A Tennessee man serving a life sentence for murder slipped through a fence at a rural state prison, stole a farm truck, and vanished — and as of Tuesday afternoon, investigators still don't know where he is.

Jacob Morley, 28, was discovered missing around 11:30 p.m. Sunday from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, a flat, isolated stretch of Tennessee near the Mississippi River about 90 miles north of Memphis. Security footage showed him breaching the perimeter fence and leaving in his prison uniform; officials have not said exactly how he got through.

A Stolen Truck, Then a Cold Trail

Around 1 a.m. Monday, a white 2008 Ford F-350 with a local planting company's logo on the door was stolen from the 400 block of Keystone Drive in Lake County. By Tuesday morning, investigators had located that same truck abandoned in Marion, Illinois — more than 250 miles from the prison — but Morley himself was nowhere to be found, according to CBS News's reporting on the manhunt.

Morley was convicted in 2025 for the 2022 murder of coworker Cody Birchfield, whose body was found stuffed in a box under Morley's Carter County home. He also has prior convictions for aggravated burglary, evading arrest and vandalism, and led police on a chase in 2022 that ended across the state line in North Carolina.

IF YOU SEE HIM, DO NOT APPROACH — CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.

That's the warning Tennessee corrections officials are repeating as agents search barns, outbuildings and other structures near the prison and along Morley's apparent escape route, per NewsChannel 5's coverage of the search. He remains on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's "most wanted" list, with a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to his capture. Descriptions of his size vary slightly between agencies, but he's roughly 6 feet tall and 240-270 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes.

A Troubled Facility

The escape adds to a rough stretch for Northwest Correctional Complex, which was the subject of a grand jury indictment this past July tied to five inmate killings and other assaults inside the facility. A 2023 state audit had already flagged a steep vacancy rate among correctional officers there — a staffing gap that, as the Washington Post notes in its report on the manhunt, has drawn renewed scrutiny from outside watchdogs following the escape.

What's Next

The search has expanded across state lines now that the stolen truck has turned up in Illinois, and the TBI has not ruled out that Morley could have switched vehicles again or found help avoiding checkpoints. Tennessee corrections officials have not said whether the escape will trigger a broader review of staffing or fencing at the complex.