officials have since pledged to increase staff and install a fence to close the space above the prison yard wall that Bolte and Cavalcante scaled.

Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY; The Associated Press