A murderer serving life in prison slipped through a fence and vanished for more than a week, settling into a farm shed where he drank beer, cooked garlic bread, and left a handwritten apology note before stealing a truck and three firearms and driving 350 miles toward Kansas City. Jacob Morley was only caught when his stolen truck got stuck in the mud and a helicopter finally spotted him. If a convicted killer can walk out of a state prison and live comfortably on someone else's property for days, the system isn't just broken — it's not even trying.
Morley, 28, was serving life for the 2022 murder of his coworker Cody Birchfield, whose body was found stuffed in a box under Morley's home. When deputies first came looking for him back then, Morley led them on a chase all the way to North Carolina before being caught. He was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism, and evading arrest. This is a man the state already knew would run.
On October 25, Morley walked away from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tennessee's far northwestern corner — still wearing his prison clothes. Surveillance video caught him stealing a truck from a farm near the prison. He drove about 127 miles to Marion, Illinois, abandoned that truck, and walked three miles to another farm, according to Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich. There he holed up in a hunter's shed, helped himself to food and drink, scrawled his apology note, and stole a second truck along with two rifles and a shotgun.
"How he ended up in Marion is kind of a mystery," Diederich said. The sheriff said there's no evidence anyone helped him.
Both CNN and the Chicago Tribune covered the escape details nearly identically — the beer, the garlic bread, the note. But the Tribune was the outlet that named the victim, Cody Birchfield, and described how his body was discovered. CNN never mentioned Birchfield by name. The Tribune also noted that District Attorney General Danny Goodman Jr. plans to file additional charges, though it's unclear when Morley will be returned to Tennessee. CNN, meanwhile, added institutional context: Morley's escape came the same month that Tennessee's prison commissioner resigned after a botched execution left inmate Christa Pike unconscious and on a ventilator.
Morley was compliant when the Missouri State Highway Patrol finally caught up with him. He's now in the Lafayette County jail in Lexington, Missouri, facing federal charges for unlawful flight and being a felon in possession of a firearm. No state charges have been filed in Missouri yet.
A convicted murderer walked through a fence, armed himself, and road-tripped across state lines while the people he left behind waited for answers. The apology note made for a colorful headline. The victim in the box didn't.
