Missouri troopers capture escaped Tennessee murderer in Kansas City area

Jacob Allen Morley, a 28-year-old convicted murderer, was arrested in the Kansas City area on Tuesday.

The arrest concluded a multi-state search that intensified early in the day when investigators tracked Morley to a stolen farm truck in rural Illinois.

Morley escaped from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Lake County, Tennessee, on October 25. During a 9:30 p.m. headcount that night, a fellow inmate falsely accounted for Morley. An officer discovered the prisoner was missing at 10:00 p.m. Investigators later determined that Morley had hidden behind the prison’s main kitchen among pallets and a trash cart before cutting through the perimeter fences to flee.

Around 1:00 a.m. on October 26, Morley stole a 2008 Ford F-350 utility truck in Lake County and drove west into Illinois. Surveillance video captured him abandoning that vehicle in Marion, Illinois, at approximately 4:40 a.m. He avoided capture in the area for more than a week before stealing a white 2005 Ford pickup truck used for farming operations.

At 7:34 a.m. on Tuesday, deputies in Williamson County, Illinois, responded to a report of the stolen farm truck. The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, the Illinois State Police, and the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed Morley was driving the vehicle west. They shared his route and vehicle description with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Missouri authorities.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had placed Morley on its Most Wanted list and offered a reward of up to $17,500 for his arrest. Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers stopped his truck as it traveled through the Kansas City area and took him into custody without incident.

Morley is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for the 2022 murder of his coworker, Cody Birchfield, in Carter County, Tennessee. Friends and family of Birchfield issued public warnings after the escape, describing Morley as a dangerous killer who would not hesitate to strike again. Authorities were also investigating whether Morley participated in an armed bank robbery in Dane County, Wisconsin, while he was on the run. Extradition details and formal charges for the escape and vehicle thefts have not yet been announced.