Pit fall

The escape of a murder convict from a rural prison in  Pennsylvania, USA was as dramatic as his capture on Wednesday.

A prison camera showed Danelo Cavalcante, 34, climbing up to the prison roof by crab-walking —  bracing his arms and his legs against two opposite walls. Jumping from the roof, he slipped through razor wire and fled the compound into the woods, on 31 August.

In the next two weeks, he burglarized homes in South Coventry Township, Chester County for food, clothes and tools, even stealing a delivery van that he later ditched, and a rifle. The community of 2,600 was on edge as 500 law enforcement officers, including Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, US Marshals and a SWAT team cordoned off the area and combed the surrounding woods.

CNN regularly reported updates on the manhunt like  it was  a Netflix crime series.

Every time pursuers got close, the thick foliage in the secluded area allowed the 5-foot Cavalcante to slip through. Early Wednesday, a police helicopter detected a heat signal on the ground indicating his presence. Twenty police officers found Cavalcante sleeping with the stolen rifle beside him. He tried to crawled through the thick underbrush with the rifle in hand in one more  escape attempt.

Police released a dog which jumped on Cavalcante and bit him to prevent him from using the rifle. Police finally got their man, to the relief of the locals and the family of his victim.

In Salem, Oregon, an inmate at a psychiatric hospital being held on an aggravated murder charge made a daring escape even though his legs were shackled and his hands were cuffed,  a day before Cavalcante's jailbreak.

Christopher Pray, 39, hijacked a van for his getaway. Ditching the vehicle, he tried to cross a pond.

Pray realized too late that underneath the water, the pond was thick with mud. He  got stuck and slowly sunk into the mud up to his armpits. Shouting for help, firefighters came to his rescue. They brought him to a hospital not knowing that he was a fugitive.

He gave a different name to the hospital staff but one of them recognized him and alerted police, ending his shortlived freedom.