useapen
2023-09-13 06:31:32 UTC
WEST CHESTER, Pa. A murderer made a brazen escape from a suburban
Philadelphia jail yard by scaling a wall, climbing over razor wire and
jumping from a roof in a breakout that wasn't detected by guards for a
full hour, authorities said Wednesday as the killer eluded a widening
manhunt for a seventh day.
The timeline and details of Danelo Cavalcante's escape including that he
got out using the same route another prisoner took in May were released
as police from various agencies flooded a search zone of increasingly
worried residents. A tower guard on duty during the breakout was put on
leave as part of the escape investigation.
The escape and search have attracted international attention and became
big news in Cavalcante's native Brazil. The main newspaper in Rio de
Janeiro ran a lengthy story Wednesday with the headline "Dangerous hide-
and-seek."
Howard Holland, the acting warden of the Chester County Prison, played a
security video at a news conference Wednesday. It shows the 34-year-old
Cavalcante standing in a passageway next to the jail yard before bracing
his hands on one wall and his feet on another then "crab-walking" up the
walls out of the camera's view.
Holland said the prison had brought in a consultant after the first escape
in May and added razor wire to that area.
"What was perhaps overlooked was the fact that addressing the single point
of physical countermeasures should have been bolstered by additional
means. We are addressing that," Holland said. He said the prison was fully
staffed when Cavalcante broke out.
The prison is considering adding officers to the yard during recreation
times, as well as caging in the top of those yards, Holland said. The
Pennsylvania attorney general's office has taken over the escape
investigation, he said.
Holland said the inmate who escaped in May was returned within minutes
after a tower guard quickly sounded the alarm. He said Cavalcante was
identified as missing after a headcount, more than an hour after the video
was taken. A public siren was sounded about 10 a.m.
Holland declined to say why the guard, whose name has not been made
public, had not noticed Cavalcante hopping from the roof and heading away
from the prison's perimeter.
Cavalcante received a life sentence last month for killing his ex-
girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in front of her children in 2021, and escaped
while awaiting transfer to state prison. Prosecutors say he killed her to
stop her from telling police that he's wanted in a 2017 killing back in
Brazil.
He had been captured in Virginia after Brandao's killing and authorities
believe he was trying to return to Brazil.
Two suburban Philadelphia school districts remained shuttered and one of
the nation's premier botanical gardens was closed Wednesday as authorities
kept up their search.
Cavalcante has been spotted six times since he escaped, most recently
Tuesday night when he was seen in a residential area but soon disappeared
into the woods. He had been spotted Monday night at Longwood Gardens,
where trail surveillance video captured him walking through the garden's
grounds.
That sighting led officials to move the search area farther south Tuesday
after they determined Cavalcante had likely slipped through the original
perimeter set by hundreds law enforcement officers, including heavily
armed police.
Authorities have urged residents to keep their homes and vehicles locked,
to check the properties of vacationing neighbors and to look out for
missing cars, bicycles or other transportation Cavalcante might use.
"It's unnerving to know that I can't stand in my backyard with my dogs. My
husband has to come outside with me and, you know, it's just an uneasy
feeling," said Danielle Lawrence, of Pocopson, which is near the county's
jail, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Philadelphia.
Ryan Drummond, whose Pocopson home was broken into late Friday by a man
believed to be Cavalcante, voiced similar views. He believes Cavalcante
came in through French doors that had a broken lock and perhaps was
nearby when his family was talking about the problem as they locked up the
house that night.
"We're still operating in this half-normal life right now, meaning the
kids are off school. Parents are trying to do the COVID balance of working
and managing their children," Drummond said Wednesday.
The intruder left with "a peach, an apple, maybe a few snap peas" that he
found on the kitchen counter, Drummond said, along with a white hat that
he soon lost as he fled past a neighbor's yard.
"Everybody wants this to be over," said Drummond, who said his frustration
lies not with the search efforts but with the prison. "How can it be going
on almost a week at this point?"
