Body found amid Kentucky manhunt believed to be gunman in highway mass shooting

A week and a half after a highway shooting spree and an ensuing manhunt for an “armed and dangerous” suspect, officials in Kentucky have found a body they believe is that of the suspected gunman near where the shooting happened.

Officials said two state troopers and two civilians were simultaneously searching for the suspect in woods in Laurel County on Wednesday when they ran into each other. After identifying themselves to one another, the group found an unidentified body, believed to be that of Joseph A. Couch.

It was not immediately clear how far from the crime scene the body was found.

There were “articles associated with the body,” Kentucky State Police Col. Phillip Burnett Jr. said, that lead officials to believe it’s Couch. An official identification is expected Thursday, officials said, adding that there is not an indication yet of how Couch died.

“We’re very confident that this brings the closure in a search of Joseph Couch,” Burnett said, later adding that “the people of Laurel County can rest easy, much easier, knowing that this manhunt has now come to a conclusion.”

Burnett said vultures played a role in finding the body. The colonel said Wednesday night that troopers had been searching the area all day when they noticed vultures circling, and while in the woods, they began to smell what appeared to be decomposing flesh.

It was while the troopers were “moving through the thick terrain” trying to locate the smell and the area where the vultures were circling that they heard voices. Those voices belonged to a couple who identified themselves as Fred and Shiela McCoy, Burnett said.

“Almost immediately after that interaction between troopers and the McCoys, the troopers and McCoys stumbled upon an unidentified body,” Burnett said.

Burnett said the McCoys have been cooperative and have provided “relevant information” to troopers, and that the couple will receive the allotted money for helping to find the body.

Troopers Wednesday night were still processing the scene, Burnett said, adding that the investigation is still active.

Authorities had been searching for Couch, 32, since the Sept. 7 shooting next to Interstate 75, 8 miles north of the small city of London. Five people were seriously injured.

Laurel County Sheriff John Root said at Wednesday’s news conference that this is “not the normal here in Laurel County.” He said that “now that this has been discovered, I hope that our county can get back to what’s normal.”

“Our one goal was to have this guy recovered,” Root said, noting that Couch’s family has been cooperative throughout the search.

The sheriff said he is proud of how the search was handled by all parties and added that he wouldn’t have changed anything.

The gun used in the shooting, an AR-15 rifle, was purchased legally in London the day of the shooting, authorities said.

Law enforcement officials said the gunman parked near a ridge overlooking the highway to fire upon vehicles. He had around 1,000 rounds of ammunition, most of which has been recovered.

Twelve vehicles were hit, according to the sheriff’s office, and an estimated 20 to 30 rounds were fired.  Some drivers did not realize their vehicles had been struck until hours later.

The dayslong search for Couch, a former Army reservist, involved helicopters and drones with infrared technology, while special response teams and trained dogs tracked him across thousands of acres likened to a jungle.

“The terrain has been treacherous,” officials said Wednesday, adding that it was “very hilly” and that “the cover there was so thick” that it was hard for searchers to see even a few feet in front of them.

Couch was charged with five counts of attempted murder and five counts of first-degree assault. He has no criminal convictions; a charge of making a terrorist threat was dismissed in March, said Jackie Steele, state prosecutor for the region.

Just before the shooting, a woman who shares a child with Couch called dispatchers in Laurel County with a chilling message.

“I’m going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least,” Couch wrote to her, according to an arrest affidavit.

He followed up: “I’ll kill myself afterwards.”

A motive for the attack has not been determined, and officials say there is no indication that Couch was targeting anyone specifically or working with others.

Root said Wednesday that he wishes they would have been able to find Couch when he was still alive so that they could have asked what his intentions were in the shooting and so that he could have “paid for what he’d done.”