Fugitive murderer caught after 11 days hiding in Illinois shed

Jacob Allen Morley, a convicted murderer who fled from a Tennessee prison on October 25, was recaptured on Tuesday in Missouri. The arrest concluded a nearly two-week manhunt that spanned multiple states. Authorities confirmed the fugitive was taken into custody without incident.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said their Missouri Information Analysis Center and Troop A Communications received a tip from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on November 3 at approximately 9:30 a.m. The tip indicated Morley was traveling westbound on Interstate 70 near Independence. Law enforcement used FLOCK cameras to locate his vehicle. Undercover officers subsequently found the car traveling south on Missouri 291 in Liberty, leading to the arrest.

Investigators determined that Morley had sheltered for an unspecified period in a shed near Marion, Illinois. The structure, located roughly 127 miles from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, was occasionally used by hunters. Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich stated that evidence found at the site indicated Morley consumed beer and prepared garlic bread and other meals while hiding.

Diederich also revealed that Morley left a handwritten letter of apology at the farm where the shed was located. The fugitive had taken a truck from the property and allegedly removed clothes and three firearms. The sheriff described the circumstances of how Morley arrived in Marion as a mystery.

Before reaching the Illinois shed, Morley abandoned a separate pickup truck in Marion early on the morning after his escape. That first vehicle had been stolen around 1 a.m. on October 26 from the 400 block of Keystone Drive, about two miles south of the prison. Investigators believe Morley covered approximately three miles on foot after abandoning that truck.

Morley serves a life sentence for the 2022 first-degree murder of Cody Birchfield. He was also previously found guilty of burglary, vandalism, tampering with evidence, and evading arrest. Birchfield disappeared in early February 2022 after being last seen in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Investigators from the Carter County Sheriff's Office found indications of a violent crime inside Birchfield's house. Morley was arrested on March 2, 2022, following a police chase that extended to the North Carolina state line. Birchfield's body was discovered underneath Morley's home following the arrest.