An escaped murderer from a prison has terrorized half of Pennsylvania

A week earlier he had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. What did he have to lose? He killed her girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, with 38 stab wounds in front of her 4 and 7-year-old children. His sister, Sarah Brandao, is one of the most terrified, now that she knows she’s around, but not the only one.

Authorities have asked all residents within a perimeter of more than four square miles to remain indoors with doors and windows closed, despite record-breaking temperatures that render infrared cameras useless and dogs exhausted. In the areas where he has been seen recently – at least five credible, says the Police, according to which he enters houses to steal food – there are checkpoints every 50 meters. Agents search cars and trunks to make sure you’re not hiding in the underbody of a car or intimidating drivers.

Half of the six schools in the county remain closed. The neighbors go in a group to the supermarket or the pharmacy, the only activities allowed, as if this were the peak of the pandemic. They take the dogs for walks as a family and not even the postman dares to make the rounds. Nobody sleeps at night. Any creak makes them jump out of bed. And by day the roar of the helicopters drives them crazy. On Wednesday, police added loudspeakers with recordings of the murderer’s mother asking him in Portuguese to turn himself in.

It moves at night

The area is surrounded by a dense forest mass and the fugitive travels at night, from what has been seen on security cameras. It is believed that he was heading south, perhaps in the direction of the Mexican border to return to Brazil, where he is also wanted for killing a mechanic who stole his car and phone with six shots. He entered the United States illegally via Puerto Rico and while he could have started a new life in Pennsylvania, the wrath of his own demons soon cut it short.

Brandao says that at first he was sweet and kind to his sister and her children, although silent and withdrawn. Quarrels, jealousy, mistrust, and bullying soon began. When he drank from her “she was another person” .. he came to bite her, take her out of the house by her hair and beat her, until she obtained a restraining order that he did not respect. The theory is that she, also a 33-year-old Brazilian, discovered that she had a search and arrest warrant for her in her country and threatened to turn him over to the authorities. The trial lasted three days and in just 15 minutes the jury unanimously concluded that she was guilty.

Now it’s somewhere just 28 miles from Philadelphia and very close to the Delaware border, where President Joe Biden has his residence. If she were to sneak on a train she could soon be in New York, the city where Deborah is seen among the skyscrapers, frozen in time, in a photo of her last happy moments with her killer. The $20,000 reward on offer for her capture is a lure, but her real motivation is to end the nightmare of finding him out.