Overview

• Grant Hardin walked out of the North Central Unit on May 25 by impersonating a corrections officer in a makeshift uniform and passing through a gate opened by an unsuspecting guard.
• He was serving a combined 80-year sentence for the 2017 murder of water department worker James Appleton and the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher.
• Law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, state troopers and local sheriffs are deploying drones, helicopters and canine teams across Izard and neighboring counties.
• Persistent downpours and a network of caves and rocky ridges have obscured footprints and slowed ground searches in the rugged Ozark Mountains.
• Arkansas prison officials are probing security lapses at the medium-security facility, and the FBI is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to Hardin’s capture.