Body found in area where man shot at I-75 drivers. Kentucky State Police working to confirm identity

A body was found Wednesday afternoon in Laurel County, Kentucky, near where a man is accused of shooting five people on Interstate 75 this month.

Authorities have not yet identified the body. It was found “in the vicinity” of Exit 49, the same area where Joseph Couch, 32, is accused of opening fire on vehicles Sept. 7, Kentucky State Police said in a social media post. The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office was expected to give a press briefing Wednesday night.

The shootings set off a massive manhunt for Couch in the rugged terrain of the Daniel Boone National Forest, and authorities announced Tuesday they were retreating from the woods and putting more resources on patrols instead.

KSP’s announcement came about an hour after a couple named Fred and Sheila McCoy posted a live YouTube video claiming they’d found Couch after searching for six days and nights.

In the video, the couple said they could see vultures circling nearby. They commented on a foul smell as they walked toward the vultures, and then Fred shouted, “Oh, I got him!”

Sheila replied, “Oh, my ‘Lanta!” Oh, my ‘Lanta! Oh, gosh. Oh, gross.”

The video showed a body lying in the back of a hollow, and the couple said the body appears to have deteriorated. The person was wearing jeans, but the gender was not apparent.

Someone off-screen said to the couple, “Hey, no pictures. This is a crime scene.”

Then the video ended.

The couple went live a second time after finding the body, and they appeared to be discussing what they’ll do with the reward money. Authorities had offered a $35,000 reward for information that led to Couch’s arrest.

Fred and Sheila say they are descendants of the famous feuding families the Hatfields and McCoys from West Virginia and Kentucky.

The couple previously operated the Hatfield & McCoy Museum in Casey County, according to the museum’s website. Casey County is about an hour west of the I-75 shootings.

Though the museum is closed indefinitely, the couple still operates a YouTube channel with more than 5,000 subscribers. Before the shooting, they posted mostly about the two families, but for several days they’ve posted about searching for Couch in the woods of north Laurel County.

They called themselves “bounty hunters on the hunt,” and they told WKYT they decided to start searching for Couch as a “date night” idea.

Fred McCoy is a retired police officer, according to the museum website.

While on the run, Couch was charged with five counts of attempted murder and five counts of first-degree assault. There were no fatalities in the shooting.

Couch sent texts to a woman before the shooting, saying “I’m going to kill a lot of people,” adding, “Well (I’m going to) try at least,” according to court documents.

He told the woman he planned to kill himself afterward. Police later found his Toyota parked atop a hill on a U.S. Forest Service Road near Exit 49, where the shooting happened, and they found the AR-15 they think he used in the shooting.

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