Inmate who escaped Missouri jail captured in same county as Cavalcante, U.S. Marshals say
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An inmate who escaped from a Missouri jail in June was captured in Chester County on Thursday, just over a week after Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted murderer who escaped from prison, was taken back into custody in the same area, the U.S. Marshals said.
Mario Che-Tiul, the escaped inmate, was captured by U.S. Marshals in the unit block of Gap Newport Pike in Avondale at around 1:30 p.m. local time. The U.S. Marshals said they gathered information that Che-Tiul might be at the residence and surrounded the apartment. He was later taken into custody without incident.
Che-Tiul escaped from the Barry County Jail in Missouri with several others. The other prisoners were taken back into custody, but Che-Tiul remained on the run until he was found in Pennsylvania.
How did authorities find the fugitive?
Information was sent to the U.S. Marshals suggesting that Che-Tiul may be in the Philadelphia or New Jersey area. Leads led them to a home along Gap Newport Pike where he was living after finding work as a laborer and laying low.
"We proceeded to the address it was a large residence there were a lot of rooms filled with laborers from the county. We were able to talk to some of them and narrow down which room Che-Tiul was living in," Robert Clark, of the U.S. Marshals, said.
The inmates allegedly violently attacked two correctional officers before escaping.
"During this escape, two officers were choked unconscious. Five of the six escapees were caught relatively quick in Missouri. Mario Che-Tiul was the last fugitive to be sought," Clark said.
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Che-Tiul was reportedly booked into the jail last December on molestation and incest felony charges, according to CBS affiliate KOLR-TV. He was considered "armed and dangerous" by the Barry County Sheriff's Office.
The fugitive investigation was a joint effort by the U.S. Marshals Midwest Violent Fugitive Task Force, U.S. Marshals Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force, Immigration Customs Enforcement and the Chester County Criminal Investigative Division.
Did authorities use similar techniques to capture Cavalcante?
The arrest of Che-Tiul comes not long after the manhunt for Cavalcante lasted 14 days after he escaped from Chester County Prison on Aug. 31.
Che-Tiul was taken to the Chester County Prison, the same place Cavalcante escaped.
Investigators say the Cavalcante manhunt shifted their focus from Che-Tiul at one point.
"We were investigating him and then Cavalcante manhunt came up l and it slowed this investigation down a little but we immediately got back on it," Clark said.
When it comes to tracking down fugitives, the U.S. Marshals say in five months this is their fourth prison escapee arrest: two out of Philadelphia, one out of Chester County and one out of Missouri.
"There is no one we can't find and I think the Marshalls service today proved why we are the best in the business of finding people who do not want to be found," Clark said.
Che-Tiul was charged as a fugitive of justice and currently awaits extradition back to Missouri.
The search for Cavalcante had residents and businesses in the rural county on edge for two weeks.
Security footage and thermal cameras from the Drug Enforcement Administration played a big role in bringing Cavalcante back into custody.
Cavalcante was captured in South Coventry Township after he armed himself with a rifle following an incident where a homeowner fired several shots at the inmate.
The search involved local, state and federal law enforcement.
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Cavalcante was sentenced to life without parole for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, 38 times in the Phoenixville area in 2021 in front of her two young kids.
Cavalcante is now at SCI Phoenix Prison, a maximum-security prison in Montgomery County.
Also in Pennsylvania after Cavalcante's capture, nine teens escaped from Abraxas Academy, a juvenile detention center in Morgantown, Berks County, on Sunday.
The teens were also all caught on Monday.