Danelo Cavalcante

The Aftermath Paramedics rushed Brandão to Paoli Hospital in Chester County, where medical personnel officially pronounced her dead. Examiners found multiple stab wounds in her heart, kidneys, lungs, and liver. Cavalcante’s barbaric stabbing frenzy had caused Brandão to bleed out and die at the scene of the crime, right in front of her children. This harrowing display will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Brandão was only thirty-three years old at the time of her death. After Cavalcante fled the scene of Brandão’s murder, he called his mother and sister, confessing to the terrible crime he had just committed. From there, Cavalcante called Francisco Lima, a friend who lived with his sister. Lima testified that Cavalcante had asked him to meet at a Wawa convenience store in Frazer, another small town in Chester County. And Lima had done just that. At the Wawa, Cavalcante revealed to Lima that he had stabbed his girlfriend. Lima did not ask why, nor did he ask whether the woman was alive or dead. Instead, Lima got Cavalcante some water to wash his hands off and supplied him with a clean sweatshirt to replace the one soaked with Brandão’s blood. Cavalcante gave him a bag with thousands of dollars in cash, which Lima would then pass on to Cavalcante’s sister. The two would then drive to a storage facility to meet another acquaintance, Michael Scahill. The two friends helped Cavalcante, supplying him with clean clothes and Cavalcante’s fake ID, which he had obtained in Puerto Rico. They got him food from McDonald’s, helped Cavalcante clean his car, and then filled up his gas tank. Scahill was even able to dispose of Cavalcante’s blood-soaked clothes that he had worn during Brandão’s stabbing. The men then said their goodbyes, with Lima and Scahill reportedly telling Cavalcante to “disappear.” Cavalcante drove off as the two men watched, once again trying to put his gruesome past behind him.

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The Murder of Deborah Brandão