Escaped prisoner Danelo Cavalcante captured: What he told investigators about his plans

If search teams dedicated to hunting down convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante hadn't captured him when they did, he may have already committed more violence by Thursday, he told investigators. 

The escaped prisoner was calm and collected while being questioned after his arrest early Wednesday, but he said he had an imminent plan to use the rifle he stole from a homeowner earlier this week to stage an armed carjacking and flee the area, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark told USA TODAY. 

His end game: take a vehicle north to Canada or possibly try to get to Puerto Rico.

"That's why he was so intent on having that firearm," Clark said.

Instead, police were able to quietly close in on Cavalcante Wednesday after 8 a.m., capping a nearly two-week ordeal that drew hundreds of law enforcement officers and rattled residents. A plane using thermal imaging technology spotted Cavalcante's heat signal overnight, and by morning, crews were surrounding him.

“They had the element of surprise,” Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a news conference after the arrest. “Cavalcante did not realize he was surrounded until that had occurred.”

Still, Cavalcante kept trying to escape, crawling through the underbrush with the rifle. It took the bite of a police dog to ultimately subdue him, Bivens said.

"He definitely was going to continue to try to evade law enforcement, Clark said. "He was going to run 'til the wheels fell off."

Interrogation revealed escapee was motivated to outrun police

Cavalcante, 34, had just been sentenced to life in prison without parole and was being held at Chester County Prison when he escaped Aug. 31 by crab-walking up two walls from an exercise yard, pushing through razor wire and running across a roof. He was set to be transferred to a state correctional facility soon, officials have said.

He had recently been convicted of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in front of her two young children in 2021 and was wanted for another murder in his home country of Brazil.

He was desperate − and showed no signs of slowing down on his run from law enforcement, Clark said.

"He said that he knew we had to pay for what he had done. However, he wasn't willing to pay for it with his life," Clark said.

Cavalcante was taken to state police barracks in Avondale to be questioned Wednesday morning. He was hungry and was given food and medical attention, Clark said, and was cooperative with investigators questioning him.

"He was willing to talk," Clark said. "There was really no attitude, there was no resistance to the questions. He answered everything to the best of his ability."

Cavalcante survived off watermelons, stolen supplies

Cavalcante told investigators he took measures to avoid capture as much as he could. He only moved around under the cover of nightfall. He hunkered down among thick vegetation to stay out of sight. He traveled along tree lines. When he saw lots of police activity nearby and helicopters overhead, he would hunker down for long periods of time.

He even buried his own fecal matter so investigators couldn't detect him, Clark said.

He survived by eating watermelons he said he found growing in the brush and drinking stream water, he told investigators. He broke into houses to recover supplies. In one house, he stole some fruit. From another, a pair of boots. Early on in the escape, he obtained a backpack that had a single razor in it, which he used to shave his face.

"This was just a desperate man. No resources. He didn't have any communication devices on him. He said nobody on the outside was helping him," Clark said.

On a few occasions over the last two weeks, Cavalcante claimed searchers and dogs were within 8-10 yards of "stepping on him," Clark said.

With such a large search area, spanning neighborhoods and rural areas with thick vegetation, Clark said it was very difficult to track the escapee.

"It's the proverbial finding the needle in the haystack, and we found the needle a few times, it's just we couldn't dial in on it," Clark said.

Meet Yoda, the dog who helped take down the fugitive

It was 4-year-old Yoda, a Belgian Malinois, who helped take Cavalcante down once and for all.

Yoda is a search dog and part of a Border Patrol Tactical Unit, called BORTAC. Yoda was deployed on Cavalcante after he didn't comply with verbal commands, Clark said. As Cavalcante tried crawling away, the dog bit him on the scalp.

He was also bitten in a lower extremity, Clark said, as dogs are trained to bite and hold onto subjects. That's when Cavalcante finally began to submit.

Footage showed Cavalcante with blood on his face, wearing long pants, boots and a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt during his arrest.

Search dogs were an integral part of the two-week manhunt, slogging through at times difficult conditions. Heat indexes on some days were over 100 degrees, and one dog was hospitalized earlier in the search because of heat illness but recovered.

Yoda was not hurt during the apprehension and is being hailed as a hero and a good boy.

'We can put his all behind us:'Pennsylvania communities relieved after Danelo Cavalcante captured