'Devil in the Ozarks' fugitive captured after 12-day Arkansas manhunt
A former Arkansas police chief who escaped from a prison where he was serving decades-long sentences for murder and rape was captured June 6 after a 12-day manhunt involving federal, state and local law enforcement.
Grant Hardin, known as the 'Devil in the Ozarks,' was caught around 3 p.m. local time just a mile and a half from the prison he escaped nearly two weeks earlier, according to Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion. Hardin, 56, was thought to have fled the state.
Tracking dogs picked up Hardin's scent west of the prison near Moccasin Creek in Izard County, according to Champion. Photos of Hardin's arrest show him wearing a sullied shirt. His face appears thinner than in earlier mugshots.
"Thanks to the great work of local, state and federal law enforcement Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief and I can confirm that violent criminal Grant Hardin is back in custody,' said Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. 'I am grateful for all law enforcement who contributed to his capture and give special thanks to the Trump administration and Secretary Kristi Noem, who sent a team from Border Patrol that was instrumental in tracking and apprehending Hardin.'
Arkansas law enforcement authorities and U.S. Border Patrol agents participated in the arrest, according to Champion.
'This was a great joint operation by a number of agencies, and I'm so thankful for their tireless efforts,' said Dexter Payne, director of the Arkansas Division of Correction. 'The Arkansas State Police, U.S. Marshals, FBI, Border Patrol, Game and Fish, all the state and local agencies, along with the dedication of our Department employees, all played an indispensable role and I express my extreme gratitude.'
Hardin had gained notoriety as the subject of the 2023 documentary 'Devil in the Ozarks'' about his 1997 rape of a school teacher and 2017 murder of a water department worker.
Hardin fled the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas, through a secure entryway on May 25 wearing a fake law enforcement uniform. His disguise caused a corrections officer to open a gate and let him walk out of the medium-security facility.
The escape followed the May 16 jailbreak of 10 inmates in New Orleans – several of them charged with murder – which drew national attention and caused consternation in area communities.
Hardin was regarded as no less dangerous a fugitive. In 2017 he was convicted of killing James Appleton, an employee of the northwest Arkansas town of Gateway whose brother-in-law, Andrew Tillman, was the mayor. Tillman told investigators they were talking on the phone when Appleton was shot to death in his pickup truck.
A DNA test conducted following the murder connected Hardin to an unresolved 1997 rape in Rogers, Arkansas, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case. The teacher was attacked at gunpoint after leaving her classroom to go to a restroom near the teacher's lounge, according to the affidavit.
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Hardin's combined convictions, including two counts of rape, added up to 80 years in prison sentences.
'He's a sociopath,'' former Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith told Arkansas ABC affiliate KHBS/KHOG. 'Prison's not full of people who are all bad. It's full of a lot of people who just do bad things. Grant's different.''
Hardin had an erratic career in Arkansas law enforcement starting in 1990, working for police departments in Fayetteville, Huntsville and Eureka Springs before briefly serving as Gateway's police chief in 2016.
He was fired from the Fayetteville job after less than a year because of subpar performance and failure to accept constructive criticism, according to KHBS/KHOG. In Huntsville, where he worked from April 1993 to October 1996, the former police chief told the TV station Hardin used excessive force and made poor decisions.
Escaping from prison, for which he now faces charges, may be just the latest one.
Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Michael Loria and James Powel, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Devil in the Ozarks' fugitive captured after 12-day Arkansas manhunt
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