Danelo Cavalcante Update Amid Reported Sighting of Escaped Convict

An "extremely dangerous" convicted killer who has been on the run since last week broke into a family's home as children slept upstairs, a shaken resident has claimed.

Police have been searching for Danelo Cavalcante, 34, since Thursday morning after the murderer managed to break out of Chester County Prison in Pocopson Township, Pennsylvania. He was serving a life sentence for stabbing his former girlfriend Deborah Brandao to death in a frenzied attack in front of her two young children in 2021.

A huge manhunt is currently underway as locals living in the area have been warned to stay inside with their doors locked, schools have been closed for the students' safety, and the U.S. Marshals Service has issued a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the escaped inmate's capture.

Cavalcante, who is believed to be hiding out in the area's surrounding dense woodland, is also wanted by authorities in his home country of Brazil, who are keen to question him over an unsolved murder there.

It remains unclear how the killer managed to break free from the Pennsylvania prison where he was being held as he awaited transfer to a state institution to serve his life sentence without parole.

Pennsylvania police have resorted to unusual tactics in a bid to flush him out, it emerged this week, with officers blasting an audio recording of his mother into the forest urging him to give himself up. So far, it has made little difference; he remains at large. It is unknown how he is obtaining food and water to survive.

One resident feared he had a brush with the killer, who he claimed entered his home to steal food during a terrifying encounter.

Ryan Drummond said he was convinced that Cavalcante was an intruder he saw inside his home before the weekend. The resident told local news channel ABC 6 on Monday that he was awoken by noises from downstairs at around 11:45 p.m. on Friday night.

"I woke up my wife and said, 'Hey, I think there might be somebody downstairs—get on the phone [to the police]!'" he said. To alert the intruder that he was awake, and in a bid to make him leave, he said: "What I decided to do was flip the light switch on and off, three or four or five times, [then I] paused—and then he flipped a light switch from downstairs three or four times. Which was the moment of, 'Oh my God this guy is down there.'"

Drummond's first thought was for his children, and he quickly made sure they were still asleep in their beds, but as he returned to keep watch he said he saw Cavalcante leave his kitchen and walk through the living room before leaving the house.

He said the criminal was wearing a white shirt and had a bag with him—which matches the description given by police searching for Cavalcante, who is still wearing prison-issue clothing.

He was last seen wearing prison-issue pants, a white T-shirt, white sneakers, and carrying a backpack. He is 5 feet tall and weights 120 pounds, with long, curly black hair, and brown eyes.

Police rushed to the family's home following the call, Drummond said, but were unable to locate the suspect. He added that a later inspection revealed the intruder had stolen some food: "Peaches, apples, [and] green snap peas were missing. We have a bunch of little steak knives and it's possible that he could also have taken one of those."

Police have confirmed that recent burglaries in the area "are of interest to us," but have not yet confirmed whether Cavalcante was behind them.

Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police said during a news conference on Monday that there have been four credible sightings of Cavalcante since he escaped. All are within a small search area, in which the Drummonds' house is located. The escapee has also been caught on surveillance camera footage.

Robert Clark, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, hoped that Cavalcante would surrender peacefully after hearing his mother's message in Portuguese echoing through the woods.

"As desperate as he is, maybe he has a change of thought and hears his mother telling him to surrender, and his family cares about him," Clark said. "Perhaps this is what puts him over the edge where we can get a peaceful surrender."

But Bivens warned that officials are authorized to use deadly force if they find Cavalcante and he does not give himself up.

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District and the Kennett Consolidated School District were closed on Tuesday as the search continues.

Residents who had left properties unattended over the Labor Day weekend were asked to alert local police so investigators could check whether Cavalcante had been squatting in an empty home.

Anyone with information about Cavalcante's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the U.S. Marshals' tip line at 877-WANTED-2.

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service Philadelphia by email for further information and comment about the search.

The prison break and subsequent manhunt comes just over a year after a Texas convict murdered a family of five while on the run. Gonzalo Lopez, who had been serving a life sentence for murder, escaped by stabbing a correctional officer while he was being taken to a medical appointment. He then killed the family before using their car to flee. He was later killed during his capture.