As regulation officers search Arkansas’ rugged Ozark Mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped jail this weekend by impersonating a guard and strolling out by means of a gate a guard opened for him, the sister of one in every of his victims is on edge.
Grant Hardin, the previous police chief within the small city of Gateway close to the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving prolonged sentences for homicide and rape and have become referred to as the “Satan within the Ozarks.”
Hardin escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit — a medium-security jail often known as the Calico Rock jail — by impersonating a corrections officer “in gown and method,” in keeping with a court docket doc. A jail officer opened a safe gate, permitting him to go away the power.
Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Division of Corrections, described the garments as not a typical inmate or correctional uniform.
“There’s nothing contained in the jail that appears like that, in order that’s one of many challenges we’re going by means of to search out out what that was and the way he was capable of get that or manufacture it,” he mentioned.
Champion mentioned that the choice to accommodate Hardin in a medium-security facility weighed the “wants of the totally different services and inmates” and “assessments” of his crimes.
Hardin’s escape occurred days after 10 males fled a New Orleans jail by going by means of a gap behind a rest room. Eight of these fugitives have since been captured.
Escape into tough terrain
Cheryl Tillman, whose brother James Appleton was killed by Hardin in 2017, mentioned she and different family members are alarmed by Hardin’s escape since they had been witnesses in his court docket proceedings.
“We had been there at his trial when all that went down, and he seen us there, he is aware of,” she advised The Related Press on Tuesday.
Authorities are utilizing canines, drones and helicopters to look the rugged northern Arkansas terrain, Champion mentioned.
The search space has expanded because the hours have gone on, although Champion didn’t talk about actual particulars of the search space.
“The place this facility is situated, the topography does present challenges,” he mentioned. “On the similar time, it type of limits the place he is ready to get.”
“It’s known as Calico Rock for a purpose, as a result of it’s very rocky,” he added.
Video surveillance reveals Hardin escaped at roughly 2:55 p.m. on Sunday, Champion mentioned. Officers introduced his escape at roughly 5 p.m. that night.
Complicating the search effort is the heavy rain that’s fallen in current days within the space, he mentioned.
Hardin’s escape right into a rural a part of the state isn’t essentially a bonus, in keeping with Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals who has dealt with many circumstances involving escaped prisoners all through his almost 30-year profession with federal regulation enforcement.
“Sooner or later in time, he’s going to expire of provisions,” mentioned Caine.
“In additional rural areas, most individuals know each other,” Caine mentioned, making it extra possible that somebody will establish Hardin and switch him in. “In that side, it may very well be detrimental to him.”
A rattled group
Izard County Sheriff Charley Melton and different native sheriffs urged residents to lock their houses and automobiles and name 911 in the event that they discover something suspicious.
Bryan Sexton, who prosecuted Hardin for each homicide and rape, mentioned that his workplace has reached out to officers who investigated Hardin and households affected by Hardin’s crimes, which had been the main focus of a 2023 documentary, “Satan within the Ozarks.”
“Making these contacts once more with people who’ve moved on with their lives for the higher a part of a decade now and to should be the one who picks up the telephone and reminds them of what has occurred to them is one thing that weighs closely on me,” Sexton mentioned.
Gateway, the city of about 450 folks the place Hardin briefly was the police chief in 2016, is in the identical giant county because the headquarters of retail large Walmart in Bentonville. However Gateway and the northeast a part of the county is way extra rural and distant than Bentonville. The panorama solely will get extra rugged to the east, into the guts of the Ozarks and the Buffalo Nationwide River, towards Izard County the place the escape occurred.
Darla Nix, an area cafe proprietor in close by Pea Ridge, Arkansas, mentioned her sons grew up round Hardin and knew him as a largely quiet particular person earlier than he was convicted.
“He was at all times simply one of many youngsters, a member of the group,” Nix mentioned.
Describing Hardin as a “very, very sensible man,” Nix mentioned she anticipates that the seek for Hardin will probably be difficult for regulation enforcement.
“He is aware of the place the caves are. He’s only a survivor. He is aware of the right way to make it. They’re going to have their palms full attempting to catch him,” Nix mentioned.
Tillman mentioned she wasn’t shocked when she heard that Hardin had escaped. However the information abruptly added contemporary ache for her and different relations after coping with the grief from the killing.
“He’s simply an evil man,” she mentioned. “He’s no good for society.”
Hardin pleaded responsible in October 2017 to first-degree homicide for fatally taking pictures Appleton, 59. Appleton labored for the Gateway water division when he was shot within the head on Feb. 23, 2017, close to Garfield. Police discovered Appleton’s physique inside a automotive.
Investigators on the time didn’t launch a motive for the killing and Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in jail. He’s additionally serving 50 years in jail for the 1997 rape of an elementary faculty trainer in Rogers, north of Fayetteville.
Hardin had been held within the Calico Rock jail since 2017. The power has a capability of about 800 inmates, in keeping with the Arkansas Division of Corrections.
Riddle reported from Montgomery, Alabama.