Tourists in popular summer spot warned about dangerous ‘Devil in the Ozarks' former police chief still on the run
Shawn Hendrix's warning comes amid an ongoing search for prison escapee and former Gateway Police Department Chief Grant Hardin, 56, who fled from a medium-security prison in Calico Rock on Sunday, May 25, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC).
Nicknamed the 'Devil in the Ozarks,' Hardin was serving decades in prison for murder and rape.
'I think that the big thing that gets him caught or dead in the field is getting injured … or a foodborne illness — he drinks some bad water,' Hendrix told Fox News Digital. 'Now, if he gets dysentery or some kind of really bad foodborne or waterborne illness, that could take him out real quick. So, let's hope that he drinks some bad water and has some really terrible disease that gets him out of the woods because my biggest concern is that if you're a hiker or a camper or hunter out there, you're not going to see it coming.'
5 Grant Hardin, 56, fled from a medium-security prison in Calico Rock on Sunday, May 25.
Arkansas State Police
Hendrix added that Hardin has shown little regard for human life in the past, and 'every person in the woods right now is an opportunity for equipment for this guy.' Arkansas authorities have warned that the escapee may be armed and dangerous.
'I definitely would stay clear of the area,' he said.
Hardin escaped prison through a sally port, wearing a makeshift ADC-style uniform, ADC communications director Rand Champion said last week, noting the uniform he was wearing was not official.
5 Hardin escaped prison through a sally port, wearing a makeshift ADC-style uniform.
AP
The former police chief pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a man in the face inside the victim's work truck in 2017. After submitting DNA samples when he was booked for the murder case, his DNA was linked to the 1997 cold-case rape of a teacher. He pleaded guilty in that case in 2019, according to KNWA.
'This guy is just so evil. I mean, this guy is a sociopath,' Hendrix said. '[Hardin] has no care for humans or anybody but himself. He's law-enforcement trained. He has a history of issues in and out of the police. I think there's a whole bigger story of how this guy was a cop for 27 years, right? … I would not want to be out looking for this guy.'
Hardin is described as a 6-foot White male, weighing approximately 259 pounds.
5 Nicknamed the 'Devil in the Ozarks,' Hardin was serving decades in prison for murder and rape.
AP
Hendrix said at that weight, Hardin has a caloric reserve that could help him survive for weeks alone in wooded areas of the Ozarks, which have hundreds of caves and natural resources that include food, water, berries and other natural food supplies.
'There's just a lot of, you know, berries, cattails, fish, you know, there's like natural native fruits like persimmon, maybe even plums in that area,' Hendrix explained. 'So there's a lot of … natural things to live off the land. If he has a gun, I don't know about using a gun to shoot an animal just because of how loud it would be, but there [are] ways to get food. … He's such a heavy individual [at] 260 pounds. He's got a couple of months of reserves.'
5 Hardin is described as a 6-foot White male, weighing approximately 259 pounds.
AP
Police searching for Hardin in the wilderness will likely be looking for 'concealed' evidence of a person living in the woods, such as a burnt-out fire or other materials that have been covered up, or an underground fire.
The FBI and U.S. Marshals are offering a combined $25,000 for any information leading to Hardin's capture. They are asking anyone with information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
Champion said during a news conference last week that authorities are fairly confident in the route they believe Hardin took when he escaped and said authorities believed he was still in the Ozarks area, but a federal complaint filed against Hardin on May 30 suggests another possibility: he may be out of state.
5 The FBI and U.S. Marshals are offering a combined $25,000 for any information leading to Hardin's capture.
AP
Based on two unconfirmed sightings, including one in Missouri on May 26, a day after Hardin escaped, federal officials believe he's not in Arkansas anymore, as The Arkansas Democrat Gazette first reported.
'He has extensive knowledge of the Ozark Mountain region, where he is believed to be possibly hiding in caves or rugged terrain that he is familiar with,' Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert J. Hammons wrote in the criminal complaint, according to the Gazette.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
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Ben Gilmore, who sits on the panel, said he didn't think the department's review took a thorough enough look at the systemic issues that enabled Hardin's escape. "They have focused on the final failure instead of all of the things that led up to it," he said. The report also cites confusion among corrections officials in the early stages of Hardin's escape about which law enforcement agencies had been notified, the report says. "It is obvious there was a lot of confusion during the beginning stages of opening the command center and of notifications being made," the report says. Hardin had been misclassified and shouldn't have been held at the primarily medium-security prison, according to the review. After he was captured, Hardin was moved to a maximum-security prison. He has pleaded not guilty to escape charges, and his trial is set for November. Hardin's custody classification hadn't been reviewed since October 2019, the report says. The state Department of Corrections' review says officials had taken several steps since Hardin's escape, including removing the electric locks from the gates to prevent someone from walking out without an officer present. The report also calls for additional cameras after finding a blind spot on the dock Hardin used, and for any "shakedown" searches for contraband to include mechanical rooms and side rooms.
