Convicted murderer who hid his longtime friend's body under his home slips through a fence to escape Tennessee prison

Jacob Allen Morley, 28, was found to be absent from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville at around 11:30pm on Sunday. Surveillance cameras captured him slipping through a gap in the fence in his prison uniform. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has placed him on its most wanted list and warned that he should be 'considered dangerous'. A manhunt involving multiple agencies is now underway.

Morley was jailed for life in 2025 for the 2022 murder of Cody Birchfield, 34.

Birchfield had been reported missing before his body turned up beneath the floorboards of Morley's Elizabethtown home.

In addition to the murder conviction, Morley was found guilty of abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and evading arrest.