Manhunt under way in Tennessee after convicted murderer escapes prison

Tennessee officials have mounted a manhunt after a convicted murderer’s escape from prison on Sunday evening.

The Tennessee department or correction (TDOC) on Monday announced that Jacob Morley, 28, escaped from the Northwest correctional complex in the community of Tiptonville. Local outlets reported that staff noticed Morley was unaccounted for at about 11.30pm on Sunday.

After staff conducted an emergency headcount, prison surveillance footage showed that Morley breached the perimeter fence and escaped the prison in his TDOC uniform, the local news outlet WATE reported.

TDOC describes Morley as being 5ft 11in and 240lbs with green eyes and brown hair.

Morley was serving a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of Cody Birchfield, a Tennessee man who was reported missing in February 2022.

Birchfield’s body was discovered buried beneath Morley’s home about a month later.

Morley was also convicted of aggravated burglary, evidence tampering, evading arrest and vandalism.

“Do not attempt to apprehend this fugitive,” TDOC said in a statement, adding that any information on Morley’s whereabouts should be reported to TDOC at (844) 832-3463.

Morley’s escape comes more than a year after manhunt was launched after the escape of 10 detainees from a New Orleans jail in what was one of the largest such breakouts in recent memory.

All 10 escapees – who got out of the jail through a hole in a wall behind a toilet – have since been recaptured.