A small Arkansas town is on edge after a former police chief convicted of fatally shooting a man and sexually assaulting an elementary teacher escaped from prison Sunday wearing a “makeshift” law enforcement uniform.
Residents of Garfield expressed fear and anger as the search for Grant Hardin entered its third day.
“This whole weekend, I’ve kept the house locked,” Brenda Fields, 60, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “He was in law enforcement, so he’s not just your average person. That makes me more nervous because he had that background.”
Rex Littrell lives up the street from Hardin’s parents in Garfield, a town of about 600 people in northwest Arkansas, about 40 miles northeast of Fayetteville and and not far from the Missouri border. He said that because of the nature of the crimes, Hardin should have been under careful watch.
“He should never have had a chance to escape. He’s killed somebody and he’s raped somebody,” he said.
Fields, who lives across the street from Hardin’s parents, said she learned of his escape on Facebook.
“My dad lives right next to us, too, and he’s locked all of his stuff up, locked up the outbuildings,” she added, saying she’s “scared.” “I wish they’d hurry up and find him.”
Hardin, the former police chief in the neighboring town of Gateway, has been on the run since Sunday afternoon after escaping from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, which is about 140 miles east of Garfield. He was convicted of killing Gateway City water employee James Appleton in 2017, and raping teacher Amy Harrison in 1997 — cases featured in the Max documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”
He served as the Gateway police chief for about four months in early 2016. He also held jobs as an officer, a county constable and a corrections officer, NBC affiliate KNWA of Fayetteville reported.
The Stone County Sheriff’s Office said he escaped through a sally port, a controlled entry or exit area at the facility. He was wearing a “makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement” when he broke out, officials have said.
A photo released by the sheriff’s office showed Hardin dressed in all black, appearing to push a wheeled cart with wooden pallets on it.
Law enforcement agencies from across the state have joined the search for Hardin. As of Tuesday afternoon, he remained at large, and the Arkansas Department of Corrections had no new updates.
The Izard County Sheriff’s Office warned residents to keep their doors locked and stay inside, county officials said.
The lack of information about Hardin’s whereabouts is frustrating for Cheryl Tillman, the mayor of Gateway and sister of Appleton.
“It brings back a lot of memories of when it first happened,” she said. “I can’t believe this has happened, I mean, what were they doing down at the prison that this happened?”
Tillman said law enforcement has not reached out to her family about Hardin’s escape. She learned of the news Sunday from an automated phone call from a jail messaging system.
“All it said was that Grant Hardin had escaped from prison,” she recalled. “Nobody’s been in contact with us. … I find it pretty sad that authorities have not reached out to us.”
She said people in the community “are a little scared.” Tillman has taken extra precautions by having someone with her when she goes to work.
“You just have to stay vigilant and watch your surroundings,” she said. “That’s what I do.”
Hardin was serving a 30-year sentence for Appleton’s murder as well as a 50-year sentence for the sexual assault of Harrison when he escaped.
Appleton was talking to his brother-in-law when he was shot in his car Feb. 23, 2017, according to an affidavit filed in the case. The following year, a DNA sample linked him to the cold case rape of Harrison at Frank Tillery Elementary School. Hardin pleaded guilty in both cases.
Harrison declined to comment when contacted by NBC News on Tuesday.
Fields said Appleton was always a “really nice guy.”
“He used to come to our house once a month to read the water meter,” she said.
Littrell said there was “no reason for James to have died.”
“There was no reason for what happened to James to have happened. It was just bloody murder,” he said, calling Appleton a “good guy.”
Tillman said the family has struggled to move on over the years, and Hardin’s escape adds to their pain.
“I wouldn’t say the first couple of years were easy. They were pretty hard,” she said. “Then you try and go on, and things subsided, and then ‘wham’ all this comes back up again. It’s very hard.”
