Cloak Rock in Arkansas - Arkansas authorities are looking into whether a job in the prison kitchen played the role of a convicted former police chief in the weekend escape, known as the "Devil of Ozarks."

Grant Hardin, 56, was housed in the largest security department of the Medium Security Print Rock Prison, where he also works in the kitchen, Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesman Rand Championship said Thursday. Authorities said Harding escaped Sunday, put on a look that looked like a law enforcement uniform.

"His job is in the kitchen, so just want to see if that works, too," the champion told the Associated Press.

According to the 2021 certification report, the kitchen is divided into two classes of about 25 workers, involving an extensive review of the prison. In the kitchen, “tools and utensils are stored on the shaded board and have the appropriate controls to sign/in all tools.” “Checking the inventory control tables found that they are accurate and up-to-date.”

The kitchen is located in one of 16 buildings, covering one of 700 acres (280 hectares) of prison land. The vast land includes a garden, two greenhouses and a vast pasture, where a herd of more than 100 horses were raised and trained by staff and prisoners.

Hardin, a former police chief, is located in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, and he was sentenced to a lengthy sentence for murder and rape. He is the subject of the TV documentary "The Devil of Ozarks".

A prison expert said corrections officers may be investigating whether kitchen work will allow Harding to enter other parts of the prison or help with his kitchen tools, including shaping temporary uniforms.

Bryce Peterson, a criminal justice expert based at the security research organization CNA, said prison escape is often a combination of motivation and opportunity.

"You don't immediately see the kitchen as a source of a bunch of escape tools," Peterson said. "But these guys are really smart, and what they think about day after day is how they escape if that's their motivation."

Local, state and federal law enforcement are continuing to search for Harding, and the FBI announced Thursday that it will offer up to $10,000 rewards to obtain information that led to his arrest. The champion said officials remain confident that Harding is in North Central Arkansas.

From caves to campgrounds, there are many hiding places in the Ozark Mountains, officials said.

Authorities continued to park at a checkpoint near Calico Rock on Thursday, with flyers with Harding's photos visible on the windows of local shops.

Elsewhere on Thursday, the sheriff's office in southern Missouri said it had received a report that it found someone's description in the Moody's/Bakersfield area, less than an hour north of Calico Rock.

The agency said in a Facebook post that Howell County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded, but that while agents continue to be able to find anyone, they still cannot find.

"At present, we have no information to determine whether this suspicious person is an escapee, or that he is even in Missouri," the Post said.

The champion said Arkansas authorities were aware of the tip and were studying it.

The department said Wednesday afternoon that the search team also responded to Faulkner County in the central Arkansas area after receiving tips.

The champion did not immediately know how many other prisoners were placed in the prison’s highest security department.

Hardin raised questions about the prison’s mission, formally known as the Northern Central Unit, from the area’s legislators and families of former chief victims.

Cheryl Tillman said Harding had culinary training sometime during his incarceration and his brother James Appleton was shot dead by Harding in 2017.

Tillman said she knew Hardin had worked in the kitchen at the Cabo Rock Prison and questioned why he was allowed to do so.

"To me, it sounds like it's his free range," she said in an interview this week.

Now he has time, “it has disturbed us all, the whole family,” she said.