A DEA aircraft equipped with a thermal imaging camera made a major breakthrough in this regard.
Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 8:27 pm
EAST NANTMELLE TWP., Penn. — Two weeks after breaking out of prison and evading police, Pennsylvania prison escapee Danilo Cavalcante was finally taken into custody by the one thing he couldn’t escape: his own body heat.
Multiple state, local and federal agencies were involved in the Chester County search.
It was a plane from one of those federal agencies, the Drug Enforcement Administration, that led to the big break in the case.
Video released Saturday by the DEA shows the moment Cavalcante, 34, was spotted Tuesday night in South Coventry Township.
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At first a small white blob can be seen in the video, but as the plane circles a tree and gets a better view, a bright human figure can be seen.
The plane was forced to land due to heavy weather that night, but authorities surrounded Cavalcante’s position and moved in to arrest him Wednesday morning.
Cavalcante tries to crawl away with a rifle he stole on the run, but a K-9 named Yoda overpowers him and eventually ends the search.
Cavalcante was convicted in 2021 of killing his ex-girlfriend in front of her children and was scheduled to be transferred to state prison.
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While in the Chester County Jail, he was able to crawl up a wall, across a roof and make his way through razor wire.
Cavalcante is now being held at Phoenix, a maximum security state correctional institution in Montgomery County.
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