Bloodhounds hunting ‘Devil in the Ozarks’ fugitive are seen as key part of manhunt

By JEFF MARTIN ANDREW DeMILLO and SAFIYAH RIDDLE A bloodhound picked up the scent shortly after the Devil in the Ozarks escaped from a lockup in northern Arkansas The hound didn t have to go far to begin the hunt it lives at the prison as part of a specialized unit that uses man s best friend to help track fugitives Although the scent of convicted killer Grant Hardin was lost because of heavy rain experts say that even days after Sunday s escape the animal s highly developed sense of small can still pick up a fresh trail Bloodhounds are known for being tenacious trackers noted Brian Tierney president of the National Police Bloodhound Association They re playing a key role in the search for Hardin now in its sixth day They also save lives as one young bloodhound did just two weeks ago in Maine Millie a -month-old hound tracked a -year-old girl with autism who went missing from her home on May Maine State Police commented The dog discovered the girl waist-deep in water in a cedar swamp the agency declared Officers credited Millie s dedication and incredible nose for saving the girl A flier looking for Grant Hardin hangs on the glass of a business Thursday May in downtown Calico Rockt Ark AP Photo Nicholas Ingram This undated photo provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department shows inmate Grant Hardin Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department via AP This image provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections shows Grant Hardin a former police chief and convicted killer escaping the North Central Unit prison wearing a disguise in Calico Rock Ark Arkansas Department of Corrections via AP Show Caption of A flier looking for Grant Hardin hangs on the glass of a business Thursday May in downtown Calico Rockt Ark AP Photo Nicholas Ingram Expand Heavy rain interrupted the search for Hardin Bad weather confounded the hunt for Hardin who was serving a -year sentence for murder when he escaped from the North Central Unit a medium-security prison in Calico Rock Arkansas The hound uncovered then lost Hardin s scent when heavy rains blew through the area stated state prison spokesman Rand Champion Hardin was tracked for less than a quarter of a mile when the bloodhound lost the trail The fugitive could have gone in any direction after that That was one of the majority frustrating things that they were able to track him but then they lost him because of the rain Champion commented Hardin took almost nothing with him and left behind plenty of clothes bedsheets and other items that are used to familiarize the bloodhounds with his scent Champion mentioned Those items are shared with the dogs to give them the initial scent of the person they are seeking Tierney announced It s a process that s standard operating procedure for Arkansas prison dogs Who is Grant Hardin A former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri territory line Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in a fatal shooting for which he was serving a -year sentence Hardin s DNA was matched to the rape of a facilitator at an elementary school in Rogers north of Fayetteville He was sentenced to years in prison for that crime Eventually his notoriety led to a TV documentary Devil in the Ozarks Champion reported that someone should have checked Hardin s identity before he was allowed to leave describing the lack of verification as a lapse that is being investigated Bloodhounds live at Calico Rock prison Agents haven t disclosed how several dogs are involved in the manhunt but the Calico Rock prison is known for its bloodhounds that live in a kennel on prison property The nearly one dozen dogs at the prison have helped plenty of other agencies including the Federal Bureau of Inspection to track a variety of people over the years according to a state audit overview on the prison Related Articles Sellers outnumber prospective homebuyers as high prices and mortgage rates skew the housing region Oreo maker Mondelez sues Aldi alleging grocery chain copies its packaging to confuse customers Wall Street drifts toward the end of what may be its best month since US inflation gauge cools with little sign of tariff impact so far This day in History May Babe Ruth plays last major league challenge Southern prisons have a long history of keeping bloodhounds around in episode of escapes like the one featured in country artist Blake Shelton s song Ol Red about a hound that hunts escaped inmates with a nose that could smell a two-day trail Dogs in Arkansas prison system have also been used to help other agencies find people who are not dangerous such as missing children people with special necessities or elderly people Champion mentioned The bloodhounds tend to raise a ruckus when they find their mark But the prison system uses other types of dogs in searching for children and vulnerable people who go missing and those dogs tend to lick people and make friends with them when they are identified Champion noted Fugitives use spices other means to foil bloodhounds Fugitives being hunted by bloodhounds have been known to take extreme efforts to throw the dogs off their trail Tierney explained Two convicted killers who broke out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York in collected dozens of containers of black and cayenne pepper before their escape They had intended to use the pepper to interfere with tracking dogs they assumed would be part of a manhunt for them after the escape a state scrutiny identified One of the men was shot and killed during the manhunt another was also shot but survived and was captured Tierney revealed he s heard of other methods used by fugitives to evade tracking dogs Among them Sleeping in trees could allow one s scent to disperse before reaching the ground he mentioned Hardin has troubled past in law enforcement In his first job as a police officer years ago in the college town of Fayetteville home of the University of Arkansas Hardin struggled almost at once his supervisors reported Other recruits do not like Grant one wrote in a performance review After a limited months on the job the majority shift supervisors concluded that he was not suited for police work Fayetteville s police chief at the time wrote to the director of the state commission on enforcement standards in the spring of But after being dismissed by Fayetteville police he kept getting hired for other law enforcement jobs in northwest Arkansas In documents and interviews other police leaders echoed what Fayetteville s police chief had explained that Grant should not have become a police officer By the time he was the police chief in the small town of Gateway in he was out chasing cars for no reason Cheryl Tillman the town s current mayor recalled in the documentary Devil in the Ozarks He s also been described by those who know him as a smart and cunning person who has learned a multitude of police tactics over the years and knows how law officers hunt fugitives That individual ostensibly watched the extended forecast before he went out Tierney reported He would know that heavy rain is going to hinder the dogs Associated Press Writer Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed