There are many hiding places in the rugged site of the Ozark -Mountains, from deserted huts to campsites in the vast forests where seekers hunt for a convicted former police chief known as the “Devil in the Ozarks.”
Others are not only from the schedule, but below, in the hundreds of caves that lead to enormous underground spaces.
Local, provincial and federal law enforcement took place the region around the prison during the third day of the search.
“Until we have credible evidence that he is not in the area, we assume that he is probably still in the area,” said Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, on Wednesday during a press conference.
Fugitive Grant Hardin, 56, “know where the caves are,” said Darla Nix, a café owner in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, whose sons around him grew up. Nix, who describes Hardin as a survivor, remembers him as a “whole, very smart” and usually quiet person.
For the seekers, “Caves have definitely been a source of concern and a point of emphasis,” said Champion.
“That is one of the challenges of this area – there are many places to hide and take shed, many abandoned barns, and there are many caves in this area, so that’s a priority for the search team,” Champion said.
The area around the prison is “one of the most cave regions in the state,” says Matt Covington, a professor of geology of the University of Arkansas who studies caves.
Think for an officer
Hardin, the former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the border of Arkansas-Missouri, served long penalties for murder and rape.
He was the subject of the TV documentary ‘Devil in the Ozarks’.
He escaped on Sunday from the North Central Unit-a average security prison, also known as the Calico Rock Prison-by wearing an outfit designed to look like a law enforcement uniform, according to Champion.
A prison officer opened a safe gate, allowing him to leave the facility.
Champion said that someone should have checked Hardin’s identity before he was allowed to leave the facility and described the lack of verification as a “course” that is being investigated.
It took the authorities about 30 minutes to note that Hardin had escaped.
Champion said prisoners are evaluated and a classification when they first enter the prison system to determine where they are housed. There are parts of the Calico Rock facility that are maximum security.
Although locked up, Hardin had no major disciplinary problems, Champion said.
Authorities have used dogs, drones and helicopters to search for Hardin in the rugged site of Noord -ARansas, Champion said.
The sheriffs of different provinces in the Arkansas Ozarks had encouraged residents to lock up their houses and vehicles and call 911 if they notice something suspicious.
Dark places to hide
In some respects, the site is comparable to the site of one of the most notorious manhunts in the history of the US.
Bomber Eric Rudolph, described by the authorities as a skilled outdoor person, avoided legal officers in the Appalachian Mountains of West -Noord -Carolina for years.
It was a five -year -old manhunt that finally ended in 2003 with his conquest.
Rudolph knew many huts in the area owned by people outside the city, and he also knew caves in the area, former FBI director Chris Swecker, who at the time led Charlotte, North Carolina of the office, said in the Historical Report of the FBI.
“He expected a big conflict and he had clearly drawn up caves and campsites where he could go,” said Swecker.
Rudolph argued guilty of federal charges in connection with four bomb attacks in Georgia and Alabama.
There are almost 2,000 documented caves in the north of Arkansas, say state officials.
Many of them only have inputs a few feet wide that are not clear to passers -by, said Michael Ray Taylor, who has written several books about caves, including “Hidden Nature: Wild Southern Caves.”
The key is finding the entrance, Taylor said.
“The entrance can look like a rabbit hole, but if you pinch through it, you suddenly find huge passages,” he said.
It would be quite possible to hide underground for a longer period, but “you have to look for food, and you are more likely to be discovered,” he said.
Lined
Hardin had a checkered and short career in the field of law enforcement. He worked at the Fayetteville Police Department from August 1990 to May 1991, but was released because he did not meet the standards of his training period, said a spokesperson for the department.
Hardin worked for about six months at the Huntsville police before he resigned, but data gives no reason for his resignation, according to police chief Todd Thomas, who came to the department after Hardin worked there.
Hardin worked later from 1993 to 1996 at the Eureka Springs Police Department.
Former Chief Earl Hyatt said that Hardin resigned because Hyatt would dismiss him due to incidents that include the use of excessive violence.
“He didn’t have to be a police officer at all,” Hyatt told the KNWA television station.
He continued to have problems in his short period as an officer in Gateway, according to the mayor of the 450 passenger city of Cheryl Tillman.
Although Hardin was the only officer in the city, “there was things I saw that were not good. He was always angry,” said Tillman, who was not mayor at the time.
Hardin pleaded in 2017 guilty of murdering the first degree for killing James Appleton, 59.
Appleton, who was Tillman’s brother, worked for the Gateway Water Department when he was shot in the head on 23 February 2017, near Garfield.
The police found Appleton’s body in a car. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
He also served 50 years before the 1997 rape of a teacher at the primary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville.
He has been held in the Calico Rock Prison since 2017.
