(NewsNation) — Nine days after he escaped from a Pennsylvania prison, police are still searching for Danelo Cavalcante.
The Brazilian national was serving a life sentence for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, whom he stabbed more than 30 times.
Daniela Hernandez not only met Cavalcante several times, she considered herself a mother figure to the woman he killed. Hernandez described Cavalcante as a “violent” and “dangerous” man who police should take every precaution against.
“I think that if he does have an opportunity to get a knife or something and someone is around that he can use as a hostage, he will try to,” Hernandez said Friday on “CUOMO.” “I do think that he may be very aggressive or dangerous if (police) pick him up the wrong way.”
Police have been searching an area that now encompasses about 8-10 square miles in Chester County, west of Philadelphia. A massive botanical garden spanning some 1,000 acres said Thursday night it was closing indefinitely so police could search the property.
Cavalcante, 34, escaped from Chester County Prison on Aug. 31 by scaling a wall, climbing over razor wire and jumping from a roof. The breakout mirrored an earlier escape there in May and wasn’t detected by guards for a full hour, authorities said.
A corrections officer on duty when Cavalcante escaped was fired Thursday. He was an 18-year veteran of the prison.
Since the escape, there have been eight sightings that police believe could be Cavalcante, the latest around noon Thursday, said Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens.
Cavalcante received a life sentence last month for killing his ex-girlfriend in front of her children in 2021. He escaped while awaiting transfer to state prison. Prosecutors say he killed her to prevent her from telling police that he’s wanted in a 2017 killing back in Brazil.
Hernandez described another incident before the killing in which Cavalcante bit his ex-girlfriend’s lip so hard it began bleeding profusely. After that, she learned about the Brazil killing.
“She tried to use that (information) to protect herself more than anything, she was just trying to tell him ‘Don’t do anything to me because otherwise I’m going to go to the police,'” Hernandez said. “He only used that against her, to the point where the day he murdered her, he said, ‘If you rat on me, I’m going to kill you’ and he did.”
Authorities believe Cavalcante was trying to return to Brazil after his ex-girlfriend’s murder. He was initially captured in Virginia.
“I think he grew up in the woods and I think that he probably can stay several days as he is right now, hiding during the day and then walking at night time,” Hernandez said. “I’m praying he gets caught really soon.”
NewsNation staff members Taylor Delandro and Evan Lambert and the Associated Press contributed to this report.