In the vast and rugged Ozark Mountains, complete with its challenging terrain and network of subterranean caves, police are searching for a man dubbed the “Devil in the Ozarks,” following his cunning escape from an Arkansas prison over the weekend.
Grant Hardin, a former police chief in Gateway, Ark., escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock on Sunday, where he has been held since 2017, for a murder that happened that year, as well as a 1997 rape.
Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old James Appleton.
According to an affidavit filed in the case, Appleton worked for the Gateway water department and was talking to his brother-in-law, then-Gateway mayor Andrew Tillman, when he was shot in the head on Feb. 23, 2017, near Garfield. Police found Appleton’s body inside a car.
Hardin, who was Gateway’s police chief for about four months in early 2016, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is also serving 50 years in prison for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers north of Fayetteville.
He escaped the prison on Sunday, after he impersonated a corrections officer and walked through a gate opened for him by a guard.
This image provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections shows Grant Hardin, a former police chief and convicted killer, escaping the North Central Unit prison wearing a disguise in Calico Rock, Ark.
Handout / Arkansas Department of Corrections
Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, said the clothes he was wearing at the time of his escape are not a standard inmate or correctional uniform.
“There’s nothing inside the prison that looks like that, so that’s one of the challenges we’re going through to find out what that was and how he was able to get that or manufacture it,” he told reporters earlier this week.
An escape into unforgiving terrain
It’s believed Hardin fled into the Ozark Mountains, an area replete with hideouts, including extensive forests, abandoned cabins and campsites, as well as a vast network of subterranean caves, making the search operation complicated.
Authorities said they are using canines, drones and helicopters to aid their search, and Champion said the location “does provide challenges,” but also “kind of limits where is able to get.”
“It’s called Calico Rock for a reason, because it’s very rocky,” he said.
Days of heavy rain in the area are also complicating search efforts.
Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals, told The Associated Press that he doesn’t think escaping into the Ozarks was the best move for Hardin.
“At some point in time, he’s going to run out of provisions,” said Caine.
“In more rural areas, most people know one another,” Caine added, saying it’s likely someone could identify Hardin and turn him in. “In that aspect, it could be detrimental to him.”
Fear in Calico Rock
Officials told residents of Calico Rock to stay vigilant and indoors as they ramped up search efforts Wednesday. A resident told NewsNation they captured an image of Hardin on their hunting camera.
Another resident told the outlet that some locals are keeping their firearms close by when they venture outside, although many people think Hardin is already out of the area.
Cheryl Tillman, whose brother Appleton was killed by Hardin in 2017, said she and other relatives are alarmed by Hardin’s escape since they were witnesses in his court proceedings.
“We were there at his trial when all that went down, and he seen us there, he knows,” she told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Cheryl Tillman, mayor of Gateway, Ark., and sister of James Appleton, who was fatally shot in 2017, works on her laptop at Town Hall on May 28, 2026. Grant Hardin, who briefly served as police chief, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
Nick Ingram / The Associated Press
Bryan Sexton, who prosecuted Hardin for both murder and rape, said that his office has reached out to officers who investigated Hardin and families affected by Hardin’s crimes, which were the focus of a 2023 documentary, Devil in the Ozarks.
“Making those contacts again with folks who have moved on with their lives for the better part of a decade now and to have to be the one who picks up the phone and reminds them of what has happened to them is something that weighs heavily on me,” Sexton said.
Darla Nix, a local cafe owner in nearby Pea Ridge, Ark., said her sons grew up around Hardin and knew him as a mostly quiet person before he was convicted.
“He was always just one of the kids, a member of the community,” Nix said.
Describing Hardin as a “very, very smart man,” Nix said she anticipates that the search for Hardin will be challenging for law enforcement.
“He knows where the caves are. He’s just a survivor. He knows how to make it. They’re going to have their hands full trying to catch him,” Nix said.
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— with files from The Associated Press