CALICO ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Officials scoured Arkansas’ rugged Ozark Mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped from prison over the weekend. Grant Hardin, who briefly served as police chief for the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving a decades-long sentence for murder and rape.

Grant Hardin "should never have had a chance to escape. He’s killed somebody and he’s raped somebody," one resident said.

DNA evidence has become a cornerstone of modern police work, be it through the use of genetic genealogy or submitting material found before modern advances in testing.