Manhunt for killer who ‘crab walked’ out of US prison

A murderer is on the run after escaping a US prison – and his extraordinary method was caught on camera.

Danelo Cavalcante, 34, was imprisoned at Chester County Prison in Pennsylvania last month after being found guilty of murdering his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandão, in 2021.

He made his escape last Thursday (August 31) by ‘crab-walking’ between two walls and up onto the roof of the prison – the same method used by another escapee in May.

The previous escapee, Igor Bolte, was caught less than a mile from the prison and razor wire was placed on the roof to ‘correct those vulnerabilities’ – which failed when Cavalcante made his escape, CNN reports.

The escape wasn’t spotted by a guard in a tower overlooking the exercise yard nor the officer monitoring the prison’s 160 cameras.

Acting prison warden Howard Holland said the tower guard is on administrative leave and their actions are being investigated.

Since his escape Cavalcante has been spotted multiple times on surveillance cameras – most recently on Tuesday as he moved into the woods near a house on the eastern side of the routinely growing search perimeter.

He’d also reportedly been spotted inside someone’s home.

Danelo Cavalcante looked through the door before beginning his climb (Picture: Chester County Prison / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

He crab-walked between the two walls before climbing onto the prison roof and making his escape (Picture: Chester County Prison / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

He escaped from Chester County Prison (Picture: AP)

Hundreds of officers have been called in to try and find him (Picture: AP)

Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens, of the Pennsylvania State Police, said: ‘We have a mix of very dense woodlands in places, and then a lot of residential property with many outbuildings, landscaping, a lot of places that would be very easy for someone to hide even when they’re not in the dense woodland and everything.

‘He has clearly already obtained some clothing and unknown other supplies and we want to minimize any opportunity to obtain anything more.

‘It is important that we keep pressure on him as we continue the hunt.’

Cavalcante has been spotted multiple times on CCTV (Picture: Pennsylvania State Police)

He was jailed for murdering his ex-girlfriend (Picture: Derek Reed)

So far investigators have found Cavalcante’s footprints, but are yet to find any items left behind by him.

Two school districts were forced to close and police are advising residents to keep their doors and cars locked.

Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said the prison is ‘very aware’ of the vulnerabilities it had.

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She added: ‘They have made efforts to correct those vulnerabilities.

‘We thought we took appropriate measures to prevent that with the razor wire.

‘Again, the one thing we didn’t take into account was a failure on the human element side, we only focused on the physical infrastructure and not necessarily the human element.’

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‘He has clearly already obtained some clothing and unknown other supplies and we want to minimize any opportunity to obtain anything more.’