Former police chief who escaped from Arkansas prison while serving time for recaptured murder: authorities

The former Arkansas police chief who escaped from the prison while serving a 30 -year sentence for murder and violation has been recaptured after almost two weeks in the race, authorities said.

Grant Hardin was captured by the officials in charge of enforcing the law on Friday afternoon, approximately 1.5 miles west of North Arkansas prison that had escaped, according to the Sheriff’s office of the Izard County. His identity was confirmed by the Digital Footprints analysis, said the Sheriff’s office.

Hardin, 56, escaped from the central unit of Calico Rock North in Izard County on May 25 after putting on a uniform and impersonating a correction officer and being able to walk through a Sally port pulling a car.

Arkansas law agents and the United States border patrol locate Hardin near Moccasin Creek in Izard County and was arrested shortly after 3 pm local time on Friday, according to the Arkansas corrections department.

“The follow -up dogs were able to collect an aroma in the area, and Hardin was arrested a short time later,” the department said in a press release.

Arkansas’ Secretary of Corrections, Lindsay Wallace, thanked those who helped “bring this search to a peaceful conclusion.”

Hardin, the former Gateway police chief, Arkansas, declared himself guilty in October 2017 of first degree murder in relation to the death of James Appleton, 59, according to The Associated Press.

He was also condemned by the 1997 violation of a primary school teacher at Rogers, Arkansas, an outstanding crime in the 2023 television documentary “Devil in the Ozarks”.

During the search, officials deployed helicopters, drones and K9 officers. A tactical unit of the border patrol of the United States of Texas, known as Bortac, had also been deployed in Arkansas to help in human hunting, the authorities said.

The governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, expressed her gratitude for the local, state and federal police, and especially thanked the Trump administration for sending a team of the border patrol “that was instrumental in the monitoring and arrest of Hardin.”

“Thanks to the great work of the local, state and federal police that Arkansanes can breathe relief and I can confirm that Violent Criminal Grant Hardin has returned to custody,” he said in a statement.

The FBI and the American sheriffs offered a combined reward of $ 25,000 for information that led to their capture.

Arkansas officials urged the residents of Izard county to remain attentive and close the doors of their homes and vehicles after their escape.

“I am very afraid that this guy will hurt or kill someone before this ends,” said Stone Brandon Long County Sheriff ABC News in the midst of human hunt.

Nathan Smith, former Benton County prosecutor who helped put Hardin behind bars, told Arkansas ABC Affiliate KHBS The escaped inmate is “a sociopath.”