Manhunt under way in Tennessee after convicted murderer escapes prison

Tennessee officials have mounted a manhunt after a convicted murderer’s escape from prison on Sunday evening.

The Tennessee department or correction (TDOC) on Monday announced that Jacob Morley, 28, escaped from the Northwest correctional complex in the community of Tiptonville. Local outlets reported that staff noticed Morley was unaccounted for at about 11.30pm on Sunday.

After staff conducted an emergency headcount, prison surveillance footage showed that Morley breached the perimeter fence and escaped the prison in his TDOC uniform, the local news outlet WATE reported.

Surveillance video also reportedly showed Morley stealing a truck at about 1am on Monday. He was in the truck when other video recorded him passing in front of the Hornbeak fire department – about 15 miles from the Northwest correctional complex – at about 1.18am, the department said.

TDOC describes Morley as being 5ft 11in and 240lbs with green eyes and brown hair.

Morley was serving a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of Cody Birchfield, a Tennessee man who was reported missing in February 2022.

Birchfield’s body was discovered buried beneath Morley’s home about a month later.

Morley was also convicted of aggravated burglary, evidence tampering, evading arrest and vandalism.

“Do not attempt to apprehend this fugitive,” TDOC said in a statement, adding that any information on Morley’s whereabouts should be reported to TDOC at (844) 832-3463.

There have several violent attacks reported at Northwest correctional complex between inmates and by employees. In July, a grand jury handed up dozens of indictments for five inmate murders, assaults against staff and inmates and other violence.

The complex can house 1,776 men and can house minors who have been convicted as adults, according to the TDOC. In 2023, an audit of Tennessee prisons found that the department was struggling to fill open positions at the prison and had a 61% vacancy rate for correctional officers in that fiscal year.

Morley’s escape comes more than a year after a manhunt was launched after the escape of 10 detainees from a New Orleans jail in what was one of the largest such breakouts in recent memory.

All 10 escapees – who got out of the jail through a hole in a wall behind a toilet – have since been recaptured.