The prison where former Kansas State Police Chief was imprisoned for murder escaped prison
Grant Hardin, a former Arkansas gateway, fled from the North Central troops in Calico Rock on May 25th.
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The former Arkansas Police Chief of Police, who fled from a prison where he served decades of sentences for murder and rape, was captured on June 6 after a 12-day manhunt involving federal, state and local law enforcement.
Grant Hardin, known as “The Devil of the Ozarks,” was arrested around local time, just a mile and a half from the prison where he escaped almost two weeks ago, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesmanland Champion. Hardin, 56, was thought to have I fled the state.
According to the Champion, the tracking dog picked up the west west side of the prison near Moccasin Creek in Izzard County. Photos of Hardin’s arrest show him wearing a gross shirt. His face looks thinner than his previous mug shots.
“Thanks to the great work of local, state and federal law enforcement, Arkansan can sigh for relief and make sure violent detective Grant Hardin is in custody,” said Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “We would like to thank all the law enforcement agencies who helped him capture him, and give a special thanks to the Trump administration and Secretary Christa Noem.
According to the Champion, agents from Arkansas law enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol took part in the arrest.
“It’s been a great joint operation by many agencies and I’m very grateful for their tireless efforts,” said Dexter Payne, director of the Arkansas Amendment Department. “The Arkansas State Police, the U.S. Former S., FBI, Border Patrol, Games, Fish, all state and local agencies, along with the dedication of employees in all departments, and I have expressed my extreme gratitude.”
Hardin had made infamous as the subject of the 2023 documentary, “The Devil’s Ozarks,” about the rape of a school teacher in 1997 and the murder of a water worker in 2017.
Hardin escaped from the prison of North Central Unit in Calico Rock, Arkansas on May 25th in a fake law enforcement uniform through a safe front door. His disguise led the corrections officer to open the gate and let him leave the medium security facility.
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The escape followed the escape of 10 New Orleans prisoners on May 16 – some of which were charged with murder, which attracted public attention and caused surprises in the local community.
Hardin was considered as dangerous as the fugitive. In 2017 he was found guilty of murdering James Appleton, a town employee of the town Gateway in the northwest Arkansas town where his brother-in-law Andrew Tillman was mayor. Tillman told investigators he was talking on the phone when Appleton was shot dead in a pickup truck.
DNA testing carried out after the murder connected Hardin to an unsolved 1997 rape in Rogers, Arkansas, according to an affidavit filed in the case. According to the affidavit, the teacher was attacked at a muzzle after leaving the classroom to go to the toilet near the classroom.
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Where did Hardin work in law enforcement?
Hardin’s total conviction, including two counts of rape, was added to his prison sentence up to 80 years.
“He’s a sociopath,” former Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith told Arkansas ABC affiliate KHBS/Khog. “All prisons aren’t full of bad people. It’s full of so many people who just do bad things. Grant is different.”
Hardin had a volatile career in Arkansas law enforcement in 1990, and after briefly serving as Gateway police chief in 2016, he worked at police stations in Fayetteville, Huntsville and Eureca Springs.
According to KHBS/Khog, he was fired from his job at Fayetteville after less than a year, after less than a year. In Huntsville, where he worked from April 1993 to October 1996, the former police chief told the television station that Hardin had used excessive force and made poor decisions.
He may be the latest to escape from the prison where he is currently facing charges.
Contributions: N’Dea Yancey-Bragg, Michael Loria and James Powel, USA Today
