A convicted murderer who escaped from a Tennessee prison had at least a five-hour head start before local police were notified he was missing, the Tiptonville police chief told Fox News Digital. Jacob Allen Morley broke out of the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville on Sunday, although authorities have not disclosed the exact time of his escape.
Prison staff noticed Morley was unaccounted for at about 11:30 p.m., and a review of surveillance footage later showed him crossing the facility's perimeter fence. According to Tennessee Highway Patrol dispatch audio, Morley was last seen at the prison around 4 p.m. Sunday. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said surveillance footage recorded him taking a pickup truck from the 400 block of Keystone Drive, roughly two miles south of the prison, at about 1 a.m. Monday. The truck was later found abandoned by law enforcement early Tuesday in Marion, Illinois, but Morley had not been located.
In a statement, Tiptonville Police Department Chief Joe England said his department was not notified about a potentially missing inmate until 4:40 a.m. Monday, more than five hours after prison staff first realized Morley was unaccounted for. Officers responded to the prison and worked with staff to assess the situation. At 5:14 a.m., officers alerted the rest of the department that the escape had been confirmed. At 6:20 a.m., prison officials formally notified Lake County Central Dispatch, which handles 911 calls and coordinates law enforcement services, that an inmate escape had been confirmed.
England said the department immediately coordinated with the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Lake County Sheriff's Office to search the surrounding area. The Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and numerous other state, local and federal agencies also took part in the search. England said his department was not made aware of the missing pickup truck until 2:15 p.m. Monday, when it was confirmed missing at 2:30 p.m. He noted the truck was not stolen within city limits.
A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson said the agency was notified of the escape on Monday morning but did not give an exact time. The Lake County Sheriff's Office did not say when it was first alerted, and the Tennessee Department of Correction did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Former federal prison warden Cameron Lindsay called the delay in notifying police «100% unacceptable ». He said emergency plans for a correctional facility should include immediate notification of local, state and federal law enforcement, including the U.S. Marshals Service, and that the gap raised serious questions. Retired FBI Special Agent Jonathan Gilliam said the community should have been alerted much sooner, noting that the escaped inmate could have harmed someone after abandoning the truck.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that the reward for information leading to Morley's capture is now $15,000, made up of $7,500 from the governor's office, $5,000 from the U.S. Marshals and $2,500 from the TBI. Morley is described as 5 feet 11 inches tall and 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. The agency said he should be considered dangerous and that he has been added to the state's most wanted list.
Morley was serving a life sentence after a first-degree murder conviction for the 2022 killing of Cody Birchfield. He was also found guilty of burglary, vandalism, tampering with evidence and evading arrest. Birchfield disappeared in early February 2022 after he was last seen in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and investigators from the Carter County Sheriff's Office later saw indications that a violent crime had occurred inside his home. Morley was arrested on March 2, 2022, after a police chase that ended at the North Carolina state line, and Birchfield's body was found beneath Morley's home. His former girlfriend, Landree Sheperd, testified at trial that Morley had said at one point that he had killed him.