Man Serving Life Sentence for Murder Escapes Tennessee Prison
Authorities are searching for Jacob Morley, 28, who escaped the Northwest Correctional Complex on Sunday night.
TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man serving a life sentence for murder has escaped from a prison in northwest Tennessee by slipping through a fence, authorities said.
Officials discovered Jacob Morley, 28, was unaccounted for around 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, the Tennessee Department of Correction announced in a statement. Investigators reviewed security footage and observed Morley escaping in his prison uniform. Details regarding how Morley breached the fence were not immediately released.
Prison officials have offered a reward of up to $2,500 for Morley's arrest. Law enforcement agencies across the region have conducted searches of structures near the prison, which is located about 90 miles north of Memphis in a rural area bordering the Mississippi River and Missouri.
Morley is described as 5-foot-11 (1.8 meters) and 240 pounds (109 kilograms), with brown hair and green eyes.
Morley was serving a life sentence for the 2022 killing of his co-worker, Cody Birchfield. Birchfield's body was discovered in a box beneath Morley's home in Carter County after he had been reported missing. Morley was also convicted of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism, and evading arrest. He was apprehended in North Carolina after leading authorities on a chase when they attempted to apprehend him at his home in 2022.
The Northwest Correctional Complex has seen several violent incidents in recent years, including inmate murders and assaults on staff and inmates. In July, a grand jury issued indictments related to five inmate deaths, assaults, and other acts of violence at the facility.
According to the Department of Correction, the Northwest Correctional Complex has a capacity of 1,776 male inmates and can also house minors convicted as adults. An audit of Tennessee prisons in 2023 indicated that the department was facing significant staffing shortages, with a 61% vacancy rate for correctional officers at the complex during that fiscal year.