A multi-state manhunt for a convicted murderer who escaped from a Tennessee prison came to an end on November 3, 2026, when authorities took him into custody in rural Missouri. Jacob Allen Morley, 28, had been on the run for nine days after breaking out of the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville and traveling through Tennessee, Illinois, and Missouri.

Morley was serving a life sentence for the 2022 killing of his co-worker Cody Birchfield. Birchfield was reported missing in February of that year. Weeks later, his body was discovered in a box beneath Morley’s house. In addition to first-degree murder, Morley was convicted of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, evading arrest, and vandalism.

The escape began on the evening of October 25. During a routine night cell count, a correctional officer knocked on Morley’s cell and asked how many inmates were inside. Another prisoner falsely answered that there were two. It took staff approximately two more hours to confirm that Morley was gone. Security footage later revealed that he had cut through the facility’s security fences while still wearing his prison uniform, hidden among pallets and equipment near the main kitchen, and then stolen a white 2008 Ford F-350 truck around 1 a.m. on October 26.

Notification to outside agencies was delayed. Prison staff first alerted an internal investigator around 2 a.m., but state authorities and the district attorney’s office were not informed until about 5:30 a.m. Local law enforcement learned of the escape even later. By that time, Morley had already driven into Illinois. He abandoned the first stolen truck in Marion, roughly 130 miles from the prison. For the next several days he remained in the rural, wooded area outside Marion, believed to have stayed at a hunting camp or in a shed on private land adjoining national forest.

On the morning of November 3, investigators received a tip pointing them toward a hunting property. Around the same time, a farm truck was reported stolen from a nearby site. The person who took the vehicle left a handwritten note apologizing for the theft and including personal messages, one of which asked that his mother be told he loved her. Authorities linked the note and the theft to Morley.

Using license-plate recognition systems, vehicle tracking data, and camera networks, officers followed the second truck west into Missouri along Interstate 70 and then south on Route 291. As law enforcement closed in, Morley attempted to leave the roadway and became stuck in mud near the town of Norborne in Carroll County, about 50 miles northeast of Kansas City. A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper approached and took him into custody without incident around 11:30 a.m. Three stolen firearms were recovered from the truck.

Morley now faces additional charges in Tennessee for escape, theft, and vandalism, with further charges expected in Illinois and Missouri. The capture brought relief to communities that had been on edge during the search. For Birchfield’s family, the escape had reopened deep wounds. Relatives said the original life sentence had provided a measure of closure, but news of Morley’s flight revived feelings of fear and trauma.

The episode also added to recent difficulties for the Tennessee Department of Correction, which had dealt with another inmate escape earlier the same month and faced other public scrutiny.

Anyone with additional information related to the case can contact the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.