Convicted murderer captured 1.5 miles from prison he escaped: Authorities

Grant Hardin was serving time for murder and rape when he escaped.

The former Arkansas police chief who escaped prison while serving a 30-year sentence for murder and rape has been recaptured after nearly two weeks on the run, authorities said.

Grant Hardin was captured by law enforcement officials Friday afternoon, approximately 1.5 miles west of the northern Arkansas prison he had escaped, according to the Izard County Sheriff's Office. His identity was confirmed by fingerprint analysis, the sheriff's office said.

Hardin, 56, escaped the Calico Rock North Central Unit in Izard County on May 25 after donning a uniform and impersonating a corrections officer and being allowed to walk through a sally port pulling a cart.

Arkansas law enforcement officers and the U.S. Border Patrol located Hardin near Moccasin Creek in Izard County and he was taken into custody shortly after 3 p.m. local time Friday, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

"Tracking dogs were able to pick up a scent in the area, and Hardin was apprehended a short time later," the department said in a press release.

Arkansas' secretary of corrections, Lindsay Wallace, thanked those who helped "bring this search to a peaceful conclusion."

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 local, state and federal law enforcement -- and especially thanked the Trump administration for sending a Border Patrol team "that was instrumental in tracking and apprehending Hardin.”

"Thanks to the great work of local, state and federal law enforcement Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief and I can confirm that violent criminal Grant Hardin is back in custody,” she said in a statement.

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."