Jacob Allen Morley, a convicted murderer who escaped from a Tennessee prison on Sunday night, had already crossed into Illinois before prison officials alerted outside law enforcement, the district attorney handling the case said on Friday, as a multistate manhunt for the 28-year-old entered its sixth day.
The delay matters because it gave Morley hours of head start before the search beyond prison walls began, and because it has turned a prison escape into a public test of how Tennessee’s correction system handles its gravest failures.
Morley had already crossed state lines by the time outside agencies were notified, District Attorney Danny Goodman Jr. told CNN on Friday. Morley was in Marion, Illinois, by 4:40 a.m. on Monday, Goodman said, but local law enforcement was not notified until 6:15 a.m., after multiple cell counts late on Sunday.
Goodman said prison staff alerted an internal investigator at about 2:00 a.m. on Monday, but that investigator did not notify the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol or the district attorney’s office until 5:30 a.m. The Lake County Sheriff’s Department was not contacted until 6:15 a.m., he said.
“He was already in Marion, Illinois, before they ever called anyone outside of TDOC,” Goodman said, referring to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
The timeline released by investigators shows a routine cell count at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 25, at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, in the far northwestern corner of Tennessee. When an officer reached Morley’s cell, the door window was covered, and another inmate falsely claimed two people were inside, according to the account reported by WBBJ. Prison officials called an emergency count and confirmed Morley was absent at about 11:30 p.m., and investigators believe he had already left the grounds by then.
Staff conducted a second emergency count at 12:25 a.m. on Monday, suspecting Morley might still be hiding on facility grounds. At about 1:00 a.m., investigators say, Morley stole a white 2008 Ford F-350 utility truck marked with “Lindamood Planting Company” and headed toward Illinois. Staff discovered breached perimeter fences between 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., after Morley had hidden among pallets and a trash cart behind the main kitchen and cut his way out, according to the timeline.
CNN reported that it had reached out to the Tennessee Department of Correction for comment on the delay. The department has not publicly disputed the timeline, and it warned in a social media post on Friday afternoon that Morley is “considered dangerous and could be anywhere.”
The stolen truck was found abandoned on Tuesday in Marion, Illinois, about 120 to 130 miles north of the prison, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. Marion police said investigators had found no confirmed sightings of Morley in the area and no evidence that he remained nearby, and the department asked truck drivers and travellers who were in Marion on Monday morning to review dash camera footage for suspicious activity.
Morley is now on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list, with a combined reward of $17,500 for information leading to his arrest. The governor’s office contributed $7,500, the US Marshals Service $5,000, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation $2,500, after the reward was raised in stages from an initial $2,500. The US Marshals Service, which lists Morley as armed and dangerous with violent tendencies, is offering its share in addition to the state reward.
Morley, who is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes, was serving a life sentence for the 2022 first-degree murder of his co-worker Cody Birchfield in Carter County. He was also convicted of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, evading arrest and vandalism, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Morley is the second inmate to escape from Tennessee Department of Correction custody this month. The department’s commissioner resigned after the botched execution last month of Christa Pike, and Governor Bill Lee announced on Friday the appointment of Christopher Hansen as interim commissioner, CNN reported.
Investigators are also examining whether Morley could be connected to an armed robbery on Tuesday afternoon at the Bank of Deerfield in Dane County, Wisconsin. That possible link has not been confirmed, and authorities have not said Morley was involved.
Anyone who sees Morley should call 911 immediately and should not approach him, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-TBI-FIND. As of Friday, October 30, Morley remained at large, and the search across state lines continued.
