A former police chief who was convicted of rape and murder escaped from the prison where he was serving a 30-year sentence on Sunday, correction officials said.

Grant Hardin had been at North Central Unit, a prison located in Calico Rock, Arkansas, since 2017. He escaped around 3:40 p.m., the Arkansas Department of Corrections said in a social media post.

“Anyone with information about inmate Hardin’s whereabouts should contact local law enforcement immediately,” the post read.

According to CBS affiliate KFSM-TV, the Stone County Sheriff’s Office said Hardin was seen leaving the prison in an Arkansas Department of Corrections uniform.

Hardin was the former police chief for the city of Gateway, Arkansas, a small town with just a few hundred residents.

Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old James Appleton. According to an affidavit filed in the case, Appleton worked for the Gateway water department and was talking to his brother-in-law, then-Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, when he was shot in the head on Feb. 23, 2017, near Garfield. Police found Appleton’s body inside a car.

Hardin is also serving 50 years in prison for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers, north of Fayetteville.

KFSM reported in 2019 that police in 2003 used DNA samples from the rape victim’s clothes to apply for a “John Doe” warrant since the statute of limitations was close to expiring. Investigators eventually got a match after Hardin was imprisoned for Appleton’s killing.

Hardin pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and was given 25 years for each count, KFSM reported.