() – When a gunman perched on a cliff edge opened fire on a dozen cars on Kentucky’s Interstate 75, wounding five people, fear gripped surrounding communities and a couple headed into the woods to join a days-long manhunt for the gunman.
For 11 days, agents scoured the vast, rugged wilderness of the Daniel Boone National Forest in search of suspect Joseph Couch, 32, who authorities say texted a woman before the shooting that he planned to “kill a lot of people” and “kill myself afterward.”
Five days after the fruitless chase, Fred and Sheila McCoy set out in the woods to hunt for Couch, hoping to collect a share of the reward offered for information about him and to bring safety to the community left in suspense after the shooting. A $35,000 reward was offered for information leading to Couch’s capture, according to Kentucky State Police.
“They have to understand that this guy was scaring this community,” Fred McCoy told . “Anybody who can sit on a hill and shoot at cars is dangerous.”
As Couch continued to elude capture day after day, schools were closed, authorities pleaded with nearby residents to avoid the wooded area, businesses were forced to close their doors to customers and thousands of tips poured in from several states.
As community members donated blood to help the five hospitalized victims, law enforcement combed the colossal forest, which spanned an area larger than Los Angeles and New York combined. After facing treacherous terrain, including sinkholes, caves and thick underbrush that they had to hack through with machetes, authorities were still unable to locate Couch.
This Wednesday, the search came to an end.
In a 30-minute livestream on their YouTube channel, the McCoys told viewers they had seen a group of vultures swarming around an area. When they got closer, they said a strong, foul odor was emanating from the same spot.
“My wife smelled something strong, and even I, with the flu, could smell it, and it was bad,” Fred McCoy said.
After six days of searching, the McCoys found a decomposing corpse.
The live broadcast ended abruptly, but the couple resumed broadcasting after the discovery.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Sheila McCoy is heard saying on the broadcast. “Oh my God.”
Like the McCoys, two troopers were drawn to the area by circling vultures and a smell of decay, Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. said Wednesday. The four met up in the woods and almost immediately “stumbled” upon the body, he said.
Kentucky State Police then announced that the body, believed to be that of Couch, was found Wednesday afternoon in deep rural brush off Interstate 75 northwest of London, Kentucky, by two troopers and the McCoys, but they have not positively identified it as Couch.
“We are very confident that this brings closure to the search for Joseph Couch,” Burnett said. “The people of Laurel County can rest … much easier knowing that this manhunt is over.”
Burnett said police believe the body is Couch’s because items found with the body are associated with him. The body will be sent to Frankfort, the state capital, for positive identification on Thursday, the sheriff said at a news conference.
The body was found near Exit 49 on I-75 in Laurel County, about 10 miles northwest of London and not far from the shooting, state police said Wednesday. Authorities earlier said they found a vehicle registered to Couch on a Forest Service road off Exit 49 with an empty gun case inside.
The cause of death will be determined by an autopsy, Burnett said. A gun was found where the body was, he said.
Investigators have not yet announced a motive for the shooting, but said the investigation is ongoing.
“I really wish we could have located … Couch … alive. We could have asked him what his intentions were,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said at a news conference Wednesday. “We could have brought him to court … I would have preferred that he was alive and that he had paid for what he did.”
As officers searched, voices in the area led them to the civilian couple, who were also separately searching for Couch, Burnett said.
Burnett did not address authorities’ earlier warning for people to stay away from the area.
Root praised the couple.
“Congratulations. We are proud,” he said of the couple. “Our only goal was to get this man back.”
Burnett said the couple will receive a $15,000 reward from Laurel County Crime Stoppers and a $10,000 reward from a private donor.
“Now everyone can rest easy,” Fred McCoy told in a phone call, as onlookers could be heard congratulating and thanking the couple.
Before the shooting began, Couch texted a woman: “I’m going to kill a bunch of people, well I’m going to try at least,” according to an arrest warrant for him.
Later, less than a half-hour before the shooting, Couch sent another message, according to the arrest warrant: “I’m going to kill myself next.”
That day, Couch had purchased a scoped AR-15 and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, paying nearly $3,000 in total, according to the arrest warrant. According to the sheriff’s office, Couch made the purchases legally.
At about 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 7, Couch climbed onto a cliff ledge on the side of the interstate and used an AR-15 to attack 12 cars in Laurel County, about 9 miles north of London, authorities said.
A hail of bullets rained down on I-75, striking some cars, wounding five commuters and causing confusion among those who heard the noise but did not immediately know what was happening. Some injuries were serious, with one victim shot in the face and another in the chest, authorities said. The shooting prompted authorities to shut down the highway for hours.
Although responding officers were unable to immediately locate the shooter in the vast wooded area near the highway, within a day they located a suspect — Couch, of Kentucky — and found his car not far away, near the Exit 49 service road, as well as the AR-15 they believed he had used.
Investigators quickly obtained information they said further linked him to the shooting, including text messages. The woman called 911 after receiving the text messages and later showed police screenshots of the interaction, according to the warrant.
Laurel and Knox County District Attorney Jackie Steele told the warrant charges him with five counts of attempted murder and five counts of first-degree assault.
Police said they hoped sustained pressure and an intensive search effort involving drones, helicopters, dogs and dozens of officers would lead to the suspect’s capture.
The shooting and chase left communities in the area on edge as authorities urged residents to be vigilant and aware of their surroundings.
More than a dozen local school districts and several private schools canceled at least one day of classes last week, said Root, the sheriff. And some businesses also took precautions, such as “opening only to the outside and locking doors,” Root said.
“We’ve had school cancellations, church cancellations. People were scared, that’s not normal here in Laurel County,” Root said. “So now that this has been discovered, hopefully our county can get back to normal.”
The I-75 shooting marked at least the second interstate highway shooting in a week. Five people were wounded by gunfire and another was hit by flying glass in Washington state following a series of shootings along I-5 in the Seattle and Tacoma areas.
There have been at least 397 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as those in which four or more victims are shot. That’s an average of more than 1.5 mass shootings every day.
‘s Amy Simonson and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
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