A disguise and a prison guard’s mistake helped ‘Devil in the Ozarks’ escape

Dressed in all black and pushing a cart with wooden pallets, a former police chief turned convicted murderer and rapist walked past a guard and out the back gate of an Arkansas prison before disappearing into the woods.

Grant Hardin’s escape from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock last month involved detailed planning, perfect timing, and a makeshift outfit designed to mimic a law enforcement uniform. Hundreds of state, local and federal agents swarmed the small town, battling severe weather and rugged terrain to search for the man known as the “Devil in the Ozarks.”

After nearly two weeks on the run, he was found near an Izard County creek — about 1.5 miles west of the prison.

The brazen prison break, which occurred a little more than a week after 10 inmates escaped a New Orleans jail, exposed a security lapse at the facility that houses about 800 inmates. But Hardin, who was described as a model inmate who never caused trouble, ultimately escaped because of one employee’s error.

“This was not an instance where there wasn’t proper protocol or proper policy,” Arkansas Department of Corrections board member William “Dubs” Byers said in an interview. “It was a matter of the protocol not being followed. One person in particular just didn’t pay attention as he should have and questioned this fellow when he walked out the back door.”

Urgent manhunt for ‘Devil in the Ozarks’

It was just before 3 p.m. on May 25 when Hardin, disguised in a black T-shirt, black pants and a black baseball cap, strolled across the prison grounds. He was wheeling a cart carrying a box and wooden pallets.

Byers said employees swipe their badges to exit the prison’s front gate. Hardin left through a back sally port gate, which is typically used for vehicle traffic.

The officer on duty was in a control tower and, based on preliminary information, assumed Hardin was an employee.

“He didn’t pay close enough attention. He just thought that the person walking up was an officer because he looked like an officer,” Byers said. “He didn’t talk to him, he didn’t question him, he didn’t check him closely. He just opened the gate and assumed that he was an officer taking some things outside the fence.”

About 20 minutes had passed before a routine head count revealed that Hardin was missing. By then, he was long gone.

Brian Scheerer, owner of Calico Cold Creek Manor, said people were on edge as law enforcement set up a perimeter around the prison.

“You could tell that there was certainly a different vibe in the air. The streets were all closed where they were stopping just about everybody. They weren’t taking any chances,” he said in an interview.

His manor, which he rents out during the summer, is about four miles from the prison.

“People were hunkering in, even myself,” Scheerer said. “Where my property is, it’s very secluded. When I went to check my place after renters, I was very cautious.”

Prison break opens old wounds for victims

Hardin was in prison for fatally shooting Gateway, Arkansas, city water employee James Appleton, and sexually assaulting teacher Amy Harrison. Both cases were featured in the Max documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”

According to an affidavit filed in the case, a passerby was driving home from work on Feb. 23, 2017, when he saw Appleton’s truck stopped on the side of the road. Appleton was on the phone with his brother-in-law, then Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, and had pulled over so he would not lose the connection.

Hardin’s white car was stopped behind the truck, the passerby told police. After driving about a few hundred yards up the road, the passerby said he heard a loud bang and saw Hardin’s car driving quickly up the street and turn down a dirt road, the affidavit states. The passerby turned around to check on Appleton and found him dead in the driver’s seat.

Hardin, the former police chief of Gateway, was arrested that night as he returned home from having dinner with his wife and daughter. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crime.

DNA taken after his arrest linked him to the Nov. 9, 1997, sexual assault of Harrison at Frank Tillery Elementary School.

According to an affidavit filed in that case, several people were in the school’s cafeteria for a Sunday church service. Harrison was at the school to prepare for the week.

Harrison told police she left her classroom and went to the lounge to use the restroom. When she came out, she said a man was standing in front of the door, pointing a gun at her. The affidavit states that she said she was sexually assaulted in the bathroom and then forced to move to a classroom, where she was raped.

Hardin asked if she was going to tell anyone and then left the room, according to the affidavit. She found a janitor and had him call 911.

Harrison declined to comment to NBC News. Appleton’s sister, Gateway Mayor Cheryl Tillman, did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday. She previously told NBC News that Hardin’s escape brought back “a lot of memories of when it first happened.”

“What were they doing down at the prison that this happened?” she said.

Hardin ‘didn’t put up a fight once apprehended’

An investigation is being conducted to learn how he planned his escape. Byers said Hardin was a model inmate at the facility and believes he used that to his advantage.

Hardin worked in the kitchen and never got in trouble while incarcerated, Byers said.

“Those types of inmates kind of build up trust, you know, they come to work every day, they don’t have any disciplinary, they’re not causing any problem, and they build up trust in the system,” Byers said. “I think that contributed to his ability to do the things he needed to do in order to effectuate this escape.”

What also remains a mystery is how Hardin evaded law enforcement for 13 days. Authorities do not believe he had help from inside the prison or on the outside, Rand Champion, a Corrections Department spokesperson, said in an email.

Excessive rain and thunderstorms rolled through the area during the first week of Hardin’s escape. Because of the weather, tracking dogs had difficulty picking up a scent, drones couldn’t be flown as high and helicopters were grounded, Champion said at a news conference.

He told NBC News that crews were initially limited in where they could search.

Tracking dogs picked up Hardin’s scent in Moccasin Creek, about 1.5 miles from the prison, around 3 p.m. on June 6. Authorities said in a news release that he was apprehended a short time later by U.S. Border Patrol and Arkansas law enforcement officers.

Champion said Hardin tried to flee the search teams but “had little resistance due to being on the run for an extended period of time.” Hardin “didn’t put up a fight once apprehended,” Champion said.

Hardin was taken to Varner Supermax prison in Gould, Arkansas, which also houses high-profile inmates, including convicted child rapist and murderer Zachary Holly, and Army center shooter Abdulhakim Muhammad. Champion said it’s the most secure facility in the state.

The community can now breathe a sigh of relief, Scheerer said.

“We were just so happy that they caught him,” Scheerer said. “This was an evil guy.”