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Fox News
3 days ago
- General
- Fox News
'Devil in the Ozarks': FBI offers $20K reward for capture of former Arkansas police chief on the run
Print Close By Audrey Conklin Published May 30, 2025 The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the re-capture of a former Arkansas police chief serving time for murder and rape — dubbed "the Devil in the Ozarks" — who escaped on the afternoon of May 25. Former Gateway Police Department Chief Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit, a medium-security prison, that Sunday afternoon in Calico Rock , according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC). The FBI said Hardin has ties to Garfield, Eureka Springs, Holiday Island and Huntsville. "The FBI's Little Rock Field Office is assisting the U.S. Marshal Service, the Arkansas Department of Corrections, and the Arkansas State Police with the search for and apprehension of Grant Matthew Hardin," reads an FBI wanted poster. TEXAS ESCAPED INMATE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS AFTER PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL BREAK Former FBI agent Rob D'Amico told "Fox & Friends" Friday morning that Hardin's past as a police chief may give him a unique advantage on the run. "I think it makes it a lot more challenging. He knows how they do it. He knows what they look for, he knows how they follow leads. He knows how they do surveillance," D'Amico said. 'DEVIL IN THE OZARKS' WHO ESCAPED PRISON LIKELY STILL IN ARKANSAS AREA: OFFICIALS The former FBI agent noted that there are likely many unmanned, unlocked cabins and sheds in wooded areas around Stone County, which is located East of the Ozark Mountains. ADC Communications Director Rand Champion said during a Wednesday news conference that authorities are fairly confident in the route they believe Hardin took when he escaped prison and his current location in the region. MANHUNT UNDERWAY AFTER DISGRACED FORMER POLICE CHIEF CONVICTED OF MURDER, RAPE ESCAPES ARKANSAS PRISON "Based on the information that we have and the experience of our teams, they feel fairly confident that he is still fairly close to this region," Champion said, noting that "all it takes is one vehicle" for Hardin to use to travel elsewhere, though officials have established a perimeter around the area of Stone County. "As of this time, they are still very confident that he is in the area," Champion said. MASSIVE JAIL BREAK IN NEW ORLEANS 'IMPOSSIBLE' WITHOUT STAFF INVOLVEMENT, SAYS EX-FBI FUGITIVE HUNTER Champion said the public should assume Hardin is "a very dangerous individual," and there is a risk he may commit more crimes while he is on the run. It took less than 30 minutes for prison officials to notice that Hardin had disappeared from prison. Photos that the Stone County Sheriff's Office posted to social media show Hardin wearing an ADC-style uniform during his escape through a sally port, though Champion said the uniform he was wearing was not an official uniform. LOUISIANA AG CONFIDENT REMAINING JAILBREAK FUGITIVES WILL BE CAPTURED AFTER OFFICIALS MAKE 14TH ARREST Hardin was sentenced to 30 years for murder plus additional time for rape. He pleaded guilty to the 2017 murder of James Appleton, 59, a city water employee who was found shot in the face inside his work truck, KNWA reported. While Hardin was being booked into the state prison around that time, officials submitted his DNA sample into a database. His DNA ended up linking him to the rape cold case of a teacher in 1997, the outlet reported. Hardin ended up pleading guilty in that case in 2019, according to KNWA. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The former police chief's escape came two days after 10 prisoners escaped a correctional facility in New Orleans, eight of whom have since been re-captured while two remain at large. Hardin is described as a 6 ft. white male, weighing approximately 259 pounds. The FBI is asking tipsters to call 1-800-CALL-FBI with any information concerning the escapee. Fox News' Stepheny Price and Louis Casiano contributed to this report. Print Close URL
Washington Post
5 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Manhunt launched for ex-police chief known as 'Devil in the Ozarks' after his escape from prison
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.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Arkansas residents on edge after escape of ex-police chief ‘Devil in the Ozarks'
As law officers search Arkansas' rugged Ozark mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped prison this weekend, 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 on Sunday from the north central unit in Calico Rock by disguising himself and wearing a 'makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement', state prison officials said in a statement. Cheryl Tillman, whose brother James Appleton was killed by Hardin in 2017, said she and other relatives are alarmed 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. Sheriff's deputies in multiple northern Arkansas counties have been working with state prison officials to follow leads and search the rugged terrain in the Ozarks, Izard county sheriff, Charley Melton, said in an update late Monday. 'To the citizens of Izard county and surrounding counties, please stay vigilant, lock your house and vehicle doors and report any suspicious activity by calling 911 immediately,' Melton said. Other sheriffs were issuing similar warnings about Hardin, who was the focus of a 2023 documentary, Devil in the Ozarks. 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. However, Gateway and the north-east 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. 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 23 February 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 Calico Rock since 2017.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Escape of ex-police chief known as 'Devil in the Ozarks' has Arkansas residents on edge
As law officers search Arkansas' rugged Ozark Mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped prison this weekend, 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.'
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Small Arkansas town on edge as former police chief jailed for murder and rape escapes from prison
A desperate manhunt was underway for a former Arkansas police chief who escaped prison, where he was serving a decades-long sentence for murder and rape. Grant Hardin, 50, the former police chief of the tiny town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border was serving 30 years for murder and 50 years for the rape of an elementary school teacher. Hardin slipped out of the North Central Unit in Calico Rock at around 2.50pm on Sunday, authorities say. He was caught on surveillance footage escaping through the jail's sally port wearing an Arkansas Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction Uniform, according to the Stone County Sheriff's Office. It remains unclear how Hardin managed to get a hold of one of the uniforms, and the Division of Correction is now following up on leads along with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. In the meantime, the Arkansas State Police is asking anyone with any information about Hardin's whereabouts to contact local law enforcement immediately. The Stone County Sheriff's Office notes that the former police chief - who stands at six feet tall and weighs 269 pounds - 'is to be considered extremely dangerous and should not be approached.' Lt. Shannon Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the Benton County Sheriff's Office, also told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that it 'is taking every step to assist the Arkansas Department of Corrections in locating Hardin.' 'Hardin has strong ties to Benton County and we will be on alert,' she vowed. Hardin had served as police chief in Gateway - a town of fewer than 500 people - for four months in 2016 and served two terms as a constable in Benton County. He had also worked as a police officer in Fayeteville, Huntsville and Eureka Springs from 1990 through 1996. In October 2017, Hardin pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old James Appleton. According to an affidavit filed in the case, Appleton worked for the Gateway water department and had pulled into a parking lot to talk to his brother-in-law, then Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, when he was shot in the head on February 23, 2017 near Garfield. A witness said he saw Appleton's pickup truck and a white Chevrolet Malibu parked behind it. The witness claimed the Malibu driver waved him around - and when he was a few hundred yards away, he saw the Malibu speeding toward him and turning onto a dirt road. Hardin has never provided a motive for the violent attack, and was sentenced to 30 years behind bars. He is also serving 50 years in prison for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers north of Fayetteville. Police collected his DNA upon his incarceration, and entered it into a national database that linked him to the cold case rape, KOAM reports. Hardin pleaded guilty of the rape in 2019, after which Amy Harrison - a teacher at Tillery Elementary School - gave her victim impact statement. She told how she was preparing lesson plans on a Sunday morning in November 1997 and arrived at the school a little before 9am. Harrison went on to say she was working alone, but after she went to use the bathroom in the teacher's lounge at around 11.30am she was confronted by a man holding a gun who forced her back inside. Police said at the time that the suspect raped her and fled the scene.
