Escaped Pennsylvania inmate did so by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, prison official says

Residents in a suburban Philadelphia remain on edge as authorities continues searching for a convicted murderer who escaped from prison last week. (Sept.6) (AP Video:Tassanee Vejpongsa) Heavy Duty Steel Grating

Residents in a suburban Philadelphia remain on edge as authorities continues searching for a convicted murderer who escaped from prison last week. (Sept.6) (AP Video:Tassanee Vejpongsa)

A murderer on the loose in suburban Philadelphia escaped from a jail yard by climbing up a wall and over razor wire last week, prison officials said Wednesday. (Sept. 6)

As authorities have moved and expanded the search area for a convicted murderer who escaped from a suburban Philadelphia prison last week, residents living near the search area said they are taking extra precautions, locking their homes and staying in more populated areas. (Sept.5) (AP Video:Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Pennsylvania State police search the woods and a creek in Pennsbury Township, Pa., on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. Murderer Danilo Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. (Steven M. Falk/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

A biker passes by Pennsylvania State Police Officers blocking off a road as the search continues for the escaped murderer Danilo Cavalcante in Chadds Ford, Pa., on Wednesday, Sept., 6, 2023. Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. (Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

This photo provided by the Chester County, Pa., District Attorney’s Office shows escaped prisoner Danilo Cavalcante. Cavalcante, who was recently convicted of fatally stabbing his girlfriend, escaped Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, from a suburban Philadelphia prison and prosecutors say he is also wanted in his native Brazil in a separate slaying. (Chester County District Attorney’s Office via AP)

This photo provided by the Chester County Prison shows Danilo Cavalcante. Cavalcante, convicted this month of fatally stabbing his girlfriend escaped Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 from the suburban Philadelphia prison and prosecutors say he is also wanted in his native Brazil in a separate slaying. (Chester County Prison via AP)

Heavily armed law enforcement officers move along Rt. 52 as the search continues for Danilo Cavalcante in Pocopson Township, Pa., on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Prison. Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Longwood Gardens remains closed as the search continues for prison escapee, Danilo Cavalcante, in Pocopson Township, Pa. on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. Murderer Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Pennsylvania State Police block Creek Road in Chadds Ford, Pa. after a possible sighting as the search continues on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023 for Danilo Cavalcante who escaped from Chester County Prison. The State Police set up a 3-mile perimeter after the sighting of the escapee. (Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

The search continues for Danilo Cavalcante in Pocopson Township, Pa., on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. Murderer Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

This aerial photo shows Chester County Prison on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 in West Chester, Pa. Danilo Cavalcante, convicted this month of fatally stabbing his girlfriend escaped Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 from the suburban Philadelphia prison and prosecutors say he is also wanted in his native Brazil in a separate slaying. (WPVI-TV/6ABC via AP)

A vehicle leaves the Chester County Correctional Complex as the search continues for Danelo Cavalcante in Pocopson Township, Pa., on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Prison. Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

A heavily armed law enforcement officer runs on a potential sighting of Danilo Cavalcante in Pocopson Township, Pa. on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Prison last Thursday. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Police vehicles block a road near Chester County Prison where convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante escaped last week as they continue to search for him, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, in Pocopson Township, Pa. Officials expanded the zone they’re searching for him after he was spotted on cameras at Longwood Gardens, a botanical garden in the area. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Pennsylvania State Police Officers walk on a blocked off road as the search continues for the escaped inmate Danilo Cavalcante in Chadds Ford, Pa., on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. (Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Roads are blocked by officials near Chester County Prison where convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante escaped last week as they continue to search for him, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, in Pocopson Township, Pa. Officials expanded the zone they’re searching for him after he was spotted on cameras at Longwood Gardens, a botanical garden in the area. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Signs warning locals and drivers passing through to remain vigilant as the manhunt continues for the escaped murderer Danilo Cavalcante in Chadds Ford, Pa., on Wednesday, Sept., 6, 2023. Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. (Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A murderer made a brazen escape from a suburban Philadelphia jail yard by scaling a wall, climbing over razor wire and jumping from a roof in a breakout that wasn’t detected by guards for a full hour, authorities said Wednesday as the killer eluded a widening manhunt for a seventh day.

