An affidavit filed in the escape of a former Arkansas Police Chief says the convicted murder's disguise allowed him to slip away from prison.

 

56-year-old Grant Hardin walked away from a Calico Rock, Arkansas, prison on Sunday afternoon and remains on the run. The manhunt for the convicted murderer and rapist continues as authorities say Hardin escaped from the North Central Unit dressed in makeshift clothes designed to look like law enforcement. New charges of second-degree escape have been filed against Hardin and an affidavit in the case says he walked through a sally port after an employee at the prison opened a secure gate for him.

 

Hardin was the former police chief in Gateway, Arkansas, when he was convicted of the first-degree murder of 59-year-old James Appleton in 2017. It was after that conviction that his DNA was linked to the 1997 rape of a Rogers elementary school teacher. He was sentenced to 30 years for the murder and 50 years for two counts of rape.

 

Authorities say Hardin still has ties in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri and that he is extremely dangerous.