For residents within a narrow area of South Coventry Township in northern Chester County that was the focus of the intense manhunt Tuesday for convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante, news of the escaped prisoner’s capture Wednesday morning felt like a heavy weight was lifted off their shoulders.
“I’ve been home from work the last two days and not sleeping,” said Sandy Brower, a resident of the South Coventry village of Coventryville, about 2 miles from where Cavalcante was captured. “In the daytime we can see everything but at night it was definitely scary.”
Brower wasted no time going for a walk after hearing news reports that Cavalcante was captured. She put on her walking shoes and headed out, trekking along Ridge Road, which is Route 23 where a half-dozen state police vehicles staged along the opposite shoulder.
The militarized police vehicles on Ridge Road and Route 100 stood in sharp contrast to the normally tranquil community.
“We live in a very safe community – we don’t even have local police here,” Brower said. “Just seeing all these things come in our area and literally knowing he was in our backyard was unnerving.”
Coventryville resident John Collier said the manhunt didn’t stop him from taking his daily walks, but it made his wife quite anxious.
As for himself, Collier wasn’t that worried about their safety. They live on the north side of Route 23, and he took comfort that troopers with long guns were a virtual fortress preventing Cavalcante from crossing the road.
Cavalcante was believed ‒ correctly, as it turned out ‒ to be on the south side of Route 23.
Cavalcante was ultimately captured on a homeowner’s property off Route 100 (Pottstown Pike), about a mile south of Route 23, just a 5-minute drive from where Collier lives and about 13 miles east of Morgantown.
The way the army of law enforcement squeezed Cavalcante into a small area struck Collier as similar to a fox hunt.
“I was sure they were going to get him,” he said.
Up-close look
With most roads in the 8-square-mile search zone closed, Owen J. Roberts School District shut down for the second consecutive day on Wednesday.
The traffic cones and barricades started to be removed about 9:30 a.m., although many people were driving around them once they heard Cavalcante had been captured.
Jim Martin, store manager at Little’s, a John Deere equipment dealer at 2555 Pottstown Pike, was on the loading dock in the rear of the store Wednesday about 8:30 a.m. as a team of law enforcement officers escorted a handcuffed Cavalcante across the field from a neighboring property where the prisoner had been captured.
Martin’s school-age son, Sean, was helping him clean up and shore up the back of the store so the escaped murderer wouldn’t be able to take refuge there. The store was closed Tuesday and through Wednesday morning.
Martin said Cavalcante looked ragged and defeated.
“I think he realized he was done,” he said. “Thirteen days? How much did he eat or drink? He wasn’t going to get out.”
Little’s was swarmed with news vans and cameras after word spread that the dragnet ended very close to the store. Martin planned to reopen the store at noon Wednesday.
Residents familiar with the lay of the land in northern Chester County said it was of little surprise to them that he was found in the area of Prizer Road and Route 100.
Staying informed
Joe Rooney of nearby Spring City said most of the secondary roads are gravel.
“This is one of the more rural pockets of the entire area,” he said while fueling his vehicle at the 7-11 store at Routes 23 and 100.
Rooney followed the events closely, even monitoring a police scanner and some YouTube channels that provided up-to-the-minute information.
He said it was a challenge balancing the need to be well-informed and alert as a citizen to help police with tips while maintaining his mental well-being. Neither he nor his wife slept much the past two nights.
Rooney was dialed in on the scanner when Cavalcante was captured. He said it was 8:17 a.m.
Offered a tip
Maryanne Yackel of South Coventry says she told a trooper on Tuesday, the day before Cavalcante was captured, that the escaped prisoner might be hiding on a property along Prizer Road. She looked at buying the property, which has a springhouse and other features that would attract someone on the lam.
She said the trooper wrote down her tip and is not sure what he did with it.
Yackel, like many residents in the area of the most recent dragnet, said they found the events exhilarating.
She’s been reading stories about Cavalcante, including an interview with his mother that described how he grew up in poverty and the struggle for survival for him is second-nature. That his most recent struggle for survival took place in her affluent community engendered some sympathy from her, even though she’s reminded that he is a convicted killer.
Yackel said she was relieved Cavalcante wasn’t killed.
The businesses in the nearby Shoppes of Pughtown, as with many other businesses along Routes 100 and 23, showed no signs of activity late Wednesday morning.
‘Kind of terrifying’
Ann Labar Russek, who lives in North Coventry Township along the South Coventry line, said the shutdown of the schools reminded her of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.
“Initially, it was like, ‘Oh, wow, exciting’ but five minutes later, ‘Oh, wait’ because we’re in the woods,” she said. “Depending on how well he could get around it would be easy for him to get in our backyard.
“It was on and off kind of terrifying, especially once he got armed.”
The location of Cavalcante’s capture is just 3 road miles, and much closer as a bird flies, to Labar Russek’s home.
“Pretty much every search place they were doing yesterday (Tuesday) was within 2 and 4 miles from our house,” she said. “Their first sort of headquarters was at the French Creek Elementary School, which was where my kids went and is right down from our house. Copters were circling for most of the day.”
