Escaped Tennessee inmate convicted of murder recaptured in Missouri

Jacob Morley, convicted of killing a co-worker in 2022, escaped from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, on October 25, according to NBC News and PBS NewsHour.

Morley slipped through a fence in his prison clothes and was seen on surveillance stealing a truck near the prison, which he later abandoned in Marion, Illinois, about 120 miles north of the prison, PBS NewsHour reported.

Authorities tracked Morley using automated license plate readers and a police helicopter after receiving information that he was traveling west on Interstate 70 near Independence, Missouri, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

Morley was apprehended near Kansas City, Missouri, after his vehicle went off the road and got stuck in Carroll County. Troopers took him into custody without incident, ending a weeklong manhunt, according to PBS NewsHour and NBC News.

Morley was serving a life sentence for the murder of his co-worker Cody Birchfield, whose body was found in a box under Morley's home. He was also convicted of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism, and evading arrest, PBS NewsHour noted.