A former police chief in Arkansas, a convicted rapist and murderer serving an 80-year sentence, may have posed in a makeshift law enforcement uniform to escape a prison on Sunday, officials announced.
In 2016, Grant Hardin, now 56, served about four months as police chief in the city of Gateway, a small town on the Arkansas-Missouri border.
Hardin pleaded guilty to the 2017 murder of Gateway Water Department employee James Appleton, 59, who was talking to his brother-in-law Andrew Tillman, the then mayor of Gateway, when he was fatally shot in the head, the Associated Press reported.
Investigators found Appleton dead in his vehicle in Garfield, Arkansas, a town about four miles from Gateway on Feb. 23, 2017.
While serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, DNA evidence linked Hardin to the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers, a city north of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Investigators in that case, according to CBS News, applied for a “John Doe” warrant in 2003 and traced the DNA back to Hardin who was already incarcerated for Appleton’s murder.
The former police chief pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and was sentenced to 50 years.
Since 2017, he had been incarcerated at North Central Unit in Calico Rock, Arkansas, until his escape on May 25.
Details surrounding his escape are limited, though officials with the Arkansas Department of Corrections said the 56-year-old was seen walking out of the prison facility at around 3:40 p.m. “wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement.”
“Officials continue to utilize a variety of means to track Hardin, as well as investigating the events that led up to his escape,” investigators added.
So far, investigators have not said if they believe Hardin had any outside help in the escape or if anyone else inside the prison may have aided in his disappearance.
Hardin is described as a while male adult, standing approximately 6 feet tall, weighing around 259 pounds and, at least in photos released by the Arkansas Department Corrections, is bald.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged to contact law enforcement immediately.
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