A massive search is underway in Arkansas after Grant Hardin, a disgraced former police chief serving time for murder and rape, escaped from prison Sunday afternoon, as per Fox News.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) confirmed Hardin, 56, fled the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, where he had been incarcerated since 2017. He was serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder and an additional term for rape.
Hardin, once the police chief of Gateway, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in 2017 to killing James Appleton, a city water employee found shot in his work truck. His DNA, collected during prison intake, later linked him to the 1997 rape of a schoolteacher—a cold case solved nearly two decades later.
“Grant Hardin is one of the most dangerous people I’ve ever seen,” said Nathan Smith, former Benton County prosecutor. “He’s capable of seemingly random, horrific violence.”
The rape victim, Amy Harrison, a teacher at Frank Tillery Elementary, was attacked at gunpoint while preparing lesson plans. Hardin pleaded guilty in 2019 after DNA evidence proved his involvement “beyond all scientific certainty.”
Authorities urge anyone with information on Hardin’s whereabouts to contact law enforcement immediately, stressing he should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.
