A body believed to be the remains of the madman who shot and injured five motorists on a Kentucky highway earlier this month was found Wednesday by a pair of “bounty hunters” during a YouTube livestream, state police announced.
According to WLWT5, officials believed the “decomposed” remains were those of suspected shooter Joseph Couch, 32, because clothing found on the body matched the suspect’s description, Col. Phillip “PJ” Burnett said at a press conference.
The body will be turned over to the coroner for official identification and to determine the cause of death, Burnett said.
Officials from multiple agencies had spent a week and a half searching for the “armed and dangerous” man since the Sept. 7 shooting on Interstate 75 near London, Kentucky, combing 28,000 acres of dense forest in the Daniel Boone National Forest — and to no avail.
The couple behind the YouTube account “Hatfield McCoy Museum Adventures” was credited with the discovery by Kentucky State Police and will receive $15,000 from Laurel County Crimestoppers and $10,000 from a private donor, the local news station reported.
YouTubers and self-proclaimed “bounty hunters” Fred and Sheila McCoy were livestreaming their search for Couch through dense woods when they made the shocking discovery on camera.
The video shows the couple following vultures circling in the sky and then smelling the foul smell of “something dead” through the dense undergrowth as Fred cries out.
“Oh! We found him!” he shouted to the police officers who were nearby and who had called them. “Here he is!”
“Oh my God! You found him?” his wife Shelia replies in the clip.
“His condition is getting worse!” Fred then shouts.
The camera then zooms in on the remains lying on a patch of earth. Human legs are clearly visible in the blurred shot.
“Oh, how disgusting!” shouts Shelia, who is filming.
Officers outside of camera range can then be heard yelling “no pictures!” as Fred appears to take a picture of the body with his phone before the live stream ends.
The human remains were found in the woods “near Exit 49 in Laurel County” – and that’s exactly where Couch left his trail of terror.
He allegedly shot five people on I-75 and caused a crash that injured two others. All of the victims survived, but some – including one person who was shot in the face – suffered serious injuries, officials said.
At the beginning of their search, police found a silver SUV registered to Couch and an AR-15 rifle abandoned near the exit.
Investigators are still searching for a motive for the mass shooting and say road rage was not a factor. They believe Couch planned the attack in advance but chose his targets at random.
Neighbors of the shooter said he threatened them with a gun and was mentally unhealthy before the shooting. A neighbor’s three dogs were found dead after he confronted Couch about throwing a rock at one of the pets.
