Tennessee fugitive steals work truck after prison escape

Jacob Allen Morley, 28, stole a white 2008 Ford F-350 with Tennessee license plate 138BBQV roughly two miles from his prison.

The Tennessee Department of Correction reported that Morley escaped the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville on Sunday night. Staff noticed he was missing at 11:30 p.m. Sunday and began an emergency search of the facility.

Security footage from the prison showed Morley cutting through a fence while wearing his orange prison uniform. About an hour later, at 1 a.m. Monday, cameras on the 400 block of Keystone Drive captured him taking the pickup truck. The vehicle belongs to Lindamood Planting Company and carries an air compressor in its bed.

Morley is serving a life sentence for the 2022 murder of Cody Birchfield. He was convicted in 2025 after Birchfield vanished in February 2022. Investigators found Birchfield’s body beneath Morley’s home following a police chase that ended near the North Carolina state line in March 2022. Morley also received guilty verdicts for burglary, vandalism, tampering with evidence, and evading arrest.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has placed Morley on the state’s most wanted list. Officials described him as 5 feet 11 inches tall, 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. The agency advised the public to treat him as dangerous.

Federal and state law enforcement teams are assisting in the search. Morley’s former girlfriend, Landree Sheperd, testified at his trial that he once told her he killed Birchfield. Authorities are asking anyone with information to call 844-832-3463.