Arkansas Residents On Edge After Violent Ex-Police Chief Escapes Prison

A former police chief serving a life sentence for murder and rape, dubbed the “Devil in the Ozarks,” escaped from an Arkansas high-security prison on Sunday by disguising himself as a law enforcement officer.

Grant Hardin, 56, was serving a 30-year sentence for the 2017 murder of James Appleton, a Gateway water department employee, and an additional 50 years for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher, according to a report by the Associated Press.

He escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit, a high-security facility in Calico Rock where he had been incarcerated since 2017, according to CNN.

Rand Champion, spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, confirmed Hardin wore a “makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement” during his escape, prison officials stated.

“That was not a standard inmate uniform, not a standard correctional uniform,” Champion said. “There’s nothing inside the prison that looks like that, so that’s one of the challenges we’re going through to find out what that was and how he was able to get that or manufacture it.”

Via the Arkansas Dept of Corrections on Facebook

Hardin had a short tenure as police chief for the small Arkansas town of Gateway in 2016, just a few miles away from Walmart headquarters, and throughout his law enforcement career, he was plagued with accusations of excessive force, bad performance, and eventually resigned as chief after he was caught falsifying a police report, according to The New York Times.

Authorities have deployed canines, drones, and helicopters to search the rugged Ozark Mountains terrain, with the search area expanding as time passes.

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Champion noted the region’s challenging topography, stating, “It’s called Calico Rock for a reason, because it’s very rocky,” adding that recent heavy rainfall has further complicated search efforts — although he added it could also hinder Hardin’s escape effort.

Izard County Sheriff Charley Melton urged residents to lock their homes and vehicles and call 911 if they notice anything suspicious.

Cheryl Tillman, sister of James Appleton, who Hardin murdered in 2017, expressed alarm about the escape since she and other family members were witnesses at Hardin’s trial, but she was not surprised upon hearing of Hardin’s escape.

“He’s just an evil man,” she said, per the AP. “He is no good for society.”

Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals with 30 years of experience handling escaped inmates, told the AP, “At some point in time, he’s going to run out of provisions.”

Though Caine isn’t involved in this manhunt, he noted that investigators are likely examining Hardin’s court documents and tracking individuals who might be assisting him. He added that it is extremely unlikely for Hardin to evade capture indefinitely in the isolated region, where he is likely to stand out in small, rural communities and be turned in by residents.

The ex-police chief’s notoriety in the region led to the production of a 2023 documentary titled “Devil in the Ozarks,” which chronicled his crimes.

Hardin’s escape comes just weeks after ten inmates fled a New Orleans jail by crawling through a hole behind a toilet. Eight of those fugitives have since been recaptured as of Tuesday.