Manhunt launched for ex-police chief known as 'Devil in the Ozarks'
after his escape from prison
[May 28, 2025]
By JEFF MARTIN and SAFIYAH RIDDLE
As law officers search Arkansas' rugged Ozark Mountains for a former
police chief and convicted killer who escaped prison this weekend by
impersonating a guard and walking out through a gate a guard opened for
him, the sister of one of his victims is on edge.
Grant Hardin, the former police chief in the small town of Gateway near
the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving lengthy sentences for murder
and rape and became known as the “Devil in the Ozarks.”
Hardin escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit — a medium-security
prison also known as the Calico Rock prison — by impersonating a
corrections officer “in dress and manner,” according to a court
document. A prison officer opened a secure gate, allowing him to leave
the facility.
Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of
Corrections, described the clothes as not a standard inmate or
correctional uniform.
“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," he said.
Champion said that the decision to house Hardin in a medium-security
facility weighed the “needs of the different facilities and inmates” and
“assessments” of his crimes.
Hardin's escape happened days after 10 men fled a New Orleans jail by
going through a hole behind a toilet. Eight of those fugitives have
since been captured.
Escape into rough terrain
Cheryl Tillman, whose brother James Appleton was killed by Hardin in
2017, said she and other relatives are alarmed by Hardin's escape since
they were witnesses in his court proceedings.
“We were there at his trial when all that went down, and he seen us
there, he knows,” she told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Authorities are using canines, drones and helicopters to search the
rugged northern Arkansas terrain, Champion said.
The search area has expanded as the hours have gone on, though Champion
didn't discuss exact details of the search area.
"Where this facility is located, the topography does provide
challenges," he said. “At the same time, it kind of limits where he is
able to get.”
“It's called Calico Rock for a reason, because it's very rocky,” he
added.
Video surveillance shows Hardin escaped at approximately 2:55 p.m. on
Sunday, Champion said. Officials announced his escape at approximately 5
p.m. that evening.
Complicating the search effort is the heavy rain that's fallen in recent
days in the area, he said.
Hardin’s escape into a rural part of the state isn’t necessarily an
advantage, according to Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S.
Marshals who has handled many cases involving escaped prisoners
throughout his nearly 30-year career with federal law enforcement.
“At some point in time, he’s going to run out of provisions,” said Caine.
“In more rural areas, most people know one another,” Caine said, making
it more likely that someone will identify Hardin and turn him in. “In
that aspect, it could be detrimental to him.”
[to top of second column]
|
This image provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections shows
Grant Hardin, a former police chief and convicted killer, escaping
the North Central Unit prison wearing a disguise in Calico Rock,
Ark. (Arkansas Department of Corrections via AP)
A rattled community
Izard County Sheriff Charley Melton and other local sheriffs urged
residents to lock their homes and vehicles and call 911 if they notice
anything suspicious.
Bryan Sexton, who prosecuted Hardin for both murder and rape, said that
his office has reached out to officers who investigated Hardin and
families affected by Hardin’s crimes, which were the focus of a 2023
documentary, “Devil in the Ozarks.”
“Making those contacts again with folks who have moved on with their
lives for the better part of a decade now and to have to be the one who
picks up the phone and reminds them of what has happened to them is
something that weighs heavily on me,” Sexton said.
Gateway, the town of about 450 people where Hardin briefly was the
police chief in 2016, is in the same large county as the headquarters of
retail giant Walmart in Bentonville. But Gateway and the northeast part
of the county is far more rural and remote than Bentonville. The
landscape only gets more rugged to the east, into the heart of the
Ozarks and the Buffalo National River, toward Izard County where the
escape happened.
Darla Nix, a local cafe owner in nearby Pea Ridge, Arkansas, said her
sons grew up around Hardin and knew him as a mostly quiet person before
he was convicted.
“He was always just one of the kids, a member of the community,” Nix
said.
Describing Hardin as a “very, very smart man,” Nix said she anticipates
that the search for Hardin will be challenging for law enforcement.
“He knows where the caves are. He’s just a survivor. He knows how to
make it. They’re going to have their hands full trying to catch him,”
Nix said.
Tillman said she wasn't surprised when she heard that Hardin had
escaped. But the news suddenly added fresh pain for her and other family
members after dealing with the grief from the killing.
“He's just an evil man,” she said. “He is no good for society.”
Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder for fatally
shooting Appleton, 59. Appleton worked for the Gateway water department
when he was shot in the head on Feb. 23, 2017, near Garfield. Police
found Appleton’s body inside a car.
Investigators at the time did not release a motive for the killing and
Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is also serving 50 years
in prison for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers,
north of Fayetteville.
Hardin had been held in the Calico Rock prison since 2017. The facility
has a capacity of about 800 inmates, according to the Arkansas
Department of Corrections.
___
Riddle reported from Montgomery, Alabama.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
