A survivalist is issuing a warning for hikers and outdoorsmen in the Ozarks of Arkansas: steer clear of the area.

Shawn Hendrix’s warning comes amid an ongoing search for prison escapee and former Gateway Police Department Chief Grant Hardin, 56, who fled from a medium-security prison in Calico Rock on Sunday, May 25, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC). 

Nicknamed the “Devil in the Ozarks,” Hardin was serving decades in prison for murder and rape.

“I think that the big thing that gets him caught or dead in the field is getting injured … or a foodborne illness — he drinks some bad water,” Hendrix told Fox News Digital. “Now, if he gets dysentery or some kind of really bad foodborne or waterborne illness, that could take him out real quick. So, let’s hope that he drinks some bad water and has some really terrible disease that gets him out of the woods because my biggest concern is that if you’re a hiker or a camper or hunter out there, you’re not going to see it coming.”

Champion said during a news conference last week that authorities are fairly confident in the route they believe Hardin took when he escaped and said authorities believed he was still in the Ozarks area, but a federal complaint filed against Hardin on May 30 suggests another possibility: he may be out of state.

Based on two unconfirmed sightings, including one in Missouri on May 26, a day after Hardin escaped, federal officials believe he’s not in Arkansas anymore, as The Arkansas Democrat Gazette first reported.

“He has extensive knowledge of the Ozark Mountain region, where he is believed to be possibly hiding in caves or rugged terrain that he is familiar with,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert J. Hammons wrote in the criminal complaint, according to the Gazette. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas.