Jacob Morley Escapes Tiptonville Prison, Manhunt Launches for Life-Sentence Inmate

Jacob Allen Morley, 28, escaped the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville on Sunday. He is serving a life sentence after his 2025 murder conviction for killing Cody Birchfield three years earlier. The Tennessee Department of Correction said prison staff found him unaccounted for around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, prompting an emergency count and a search of the facility. Security video showed him breaching a fence while still dressed in prison clothing.

Around 1 a.m. Monday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said footage captured Morley taking a vehicle on the 400 block of Keystone Drive, roughly two miles south of the prison. The truck is a white 2008 Ford F-350 with Tennessee plate 138BBQV, marked with the name Lindamood Planting Company on the side and carrying an air compressor in the bed. The bureau listed him as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes, and said he should be considered dangerous. He is on the state's most wanted list. Federal and state law enforcement are assisting in the search.

Birchfield was last seen in Elizabethton in early February 2022. Investigators with the Carter County Sheriff's Office reported signs that a violent crime had occurred inside his home. On March 2, 2022, Morley was arrested after a police chase that reached the North Carolina state line; Birchfield's body was later found beneath Morley's home. At trial, Morley's former girlfriend, Landree Sheperd, testified that he said at one point he had killed him. Alongside the first-degree murder count, Morley was also convicted of burglary, vandalism, tampering with evidence and evading arrest.

Authorities have not announced a next court date or parole proceeding. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation asks anyone with information on Morley's location to call 844-832-3463.