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A man serving a life sentence for killing his co-worker four years ago escaped from a northwest Tennessee prison by sliding through a fence, authorities said. Investigators have since released surveillance footage that showed him stealing a truck in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Officers noticed that Jacob Morley, 28, was unresponsive at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, the Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement.
Investigators looked at security cameras and saw Morley fleeing while wearing his prison uniform, officials said. They did not release any other details, including how Morley got through the fence.
Later, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released surveillance tape showing Morley stealing a white 2008 Ford F-350, with Tennessee plates and a Lindamood Planting Company logo on the door, at 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday. The vehicle was stolen from Lake County, which includes Tiptonville, investigators said.
The bureau said Morley remains on its “most wanted” list as of Monday, and officials have offered a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to his arrest. In a statement, it urged residents of the area from which the car was stolen “to check home security systems, including doorbell cameras and trail cameras, for any sightings of Morley or the stolen truck.”
Prison officials said law enforcement throughout the area searched buildings and other structures near the prison about 90 miles north of Memphis in an isolated, rural area of flat land near a bend in the Mississippi River near Missouri.
Morley is 5-foot-11 and 240 pounds. He has brown hair and green eyes.
Morley was sentenced to life for killing co-worker Cody Birchfield in 2022. Birchfield’s body was found in a box under Morley’s Carter County home after he had been missing for several weeks.
Along with first degree Morley, Morley was also convicted of aggravated burglary, evidence, vandalism and evading arrest. When Morley saw deputies at his home in 2022, he led police on a chase that ended in North Carolina, authorities said.
Several violent attacks between inmates and staff have been reported at the Northwest Correctional Complex in recent years. A grand jury in July returned dozens of indictments for five inmate murders, assaults against staff and inmates and other violence.
Northwest Correctional Complex can house 1,776 men and house juveniles who were sentenced as adults, according to the Department of Corrections. In 2023, an audit of Tennessee prisons found that the department was struggling to fill open prison positions and had a 61% vacancy rate for correctional officers in that fiscal year.
