Bloodhounds hunting 'Devil in the Ozarks' fugitive are seen as key part of manhunt

San Francisco Chronicle​

30-05-2025

A bloodhound picked up the scent shortly after the ' Devil in the Ozarks ' escaped from a lockup in northern Arkansas. The hound didn't have to go far to begin the hunt — it lives at the prison as part of a specialized unit that uses man's best friend to help track fugitives.
Although the scent of convicted killer Grant Hardin was lost because of heavy rain, experts say that even days after Sunday's escape, the animal's highly developed sense of smell can still pick up a fresh trail.
That's partly due to the 300 million cells in their nose that supercharges their sense of smell, said Terri Heck, a Bloodhound handler and trainer who works with the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney's Office.
They've got wide nostrils to scoop up smells, and their long ears often work to stir up scents as they drag along the ground. Even their drool plays a role, as that wetness wakes up scents, Heck said.
Bloodhounds are known for being tenacious trackers, said Brian Tierney, president of the National Police Bloodhound Association. They're playing a key role in the search for Hardin, now in its sixth day.
'They have a big heart and big lungs and can go the distance,' Heck said of their endurance.
They also save lives, as one young bloodhound did just two weeks ago in Maine. Millie, a 10-month-old hound tracked a 5-year-old girl with autism who went missing from her home on May 16, Maine State Police said. The dog found the girl waist-deep in water in a cedar swamp, the agency said. Authorities credited Millie's dedication and 'incredible nose' for saving the girl.
Bloodhounds are also independent, a key trait for searches. 'When it gets to be a difficult search they don't look to you for help, that they go forth themselves,' Heck said.
Bad weather confounded the hunt for Hardin, who was serving a 30-year sentence for murder when he escaped from the prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas.
The hound found - then lost - Hardin's scent when heavy rains blew through the area, said state prison spokesman Rand Champion. Hardin was tracked for less than a quarter of a mile when the bloodhound lost the trail. The fugitive could have gone in any direction after that.
'That was one of the most frustrating things, that they were able to track him but then they lost him because of the rain,' Champion said.
A tip that Hardin was sighted in southern Missouri has been ruled out, Champion said Friday. Until authorities find evidence that he's left the area around the prison, they assume that he's still in that vicinity, he said.
Hardin took almost nothing with him and left behind plenty of clothes, bedsheets and other items that are used to familiarize the bloodhounds with his scent, Champion said. Those items are shared with the dogs to give them the initial scent of the person they are seeking, Tierney said. It's a process that's standard operating procedure for Arkansas' prison dogs.
Who is Grant Hardin?
A former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in a fatal shooting for which he was serving a 30-year sentence.
Hardin's DNA was matched to the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison for that crime. Eventually, his notoriety led to a TV documentary, 'Devil in the Ozarks.'
Champion said that someone should have checked Hardin's identity before he was allowed to leave, describing the lack of verification as a 'lapse' that is being investigated.
Bloodhounds live at Calico Rock prison
The Calico Rock prison is known for its bloodhounds that live in a kennel on prison property. The nearly one dozen dogs at the prison have helped many other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to track a variety of people over the years, according to a 2021 state audit report on the prison.
Southern prisons have a long history of keeping bloodhounds around in case of escapes, like the one featured in country artist Blake Shelton's song 'Ol' Red," about a hound that hunts escaped inmates with "a nose that could smell a two-day trail."
Dogs in Arkansas' prison system have also been used to help other agencies find people who are not dangerous, such as missing children, people with special needs or elderly people, Champion said.
The bloodhounds tend to raise a ruckus when they find their mark. But the prison system uses other types of dogs in searching for children and vulnerable people who go missing, and those dogs tend to lick people and make friends with them when they are found, Champion said.
Fugitives use spices, other means to foil bloodhounds
Fugitives being hunted by bloodhounds have been known to take extreme steps to throw the dogs off their trail, Tierney said.
Two convicted killers who broke out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York in 2015 collected dozens of containers of black and cayenne pepper before their escape. They had intended to use the pepper 'to interfere with tracking dogs they assumed would be part of a manhunt for them after the escape,' a state investigation found. One of the men was shot and killed during the manhunt; another was also shot but survived and was captured.
Hardin has troubled past in law enforcement
In his first job as a police officer 35 years ago in the college town of Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, Hardin struggled almost immediately, his supervisors said. He was dismissed by Fayetteville police, but kept getting hired for other law enforcement jobs in northwest Arkansas over the years.
By the time he was the police chief in the small town of Gateway in 2016, 'he was out chasing cars for no reason,' Cheryl Tillman, the town's current mayor, recalled in the documentary 'Devil in the Ozarks.'