Convicted murderer who escaped through Tennessee prison fence is captured, officials say

By Dalia Faheid, Chris Boyette, Isabel Rosales, CNN

(CNN) — A convicted murderer who escaped a Tennessee jail was apprehended in Missouri and brought back into custody, officials said –– nine days after he breached the prison fence and drove off in a stolen truck.

The manhunt to find Jacob Morley, 28, ended on Tuesday, when state troopers captured Morley as he traveled through the Kansas City area, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Authorities contacted the highway patrol’s Missouri Information Analysis Center Tuesday, saying Morley might be traveling through the state based on information obtained through FLOCK technology, the highway patrol said.

FLOCK cameras were used again to locate Morley in a vehicle traveling south on Missouri Route 291, and law enforcement from various state and local agencies began to close in, MSHP said in a statement.

The Kansas City Police Department followed Morley in their helicopter, and when his car got stuck trying to drive off the road, a trooper was able to take him into custody without incident, according to MSHP.

Morley was apprehended around 11:30 a.m. in Carroll County, near Norborne, Missouri – about 50 miles east-northeast of Kansas City, MSHP said.

“The Tennessee Department of Correction is grateful to our law enforcement partners and the public for their assistance in his capture,” the department said in a statement Tuesday.

The manhunt crossed state lines

The manhunt involved a scramble by authorities in multiple states to find Morley, who officials warned was “considered dangerous and could be anywhere.” Morley was serving a life sentence for the murder of his co-worker Cody Birchfield, who was reported missing in February 2022 before he was found in a box under Morley’s house weeks later, The Associated Press reported. He was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, evading arrest and vandalism.

Staff at Northwest Correctional Complex noticed Morley was missing late on October 25, the Tennessee Department of Correction said.
By the time prison officials alerted external law enforcement agencies, Morley had already crossed state lines, District Attorney Danny Goodman Jr. told CNN Friday.

Morley had been in Marion, Illinois, by 4:40 a.m. October 26, but local law enforcement was not notified until 6:15 a.m., following multiple cell counts late October 25, Goodman said.

“The biggest concern I have, obviously, is just the large gap between the time that someone was notified,” he said. “If they had known as quickly as the department of corrections knew…that would have given two hours for local police to be patrolling, and good chance they catch him before he gets out of the county.”

Security footage revealed the inmate had “breached the perimeter fence” and fled wearing his prison uniform, the correction department said. Morley then stole a 2008 white Ford F-350 early October 26, investigators said. The truck was found abandoned a day later in Marion – about a 130-mile drive north of the prison, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.

Morley was the second inmate to escape from the Tennessee Department of Correction’s custody in October. Gregory Redden, a 63-year-old who is serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated robbery, escaped TDOC custody from Nashville General Hospital on October 21 before he was later apprehended.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation placed Morley on its “Most Wanted” list and announced a reward of $17,500 for information leading to his arrest.

Inmate cut through security fencing and stole truck

Morley escaped through a fence at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, a small town in the northwestern corner of Tennessee, and staff confirmed he was missing around 11:30 p.m., the Tennessee Department of Correction said. A correctional officer conducted a first routine cell count at 9:30 p.m., according to Goodman, the district attorney. When an officer knocked on Morley’s cell and asked how many inmates were inside, an inmate falsely claimed two were present, but Morley was not in the cell, Goodman said.

CNN has reached out to the Tennessee Department of Correction for more details on the escape.

He cut through the security fences and hid among pallets and a trash cart behind the main kitchen, Goodman said. The DA added he doesn’t know what tool he used to cut through the fence or how he obtained it.

Video obtained by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation showed Morley stealing a white 2008 Ford F-350 with Tennessee plates around 1 a.m., the agency said.

The Hornbeak Fire Department, which is about 15 miles from the Northwest Correctional Complex, said it captured video of Morley passing in front of the fire department building in the stolen truck around 1:18 a.m.

Prison staff alerted an internal investigator around 2 a.m., but state agencies and the DA’s office weren’t notified until 5:30 a.m., and local law enforcement even later, according to Goodman.

The stolen truck apparently sat in southern Illinois for more than a day before police found it, investigators said. Surveillance video shows the truck was apparently abandoned in Illinois around 4:40 a.m. October 26, Marion police Lt. Justin Dwyer told CNN. He said police found the truck around 10 a.m. October 27. Morley headed toward a highway after leaving the truck, Dwyer said, citing video footage.

Police hadn’t been able to confirm whether he was still in Marion after reviewing a handful of grainy surveillance videos but said they would thoroughly canvass the area, according to Dwyer. “We have continually searched neighborhoods, knocked on doors and followed every lead and tip that we receive,” he said.

The Tennessee Department of Correction and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation repeatedly provided warnings to residents as the search for Morley dragged on: “Check properties, including vacation homes & outbuildings, for anything unusual, and check on vulnerable individuals.”

Escape left small community and victim’s family shaken

In Marion, a small Illinois city of about 17,600 people in Williamson County, residents were hypervigilant during the multiday manhunt. “It’s a scary time,” local attorney Bridget Lawler said Wednesday.

“Everybody is locking their car doors now,” Lawler said. “My husband checked all of our doors before he went to bed.”

“When we learned that an escaped convicted murderer had abandoned a stolen vehicle in our community, we recognized the potential threat to public safety,” Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich said Tuesday. “Although we had no confirmation that he remained in the area, we were not willing to take chances with the safety of our citizens.”

A cousin of Birchfield’s, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons, told CNN before Morley’s capture that his life sentence gave the family “a small sense of closure and the reassurance that justice had been served.”

But learning of his escape has reopened their “deepest wounds.”
After learning her brother’s killer had escaped, Carrie Norman said she felt sick to her stomach.

“It’s all those feelings come rushing back,” Norman told CNN affiliate WCYB.

Morley’s capture on Tuesday brought an end to a days-long sense of worry in the community.

“Wild. Shocking. I’m glad he got caught,” said Josh Malone, owner of Little Creeks Outdoors, a business in Marion, just off Interstate 57.

Malone burst out laughing during a phone interview as he pulled up CNN.com’s story about Morley’s capture. He noticed something unexpected in the capture photo – the escaped inmate was wearing a camouflage hoodie bearing the logo of Malone’s business, “LCO Marion, IL.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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