Night Watch: Devil in the Ozarks: Inmate Uses Costume to Escape Prison

He asked a victim if she recognized his voice. Years later, DNA answered: he was Grant Hardin, a cop, police chief, and convicted rapist. After pleading to murdering James Appleton in 2017 and being convicted of the 1997 rape of Amy Harrison, Hardin drew 80 years in prison. Yet in 2025 he turned a kitchen apron into a “vest,” a marker-dyed shirt into a “uniform,” and a soup-can lid into a “badge,” then sauntered out of a prison. This Halloween, Katie dives deep into the Ozarks that swallowed him for 14 days, describing the floodwaters and the massive search that pinned him just 1.5 miles from the prison fence. Now in a supermax prison and charged with second-degree escape, Hardin’s due in court next month.

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