Tennessee Prison Escape: Convicted Murderer Morley Got Over Five-Hour Head Start Before Local Police Were Notified

Jacob Allen Morley, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence, has escaped from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee. He got out of the prison on Sunday, although authorities have not disclosed the exact time of his escape.

Tiptonville Police Chief Joe England said his department was not notified about a potentially missing inmate until 4:40 a.m. on Monday, over five hours after prison staff first realised Morley was unaccounted for. In other words, Morley had at least a five-hour head start after the escape.

Prison staff noticed at around 11:30 p.m. that Morley was unaccounted for. A review of surveillance footage subsequently revealed him crossing through the prison's perimeter fence. According to Tennessee Highway Patrol dispatch audio, Morley was last seen at the prison at around 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Officers responded to the prison and worked with staff to assess the situation. At 5:14 a.m., England said, officers at the scene alerted the rest of the department that the inmate's 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.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said surveillance footage recorded Morley taking a pickup truck from the 400 block of Keystone Drive, a location roughly two miles south of the prison, at around 1 a.m. on Monday. The truck was found abandoned by law enforcement officials early on Tuesday morning in Marion, Illinois, but Morley was not located.

England said his department was not made aware of a potentially missing truck until 2:15 p.m. on Monday, which was confirmed missing at 2:30 p.m. He noted that the pickup truck was not stolen within city limits.

England said the Tiptonville Police Department immediately coordinated with the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Lake County Sheriff's Office to conduct a search of the surrounding area. The Tennessee Highway Patrol, the TBI and numerous other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies also participated in the search efforts.

A TBI spokesperson said the agency was notified of the prison escape on Monday morning, but did not elaborate on an exact time. The Lake County Sheriff's Office did not respond when asked 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 said the delay in notifying local police of an inmate escaping prison is “100% unacceptable”. He said part of any correctional facility's basic operations should include emergency plans, and that an escape plan entails notifying local and state law enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service and getting the word out to everybody in the community immediately. The delay, he said, raises a huge red flag and begs the question of why it happened.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jonathan Gilliam said the community should have been notified much sooner. He said the community should put out an emergency text to everyone to make sure none of their family members are missing, as Morley could have killed or kidnapped someone after ditching the truck.

The TBI said on Wednesday afternoon that the reward in the search for Morley is now $15,000 — $7,500 from the governor's office, $5,000 from the U.S. Marshals and $2,500 from the TBI.

Morley is 28 years old. The TBI describes him as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. He should be “considered dangerous”, the bureau said, adding that Morley is now on the state's most wanted list. People with information about his whereabouts are encouraged to contact 844-832-3463.

Morley was serving a life sentence for the 2022 murder of Cody Birchfield. In addition to the first-degree murder conviction, 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. Investigators from the Carter County Sheriff's Office saw indications that a “violent crime” had occurred inside his house. On March 2, 2022, Morley was arrested after a police chase that went to the North Carolina state line; after the arrest, Birchfield's body was found underneath Morley's home. Morley's former girlfriend, Landree Sheperd, testified at his trial that he had said at one point that he had killed Birchfield.

The escape comes at a tumultuous time for the Tennessee Department of Correction, less than a month after the botched execution of death row inmate Christa Pike. Pike survived the September 30 execution attempt after the state administered two doses of pentobarbital, and she was transported to a hospital. Governor Bill Lee then suspended Tennessee's remaining scheduled execution for the year and directed an independent review to examine what had gone wrong.