An urgent manhunt is underway in Arkansas after a disgraced former police chief, who was serving time for murder and rape, escaped from prison.

The Arkansas Department of Corrections said Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit on Sunday afternoon in Calico Rock, AR.

“Anyone with information about inmate Hardin’s whereabouts should contact local law enforcement immediately,” authorities said in a post on X.

Officials stated that Hardin has been incarcerated at the North Central Unit since 2017, serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, along with an additional sentence for rape.

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The prison also confirmed that Hardin is the former police chief of Gateway.

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Hardin pleaded guilty to the 2017 murder of James Appleton, 59, a city water department employee who was found shot in the face inside his work truck, according to KNWA.

During Hardin’s intake at the state prison, officials collected his DNA sample and submitted it to a database. This DNA match later linked him to a 1997 cold case involving the rape of a teacher, the outlet reported.

Officials with the Arkansas Department of Corrections are searching for an inmate, who is a former police chief, that they said escaped from its North Central Unit on Sunday.

The victim, Amy Harrison, a teacher at Frank Tillery Elementary in Rogers, said she was raped by a man with a gun at the school.

“It was established with absolute scientific certainty that it was Mr. Hardin,” Nathan Smith, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County at the time, told the outlet.

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Authorities confirmed that Hardin’s DNA matched the evidence connected to the rape suspect. The victim, Harrison, was ambushed while preparing a lesson plan for the week. This case had remained unsolved for nearly twenty years.

Hardin ultimately pleaded guilty to the rape charge in 2019.

“Grant Hardin, in my personal experience, is one of the most dangerous individuals I have ever encountered because he doesn’t initially present himself as such,” Smith previously stated. “He is capable of committing seemingly random and brutal acts of violence, including both murder and rape.”

Hardin is described as a white male, approximately 6 feet tall and weighing around 259 pounds.