Former Police Chief Grant Hardin Recaptured After Escaping Arkansas Prison While Serving Murder Sentence, Authorities Say

A former Arkansas police chief, serving a 30-year sentence for murder and rape, has been apprehended after evading capture for nearly two weeks, authorities reported.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

Law enforcement officials captured Grant Hardin on Friday afternoon, roughly 1.5 miles west of the northern Arkansas prison where he had escaped, as detailed by the Izard County Sheriff’s Office. His identity was verified through fingerprint analysis, stated the sheriff’s office.

On May 25, Hardin, 56, fled the Calico Rock North Central Unit in Izard County by dressing as a corrections officer and exiting through a sally port while pulling a cart.

Hardin, the former police chief of Gateway, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old James Appleton, according to The Associated Press.

He was also convicted of the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers, Arkansas, a crime highlighted in the 2023 television documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”

During the search, officials deployed helicopters, drones and K9 officers. A U.S. Border Patrol tactical unit from Texas, known as BORTAC, had also been deployed to Arkansas to assist in the manhunt, officials said.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed gratitude for the local, state and federal law enforcement — and especially thanked the Trump administration “for sending Border Patrol who helped track and apprehend Hardin.”

“Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief because violent criminal Grant Hardin is now in custody,” she said in a post on social media.

The FBI and U.S. Marshals offered a combined $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

Arkansas officials urged residents of the surrounding Izard County to stay vigilant and lock the doors of their homes and vehicles following his escape.

“I am very scared that this guy is going to hurt or kill somebody before this is over with,” Stone County Sheriff Brandon Long told ABC News amid the manhunt.

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