Sister of Brazilian fugitive Danelo Cavalcante arrested in Pennsylvania and could be deported
There is speculation that Eleni Cavalcante may have helped the convicted murderer after his escape from Chester County Prison.
The sister of Brazilian prisoner Danelo Cavalcante, captured Wednesday in Pennsylvania after nearly two weeks on the run, was arrested and faces deportation.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not specified the reasons for Eleni Cavalcante’s prosecution and limited itself to indicate that problems with immigration could lead her back to Brazil.
In a press conference on Sunday, three days before the arrest, the lieutenant colonel of the Pennsylvania State Police Department, George Bivens, also did not provide many details about the prosecution against the woman. It is not clear if the Latina is being tried for helping her brother during the period in which he was on the run from the Chester County Prison.
Unofficial information cited by local media points to the fact that Eleni may have connected her brother with people who helped him stay out of the law right after the 2021 murder of his ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao, a crime for which he was serving a life sentence.
As part of his testimony in the 33-year-old woman’s murder trial, Eleni’s boyfriend, Francisco Lima, recounted that he met with the killer after the crime, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Lima added that, together with another individual named Michael Scahill, he helped Cavalcante by cleaning and bandaging her hands that were injured in the middle of the stabbing. In addition, they provided him with clothes to change into and put gas in his car.
Lima also confessed in court that, before Cavalcante fled, he gave her a bag of money to give to her sister.
In exchange for their testimonies, both of Cavalcante’s accomplices were granted immunity and cleared of charges.
Cavalcante escaped from jail at about 8:15 a.m. on August 31.
For nearly two weeks, the fugitive managed to evade hundreds of state and federal officers who focused their search in a wooded area near Longwood Gardens. The criminal stole a pickup truck and drove through the Phoenixville area over the weekend. Along the way, he also stole a rifle from a home in East Nantmeal Township and a razor with which he shaved his mustache and beard. In addition, he knocked on the door of a home, images of which were captured by security cameras and provided to authorities.
Cavalcante, 34, scaled the prison by climbing up to the roof between two walls through the exercise yard without being detected by an officer in the prison watchtower.