By Taylor Romine, Chris Boyette, CNN

(CNN) — A former small-town police chief in Arkansas escaped from prison Sunday while serving decades-long sentences for murder and rape and is still on the loose, officials said Wednesday.

Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from a state prison in northern Arkansas on Sunday afternoon, after he appears to have tried to imitate law enforcement to break out, the state’s Department of Corrections said.

Multiple agencies across the state, including state police and several sheriff’s offices, are coordinating in the hunt for Hardin.

The escape came just days after 10 inmates broke out of a New Orleans jail on May 16. Two of those inmates remain on the run, and 13 people have been charged so far in relation to that jailbreak, including a maintenance worker with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. It was not immediately clear how Hardin orchestrated his breakout.

Here is what we know about the former police chief:

How he escaped

Hardin escaped the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock around 2:55 p.m. Sunday, a news release from the state’s Department of Corrections said. Authorities previously reported he escaped around 3:40 p.m. but amended the time after reviewing security footage.

Authorities discovered Hardin was missing during a routine count approximately 15 to 20 minutes after he left, preliminary reports show, but an investigation into the timeline of events is still being conducted, said Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

It appears at the time of his escape, Hardin was “wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement,” but was not wearing a Department of Corrections uniform, the department said Sunday. It did not share any other information on how he is thought to have escaped.

A surveillance image appears to show Hardin wearing black pants, a black T-shirt and a black baseball cap, as well as an additional item that looks like a bulletproof vest. He appears to be wheeling a cart holding a box and several pieces of wood. Authorities believe he exited through a sally port, a controlled and secure entry point found in places such as prisons, the Stone County Sheriff’s Office said.

Officials are still ironing out the details of how he escaped and what methods he used, as well as whether anyone helped him, Champion said at a news conference Wednesday. He also noted the makeshift uniform he was wearing at the time of his escape is not standard issue for inmates or correctional officers, so they are also investigating how he got the clothing.

It was also raining “fairly significantly” at the time of Hardin’s escape, and the rain has continued for the past several days, Champion said Tuesday. “It has hindered some aspects of the search process, including the tracking capability of the canines and the ability to fly drones, as well as making conditions more treacherous in general for search teams,” he said.

Rain was still an issue Wednesday, Champion said at the news conference.

Hardin, who’s been in prison since 2017, was previously the police chief for the small town of Gateway near the Missouri border, with additional background in law enforcement. He spent four months in that position in 2016, according to an Investigation Discovery documentary on the case. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

He served as a police officer, a police chief and a county constable throughout his career, the documentary said.

Hardin previously served as a police officer in Fayetteville, Huntsville and Eureka Springs, Arkansas; he was fired from the Fayetteville Police Department and was allowed to resign instead of being fired from the Eureka Springs Police Department after being accused of falsifying information in a report, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported. At the time of the murder he later pleaded guilty to, he was a correctional officer at the Northwest Arkansas Community Correction Center in Fayetteville, the newspaper said.

What he is in prison for

Hardin has been serving a total of 50 years in prison, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. This includes a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, as well as two 25-year sentences for two counts of rape served consecutively, according to Arkansas prison records and court documents.

He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of James Appleton, who worked for the City of Gateway’s water department, in February 2017, according to court documents. Hardin was accused of stopping and shooting Appleton in the head while driving down a road approximately half a mile from his home, documents show. He pleaded down from a capital murder charge.

At the time of his sentencing, Hardin addressed the family of the victim while entering his guilty plea, saying he didn’t know how to express it, but he was sorry, CNN affiliate KHBS reported.

Two years later, he also pleaded guilty to two counts of rape after his DNA, which was entered into the Arkansas DNA database following his murder plea, was connected to the 1997 rape of schoolteacher Amy Harrison, court documents show.

Harrison was at the school on a Sunday preparing for the week while a church service was being held in the cafeteria, an affidavit said. She used the bathroom in the teacher’s lounge, and when she came out, she was attacked by a man pointing a gun at her, the document said.

“Mr. Hardin’s cases, which involve a murder whose motive remains unclear to this day and a rape of a stranger, are outliers for the type of cases that our office prosecutes,” said current Benton County prosecuting attorney Bryan Sexton.

Documents show Hardin was frustrated with his court-appointed attorney following his guilty plea in the murder case, saying he had wanted to withdraw his plea and had a difficult time accessing resources to submit for post-conviction relief, court documents show.

The attorney, Shane Wilkinson, told CNN he has been in contact with local law enforcement and hasn’t heard from Hardin since his escape. Police have been conducting safety checks on his home and business since the escape, he added.

Prison records show Hardin completed a program on anger management in 2019 and he hasn’t had any major disciplinary issues during his imprisonment, Champion said.

The search for Hardin

Hundreds of law enforcement officials from federal, state and local agencies are working on finding Hardin, who they believe is still in the general area near the prison, Champion said Wednesday.

Hardin’s background in law enforcement gives him specialized training that might make it easier to evade authorities, and the rocky terrain in the area makes it difficult to search, Champion said. He also grew up in midwest Arkansas, which has similar terrain, giving him another advantage, he added.

“There are a lot of caves around here, there’s a lot of hills, and so understanding that he may have that sort of familiarity provides a challenge,” Champion said, adding numerous barns and abandoned cars in the area give him a lot of places to hide out.

Officials are using all resources at their disposal, which include dogs, drones and aircraft as weather permits, among other methods, Champion said.

Hardin is 6 feet tall and approximately 259 pounds, prison records show. Authorities have asked anyone who has information on his location to contact local law enforcement immediately. There haven’t been any credible sightings of Hardin reported to law enforcement, Champion said.

Law enforcement has been in contact with Hardin’s family members during the search, according to Champion.

“My only concern is for the victims who have had closure from this Defendant’s crimes for nearly a decade,” Sexton said. “I feel for them as they are having to relive what damage this man did to themselves and their families.”

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