A man serving a life sentence for murder, who escaped from a Tennessee prison last week, was caught by authorities in Missouri 450 miles from his jail cell, authorities said.
According to a news release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Jacob Allen Morley, 28, was apprehended on Tuesday near Norborne, Missouri. Morley was taken into custody without incident at approximately 11:34 a.m. CT.
Morley had been serving a life sentence at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, located near the southeastern Missouri region known as the Bootheel. Prison officials said that Morley had clambered over a fence and stole a white Ford F-350 pickup truck near the facility, according to WZTV.
According to the TBI, investigators received a tip that Morley was believed to be hiding in a shed at a hunting camp near Marion, Illinois. Authorities also learned that a truck had been stolen from the property. The truck that Morley had stolen in Tennessee was found near the Illinois camp at a Pilot Travel Center in Marion, KSHB reported.
Officials had observed Morley at the truck stop earlier in the day.
The TBI then used the vehicle’s license plate to track him down via Flock cameras, according to the television station.
“Tennessee authorities contacted the Patrol’s Missouri Information Analysis Center indicating Tennessee fugitive Jacob Allen Morley was possibly traveling through Missouri based on information obtained through Flock technology,” the Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a news release.
The cameras showed that Morley had driven westbound on Interstate 70 between St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, the TBI said. They provided critical information that allowed investigators to coordinate a plan to capture Morley.
After entering Carroll County, about 60 miles east of Kansas City, Morley turned onto a small county road and his vehicle became stuck, The New York Times reported. A highway patrol trooper then took Morley into custody.
Morley was convicted in the 2022 Carter County death of Cody Birchfield, according to The Tennessean.
Birchfield had gone missing in February 2022, and Morley was arrested in North Carolina a month later, the newspaper reported.
Court records stated that Birchfield’s body was found hidden under Morley’s residence.
Morley was found guilty on Feb. 3, 2025, and was sentenced to life with a chance of parole, WSMV reported.
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