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The former Arkansas police chief, convicted rapist and murderer sentenced to 80 years in prison could have worn makeshift law enforcement uniforms to escape prison on Sunday, officials said.
In 2016, Grant Hardin, now 56, served for about four months as police chief for Gateway, a small town on the Arkansas Missoli border.
Hardin pleaded guilty to the 2017 murder of James Appleton, 59, an employee of Gateway’s water department.
Investigators discovered that Appleton was killed in his vehicle in Garfield, Arkansas, a town about four miles from the gateway on February 23, 2017.
While sentenced to 30 years for first-degree murder, DNA evidence linked Hardin with a 1997 rape of a Rogers elementary school teacher north of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Grant Hardin, 56, was seen in an indefinite prison mugshot released by the Arkansas Department of Corrections. May 21st, 2025. AK and Caliko Rock’s North Central Unit. You can see it on Google Maps satellite images.
According to CBS News, investigators in that case applied for a “John Doe” warrant in 2003 and traced the DNA to Hardin, who was already in jail for Appleton’s murder.
The former police chief pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
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Since 2017 he was jailed in the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, Arkansas until his escape on May 25th.
Officials with the Arkansas Department of Corrections said the 56-year-old “wearing makeshift outfits designed to mimic law enforcement,” around 3:40 p.m., but details surrounding his escape are limited.
“The authorities continue to use a variety of measures to track down Hardin and continue to investigate the events that led to his escape,” the investigator added.
So far, investigators have not said they believe Hardin is taking out external help in the escape, or whether someone else in the prison helped him lose his loss.
Hardin is about six feet tall and weighs around 259 pounds, and is said to have been alded, at least in photos released by Arkansas Corrections.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged to contact law enforcement immediately.
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