It’s day eleven. He’s still on the loose. He could be caught by the time you read this. But, so far he’s like trying to find a shadow in the night. This has a been the summer of extreme heat, wild fires, floods, and Trump indictments. But no story has shaken people in Chester County, Pennsylvania like the search for an escaped killer. Every morning people wake up asking, “Have they caught him yet”? You probably know that five foot tall convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante escaped the Chester County jail by crab-walking up between two walls in front of a surveillance camera. He then got up to the roof of a jail building, despite razor wire, and managed to somehow jump to freedom. All in full view of a guard tower. The guard apparently wasn’t pay attention. He’s been fired. It took an hour for the jail to realize Cavalcante was missing.
There are four-hundred state troopers, local police and FBI agents using helicopters, drones, computer mapping, and searching every car looking for this guy in the dense woods around the jail and Longwood Gardens. Longwood Gardens has been closed and several schools in the area closed. Cavalcante was convicted of shooting his girlfriend thirty-eight times in front of her two small children. He’s been caught on trail cameras in Longwood Gardens. Early this morning he was seen on a doorbell camera in East Pikeland Township near Phoenixville where his sister lives. She’s terrified and has 24 hour police protection. That’s twenty-five miles from where police were searching. He’s making law enforcement look like The Keystone Cops. Late this morning police say they believe he’s now left that area. They also say he stole a van from a dairy near the jail. A short time ago, police were seen towing the van abandoned in Glenmoore. They say it had run out of gas. The latest video shows Cavalcante changed his appearance. He’s now clean shaven, with a baseball cap and a light green hoodie.
He even seems bold. Several nights ago a neighbor near the jail awakened to a noise downstairs. He went to the stair landing and flicked the lights on and off to scare the intruder away. The intruder flicked the lights back. He took some food and ran off. Police believe it was their man. By the way, the home owner left a door unlocked. Police are forced to give daily progress reports that get more embarrassing by the hour. They point out that he escaped from jail in his native Brazil after he was arrested for a killing a man there several years ago and survived in the jungle. So, he’s got more experience in this kind of thing than the hundreds of police looking for him.
This is the kind of thing that shakes people’s confidence in law enforcement and, by extension, government to protect them and not be asleep at the switch. Cavalcante is the second prisoner to escape the Chester County jail in recent months. People are rightfully asking “What the hell is going on?” Jails are nasty, dangerous places full of desperate people who don’t want to be there. We expect places with cells, surveillance cameras and guard towers to make sure these people don’t get out to terrorize us. We don’t know how this all will end. Cavalcante seems to be daring us by saying, “Catch me if you can.” So far, he’s many steps ahead of police. We can only hope no one else becomes a victim of a man willing to kill.
Can we start buying the rights to his movie now? Outmanned 400 to 1, plus drones, plus webcams, dogs and who knows what else and he’s still on the loose?
Great summary and opinion piece. I would recommend you to be the screen writer for the docudrama that should be written. I’d like to be cast as one of the Keystone Cops…I’m used to running around in circles w/out success on the pickleball court.