Pennsylvania police are trying to convince an escaped prison inmate to turn himself in by broadcasting a message from his mom

• Convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante escaped from a Pennsylvania prison last week.
• Since then, police have kicked off a manhunt for him and say he's been spotted multiple times.

Authorities searching for an escaped Pennsylvania prison inmate have been using an unusual method to get him to surrender: broadcasting a recording from his mother urging him to turn himself in.

Danelo Cavalcante, a 34-year-old convicted murderer who is also wanted for homicide in his native Brazil, busted out of the Chester County Prison last Thursday. Since then, he's been spotted multiple times in Pennsylvania's Pocopson Township less than two miles from the prison, authorities have said.

Authorities described Cavalcante as "extremely dangerous."

To try to get Cavalcante to turn himself in as law enforcement continues to search for him, authorities have been using a helicopter and patrol cars to broadcast his mother's message Portuguese pleading with him to surrender.

US Marshals Supervisory Deputy Robert Clark told reporters during a Monday press briefing that authorities have blared out the recording from Cavalcante's mom "in hopes that, perhaps, as desperate as he is, maybe he has a change of thought and hears his mother telling him to surrender and his family cares about him."

"He's desperate, he's hungry, he's been in the woods, he's dirty," Clark said. "Perhaps this is what puts him over the edge where we can get a peaceful surrender."

In the message, Clark said Cavalcante's mother is "just encouraging that his family loves him and that she wants him to surrender and that's what our hope is as well."

Cavalcante was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the 2021 killing of his ex-girlfriend and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Police announced on Tuesday morning that the search area for Cavalcante expanded to include areas around Longwood Gardens after Cavalcante was spotted twice on a trail camera there on Monday night.

"He's a bad guy, he needs to be in custody, and we're determined to capture him," Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said Tuesday.