At a little after eight a.m. on Sept. 13 – after a two-week manhunt for Danilo Cavalcante employed more than 500 members of local, state and federal law enforcement and held all of Chester County in the grip of fear and awe – the escaped fugitive was captured in South Coventry Township, hiding near a large pile of logs behind a John Deere store.

Accompanying a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Unit was a K-9 corps from the U.S. Border Patrol Sector Canine Unit in Detroit, Mich. that included Yoda, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois.  

As Cavalcante feverishly attempted to crawl away from the scene, Yoda was released to attack and bit the convicted murderer on his head and his leg. Cavalcante, then bleeding from his head and with no other recourse but to surrender, did so. 

Yoda’s role in capturing Cavalcante may have saved human lives. At an interview with authorities at the Pennsylvania State Police in Avondale shortly after his capture, Cavalcante said that he was planning to carjack a vehicle and escape to Canada.

Instead, he was quickly transferred to S.C.I. Phoenix, a maximum-security facility in Montgomery County, where he will serve out the remainder of a life sentence without parole for the killing of his former girlfriend Deborah Brandão in 2021, in front of her children.

Over the course of the next 24 hours, the story of Yoda had gone viral around the world. Contributions to the Border Patrol in Detroit escalated, and he became the momentary darling of the media, as requests for interviews with the agency flooded in. Recently, Chester County detective David Nieves personally delivered two signed photographs of Yoda and its handler to Brandão’s six-year-old son, Yan and his nine-year-old sister, Yasmin, who now live with their aunt in Phoenixville.

Very soon, the Brandão siblings will be receiving another gift from a prominent pet portrait artist in Chester County – as will the U.S. Border Patrol Sector Canine Unit in Detroit.

‘I knew I wanted to paint him’

For two harrowing weeks, pet portrait artist LouLou Clayton watched the Cavalcante manhunt unfold from her Kennett Square home, while the roads in her area were either shut down to vehicular traffic or highly monitored by law enforcement. In the days immediately following Cavalcante’s capture, Clayton began to learn about the heroism of Yoda through accessing “All Things Chester County” on Facebook.

“I was painting a portrait, and when I heard that there was a canine involved in Cavalcante’s capture, I just completely clicked in and stopped everything to learn more about the dog, and then I knew I wanted to paint him,” she said. “I learned that the Belgian Malinois is a popular canine rescue dog, that their personalities are perfect for the aggressive and focused work they do, and because they are fairly small, they have the ability to meander their way through underbrush.

“I learned a lot about how all of these networks [involved in the capture] were able to work together, and then I started making calls to different canine units in Detroit.”

Eventually, Clayton connected with the supervisor of the U.S. Border Patrol Sector Canine Unit where Yoda lives and told him that she would like to create a portrait of the canine and send it to the unit. She then connected with the unit’s public relations coordinator, who expressed the staff’s thanks to her. 

Working from the photograph that was made available to the public soon after Cavalcante’s capture, Clayton began to develop the portrait by studying Yoda’s “personality.”

“In the photograph I was able to reference, I immediately saw that he is just focused and determined,” Clayton said. “I really work on evoking emotions and with every painting I do, I want to learn something more about that animal’s back story. I did research on Yoda prior to starting the portrait, so by the time I started painting, I already had his story in my head.”

While Clayton is preparing to ship the original painting to the canine unit in late October, she will display the portrait at the Kennett Library & Resource Center from Oct. 5 through Oct. 7. Soon after the portrait arrives in Detroit, Clayton will begin work on her second painting of Yoda, which she will give to the Brandão children as a Christmas gift – one that she hopes to have signed by the dog’s handler.

“Through the family’s spokesperson, I found out that Yan loves the name ‘Yoda’ because he loves Star Wars,” said Clayton, who over her six-year artistic career has completed well over one thousand pet portraits. “Being able to use my art to give those children just a bit of happiness this holiday season is really the purpose and meaning of what my art is all about.” 

Clayton’s portrait of Yoda will be on display at the Kennett Library & Resource Center from Oct. 5-7. To learn more about LouLou Clayton, visit www.loulouclayton.com.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].