Couple Claims to Have Found Remains of Kentucky Highway Shooter After Acting as Bounty Hunters for a Week

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Days after a shooter attacked an interstate and disappeared, leaving a Kentucky neighborhood scared and on guard, Fred and Sheila McCoy determined to lace up their boots for the primary time in a very long time and spend days in rugged terrain looking out till, lastly, they discovered a physique.

Kentucky State Police credited Fred and Sheila McCoy, who usually spend their retired days creating YouTube movies concerning the Hatfield-McCoy feud, with serving to investigators discover what they consider are the stays of Joseph Couch. Couch, 32, is suspected of firing randomly at autos on Interstate 75 on Sept. 7, wounding 5 individuals.

The individual believed to be Couch died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, stated Kentucky’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. William Ralston. A mushy tissue DNA check was inconclusive on the identification of the physique, and testing on the bones may take up to two days, Ralston stated. A toxicology check can be pending.

Teams of native, state and federal legislation enforcement had searched tens of hundreds of acres of woods for the reason that taking pictures. Authorities warned residents to be further vigilant and a few faculties briefly shifted to digital studying.

“For one week we turned into bounty hunters,” Fred McCoy instructed The Associated Press on Thursday. “The more we was watching the news and saw lockdowns and school closings, the more we were compelled to search for him.”

The discovery of the stays calmed fears within the jap Kentucky neighborhood of London, simply a few miles from the place the shooter perched above the freeway and opened hearth with an AR-15. State police stated Wednesday night time that the McCoys would obtain a $25,000 reward for the discover.

Once the identification is totally confirmed, it's going to “bring to a close a pretty scary time in that community and the surrounding communities,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear stated Thursday.

“We have every reason to believe that this is Joseph Couch,” Beshear instructed reporters on the Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort. “But a final and determinative identification has not yet been possible.”

In a 30-minute YouTube livestream Wednesday, the McCoys are filming in dense woods after they see vultures within the air, and Sheila McCoy says she will be able to scent a foul odor.

“Oh, Lord, this is nasty. Oh, my goodness, this is gross,” Sheila says whereas warning her husband to be careful for snakes.

At the tip of the video, they uncover the stays. “Hey, guys, you won’t believe it, we found him, oh, my goodness gracious,” Sheila McCoy says within the video.

Police had been additionally looking out the world, and the couple recognized themselves to officers about 12 minutes earlier than they discovered the stays. They’d additionally warned police and associates they’d be there, and had been livestreaming on YouTube in case one thing went mistaken, Fred McCoy stated.

“We didn’t know we was going to find him like that,” he stated. “We could’ve found him with a gun pointed at us.”

The McCoys dwell a couple of counties away from the place the shooter attacked. They hadn’t gone on a hike within the woods in a very long time — Sheila, 59, had beforehand had again surgical procedure and her husband, 66, had knee surgical procedure — however they determined after a Friday night time date to assist in the search, stated Fred McCoy, himself a retired police officer.

“We were just a crippled old man and crippled old woman walking in the woods,” he stated Thursday. Fred McCoy stated he's a descendant of a Hatfield-McCoy marriage they usually run a small museum associated to the historical past of the feud.

He estimated the stays had been about a mile away from the place the shooter opened hearth. Nearby, police discovered Couch’s automobile and an AR-15 final week.

The discovery of the physique put close by residents comfortable after greater than a week of rigidity with a gunman on the free close to their properties.

“I feel a huge sense of relief,” stated Heather Blankenship, a mom of three who lives close to London. She noticed the physique within the McCoys’ video, which has grown to almost a half-million views in lower than 24 hours, and regardless that her anxiousness is gone and her sense of normalcy has returned, it’s nonetheless unhappy, she stated.

“I’m over here relieved that to me this monster is dead,” however in the meantime, the suspect’s household is grieving, Blankenship stated.

Authorities stated the shooter fired 20 to 30 rounds, creating chaos. The 5 victims survived, however some suffered severe accidents.

Authorities stated Couch bought the AR-15 weapon and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition at a London gun retailer hours earlier than the taking pictures.

Laurel County Judge-Executive David Westerfield sensed a collective sigh of reduction amongst residents.

“They feel like they can go back to their normal lifestyle,” he stated.