Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:21):
Can someone be born evil? It's a seriously mysterious question
that comes up frequently in the true crime community. When
a crime is committed, we often try to make sense
of it through examining the familiar motives like money, jealousy,
or revenge, tearing into the history of the offender looking
for some piece that explains their actions later in life.
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But some criminal acts seem to defy all explanation. Some
leave us wondering if true evil exists, a nefarious act
performed without any logical reasoning, simply for the thrill of
the offender. As the old saying goes, power tends to corrupt,
and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For some, that taste of
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power over others sparks a dangerous hunger, one that grows
with each act of dominance and control. Grant Harden was
a respected police officer, a role that gave him power, influence,
and the trust of an entire community. However, beneath that
surface he committed crimes, some that we know about, but
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possibly others that may still be hidden in the shadows.
As for his motives, they are in the black hole
of understanding that we just spoke about, completely unfathomable. And
impossible to understand even to those closest to the case.
Was he always capable of such evil? Or did the
power he held corrupt him? But this story doesn't start
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with Grant Harden. Like many young women coming of age
in the South in the nineteen nineties, Amy wanted more
than the traditional roles of wife and mother. She dreamt
of building a meaningful career, a goal that was becoming
increasingly achievable as new doors opened and glass ceilings were
removed for women, independent, driven and full of ambition, Amy
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enrolled in college, determined to shape a life on her
own terms, and it was there, at the age of
twenty one, that she met Andrew Harrison. What began as
a chance encounter between two classmates would ultimately become a
turning point in both of their lives. They hit it off,
and two years later they were married. When the young
couple graduated from college in nineteen ninety five, Andrew became
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a police officer in Rogers, Arkansas. Rogers sits in the
middle of the Northwest Arkansas metropolitan area, near the cities
of Fayetteville and Springdale, Nestled in the foothills of the
Ozark Mountains, The region offers an abundance of outdoor activities
such as hiking, fishing, and camping. For a young, newly
married couple like Amy and Andrew, it seemed like the
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perfect place to build a future. This part of Arkansas
is also known as the home of Walmart. When the
retail giant established its headquarters there, it transformed the region
into a hub of economic opportunity. Vendors, suppliers, and countless
other businesses flocked to the area, hoping to benefit from
the proximity to one of the world's most powerful companies.
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As a result, the housing industry boomed and this area
was growing exponentially on all fronts. While the two worked
to establish themselves in the community, Amy found work as
a third grade teacher at Tillery Elementary School. She loved
the children in her class and enjoyed the job. It
also allowed her to continue her studies at night, where
she was working towards becoming an attorney. On the morning
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of Sunday, November ninth, Amy sat at her desk at
school making out her lesson plan for the week ahead.
She wasn't alone in the building. There was a church
service being held in the school cafeteria, but she had
locked her door all the same. At one point, she
got up and left to use the restroom, which was
located in the teacher's lounge around the corner. After using
the restroom, she came out to walk back to her classroom,
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but a man in a stocking cap and sunglasses stopped her.
He forced her back into the restroom at gunpoint, and
he sexually assaulted Amy. The assault carried on from the
bathroom to a nearby classroom. After that, the man left
Amy terrified where she lay. At this point, she didn't
know if the man would come back or not. He
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had a gun, and she was worried that he would
kill her if she tried to do anything, but she
had to get help somehow. She mustered up the courage
to find a custodian working in the building and asked
him to call the police. When officers arrived, Amy was
unable to give them a description of her attacker. The
only part of his face that had been visible to
her was from the nose down. With their help, a
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composite sketch was drawn, but it did little to help
officers locate the man. Strangely enough, she did remember that
the man kept asking her if she recognized him, which
she didn't. She also didn't recognize his voice, but she
did notice a few things. Her attacker was very careful
to not leave any fingerprints behind. The man had strawberry
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blonde whiskers, and he wore no shoes, having on only
a pair of socks. It was thought that he might
have done that to stay quiet when he was walking,
so his approach would be impossible for his victim to hear.
If true, this is a person that planned this all
out meticulously. Investigators worked hard to collect every conceivable piece
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of evidence from the assault on Amy. Not only had
this heinous crime happened at an elementary school during a
church service, but it had happened to a fellow police
officer's wife. They would see justice done. And even though
Amy's attacker had been thorough there was still one sample
that would forever mark Amy's attacker his DNA. While the
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assault was under way, she wiped a liquid substance off
her leg and onto her sweatshirt. In an amazing act
of mental clarity and braveness. She had just secured the
sample that could put her attacker behind bars. But would
this be enough to find her attacker before he could
hurt someone else. The DNA sample was run through COTIS,
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the Combined DNA Index System, a database of DNA profiles
for offenders. It was hoped that the sample would come
back quickly with a match, but there wasn't one to
be found. That meant that whoever this person was, they
had probably never been in trouble with law enforcement before.
