The town where Arkansas prison escapee and convicted murderer Grant Hardin once served as police chief remains on edge, according to its mayor who is also the sister of Hardin’s victim.

“Anxiety is still high,” Cheryl Tillman, the mayor of Gateway, Arkansas, told USA TODAY in an interview May 28. “I think everybody’s still on alert, being vigilant, doing every precaution that they can.”

Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock on May 25, wearing a “makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement,” according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Hardin had been serving time for the 2017 murder of James Appleton, Tillman’s brother, in Gateway and the 1997 rape of a school teacher in nearby Rogers. He was sentenced to 80 years on the combined convictions, according to court records.

Tillman described Hardin, who served as Gateway’s police chief while Tillman was on the city council in 2016, as “very arrogant” and “angry.”

“He’s an evil person,” Tillman said.

Hardin remains at large as of Wednesday night, with the FBI, Department of Corrections, Arkansas State Police and local police were working to find Hardin, officials said earlier in the day.

Sister remembers brother slain at hands of ‘Devil in the Ozarks’

Hardin pleaded guilty to in 2017 to murder in the first degree for shooting and killing Appleton in February of the same year, according to court records.

Appleton’s brother-in-law and Cheryl’s husband, Andrew Tillman, told Benton County Sheriff’s investigators that he was on the phone with Appleton when he was shot, according to a probable cause affidavit. Andrew was the Gateway’s mayor at the time of the shooting.

Cheryl described Appleton as a “very good brother” with a strong civic sense who obtained a license to work for the Gateway Rural Water Authority when asked by his brother-in-law.

“Everybody in this town knew James. They knew that they could call James if they needed help on anything,” Tillman said.

Tillman said that learning of Hardin’s escape brought back memories of the murder.

“Everything was happening all over again. From the time he shot my brother and the time we had to go to court with him,” Tillman said.

The 1997 rape was the focus of a 2023 documentary titled “Devil in the Ozarks,” for which Tillman was interviewed. She said that the interview was “tough to do.”

“We’ve since been in touch with the subjects of that film and law enforcement and are praying for Hardin’s immediate capture in the name of justice and the victims and their families’ peace of mind,” Ari Mark, one of the executive producers of the documentary, told USA TODAY in a statement May 28.

Tillman emphasized the need for residents of Gateway, a place she described as “a very quiet town” where “everybody knows everybody,” to remain vigilant while Hardin remained at-large.

“Lock their doors. If they need to, load their guns,” Tillman said. “Whatever they need to do, just stay vigilant and watch your backs.”

Contributing: N’dea Yancey-Bragg, Michael Loria, Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY.

A small Arkansas town is on edge after a former police chief convicted of fatally shooting a man and sexually assaulting an elementary school teacher escaped from prison Sunday wearing a “makeshift” law enforcement uniform.

Residents of Garfield expressed fear and anger as the search for Grant Hardin entered its third day.

“This whole weekend, I’ve kept the house locked,” Brenda Fields, 60, said in a phone interview Tuesday. “He was in law enforcement, so he’s not just your average person. That makes me more nervous because he had that background.”

Rex Littrell lives up the street from Hardin’s parents in Garfield, a town of about 600 people in northwest Arkansas, about 40 miles northeast of Fayetteville and not far from the Missouri border. He said that because of the nature of the crimes, Hardin should have been under careful watch.

“He should never have had a chance to escape. He’s killed somebody and he’s raped somebody,” he said.

Fields, who lives across the street from Hardin’s parents, said she learned about his escape on Facebook.

“My dad lives right next to us, too, and he’s locked all of his stuff up, locked up the outbuildings,” she added, saying she’s “scared.” “I wish they’d hurry up and find him.”

Hardin, the former police chief in the neighboring town of Gateway, has been on the run since Sunday afternoon after he escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, which is about 140 miles east of Garfield. He was convicted of killing Gateway City water employee James Appleton in 2017 and raping teacher Amy Harrison in 1997 — cases featured in the Max documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”

He was Gateway’s police chief for about four months in early 2016. He also held jobs as an officer, a county constable and a corrections officer, NBC affiliate KNWA of Fayetteville reported.

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office said he escaped through a sally port, a controlled entry or exit area at the facility. He was wearing a “makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement,” officials have said.

A photo released by the sheriff’s office showed Hardin dressed in all black, appearing to push a wheeled cart with wooden pallets on it.

Law enforcement agencies from across the state have joined the search. He remained at large Tuesday afternoon, and the state Corrections Department had no new updates.

The Izard County Sheriff’s Office warned residents to keep their doors locked and stay inside, county officials said.

The lack of information about Hardin’s whereabouts is frustrating for Cheryl Tillman, the mayor of Gateway and sister of Appleton.

“It brings back a lot of memories of when it first happened,” she said. “I can’t believe this has happened. I mean, what were they doing down at the prison that this happened?”

Tillman said law enforcement has not reached out to her family about Hardin’s escape. She learned the news Sunday from an automated phone call from a jail messaging system.

“All it said was that Grant Hardin had escaped from prison,” she recalled. “Nobody’s been in contact with us. … I find it pretty sad that authorities have not reached out to us.”

She said people in the community “are a little scared.” Tillman has taken extra precautions by having someone with her when she goes to work.

“You just have to stay vigilant and watch your surroundings,” she said. “That’s what I do.”

Hardin was serving a 30-year sentence for Appleton’s murder and a 50-year sentence for the sexual assault of Harrison when he escaped.

Appleton was talking to his brother-in-law when he was shot in his car Feb. 23, 2017, according to an affidavit filed in the case. The following year, a DNA sample linked him to the cold case rape of Harrison at Frank Tillery Elementary School. Hardin pleaded guilty in both cases.

Harrison declined to comment Tuesday.

Fields said Appleton was always a “really nice guy.”

“He used to come to our house once a month to read the water meter,” she said.

Littrell said there was “no reason for James to have died.”

“There was no reason for what happened to James to have happened. It was just bloody murder,” he said, calling Appleton a “good guy.”

Tillman said that the family has struggled to move on over the years and that Hardin’s escape adds to their pain.

“I wouldn’t say the first couple of years were easy. They were pretty hard,” she said. “Then you try and go on, and things subsided, and then ‘wham,’ all this comes back up again. It’s very hard.”