{"id":229110,"date":"2026-10-29T15:47:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/manhunt-grows-for-escaped-murderer-who-may-have-left-area-where-truck-was-ditched-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T15:47:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:47:05","slug":"manhunt-grows-for-escaped-murderer-who-may-have-left-area-where-truck-was-ditched-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/manhunt-grows-for-escaped-murderer-who-may-have-left-area-where-truck-was-ditched-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhunt grows for escaped murderer who may have left area where truck was ditched – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jacob Morley, a convicted killer on the loose<\/a> since Sunday, has no known connection to the small Illinois town where the truck he is accused of stealing was found, the police chief said Wednesday.
\u201cWhat we have seen kind of leads us in the direction that he\u2019s not still here. But that doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019ve stopped looking,\u201d Marion Police Chief David Fitts said.
Morley, 28, convicted of killing a co-worker in 2022<\/a>, was serving a life sentence when he escaped from Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, sometime before 11:30 p.m. Sunday, officials there said.
Morley had stolen a work truck, and early Tuesday that truck was found behind a business in Marion, a town of around 16,000 that is around 100 miles north of Tiptonville, authorities in Marion and Tennessee said.
There have been no reports in Marion of any other stolen vehicles, and there was no evidence around the truck that was found, Fitts said.
There have also been no confirmed sightings, he said.
\u201cThere\u2019s really nowhere for him to go here where he wouldn\u2019t be recognized. His face is all over the news,\u201d Fitts said.
Morley has no known connection to Marion or southern Illinois, he said.
\u201cHave no idea why he would come here, other than I-57 is a major interstate and it runs right through the middle of our town,\u201d Fitts said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know, maybe he was low on gas and just pulled off. I don\u2019t know.\u201d
Morley was convicted of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and aggravated burglary after a trial in February 2025. He also pleaded guilty to theft of property.
He was accused of shooting Cody Birchfield in the back of the head in 2022, according to court documents. Birchfield\u2019s body was found in a large metal box under Morley\u2019s residence, the documents say.
Birchfield\u2019s sister, Carrie Norman, said Wednesday that \u201cit feels like a scary movie.\u201d
The family, she said, \u201chave to go back through the experience \u2014\u00a0once again. Once again, because you don\u2019t know where he\u2019s at, but you know what he\u2019s capable of.\u201d
Also Wednesday, the reward for information leading to Morley\u2019s arrest increased from $2,500 to $15,000, a combined sum from the Tennessee governor\u2019s office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service, the bureau said.
Fitts said he wished Morley had been caught, but he urged people not to take things into their own hands.
\u201cThis is really frustrating that we can\u2019t find him. Somebody will eventually, I have no doubt in my mind. I wish it was us so we could catch him now,\u201d Fitts said. \u201cBut, and I just want to let our people know that, again, don\u2019t approach him. Call 911. We\u2019ll handle it.\u201d
Around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, prison staff members confirmed that Morley was unaccounted for and conducted an emergency count and search of the facility, the Tennessee Department of Correction said.
Security video showed Morley \u201cbreached the perimeter fence and exited the facility in his TDOC uniform,\u201d the department said.
The department has not given more details about how the escape occurred, which it said Wednesday is under investigation.
NBC News Correspondent
Selina Guevara is an NBC News field producer, based in Chicago.
Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeJacob Morley, a convicted killer on the loose since Sunday, has no known connection to the small Illinois town where the truck he is accused of stealing was found, the police chief said Wednesday. \u201cWhat we have seen kind of leads us in the direction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}