The disappearance of a convicted murderer who escaped a Pennsylvania state prison last week went unnoticed by guards for roughly an hour after he “crab-walked up a wall” and made a break for freedom, officials said Wednesday. At an afternoon press conference, authorities shared security footage of Danelo Cavalcante’s escape from custody. The video shows Cavalcante scaling a wall while parallel to the ground and vanishing from sight. Howard Holland, the special liaison for the Chester County Prison Board, explained that Cavalcante had subsequently “pushed his way through a razor wire, run across a roof, scale another fence, and [pushed] through more razor wire.” The razor wire had recently been replaced after a near-identical escape attempt in May by another inmate, Igor Bolte, according to Holland. However, unlike in Cavalcante’s case, Bolte’s bolt was observed by a guard in a lookout tower, and he was recaptured within minutes. The officer stationed in the tower during Cavalcante’s escape, who has not been identified, has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation and a criminal probe by the state attorney general’s office. The reward for Cavalcante’s recapture has been raised to $20,000.
