Overview

• Grant Hardin walked out of the North Central Unit on May 25 after disguising himself in a makeshift corrections officer uniform and pushing a cart through a sally port gate.
• A weeklong manhunt drew in local sheriffs, Arkansas State Police, FBI, U.S. Marshals and a Border Patrol tactical team that used helicopters, drones and K9 units, with tipsters lured by a combined $25,000 reward.
• Hardin, 56, was serving a 30-year sentence for a 2017 murder and a consecutive 50-year term for a 1997 rape, and had previously served as a police officer and Gateway police chief.
• Authorities confirmed his identity by fingerprint analysis and took him into custody without incident in heavily wooded terrain northwest of the prison.
• The Arkansas Department of Corrections has launched an investigation into how an inmate with law enforcement training slipped through security by impersonating a corrections officer.