Tennessee fugitive steals truck two miles from prison after fence breach

Law enforcement agencies in Tennessee launched a manhunt for a murder convict who escaped from a northwest facility and stole a work truck during his flight.

Jacob Allen Morley, 28, slipped away from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville on Sunday. He was serving a life sentence for the 2022 murder of Cody Birchfield. Prison staff noticed his absence around 11:30 p.m. and immediately began an emergency count of the facility.

Security footage captured Morley cutting through a fence line while still in his prison uniform. By 1:00 a.m. on Monday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation tracked him to the 400 block of Keystone Drive, approximately two miles south of the prison. There, he took a white 2008 Ford F-350 marked with the name Lindamood Planting Company. The vehicle carries the Tennessee license plate 138BBQV and contains an air compressor in its bed.

Investigators describe Morley as 5 feet 11 inches tall and 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. The state bureau has designated him as dangerous and added his name to the state's most wanted list. In addition to first-degree murder, his convictions include burglary, vandalism, tampering with evidence, and evading arrest.

The murder case stems from Birchfield's disappearance in early February 2022. He was last seen in Elizabethton. Carter County Sheriff's Office investigators found signs of a violent crime in his home. Morley was arrested on March 2, 2022, after a chase that ended at the North Carolina border. Birchfield's body was later found beneath Morley's residence.

During the 2025 trial, Morley's former girlfriend, Landree Sheperd, testified that he once told her he had killed Birchfield. Federal and state law enforcement teams are now coordinating efforts to locate the fugitive. Authorities ask anyone with information to call 844-832-3463.