A convicted murderer who escaped from a Tennessee prison spent part of his time on the run in a shed, where investigators believe he drank beer and made garlic bread, authorities said.
Jacob Allen Morley escaped from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville on Oct. 25. He was found and arrested without incident on Tuesday after authorities used FLOCK cameras to track a vehicle he was traveling in, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
On the morning of Nov. 3, Missouri officials received information from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation that Morley might be heading west on Interstate 70 near Independence. Officers used camera footage to locate the vehicle, then tracked it south on Missouri 291 in Liberty.
Investigators believe Morley spent some time in a shed near Marion, Illinois, about 127 miles from the prison. Hunters used the shed occasionally, according to Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich.
Diederich said evidence suggests Morley drank beer and prepared garlic bread and other food there. After taking a truck from the property, Morley allegedly left a handwritten apology. Authorities also say he took clothes and three firearms.
Diederich believes Morley walked about three miles after abandoning another truck he had used following his escape. “How he ended up in Marion is kind of a mystery,” the sheriff said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation previously said Morley stole a pickup around 1 a.m. on Oct. 26 from a location about two miles south of the prison. The truck was found abandoned in Marion early the following morning, but Morley was not there.
Morley is serving a life sentence for the 2022 murder of Cody Birchfield. He was also convicted of burglary, vandalism, evidence tampering and evading arrest.
Birchfield disappeared in early February 2022 after last being seen in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Investigators later found signs of a violent crime inside his home. Morley was arrested on March 2, 2022, after a police chase that reached the North Carolina state line. Birchfield’s body was later found beneath Morley’s home.
