Authorities capture former Arkansas police chief who escaped prison amid 80-year sentence

A former police chief convicted of rape and first-degree murder was caught on Friday just a mile and a half from the prison that he escaped from last month. 

Grant Hardin, known as the “Devil in the Ozarks,” escaped Arkansas’s North Central Unit late last month while serving an 80-year prison sentence. The escape triggered a massive manhunt in the Ozark Mountains of northern Arkansas.

The Izard County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Hardin’s identity through fingerprinting, according to the Associated Press. He had escaped by wearing clothing “designed to mimic law enforcement.”

Hardin, a former police chief for the small Arkansas town of Gateway near the state’s border with Missouri, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for a shooting in 2017. He was later convicted of a 1997 rape. 

He was sentenced to 30 years for the murder and 50 years for the rape.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.