Ex-police chief convicted of rape and homicide captured after escaping Arkansas jail

Grant Hardin, a former Arkansas police chief convicted of rape and homicide, was captured Friday after escaping from jail almost two weeks in the past.

Hardin, 56, was taken into custody roughly 1.5 miles west of North Central Unit, the power he fled sporting what jail officers have described as a “makeshift” regulation enforcement uniform, the Arkansas Division of Corrections stated.

U.S. Border Patrol brokers and Arkansas regulation enforcement officers discovered him close to an Izard County creek after monitoring canines picked up his scent within the space, the division stated. He was apprehended a short while later.

Hardin’s id was confirmed by fingerprint evaluation, the Izard County Sheriff’s Workplace stated in an announcement.

“To each one among our Division employees that assisted on this manhunt during the last 13 days, I give my heartfelt thanks in your immeasurable contributions to carry this search to a peaceable conclusion,” Secretary of Corrections Lindsay Wallace stated in an announcement.

Hardin walked out of the North Central Unit simply earlier than 3 p.m. Could 25. An affidavit acknowledged that he “impersonated a corrections officer in gown and method, inflicting a corrections officer working a safe gate to open the gate.”

Authorities launched a photograph displaying him wearing all black and pushing a wheeled cart with what gave the impression to be wood pallets on it.

A number of companies, together with state police, assisted within the search. The FBI, Division of Corrections, Arkansas State Police, and Division of Justice stated there was a reward of as much as $10,000 for info that led to his arrest.

Hardin, who has a background in regulation enforcement, was in jail for killing Gateway metropolis water worker James Appleton in 2017 and raping trainer Amy Harrison in 1997. He was sentenced to 30 years for Appleton’s homicide and 50 years for the sexual assault.

Each instances have been featured within the 2023 Max documentary “Satan within the Ozarks.”

Rand Champion, a Corrections Division spokesperson, had stated that Hardin’s background in regulation enforcement made the search harder.

Hardin was the police chief of Gateway, Arkansas, for about 4 months in early 2016. From August 1990 to Could 1991, he labored for the Fayetteville Police Division. A division spokesperson stated he was let go whereas nonetheless going via the coaching program.

NBC affiliate KNWA of Fayetteville reported that he additionally labored as a police officer, county constable, and corrections officer.