Former police chief, serving murder and rape sentences, escapes from Arkansas prison
CALICO ROCK, Ark. — A former police chief in Arkansas who is serving decades-long sentences for murder and rape escaped from prison Sunday, state corrections officials said.
Grant Hardin, the former police chief of the tiny town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, where he has been held since 2017. Corrections officials did not provide any details about how he escaped.
The Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction are following leads with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old James Appleton. According to an affidavit filed in the case, Appleton worked for the Gateway water department and was talking to his brother-in-law, then Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, when he was shot in the head on Feb. 23, 2017 near Garfield. Police found Appleton’s body inside a car.
Hardin, who was Gateway’s police chief for about four months in early 2016, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is also serving 50 years in prison for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers north of Fayetteville.
KFSM-TV, reporting on his guilty plea in 2019, wrote that police used DNA samples from the crime scene to apply for a John Doe Warrant in 2003 as the statute of limitations neared. The DNA was tested against old and new profiles, and investigators got a match when Hardin was imprisoned for killing Appleton.
Russ & Daughters in NYC celebrates ‘100 years of appetizing’ and family
At Russ & Daughters, it takes three months to learn how to slice salmon. NPR's Scott Simon visits the 100 year-old appetizing store to try his hand at the fine art and talk about their new cookbook.
20 years later, is it time to quit ‘Brokeback Mountain’?
Back in 2005, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal captured lust shading into love, and love decaying into heartbreak. The movie got a lot of things right — but not everything.
As opposition to an Alabama medical waste treatment facility boils over, a mysterious Facebook page weighs in
Dozens of residents opposed to Harvest Med Waste Disposal’s site in Remlap packed the Blount County courthouse to voice their concerns. Online, a paid campaign supporting the facility has been active, though its backers have remained anonymous.
In April NPR profiled people who couldn’t get their HIV drugs. How are they faring now?
In Zambia, we met people who are HIV positive, couldn't get drugs to suppress the virus after U.S. aid cuts and were seeing symptoms. We checked in on them — and the man who's been their champion.
Amid debate about U.S. history, Harlem Hellfighters receive Congressional Gold Medal
The Harlem Hellfighters, who became legends for their service during World War I, were honored this week with a Congressional Gold Medal.
Concerned about federal vaccine policies, states are crafting their own
As federal health agencies change their approach to vaccine policy leaving access for COVID shots uncertain, some states are taking things into their own hands.
