A former Arkansas police chief was serving a decadeslong sentence for a brutal rape and a murder when he escaped from a Calico Rock prison Sunday by disguising himself in a "makeshift" law enforcement uniform, officials said.
The ongoing search for Grant Hardin, 56, has sparked urgent warnings from local law enforcement, put residents of a small northwest Arkansas town on edge and reignited feelings of hurt and pain that the family of one victim had tried to bury.
Several law enforcement agencies across the state are assisting with the search for Hardin, whose crimes were featured in the 2023 Max documentary "Devil in the Ozarks."
Former Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith, who helped put Hardin in prison, said the crimes were "shocking."
"Anytime you have a former law enforcement officer accused and convicted and committed these crimes, I think it shocks everyone," he said Wednesday.
"Police agencies and law enforcement agencies are no different than anyone else. They’re populated by human beings. There’s going to be a couple of bad apples, but he was the worst imaginable."
The motive for both crimes is unclear, Smith said.
Hardin remained on the run Wednesday afternoon.
Gateway city worker shot and killed in car
Hardin was arrested in February 2017 after James Appleton, 59, a city employee for the Gateway, Arkansas, water department, was shot and killed in his white Chevy truck. Hardin had been Gateway’s police chief for about four months in early 2016.
Gateway resident John Bray told authorities that he was driving home from work when he saw the truck stopped on the side of the road, according to affidavits filed in the case. A white car was behind the truck, he told authorities.
Bray said the driver of the car waved him around. As he drove past, he saw the driver, whom he identified as Hardin, the court filings said.
Bray said he drove a few hundred yards when he heard "a loud bang," according to the affidavit. Bray said he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the white car driving up quickly behind him before it turned down a dirt road, the affidavit said.
Bray told authorities he turned around to check on the driver of the truck and saw Appleton slumped over in his seat, the affidavit said. He flagged down the next car and had its occupants call 911.
Appleton was on the phone with his brother-in-law, then-Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, at the time of the shooting. Tillman said the area didn't have good cell service, so Appleton pulled over so the call wouldn't get disconnected, according to the affidavit.
During the conversation, Appleton commented on a white car that had stopped and then started to drive around him, according to the affidavit. Tillman said the next thing he heard was what sounded like a door slamming.
Hardin was with his wife, Linda Hardin, and their daughter when he was arrested. According to the affidavit, he was taken into custody as police turned around vehicles to keep them from driving toward the crime scene.
Hardin took his wife and daughter to dinner the night of the shooting, according to the affidavit. Linda Hardin told police that her husband told his family at the restaurant that if anything were to happen, he wanted them to know he loved them.
Hardin's daughter and parents declined to comment Wednesday.
The mayor of Gateway, Cheryl Tillman, Appleton's sister, said Hardin's escape has added to the family's pain.
"I wouldn’t say the first couple of years were easy. They were pretty hard," she said Tuesday. "Then you try and go on, and things subsided, and then wham, all this comes back up again. It’s very hard."
Andrew Tillman declined to comment.
Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
DNA ties Hardin to 1997 cold case rape
Hardin's murder conviction led authorities to the cold case rape of Amy Harrison, a third grade teacher who was sexually assaulted in November 1997 at Frank Tillery Elementary School in Rogers.
Smith said that a DNA sample was taken from Hardin following his conviction and that it matched evidence collected from the 1997 rape scene.
The assault occurred on a Sunday as Harrison was preparing lessons for the upcoming week. A church service was being held in the school’s cafeteria, court documents say.
Harrison told investigators she left her classroom to use the bathroom in the teachers lounge and that when she exited, a man was standing with a gun pointed at her. She said the man was wearing a knit stocking cap and sunglasses to disguise his face, according to the court filings.
Hardin sexually assaulted Harrison in the bathroom and a classroom, the documents say. She told investigators the man who attacked her was careful about not leaving fingerprints and asked her questions during the assault, including whether she recognized his voice.
Harrison declined to comment Wednesday.
Hardin pleaded guilty in that case, too, and was sentenced to 50 years on two counts of rape.