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/07/1198063504/pennsylvania-inmate-escaped-by-
crab-walking-up-a-prison-wall-video-shows
Philadelphia jail yard by scaling a wall, climbing over razor wire and
jumping from a roof in a breakout that wasn't detected by guards for a
full hour, authorities said Wednesday as the killer eluded a widening
manhunt for a seventh day.
The timeline and details of Danelo Cavalcante's escape including that he
got out using the same route another prisoner took in May were released
as police from various agencies flooded a search zone of increasingly
worried residents. A tower guard on duty during the breakout was put on
leave as part of the escape investigation.
The escape and search have attracted international attention and became
big news in Cavalcante's native Brazil. The main newspaper in Rio de
Janeiro ran a lengthy story Wednesday with the headline "Dangerous hide-
and-seek."
Howard Holland, the acting warden of the Chester County Prison, played a
security video at a news conference Wednesday. It shows the 34-year-old
Cavalcante standing in a passageway next to the jail yard before bracing
his hands on one wall and his feet on another then "crab-walking" up the
walls out of the camera's view.
Holland said the prison had brought in a consultant after the first escape
in May and added razor wire to that area.
"What was perhaps overlooked was the fact that addressing the single point
of physical countermeasures should have been bolstered by additional
means. We are addressing that," Holland said. He said the prison was fully
staffed when Cavalcante broke out.
The prison is considering adding officers to the yard during recreation
times, as well as caging in the top of those yards, Holland said. The
Pennsylvania attorney general's office has taken over the escape
investigation, he said.
Holland said the inmate who escaped in May was returned within minutes
after a tower guard quickly sounded the alarm. He said Cavalcante was
identified as missing after a headcount, more than an hour after the video
was taken. A public siren was sounded about 10 a.m.
Holland declined to say why the guard, whose name has not been made
public, had not noticed Cavalcante hopping from the roof and heading away
from the prison's perimeter.
Cavalcante received a life sentence last month for killing his ex-
girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in front of her children in 2021, and escaped
while awaiting transfer to state prison. Prosecutors say he killed her to
stop her from telling police that he's wanted in a 2017 killing back in
Brazil.
He had been captured in Virginia after Brandao's killing and authorities
believe he was trying to return to Brazil.
Two suburban Philadelphia school districts remained shuttered and one of
the nation's premier botanical gardens was closed Wednesday as authorities
kept up their search.
Cavalcante has been spotted six times since he escaped, most recently
Tuesday night when he was seen in a residential area but soon disappeared
into the woods. He had been spotted Monday night at Longwood Gardens,
where trail surveillance video captured him walking through the garden's
grounds.
That sighting led officials to move the search area farther south Tuesday
after they determined Cavalcante had likely slipped through the original
perimeter set by hundreds law enforcement officers, including heavily
armed police.
Authorities have urged residents to keep their homes and vehicles locked,
to check the properties of vacationing neighbors and to look out for
missing cars, bicycles or other transportation Cavalcante might use.
"It's unnerving to know that I can't stand in my backyard with my dogs. My
husband has to come outside with me and, you know, it's just an uneasy
feeling," said Danielle Lawrence, of Pocopson, which is near the county's
jail, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Philadelphia.
Ryan Drummond, whose Pocopson home was broken into late Friday by a man
believed to be Cavalcante, voiced similar views. He believes Cavalcante
came in through French doors that had a broken lock and perhaps was
nearby when his family was talking about the problem as they locked up the
house that night.
"We're still operating in this half-normal life right now, meaning the
kids are off school. Parents are trying to do the COVID balance of working
and managing their children," Drummond said Wednesday.
The intruder left with "a peach, an apple, maybe a few snap peas" that he
found on the kitchen counter, Drummond said, along with a white hat that
he soon lost as he fled past a neighbor's yard.
"Everybody wants this to be over," said Drummond, who said his frustration
lies not with the search efforts but with the prison. "How can it be going
on almost a week at this point?"
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/07/1198063504/pennsylvania-inmate-escaped-by-
crab-walking-up-a-prison-wall-video-shows