A man serving a life sentence for murder has escaped from a prison in northwest Tennessee by getting through a fence, state authorities said. Investigators have since released surveillance video that appears to show him stealing a truck in the early hours of Tuesday.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said staff realized that Jacob Morley, 28, was unaccounted for at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville. Investigators reviewed security camera footage and saw Morley leave while wearing his prison uniform. Officials did not say how he made it through the fence, and they released no other details.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation later made public surveillance footage showing Morley taking a white 2008 Ford F-350 at around 1 a.m. local time Tuesday. The truck has Tennessee plates and a Lindamood Planting Company logo on the door. Investigators said it was stolen in Lake County, the county that includes Tiptonville.
As of Monday, Morley remained on the bureau's "most wanted" list. Officials are offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to his arrest. The bureau asked residents of the area where the truck was taken "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 across the area has searched buildings and other structures near the facility. The prison sits about 90 miles north of Memphis, in an isolated, rural stretch of flat land near a bend in the Mississippi River close to Missouri. Morley is 5-foot-11 and weighs 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes.
Morley received a life sentence for the 2022 killing of his co-worker, Cody Birchfield. Birchfield's body was found in a box under Morley's home in Carter County after he had been missing for a few weeks. Morley was also convicted of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism and evading arrest. Authorities said that when he saw deputies at his home in 2022, he led police on a chase that ended in North Carolina.
The prison has been the site of several violent incidents in recent years, including attacks between inmates and attacks by employees. In July, a grand jury returned dozens of indictments covering five inmate murders, assaults against staff and inmates, and other violence.
According to the Department of Correction, the Northwest Correctional Complex can house 1,776 men, including minors who have been convicted as adults. A 2023 audit of Tennessee prisons found the department was struggling to fill open positions at the facility, with a 61% vacancy rate for correctional officers in that fiscal year.
