Escaped Tennessee killer captured in Missouri after nine-day manhunt

A convicted murderer who broke out of a Tennessee prison more than a week ago was captured without incident in rural Missouri on Tuesday, ending a manhunt that spanned at least four states and drew in federal, state and local agencies.

Jacob Allen Morley, 28, was serving a life sentence for the 2022 killing of a co-worker when he escaped the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, about 90 miles north of Memphis. The Tennessee Department of Correction said security footage showed him scaling the perimeter fence in his prison uniform around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 25, then stealing a truck from a nearby farm.

A multistate chase

Morley was apprehended by Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers "without incident" in Carroll County, Missouri, at 11:34 a.m. local time on Tuesday, officials said. Investigators had received a tip that Morley was hiding on a property in Illinois, from which a second stolen truck was traced into Missouri using automatic license-plate readers. Three firearms previously reported stolen were recovered from the vehicle he was driving when he was stopped.

The search drew in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Department of Correction, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and police departments in Kansas City and Independence, Missouri, according to CBS News. A reward that started at $2,500 grew to as much as $17,500 as the days passed without a confirmed sighting, PBS NewsHour reported.

What comes next

Morley was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2022 death of Cody Birchfield, a co-worker and friend. He was sentenced in June 2025, and a request for a new trial was denied in May 2026. Tennessee officials have not said whether Morley will face additional charges tied to the escape. The Northwest Correctional Complex has faced scrutiny over violence in recent years; a grand jury in July returned dozens of indictments tied to assaults on staff and the killings of five inmates there.