Hundreds of members of the community were tested to see
if their DNA matched, as well as Amy's loved ones
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and close associates. Even with all that effort, no matches
were found. No witnesses saw this man, and he left
few clues to follow. In what seemed like no time
at all, the leads all dried up, and Amy was
left wondering if she would ever find justice. As she
tried to adjust and accept what happened to her, her
marriage suffered greatly, Andrew grew more and more despondent when
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it became evident that his wife's attacker was not going
to be caught anytime soon. He was angry and frustrated
as an officer and as a husband. Unfortunately, this immense
strain was so hard on the couple's marriage that it
just would not survive. Under Arkansas law, Amy's assault would
only be prosecutable for up to six years. If her
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assailant hadn't been found by then, the statute of limitations
would run out and he would never be prosecuted. To
keep her case moving forward, the Rogers Police Department tried
a novel approach. In two thousand and three, they took
out their first John Doe warrant. This type of warrant
uses DNA evidence recovered from a crime scene to help
identify a suspect not known by name, but issuing a
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warrant for pending charges on the unknown person. This can
effectively help keep a case open that might be hitting
the timeline of the statute of limitations. At least according
to the National Institute of Justice. Now time was on
their side. All they had to do was find the
match for their DNA sample. Gateway, Arkansas, is only about
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a twenty minute drive north of Rogers and sits right
on the border with Missouri. In twenty sixteen, the population
was only four hundred and fifty people in Gateway. You
could live a small town life with lots of big
town amenities just down the road. It's a sleepy Ozark
town where violent crime is almost unheard of, and everyone,
even in this new century, rarely locks their doors. That year,
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its residents hired a new chief of police to serve
in their one officer department, a man named Grant Harden.
He was very hard to get along with. You never
knew what he was going to do. Cheryl Tillman, the
mayor of Gateway, would say. It was reported that hard
and treated members of the town in a way that
made them fear their police chief. They said he was
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quick to anger and very unpredictable. The man seemed to
be a problem from day one. Harden came from a
background in law enforcement in northwest Arkansas and seemed like
a shoe in for the job of small town police chief.
But they soon saw how wrong they were. One person
in particular didn't get along with Harden, a man named
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James Appleton. Fifty nine year old James worked for Gateway's
water department, but his duties in the town didn't end there.
He was also contracted by the city to maintain their
parks and roads, as well as serving as a volunteer fireman.
Everyone in town knew and liked James. He had been
a fixture in the community for many years. During Harden's
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tenure as chief of their one man police department, he
and James had many run ins and disagreements. At one point,
the two got into an argument over a damaged police cruiser.
Harden demanded that James fix the damage, but James refused.
James said that Harden should have to fix the cruiser
because it was his own foolishness that led to the damage.
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The ar came big enough that James called the mayor
of Gateway to file a complaint against Harden. This complaint,
among others, eventually led to Harden resigning from his post
only five months after taking it. He was told to
resign or he would be fired. Afterward, Harden went on
to work as a corrections officer in Fayetteville. The tense
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chapter in the city of Gateway was over. Life went
on as usual, or so it seemed. Nine months later,
on February twenty third, twenty seventeen, James was going about
his duties just outside of Gateway. He was pulled over
on the side of the road talking with Gateway's mayor
on his cell phone when something strange happened. He told
then mayor Andrew Tillman Cheryl's husband that a white car
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had just pulled off the road behind him and was
sitting there. James sat there for some time while other
vehicles passed the two on the road. Beside them. One local,
John Bray, waived at James as he drove past. Moments later,
James told the mayor that the white car had finally
decided to I've passed him. Then Mayor Tillman heard what
he thought was a car door shut. At that moment,
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he lost contact with James. John Bray was still close
enough that he heard the sound too, but he knew
it wasn't a door, it was a gunshot. Worrying that
something had happened to James, Bray turned around and went
back to check on him. He found James's truck still
sitting on the side of the road and there was
James unresponsive. Bray quickly called nine one one. When officers arrived,
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they found that it was too late. James was deceased.
They could tell immediately that he had been killed with
a shotgun at close range. Bray was able to fill
in a few of the missing pieces for investigators. He
explained that just after he and James exchanged waves, he
heard a gunshot. Moments later, a white car that had
been parked behind James quickly caught up to Bray on
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the highway, then turned onto a driveway just a short
distance from where the shooting occurred. Officers asked if he
knew whose house that was. Yes, he replied, that's where
Grant Harden lives. The investigation showed that to a degree,
Gateway lived in fear of their former police chief. During
his tenure, he carried a gun, whether on duty or off,
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and would regularly threaten people with it. If he was
made angry, he would always tell them that he had
the power to do this and that he was not
to be messed with. When officers arrived, however, Harden wasn't
at home. He took his wife and daughter out to dinner.
