A separated former police chief escaped a humiliating former police chief for murder and rape, and carried out an emergency pursuit in Arkansas.
Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit Sunday afternoon, the Arkansas Department of Corrections said.
"Anyone with information about the whereabouts of prisoner Harding should contact local law enforcement immediately," authorities said in an article on X.
Officials say Harding has been in the Northern Central Department since 2017 and has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for first-degree murder and a separate sentence for rape.
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The prison added Harding was the former police chief of the city of Gatway.
Harding was found guilty of murder in 2017 by 59-year-old James Appleton, a city water employee, who was found shot dead inside his work truck, according to KNWA.
When Harding was booked in a state prison, officials submitted his DNA samples to a database. His DNA reportedly eventually linked him to a 1997 teacher's rape case.
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Arkansas Department of Corrections officials are looking for a prisoner of a former police chief who they said escaped from its northern central unit on Sunday. (Arkansas Department of Corrections)
The victim, Amy Harrison, a teacher at Frank Tillery Elementary School in Rogers, said she was raped by a gun at school.
"It turned out to be Mr. Harding," Benton County Attorney Nathan Smith told the media.
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The Arkansas Department of Corrections is looking for prisoners who escaped from the Central North unit on Sunday. (iStock)
Authorities confirmed that Harding's DNA matched the DNA associated with the rape suspect. Harrison was ambushed while preparing for this week's lesson plan. The case has been very cold for nearly twenty years.
Harding eventually pleaded guilty to the rape case in 2019.
"In my opinion, Grant Hardin is one of the most dangerous people I've ever met because he didn't show up like that in the first place," Smith said earlier. "He's a man who has the ability to perform seemingly random, terrifying murder and random horror rape."
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Harding is described as a 6' white male and weighs about 259 pounds.
Stepheny Price is a writer at Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, state crime cases, illegal immigration and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com