Body found near site of Kentucky highway shooting believed to be suspect: authorities
LONDON, Ky. (WDKY) — Authorities believe the body of a man suspected of shooting and wounding five people on a Kentucky interstate highway has been found.
Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. said during a press conference that the body found Wednesday is believed to be Joseph Couch, of Woodbine, Kentucky.
Burnett said accessories found with the body have led them to conclude it is him. A weapon was also found at the site. He said the cause of death will be determined in an autopsy.
Authorities hoped the discovery would end an intense, nearly two-week search that had area residents on edge.
“People have been in fear,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said during the press conference. “That’s not the normal here in Laurel County. So now that this has been discovered, I hope that our county can get back to what’s normal.”
Kentucky State Police said on X that troopers located the body near Exit 49 on Interstate 75, just outside of the small town of London. Burnett said troopers had been in contact with a couple, Fred and Sheila McCoy, who were also searching the area with a group at the time.
A live stream video posted to the couple's YouTube channel, Hatfield McCoy Museum Adventures, showed them tracking vultures Wednesday afternoon near the interstate.
At one point during their search, they started to pick up on the smell of decaying flesh, which led them to the body. The livestream, which lasted around 30 minutes, ended about one minute after they found the body and called out to the rest of their search group.
"You know, I want to recognize the McCoys because they've been very cooperative with our troopers and provided troopers with relevant information," Burnett said.
Video below: Previous coverage on search for suspect following shooting along I-75 in Kentucky
The discovery comes 12 days after five people were injured in a highway shooting in the area.
On Sept. 7, five people were injured and 12 vehicles were damaged in a shooting near Exit 49 on I-75 near London. Authorities quickly identified a person of interest, 32-year-old Joseph Couch, after finding a vehicle registered in his name nearby.
The next day, Couch was named a suspect. As WDKY previously reported, authorities had been alerted hours before the shooting that Couch had texted a woman saying he was going to “kill a lot of people.” An emergency cell site tracker was placed on his cellphone, which pinged near Exit 49 just over an hour after shots were fired.
Couch had purchased a rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammunition the same day of the shooting, investigators determined. A rifle case was found in his abandoned vehicle, as well as a semi-automatic weapon. While Couch was named a suspect, authorities warned they had not determined who had fired the weapon.
Laurel County, located in southeastern Kentucky, remained on edge for days as authorities searched the heavily wooded area near Exit 49 for Couch.
On Tuesday, searchers were pulled from the woods to bolster patrols in nearby communities as schools reopened.
“We feel like we’ll be better off to protect our communities by moving those personnel,” Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Jr. said. “This is the best plan that we have going forward. We have looked at every possible scenario. We’ve looked at every piece of equipment, technology that we can utilize, and this, from what we have discovered so far in this search, this is the best plan moving forward.”
Authorities said Monday they had searched and cleared over 28,000 acres of land in the Daniel Boone National Forest while searching for Couch. Cameras were placed in the woods to continue monitoring for activity.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Scottie Pennington previously told reporters that he hoped Couch would run out of resources and "walk out of the woods." Pennington also noted that if Couch had died, buzzards could gather overhead, which could be a sign for searchers.
“And some people say, ‘Well, what if he’s not alive anymore?’ Well, we’re going to stay in the woods till we find him,” Pennington said last week. “And, you know, that’s our job. If he’s dead or alive. It’s our job to try to find him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.