Iracema Cavalcante speaks about her son Danilo Cavalcante’s escape from American authorities after being convicted of murder
Danilo Cavalcante, the prison escapee from Pennsylvania, has been wandering through wooded areas and small suburban towns for almost two weeks, presumably without shelter and with little to eat or drink, while evading the hundreds of police officers desperately searching for him.
Back in rural Brazil, his mother, Iracema Cavalcante, sees a son whose life has trained him to live alone and overcome adversity, preparing him for his long escape from the authorities after being convicted of his ex-girlfriend’s murder.
Iracema Cavalcante, a concerned mother
But Iracema, stating that her son stabbed his ex-girlfriend in Pennsylvania in 2021 and killed a man in Brazil in 2017, insists that Cavalcante, even while armed, “poses no threat to anyone.” She says he is only struggling to survive, as he has done for much of his life.
Cavalcante never attended school, she said, and started working at the age of 5. He first shined shoes, then sold vegetables in the market, and by the age of 7, he was working on someone else’s farm, his mother recounted.
Humble beginnings and hard work
“We are poor. We are humble. But we are hardworking,” Iracema said in an hour-long interview on Tuesday morning. “What we have, we fight to get,” she asserted.
Pennsylvania authorities have said that this upbringing likely made Cavalcante much harder to capture.
Trained by a tough life
“I’m not surprised that he can survive out there,” said Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police to reporters last week. “The goal here isn’t a competition of how much can you take from there? It’s: How much can we stress you? How much can we pressure you to make a mistake and catch you?” the officer added.
So far, Cavalcante has not made that mistake. On Monday night, however, he took a risk by entering an open garage to steal a rifle and was then attacked by the homeowner. But he escaped again and is now armed, increasing fears that he poses an even greater risk to the public.
The hunt for the fugitive
Cavalcante has been on the run since he scaled a wall to escape from the Chester County prison in Pennsylvania on August 31. He had just been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend in Pennsylvania in 2021. Authorities believe she had uncovered evidence that Cavalcante had also killed another person in Brazil in 2017.
Iracema did not contest her son’s guilt in the two murders. But she also argued that in both cases, he was cornered, suggesting that his ex-girlfriend had threatened to turn him in to the authorities and that the man he shot in 2017 wanted to kill him first.
Controversy surrounding the crimes
In the case of his ex-girlfriend, Cavalcante was convicted of stabbing her nearly 40 times in front of her children.
“Did it happen? It happened,” Iracema said. “But it happened because of the control she exerted over him, the stance she took with him.”
She added, “It wasn’t femicide. He had to do it; he had no other choice.”
Iracema said her son should face the consequences of his crimes. However, she argued that a life sentence—or death at the hands of the police—was unjust.
The dilemma of punishment
“If I said my son didn’t make a mistake, I would be lying,” she said. “I know what my son did was wrong. I know my son should pay for his mistake. But I want my son to pay for his mistake with dignity. Not with his life.”
The police are broadcasting an audio recording made by Iracema in vehicles and helicopters, in Portuguese, urging her son to surrender. Iracema said she had never spoken to the police, but they requested the audio through her daughter, who used to live in the United States but is now being deported.
Desperate plea
Later in the interview with Cavalcante’s mother, Iracema said she really thinks that, facing a life sentence, maybe it’s better for him to die now than to surrender.
“If it’s going to a place to suffer and die there, it’s better to die soon,” she said. “You don’t need to suffer so much.”
She said that, given his options, she was already losing hope. “Today, I see my son as dead,” she said. “In a strange place, trampled on, everyone lying about him, saying he’s something he’s not.”
A plea for forgiveness
Iracema said that if she could send a message to her son now, it wouldn’t be an appeal for him to surrender but rather that “he asks God to forgive him for what he’s done.”