The timeline and details of Danelo Cavalcante’s escape — including that he got out using the same route another prisoner took in May — were released as police from various agencies flooded a search zone of increasingly worried residents. A tower guard on duty during the breakout was put on leave as part of the escape investigation.

The escape and search have attracted international attention and became big news in Cavalcante’s native Brazil. The main newspaper in Rio de Janeiro ran a lengthy story Wednesday with the headline “Dangerous hide-and-seek.”

Howard Holland, the acting warden of the Chester County Prison, played a security video at a news conference Wednesday. It shows the 34-year-old Cavalcante standing in a passageway next to the jail yard before bracing his hands on one wall and his feet on another then “crab-walking” up the walls out of the camera’s view.

Holland said the prison had brought in a consultant after the first escape in May and added razor wire to that area.

“What was perhaps overlooked was the fact that addressing the single point of physical countermeasures should have been bolstered by additional means. We are addressing that,” Holland said. He said the prison was fully staffed when Cavalcante broke out.

The prison is considering adding officers to the yard during recreation times, as well as caging in the top of those yards, Holland said. The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office has taken over the escape investigation, he said.

Holland said the inmate who escaped in May was returned within minutes after a tower guard quickly sounded the alarm. He said Cavalcante was identified as missing after a headcount, more than an hour after the video was taken. A public siren was sounded about 10 a.m.

Holland declined to say why the guard, whose name has not been made public, had not noticed Cavalcante hopping from the roof and heading away from the prison’s perimeter.

Cavalcante received a life sentence last month for killing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in front of her children in 2021, and escaped while awaiting transfer to state prison. Prosecutors say he killed her to stop her from telling police that he’s wanted in a 2017 killing back in Brazil.

He had been captured in Virginia after Brandao’s killing and authorities believe he was trying to return to Brazil.

Two suburban Philadelphia school districts remained shuttered and one of the nation’s premier botanical gardens was closed Wednesday as authorities kept up their search.

Cavalcante has been spotted six times since he escaped, most recently Tuesday night when he was seen in a residential area but soon disappeared into the woods. He had been spotted Monday night at Longwood Gardens, where trail surveillance video captured him walking through the garden’s grounds.

That sighting led officials to move the search area farther south Tuesday after they determined Cavalcante had likely slipped through the original perimeter set by hundreds law enforcement officers, including heavily armed police.

Authorities have urged residents to keep their homes and vehicles locked, to check the properties of vacationing neighbors and to look out for missing cars, bicycles or other transportation Cavalcante might use.

“It’s unnerving to know that I can’t stand in my backyard with my dogs. My husband has to come outside with me and, you know, it’s just an uneasy feeling,” said Danielle Lawrence, of Pocopson, which is near the county’s jail, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Philadelphia.

Ryan Drummond, whose Pocopson home was broken into late Friday by a man believed to be Cavalcante, voiced similar views. He believes Cavalcante came in through French doors that had a broken lock — and perhaps was nearby when his family was talking about the problem as they locked up the house that night.

“We’re still operating in this half-normal life right now, meaning the kids are off school. Parents are trying to do the COVID balance of working and managing their children,” Drummond said Wednesday.

The intruder left with “a peach, an apple, maybe a few snap peas” that he found on the kitchen counter, Drummond said, along with a white hat that he soon lost as he fled past a neighbor’s yard.

“Everybody wants this to be over,” said Drummond, who said his frustration lies not with the search efforts but with the prison. “How can it be going on almost a week at this point?”

Associated Press Correspondent David Biller contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show the name of the prison is Chester County Prison, not Chester State Prison.

Escaped Pennsylvania inmate did so by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, prison official says | AP News