Escaped killer Danelo Cavalcante learned to dodge authorities while hiding out in Brazilian wilderness after earlier slay

The pint-sized killer still on the lam after escaping a Pennsylvania prison last month learned to dodge authorities while hiding out in the wilderness of Brazil — to avoid another murder rap.

Danelo Cavalcante, 34 — who infamously crab-walked up two walls at Chester County Prison to escape Aug. 31 — spent weeks in 2017 hiding out in the rural fields and ranches outside Figueirópolis, a small town in central Brazil.

The 5-foot-tall killer had fled after allegedly gunning down a friend in a dispute over car payments.

“Once you get out, it’s just ranches and bush beyond here. It’s not hard to disappear,” Figueirópolis priest Kelton Meneses told the New York Times.

Cavalcante — who was behind bars in the US for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in 2021 — had moved with his mother and brother to the Brazilian community about a year before he allegedly killed his pal over money.

Calvacante toiled on a ranch and earned a reputation as a hard worker — but also somebody you didn’t want to cross, residents said.

“He kept to himself, didn’t talk much,” said Evaldo Alves Feitosa. “He didn’t look you in the eye.”

Carlos Humberto Jacob, a friend of Cavalcante’s victim, said, “He had this reputation that he kept a lot of guns at home.

“People used to say he had heavy weapons at the ranch.”

The pal who Cavalcante is accused of killing in Brazil, Valter Júnior Moreira dos Reis, was a beloved member of the community.

Their friendship went south after Moreira reportedly damaged Cavalcante’s car while borrowing it, then failed to pay for repairs, according to police.

The dispute escalated, and Cavalcante began to threaten Moreira’s life.

“He kept saying, ‘I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you,’ ” Moreira’s sister told the Times.

One night in November 2017, Cavalcante allegedly confronted Moreira in the middle of town and gunned him down, killing him with six shots.

Cavalcante then disappeared into the ranchlands among the area’s remote rural towns.

“When you’re used to the ranch, you know how to hide. He spent a lot of time in the bush,” longtime Figueirópolis resident Raimundo Campos dos Santos recalled about the search.

Cavalcante eventually made his way to the United States using a false identity, according to the Times.

In April 2021, Cavalcante was living in Pennsylvania when he stabbed his girlfriend, 33-year-old Deborah Brandao, to death while her young son and daughter were present.

He took off again after the brutal murder, eventually being captured in Virginia and locked up in Chester County Prison.

A week after being sentenced to life in August, Cavalcante escaped — and has been on the run ever since.

Police have said the diminutive perp is “armed and extremely dangerous” after he was spotted stealing a rifle out of a Pennsylvania homeowner’s garage Monday.

“We have always considered him to be a risk. We just now absolutely know that he has a weapon,” Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a press conference Tuesday. “He’s killed two people before.”

Hundreds of armed police officers and SWAT teams have been scouring the Pennsylvania countryside for Cavalcante, who has been spotted on home-security footage having changed his appearance with a cleanly shaven face.