Tennessee authorities on Tuesday were still searching for a convicted murderer who, investigators say, escaped a state prison by slipping through a fence and fleeing in a stolen truck.
The state department of correction (TDOC) said in a statement that officials realized Jacob Morley, 28, was unaccounted for at about 11.30pm on Sunday at the Northwest correctional complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee.
Investigators looked at security cameras and saw Morley escaped through a fence while wearing his prison uniform, officials said. They did not release any other details, including how Morley got through the fence.
Surveillance video also reportedly showed Morley stealing a truck at about 1am on Monday. He was in the truck when video also recorded him passing in front of the Hornbeak fire department – about 15 miles from the correctional complex – at about 1.18am, the department said.
Prison officials offered a reward of up to $2,500 for Morley’s arrest. They said law enforcement officials throughout the area had searched buildings and other structures near the prison about 90 miles (145km) north of Memphis in an isolated, rural area of flat land tucked near a bend in the Mississippi River close to Missouri.
Morley is 5ft 11in (1.8 meters) and 240lb (109kg). He has brown hair and green eyes.
Morley was sentenced to life for killing co-worker Cody Birchfield in 2022. Birchfield’s body was found in a box under Morley’s Carter county, Tennessee, home after he had been missing for a few weeks.
Beside first-degree murder, Morley was also convicted of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism and evading arrest. Morley had led police on a chase that ended in North Carolina when he saw officers at his home in 2022 in connection with Birchfield, authorities said.
The north-west correctional complex has been the site of several reported violent attacks 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 at the complex.
The prison can house 1,776 men and minors who have been convicted as adults, according to TDOC. In 2023, an audit of Tennessee prisons found that TDOC was struggling to fill open positions at the north-west complex and had a 61% vacancy rate for correctional officers in that fiscal year.
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The Associated Press contributed reporting
