A former police chief who can also be a convicted killer and rapist nicknamed the “Satan within the Ozarks” was captured by legislation enforcement 1.5 miles north-west of the jail he escaped from following a 13-day manhunt within the mountains of northern Arkansas, authorities introduced on Friday.
Grant Hardin’s identification was confirmed by way of fingerprinting, the Izard county sheriff’s workplace mentioned in a Fb put up.
Hardin, a former police chief within the small city of Gateway close to the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving prolonged sentences for homicide and rape. Ultimately, his notoriety led to a TV documentary, 2023’s Satan within the Ozarks.
Hardin had been held on the Calico Rock jail since 2017 after pleading responsible to first-degree homicide in a deadly taking pictures. With a view to escape, he had impersonated a corrections officer “in gown and method”, based on a courtroom doc. A jail officer in one of many guard towers opened a safe gate, permitting him to stroll out of the power.
Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the state jail system, mentioned that somebody ought to have checked Hardin’s identification earlier than he was allowed to go away, describing the dearth of verification as a “lapse” that’s being investigated.
Searchers had been utilizing bloodhounds, officers on horseback, drones and helicopters of their hunt for Hardin since he escaped on 25 Might.
An elite and extremely skilled US border patrol group had just lately joined the search, federal authorities introduced this week.
The border patrol tactical group often known as BORTAC supplied “superior search capabilities and operational help” within the hunt for Hardin, US customs and border safety mentioned. Its members are skilled in navigating complicated terrain, the company mentioned.
The Ozark mountains area is thought for its rocky and rugged panorama, thick forests and an intensive cave community.
Hardin pleaded responsible in 2017 to first-degree homicide for the killing of James Appleton, 59. Appleton labored for the Gateway water division when he was shot within the head on 23 February 2017, close to Garfield. Police discovered Appleton’s physique inside a automotive. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Hardin’s DNA was additionally matched to the 1997 rape of a trainer at an elementary college in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years for that crime.
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