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EL PASO, TEXAS (NewsNation) — As a federal U.S. Border Patrol agent assigned to an elite tactical unit made his way up a rain-soaked wooded ridge near where Grant Hardin, known as "The Devil in the Ozarks," had escaped an Arkansas state prison almost two weeks before, his mind started to race.
NewsNation exclusively spoke with two agents in the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC, who captured Grant Hardin in June. NewsNation is not naming the agents to protect their identities.
Less than 24 hours into the manhunt for the police chief-turned-escaped prisoner, the agent figured if Hardin wasn't in this patch of rural wilderness, he likely wasn't far. Part of a 20-member BORTAC squad that was dispatched from their home base at Fort Bliss in El Paso, the agent approached the crest of the hill and spotted a muddied, shirtless man matching Hardin's description.
The agent called out and identified himself as law enforcement, setting off a mental game of cat and mouse. Would Hardin run? Would he fight?
Spotting the federal agent, Hardin jumped to his feet and began to run. The agent gave chase for about 30 or 40 yards before Hardin lost his footing, setting the stage for a fugitive capture that state and local law enforcement and area residents alike had been eagerly awaiting.
“There’s an element of God’s grace or luck or whatever you want to call it,” the arresting agent told NewsNation. “It just goes back to perseverance. But truth be told, I was pretty friggin’ stoked to see him.”
How BORTAC agents started the search for Grant Hardin
The "Devil in the Ozarks" had been on the run for 12 days before the director of the Arkansas Department of Corrections contacted BORTAC. The call, like many requests for assistance that come into the unit from state and local agencies, began a furious chain of events around BORTAC's headquarters.
By now, moving manpower quickly from one place to another has become standard practice for BORTAC's chain of events.
Less than 24 hours after they arrived in Arkansas from an immigration enforcement operation in northeast Texas, the two partnering BORTAC agents were positioned in the wooded area near where Hardin had last been spotted by Arkansas Department of Corrections officers, approximately 200 yards from the North Central Unit state prison in Calico Rock.
The agents tried to put themselves in the shoes of Hardin, who was convicted on rape and murder charges, knowing that a 30-year law enforcement veteran knew how investigators think. The BORTAC strategy involved a series of unknowns, including whether Hardin was armed and what he may have found in the woods or stolen that he could use for protection.
Escaped prisoner Grant Hardin is apprehended by a BORTAC agent, ending a nearly two-week search for the ex-sheriff known as "The Devil in the Ozarks." (Photo courtesy of BORTAC)Given the time that had passed, most state and local authorities figured the ex-police chief, with a working knowledge of Arkansas' rural setting, had covered plenty of ground despite the conditions. With the rest of the BORTAC team spread around the area where the expansive search was centered, the two partners worked the perimeter close to where Hardin had escaped.
Using basic skills learned early in their Border Patrol training, the agents worked to establish the direction Hardin was moving. Although state and local authorities had used their own investigative methods to search for Hardin, BORTAC's training that focuses on "real-world" scenarios in dangerous environments places agents on a different level, BORTAC's National Cmdr. Christopher Voss told NewsNation.
Now, it appeared, BORTAC's commitment to setting its agents apart from others seemed to be paying off. Searching a hilly portion of wilderness, the two agents decided to split up.
As the agent who first encountered Hardin moved up the hill, he silently began to pray to himself, “God, help me to find this dude.”
BORTAC agents build their search plan for Grant Hardin
Before they arrived in Arkansas, real-time information provided to BORTAC agents and intelligence unit members had provided clues. The agents told NewsNation the rain that had fallen on 10 of the 12 days Hardin was free had given him a distinct advantage.
The rain had caused local rivers to rise and had turned the rural woodlands into a swampy mess, making it difficult for investigators and K-9 units to track Hardin.
With so many officers and agents already engaged, the BORTAC team was split into teams. Some agents were assigned to investigate the most recent reports of Hardin sightings, while others were instructed to look into the latest tips that had been phoned in by concerned citizens.
But for these two particular agents, working that area that was so close to the prison and yet so far from the area most investigators believed Hardin to be raised the stakes.
“This is what we train for, this is what we go through a selection process for, and this is the call we want,” one of the agents involved in Hardin's capture told NewsNation. “We want to be put into positions where we can get some of the worst criminals off the streets and bring these communities some normalcy back.”
Grant Hardin escapes prison; BORTAC gets the call to join the search
Hardin escaped prison May 25 by impersonating a corrections officer and walking out the front gate.
A prison guard opened a secured fence for Hardin, freeing him into the nearby wilderness. Initially, the manhunt had been conducted by local and state authorities, who used their own methods to search for clues and for Hardin.
But 12 days in, BORTAC officials received word that a unit — which located escaped Pennsylvania convict Danelo Cavalcante in 2023 and had been credited with the fatal shooting of the gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022 — was being requested.
Officials told NewsNation a team of 20 BORTAC members, comprised of agents representing the unit's tactical, search and rescue, air and marine and investigative units, was called in to assist with the search. Less than 24 hours after the team arrived, the agent credited with capturing Hardin had apprehended the escaped prisoner on the wooded hillside.
Grant Hardin, murderer and rapist, escaped from an Arkansas prison nearly two weeks ago. A Border Patrol Special Operations group deployed to assist in the manhunt and tracked him down less than 2 miles from the prison. Hardin was turned over to Arkansas State Police unharmed. (Photo courtesy of BORTAC)Once his partner arrived, the two agents contacted other law enforcement, informing authorities that the 13-day search had drawn to a close.
In that moment, the two partners locked eyes in relief. "Dude, we got him," one said to the other.
Voss, the BORTAC commander, and the agents involved in locating the escaped convict praised the work of other investigators who had spent the previous 13 days following leads and reports of possible sightings.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders praised the work of local, state and federal authorities, whose work allowed residents across the state to "breathe a sigh of relief."
When credited with making the capture, Voss pushed the spotlight off his agents.
"At the end of the day, none of these operations get done by one unit or one group," Voss said. "It's 100% a team effort, and so we just fit into that team and provide value where we can provide value."
Asked to describe what it meant to alert fellow law enforcement officers that Hardin had been captured, one BORTAC agent replied, adding he would gladly volunteer for another mission.
“We were as excited as we could be to let everyone else know it was over,” the agent told NewsNation. “That whole community could be at ease.”
"I don't hope anyone escapes from prison, but hopefully, if they do, we get the call again," he said.
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