NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The search continues for a convicted murderer who escaped from the state prison in Northwest Tennessee last weekend.
Authorities found the stolen truck they believe Jacob Morley used in his getaway on Tuesday in Southern Illinois, but there have not been any confirmed sightings since.
But how did he get so far so quickly? NewsChannel 5 Investigates has found Morley likely had a pretty good head start and that the Tennessee Department of Correction was extremely slow to launch a search for the missing inmate, a move that appears to have violated state law.
Last Sunday night around 11:30, staff at the Northwest Correctional Complex realized that convicted murderer Jacob Morley was missing.
But the Department of Correction did not alert the public that the 28-year-old had escaped for more than seven hours with a tweet on X at 6:39 a.m.
And an updated image showing Morley as he escaped and looking very different from his prison mugshot didn't come for another two hours.
And that's not all.
We found that no one from the prison or the Correction Department thought to contact local police for more than five hours.
The Tiptonville Police Department is just five miles from the prison. It's the closest police station.
Yet Police Chief Joe England says his department did not get a call from the prison about the missing inmate until 4:40 Monday morning. All available officers, he said, headed straight to the prison.
But in a timeline the chief shared with NewsChannel 5 Investigates, England said the Department of Correction did not call police dispatch with an official confirmation of the escape until nearly two hours later, at 6:20 a.m.
When we told the chief that Jacob Morley had escaped at least 7 hours earlier, he seemed genuinely surprised, exclaiming, "Wow! I didn't know that."
But it wasn't just local police who didn't get a heads-up for hours.
Tennessee state law is very clear about who needs to be notified after a prison escape and when.
The local police department, sheriff's office, DA, the TBI and Department of Safety are all supposed to be contacted, according to the law, "immediately."
The TBI told NewsChannel 5 Investigates they were not notified of the escape until just before 6am Monday morning, again, more than six and a half hours after Morley was discovered missing.
And then TDOC apparently waited even longer to ask for the TBI's help.
The TBI's first tweet that Morley's name had been added to Tennessee's Most Wanted List did not appear until almost noon on Monday. The TBI confirmed it issued the alert and shared it on social media "within an hour of receiving the documentation that is legally required to issue a Most Wanted Alert," meaning TDOC waited some 12 hours after the reported escape.
TDOC confirmed it did not contact outside law enforcement for many hours after Morley's disappearance and shared that its "institutional escape plan" was not activated until nearly 5 a.m. on Monday.
The Correction Department does have an extensive policy for handling "significant incidents," including escapes, but it appears to have expired three and a half years ago.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates has asked both TDOC and the Governor's Office for comment and to explain the long delay in notifying the public and contacting local and state law enforcement about the escape. We'll update this as soon as we get a response.