While officers scrambled to find a killer and James Appleton's
family began to mourn his passing, Harden was with his
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family eating out. As the Harden family returned home, they
ran into a road block that had been set up
at the murder scene just down the road from their house.
When he admitted that he was the man that officers
were looking for, Harden was immediately taken into custody. Officers
searched his car and his home with very little investigative effort.
They found physical evidence of the murder on his vehicle,
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and they even found the murder weapon itself. While in custody,
Harden refused to answer any questions and would only ask
for his attorney. Even without any admission from the man,
there was enough evidence for an arrest and for charges
to be filed. The same day of the murder, Harden
was placed under arrest as per procedure. Harden's DNA was
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then entered into COTIS. That's when this investigation took a
new turn. Harden's DNA matched the samples taken from Amy
Harrison when she was sexually assaulted. When Amy was given
photos to look at to identify her attacker, even all
those years later and having only seen half his face,
she immediately landed on Harden. Even to day, she still
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has no idea how Harden knew her in nineteen ninety seven,
and she still doesn't recognize him as someone that she
knew back then. In October of twenty seventeen, at Harden's
first trial for the murder of James Appleton, there was
really no reason to debate whether or not he had
committed the murder. There was an overwhelming preponderance of evidence
against him. He pled guilty and was sentenced to thirty
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years in prison. But now he had other charges to face.
Because Amy Harrison was assaulted not just in the bathroom
of the elementary school, but in a classroom as well,
Harden was charged with two counts of sexual assault. He
pled guilty to both in twenty nineteen. He was sentenced
to twenty five years for each count, to be served consecutively,
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and he was taken to the North Central Unit Prison
in Calico Rock, Arkansas to serve out those sentences. Harden
gave no explanation as to why he had murdered James,
but investigators feel that it stemmed from Harden resigning his
post in Gateway. They believe he blamed that on James.
James's family could now have some form of relief knowing
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that a murderer would be behind bars for a long time.
As to the attack on Amy, were still not exactly
sure why he was at the school that day. Harden
has refused to share any details about his planning or
reasoning around her attack. He also refuses to answer why
he was asking Amy over and over if she recognized him. Regardless,
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Amy had to also feel some relief knowing that the
person who assaulted her would likely be in prison for
the rest of his life, or would he On May
twenty fifth, twenty twenty five, the Arkansas Department of Corrections
announced that Harden had escaped. While working in the prison kitchen.
He was somehow able to cobble together a uniform that,
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at a glance actually passed as a prison guard's uniform.
He was seen at two fifty five PM pushing a
loading cart to doors leading out of the facility. Another
corrections officer waved him through the gates, and Harden made
his getaway. For the next two weeks, massive searches were
held in the Calico Rock area as investigators tried to
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track down Harden. No one knew if he had help
on the outside. He could conceivably be out of the
state or even out of the country. If that were
the case, every effort was made to locate the escaped convict. Drones,
scent dogs, horses, ATVs, and law enforcement agencies from across
the country joined together in the search. As the two
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week mark approached, Hope of finding him was beginning to fade. Then,
on June sixth, twenty twenty five, tracking dogs started following
a strong scent, one that finally led them to Grant Harden.
He had been hiding in the woods, just a mile
and a half from the prison he had escaped from.
Clearly with no outside help, Harden didn't make it far.
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He had been surviving in the dense forest surrounding the facility,
evading capture but never truly being free. He's now serving
time in a supermax prison and awaiting trial for the
escape attempt, to which he has pled not guilty. That
trial will begin in late twenty twenty five. In the end,
Grant Harden's story is a chilling reminder that evil doesn't
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always wear a mask off and hides in plain sight,
cloaked in respectability and trust. Whether born bad or slowly
corrupted by power, Harden left behind a legacy of betrayal, violence,
and unanswered questions. Do you have any insights or even
a case you'd like to suggest, Feel free to send
it to me. You'll find a comment form and caseubmission
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link at Lordenarts dot com. Thank You, NWA homepage dot com.
WRIIC dot Com, CNN dot Com, NBC News, The Guardian,
USA Today, ABC News, The Max documentary Devil and the Ozarks,
and Wikipedia for information contributing to today's story. This episode
was written by Christy Arnhardt, edited by John Lordon, and
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produced by Lorden Arts. Thank you to our audience here
for the live recording session hosted on the YouTube channel
Lorden Art's Studio two Special. Thanks to Seriously Mysterious financial
supporters Mike W. Mel Stefan and Emily Flotilla. Most of all,
thank you for listening. I'm John lord Please join us
again next week for another case I know you'll find
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seriously mysterious