Tennessee Fugitive Was Already in Illinois Before Outside Police Were Told, District Attorney Says

A convicted murderer who escaped from a Tennessee prison last weekend had already crossed into Illinois before outside police agencies were told he was missing, District Attorney Danny Goodman Jr. said Friday. Jacob Morley, 28, had reached Marion, Illinois, by 4:40 a.m. Monday, but local law enforcement there was not notified until 6:15 a.m., Goodman told CNN.

Goodman said the gap in notification was his main concern. “The biggest concern I have, obviously, is just the large gap between the time that someone was notified,” he said. He added that earlier notice “would have given two hours for local police to be patrolling, and good chance they catch him before he gets out of the county.”

A gap in the notification timeline

Morley escaped late Sunday from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, in the northwestern corner of Tennessee, where he was serving a life sentence. A correctional officer counted cells at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, and another inmate falsely claimed two people were in Morley’s cell when Morley was not there, Goodman said. Prison staff confirmed Morley was missing around 11:30 p.m., alerted an internal investigator around 2 a.m., and did not notify state agencies and the district attorney’s office until 5:30 a.m., according to Goodman.

Goodman said Morley cut through the security fences and hid among pallets and a trash cart behind the main kitchen. He said he does not know what tool Morley used to cut the fence or how he obtained it. Morley then stole a 2008 white Ford F-350 early Monday, investigators said. The truck was found abandoned Tuesday in Marion, about a 130-mile drive north of the prison, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.

Search widens across state lines

Surveillance video shows the truck was apparently abandoned in Illinois around 4:40 a.m. Monday, Marion police Lt. Justin Dwyer told CNN. Police found the truck around 10 a.m. Tuesday. Dwyer said Marion police have reviewed grainy surveillance videos that match Morley’s description but have not confirmed whether he is still in Marion. “We have continually searched neighborhoods, knocked on doors and followed every lead and tip that we receive,” Dwyer said. “Although there is no indication he is still in Marion, we will continue to assume he is and will be on the lookout.”

The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a social media post Friday afternoon that Morley is “considered dangerous and could be anywhere.” The department asked truck drivers and travelers who were in Marion on Monday morning to review dash camera footage for suspicious activity, and asked the public to stay alert around vacant homes, vacation properties and outbuildings.

Morley is the second inmate to escape this month from the custody of the Tennessee Department of Correction, whose commissioner resigned after the botched execution last month of Christa Pike. Pike is now back in a maximum-security prison. Gov. Bill Lee announced the appointment of Christopher Hansen as interim commissioner on Friday. Morley is now on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list, with a combined reward of $17,500 from the governor’s office, the bureau and the U.S. Marshals Service for information leading to his arrest.

Morley was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, evading arrest and vandalism. He was convicted in the killing of Cody Birchfield, whose body was found weeks after he went missing in a box under Morley’s house, the Associated Press reported, according to CNN. Birchfield’s older sister, Carrie Norman, told CNN affiliate WCYB that learning her brother’s killer had escaped left her feeling sick to her stomach.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN and the Associated Press.