A manhunt is underway for a former Arkansas police chief who killed the small town mayor’s brother and escaped from prison disguised as a corrections officer.
Grant Hardin, 56, nicknamed the ‘Devil in the Ozarks’ based on a 2023 TV documentary, managed to flee the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock on Sunday afternoon.
Hardin slipped out wearing a ‘makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement’ shortly before 3pm, according to the state Department of Corrections.
‘Inmate Hardin impersonated a corrections officer in dress and manner causing the Corrections Officer operating a secure gate to open the gate and allow Inmate Hardin to walk away from the North Central Unit,’ stated Izard County Sheriff’s Office Special Agent Dennis Simons in an arrest affidavit.
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CCTV footage showed Hardin pushing a loaded cart while making his escape.
Hardin was gone for roughly 20 minutes before prison staff realized he had vanished, according to corrections department spokesperson Rand Champion.
How Hardin got his hands on the guard uniform and reached the exit has not been disclosed.
Hardin’s escape has his murder victim’s sister, Cheryl Tillman, and residents of Gateway where he briefly served as police chief, on edge.
‘To know that he is out on the loose is very scary,’ said Tillman, who is mayor of Gateway.
‘He’s just an evil, evil man.
‘I’m sure the people here in Gateway are worried about him breaking out of prison after what he’s done.’
Hardin pleaded guilty to the 2017 murder of James Appleton, whose brother-in-law, Andrew Tillman, was mayor at the time.
Andrew said that he was on the phone with Appleton, who worked for the town’s water department and was driving his truck, when he heard a door slam loudly.
‘That was it,’ said Andrew, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Appleton was discovered dead inside his truck with a gunshot on the left side of his head.
Hardin was convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was also convicted of raping a school teacher in 1997.
He served as police chief of the town off an only two-lane highway for roughly four months in 2016. Hardin held several other roles in law enforcement in the area and was in many cases fired or forced to step down.
Cheryl, who sat on the city council when Hardin served as police chief, said he was ‘always angry’ and ‘very arrogant’.
‘We told the mayor at the time that it was time to get rid of him,’ she said.
‘James was our maintenance guy at the time and he always felt James was who got rid of him, got him fired, which was not true. It was the city council’s choice.’
Gateway and Calico Rock are about 130 miles apart and separated by vegetation of the Ozarks.
Local, state and federal officials are searching for Hardin. But poor weather has stopped them from deploying helicopters and drones, Champion said on Wednesday.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to Hardin’s capture and arrest.
‘Anxiety is still high,’ Cheryl said on Wednesday.
‘I think everybody’s still on alert, being vigilant, doing every precaution that they can.’
Hardin escaped nine days after seven ‘armed and dangerous’ inmates in New Orleans fled to freedom through a wall behind a toilet.
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