Killer Danelo Cavalcante admitted a horrific escape plan after living on melon for two weeks following the prison break
Escaped convict Danelo Cavalcante revealed his escape plan to investigators after his arrest.
Cavalcante was discovered on September 13th after a two-week ordeal after escaping from the Chester County Jail on August 31st.
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Last month he was found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao in front of her children in 2021 and received a life sentence.
The condemned man escaped Pennsylvania Prison by running like a crab up a wall, scaling a barbed wire fence and running across the roof of the prison undetected.
He continued to evade police for two weeks.
The intense manhunt ended when tactical teams released a K9 that bit Cavalcante, leading to his arrest.
But shortly beforehand, when Cavalcante began to realize that the authorities were on his trail, he formulated a new plan.
Cavalcante told investigators that before his arrest, he had planned to rob someone within 24 hours and try to escape to Canada or Puerto Rico.
“He said the law enforcement presence in that area was becoming too intense and he felt he needed to leave the area,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Cavalcante has also since said he survived by eating watermelon – which he allegedly hit on his head – and drinking from streams.
“I don’t know if he was particularly skilled. He was desperate,” State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said after Cavalcante’s capture.
“You have a person who has the choice of going back to prison and spending the rest of your life somewhere you don’t want to be or continuing to try to evade capture.
“He chose to evade capture.”
Cavalcante further revealed that he stayed in the same place for days and only moved at night.
He hid in the thick foliage to avoid capture – although search parties almost found him three times.
The escaped convict even hid his own feces under leaves to cover his tracks.
He also revealed to investigators that he had stolen a backpack containing a razor and used it to alter his appearance.
Cavalcante also obtained boots and reportedly stole a dairy delivery truck, which he only abandoned when it ran out of fuel.
Just two days before his capture, Cavalcante stole a .22 caliber rifle and ammunition from a home with an open garage.
“He said, ‘I knew I had to pay for what I had done. However, I wasn’t willing to pay with my life,” Clark said.
Hundreds of local, state and federal officials banded together to find him.
Residents in the area where the search was conducted reported seeing police armed with weapons sleeping on their properties.
“A lot of neighbors had a police officer with a machine gun on their deck while they were sleeping,” resident Jennie Brown told the local Fox affiliate WJW.
“I have never felt so scared and safer at the same time. It’s a really strange feeling.”
After speaking with investigators, Cavalcante was taken to a state prison outside Philadelphia.