Man serving a life sentence for murder slips through a fence and escapes a Tennessee prison

TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man serving a life sentence for killing his co-worker four years ago has escaped from a prison in northwest Tennessee by slipping through a fence, authorities said.

Officials realized Jacob Morley, 28, was unaccounted for around 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, the Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement.

Investigators looked at security cameras and saw Morley escaped while wearing his prison uniform, officials said. They did not release any other details, including how Morley got through the fence.

Prison officials offered a reward of up to $2,500 for Morley’s arrest. They said law enforcement throughout the area has searched buildings and other structures near the prison about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Memphis in an isolated, rural area of flat land tucked near a bend in the Mississippi River near Missouri.

Morley is 5-foot-11 (1.8 meters) and 240 pounds (109 kilograms). 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 home after he had been missing for a few weeks.

Along with first-degree murder, Morley was also convicted of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism and evading arrest. When Morley saw deputies at his home in 2022, he led police on a chase that ended in North Carolina, authorities said.

Several violent attacks between inmates and by employees have been reported in recent years at Northwest Correctional Complex. A grand jury in July returned dozens of indictments for five inmate murders, assaults against staff and inmates and other violence.

Northwest Correctional Complex can house 1,776 men and can house minors who have been convicted as adults, according to the Department of Correction. In 2023, an audit of Tennessee prisons found that the department was struggling to fill open positions at the prison and had a 61% vacancy rate for correctional officers in that fiscal year.