Escaped Chester County prisoner spotted near Longwood Gardens on Thursday afternoon, police say

The search for escaped Chester County prisoner Danelo Cavalcante ended its eighth day Thursday with news of a confirmed sighting of the convicted murderer near Longwood Gardens.

Cavalcante, 34, was seen by a resident running in a wooded area there just before noon, according to Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens, who is leading the search.

On Thursday evening, Longwood Gardens closed early and people still on the property were sheltering in place as law enforcement officials searched part of the grounds for Cavalcante, a spokesperson confirmed. Authorities were also searching barns around Lenape Road near Longwood’s property.

The area is not far from where a trail camera recorded Cavalcante hiking through the woods twice within an hour late Monday. Bivens said he and the hundreds of officers from local, state, and federal agencies have been emboldened by this latest sighting, the eighth credible one reported to them.

“This is an amazing operation going on here,” Bivens said Thursday afternoon at a news conference in West Chester. “This is not a situation where we have a police dispatcher sitting and waiting for calls to come in.”

The hunt for Cavalcante was boosted Thursday by the continued addition of state troopers from across Pennsylvania, including mounted units, Bivens said. Law enforcement officials are also deploying tracking dogs, tactical units, helicopters, and a variety of technology to aid in the search, which has included door-to-door searches of homes and businesses in the area, along with car stops of commuters to search the trunks of vehicles in the eight-mile area law enforcement officials are focusing on.

Freight trains passing through the county are also routinely being searched and secured, Bivens said, including one searched by officers Thursday afternoon.

» READ MORE: A Pocopson Township man who spotted an escaped inmate in May is frustrated by the ongoing hunt for Cavalcante

Bivens said he had “every reason” to believe that Cavalcante, who escaped from the Chester County Prison in Pocopson Township on Aug. 31, is still within the secure perimeter set up by law enforcement: There have been no sightings of him outside that area since they’ve expanded its reach.

There was no evidence that Cavalcante, who had reportedly broken into a few homes to steal supplies, had armed himself with any weapons, according to Bivens. His intended destination remained unclear, but Bivens has said he appeared to be heading south.

Bivens declined to comment on whether there was any indication that Cavalcante had received help from anyone or had made contact with family members who live in the area.

Meanwhile, Chester County District Attorney Deborah Ryan expressed frustration over Cavalcante’s escape from the prison, which he accomplished by using the exact same method as Igor Bolte, another inmate who briefly fled the facility in May.

“This is an outrage. This should never have happened,” Ryan said, noting that she led the prosecution of Cavalcante on first-degree murder charges and persuaded a jury to convict him earlier this month of killing his ex-girlfriend.

“We’re all upset, we’re all concerned, and there will be a thorough investigation” of how the escape occurred, she said, “and that will be made public at some point.”

But for now, she said, the priority is apprehending an elusive and dangerous criminal.

The family of Deborah Brandao, the woman Cavalcante killed outside of her home in Schuylkill Township in 2021, has been placed into protective custody, with an around-the-clock police detail, Ryan said. The family, including Brandao’s two children, has essentially barricaded themselves inside, fearful that Cavalcante might harm them, she said.

» READ MORE: Chester County man convicted of first-degree murder in killing of his ex-girlfriend

As the hunt for Cavalcante continued Thursday, some of the disruptions it had caused began to ease up. Longwood Gardens, reopened, as did some school districts that had canceled classes earlier in the week.

A mushroom festival planned for Friday night in Kennett Square also was was expected to go on as scheduled.

Bivens — who has led successful searches for the State Police before, including the 48-day search for Eric Frein in the Pocono Mountains in 2014 — said he has learned from past operations, and he and his colleagues won’t be deterred..

“We’ve chased people for a lot longer than this,” Bivens said. “He’s not going anywhere, and we will catch him.”