Jacob Allen Morley, a convicted killer serving a life sentence, was captured Tuesday in Liberty, Missouri, more than a week after breaking out of the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, on Oct. 25.
Officers took Morley into custody without incident after the Missouri State Highway Patrol used FLOCK camera networks to track a vehicle he was believed to be driving. According to a Patrol statement, the Missouri Information Analysis Center and Troop A Communications received a tip from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Nov. 3 at roughly 9:30 a.m. that Morley may have been heading westbound on Interstate 70 near Independence, Missouri. Cameras helped officers locate the vehicle, and undercover officers eventually spotted it traveling south on Missouri 291 in Liberty.
Before his capture, investigators say Morley spent part of his time on the run holed up in a hunters’ shed near Marion, Illinois, about 127 miles from the prison. Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich said evidence at the scene showed Morley had been drinking beer and making garlic bread, among other food, while hiding out.
Diederich said Morley left behind a handwritten letter of apology after taking a truck from the farm property where the shed sat. He is also accused of taking clothing and three firearms from the site.
The sheriff said Morley appears to have walked roughly three miles on foot to reach the shed after abandoning a separate truck he had used following his initial escape from the Tennessee prison.
“How he ended up in Marion is kind of a mystery,” Diederich said.
Authorities had previously said Morley stole a pickup truck from the 400 block of Keystone Drive, about two miles south of the prison, around 1 a.m. on Oct. 26, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. That vehicle was found abandoned in Marion, Illinois, the following morning, but Morley was not located at the time.
Morley is serving a life sentence for the 2022 murder of Cody Birchfield, along with convictions for burglary, vandalism, tampering with evidence and evading arrest. Birchfield disappeared in early February 2022 after last being seen in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Investigators from the Carter County Sheriff’s Office found signs that a “violent crime” had taken place inside his home, according to WJHL.
Morley was arrested on March 2, 2022, following a police chase that extended to the North Carolina state line. After his arrest, Birchfield’s body was discovered buried beneath Morley’s own home.
