Almost 10 days have passed since the convict represented in an HBO documentary like the “Devil in the Ozarks” escaped from an Arkansas prison, enough for his appearance to possibly change.
On Tuesday, the Arkansas corrections department distributed a photographic illustration of Grant Hardin, 56, with a short beard and a mustache.
“With more than a week passing since Hardin escaped from the Central North Unit, we are throwing a possible updated head shot that could reflect how it could be seen today,” the department said in a statement.
Hardin escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock on May 25. Prison officials said it was seen in a security video pushing a car that transported wooden palettes while using a law style uniform, apparently to evade the attention of the guards.
Hardin was briefly the Chief of Police of Gateway, Arkansas, in 2016. That year, one of his victims, the employee of the city’s water department, James Appleton, criticized Hardin for encouraging police activities and delivering to taxpayers the allegedly growing bill for repairs of police vehicles.
Cheryl Tillman, Appleton’s sister and the current mayor of Gateway, said in the HBO documentary that his brother and Hardin faced on the subject in 2016.
Hardin resigned after four months, according to the documentary.
On February 23, 2017, Hardin fatally shot Appleton, according to an affidavit of the law presented in the court, which earned him a sentence of 30 years after he declared himself guilty.
When the authorities directed the Hardin DNA, they discovered that it was a coincidence of evidence in the violation in the 1997 campus of a primary school teacher, so he was finally convicted under a statement of guilt and then sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Prison officials said Tuesday that the search for Hardin focuses on their native region of the Center-Norte de Arkansas, where his parents still call the city of Garfield.
The reward combined by the information that leads to its capture has increased to $ 25,000 after the FBI doubled its contribution of $ 10,000 last week and then the United States sheriff service contributed $ 5,000, the corrections department said.
Hardin is white, 6 feet is measured, 2 inches high, weighs about 259 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes, authorities said. The possible sightings and information about where it could be informed to the FBI, said the corrections department.
