May 26 (UPI) — Authorites in northwest Arkansas are searching for a former police chief serving time for murder and rape who escaped from prison wearing a makeshift police uniform.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections said Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock in Izard County at approximately 3:40 p.m. CDT Sunday. Calico Rock is 126 miles north of Litle Rock.
The search, which was continuing Monday, is a joint effort of the Department of Corrections, Arkansas State Police, and local and state law enforcement.
The prison agency said he “was wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement” when he escaped. He was not wearing a prison guard uniform and all DOC-issued equipment has been accounted for.
Hardin was the former chief of police for the city of Gateway in Benton County, which had a population of 444 people in 2023. He also was a police officer, county constable and corrections officer. Gateway, which is near the Missouri border, is 129 miles west of Calico Rock.
Hardin is described as 6 feet, weighing approximately 259 pounds.
“Anytime there’s an escape, we consider that a threat to the public,” Rand Champion with the Arkansas Department of Corrections told KHBS-TV. “He does have a law enforcement background. Anytime something like this exists, we consider it a threat to the community.”
Since 2017, Hardin has been at the North Central Unit serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, as well as 25 years for each rape count.
He pleaded guilty to the murder of James Appleton, 59, a city water employee found shot in the face inside his work truck in October 2017, KNWA reported.
A witness told police that Appleton’s truck and a white sedan was seen on the side of the road. He said heard a loud boom and saw the sedan drive away. The witness found Appleton slumped over in the seat, with a gunshot wound to the head.
His DNA linked him to the rape cold case of a teacher in 1997, the TV station reported. Amy Harrison, a teacher at Frank Tillery Elementary in Rogers, was raped by a man with a gun at the school.
While preparing a lesson plan for the week, the teacher was ambushed.
“Grant Hardin, in my view and in my personal experience, is one of the most dangerous people that I ever seen for the reason that he does not at first appear that way,” Nathan Smith, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County at the time, said. “He is a man capable of a seemingly random, horrific murder as well as a random horrific rape.”
The sexual assault was profiled on the TNT series Cold Justice: Sex Crimes in 2015.