{"id":898529,"date":"2026-10-29T08:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T08:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898529\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T08:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T08:20:27","slug":"manhunt-grows-for-escaped-murderer-who-may-have-left-area-where-truck-was-ditched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898529\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhunt grows for escaped murderer who may have left area where truck was ditched"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob Morley, a convicted killer on the loose<\/a> since Sunday, has no known connection to the small Illinois town where the truck he is accused of stealing was found, the police chief said Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have seen kind of leads us in the direction that he\u2019s not still here. But that doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019ve stopped looking,\u201d Marion Police Chief David Fitts said.<\/p>\n

Morley, 28, convicted of killing a co-worker in 2022<\/a>, was serving a life sentence when he escaped from Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, sometime before 11:30 p.m. Sunday, officials there said.<\/p>\n

Morley had stolen a work truck, and early Tuesday that truck was found behind a business in Marion, a town of around 16,000 that is around 100 miles north of Tiptonville, authorities in Marion and Tennessee said.<\/p>\n

\"JacobSecurity video captured Morley driving away in a flatbed truck.<\/p>\n

There have been no reports in Marion of any other stolen vehicles, and there was no evidence around the truck that was found, Fitts said. <\/p>\n

There have also been no confirmed sightings, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really nowhere for him to go here where he wouldn\u2019t be recognized. His face is all over the news,\u201d Fitts said.<\/p>\n

Morley has no known connection to Marion or southern Illinois, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave no idea why he would come here, other than I-57 is a major interstate and it runs right through the middle of our town,\u201d Fitts said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know, maybe he was low on gas and just pulled off. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morley was convicted of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and aggravated burglary after a trial in February 2025. He also pleaded guilty to theft of property. <\/p>\n

He was accused of shooting Cody Birchfield in the back of the head in 2022, according to court documents. Birchfield\u2019s body was found in a large metal box under Morley\u2019s residence, the documents say.<\/p>\n

Birchfield\u2019s sister, Carrie Norman, said Wednesday that \u201cit feels like a scary movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family, she said, \u201chave to go back through the experience \u2014\u00a0once again. Once again, because you don\u2019t know where he\u2019s at, but you know what he\u2019s capable of.\u201d <\/p>\n

Also Wednesday, the reward for information leading to Morley\u2019s arrest increased from $2,500 to $15,000, a combined sum from the Tennessee governor\u2019s office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service, the bureau said.<\/p>\n

Fitts said he wished Morley had been caught, but he urged people not to take things into their own hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really frustrating that we can\u2019t find him. Somebody will eventually, I have no doubt in my mind. I wish it was us so we could catch him now,\u201d Fitts said. \u201cBut, and I just want to let our people know that, again, don\u2019t approach him. Call 911. We\u2019ll handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, prison staff members confirmed that Morley was unaccounted for and conducted an emergency count and search of the facility, the Tennessee Department of Correction said.<\/p>\n

Security video showed Morley \u201cbreached the perimeter fence and exited the facility in his TDOC uniform,\u201d the department said. <\/p>\n

The department has not given more details about how the escape occurred, which it said Wednesday is under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacob Morley, a convicted killer on the loose since Sunday, has no known connection to the small Illinois…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-898529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}