Homeowner Recalls ‘Acute Moment of Terror’ When He Discovered Escaped Prisoner Danelo Cavalcante in His Kitchen

A Pennsylvania homeowner came face-to-face with Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted murderer who escaped from a nearby prison, describing the encounter as an "acute moment of terror."

Ryan Drummond, who lives in Chester County in the area where authorities are are focusing their search for Cavalcante, said he and his family were in bed last Friday night around midnight when he heard a noise. 

"I went back to my wife and I said hey, 'I don't want to freak you out. But I think there might be somebody downstairs.' Grab your phone," Drummond said as he recounted his steps during an interview Saturday with CNN's Michael Smerconish.

From the upstairs hallway, he saw a door "slightly ajar" downstairs.

"That's when my stomach dropped. I ran down the hallway to sure all my kids were accounted for," he said. 

Drummond said he then heard a "little bit of shuffling" in the kitchen and immediately began looking around for a weapon to defend himself. 

"Ironically the only thing that I had there was a picture frame of my wife and kids. And when I grabbed it, I did like a Frisbee motion," he said. "In that moment, I realized how ridiculous it is to have this guy who's a murderer surrounded by steak knives because we did have steak that night."

Seeing a light switch nearby he "decided to flip the light switch on and off three or four times. And there was a little bit of a pause and then he flipped the light switch back at me from the kitchen. So that was kind of the acute moment of terror."

He turned to his wife, told her to call 911 and steeled himself for what might happen next. 

"I wasn't sure if he was going to come up the steps in which case I would ... have to go down and there'd be a confrontation. And in that moment I saw him walk out of the kitchen into the living room. Not even running, just kind of walking methodically. He had a white shirt, white bag, white hat and he went out the French doors," Drummond said.

Moments later the police arrived.

Cavalcante, 34, remains on the run more than a week after he escaped from the Chester County Prison on Aug. 31.

He broke out just days after he was sentenced to life without parole for killing his ex-girlfriend in 2021 by scaling a wall with his hands and feet.