‘Bounty hunter’ couple finds body believed to be Kentucky shooting suspect

Guardian staff and agency
<span>Kentucky state police public information officer Scottie Pennington addresses the media about the mass highway shooting in London, Kentucky, on 9 September 2024.</span><span>Photograph: Timothy D Easley/AP</span>
Kentucky state police public information officer Scottie Pennington addresses the media about the mass highway shooting in London, Kentucky, on 9 September 2024.Photograph: Timothy D Easley/AP

A retired couple who decided to become bounty hunters for the week found the body that authorities believe to be the shooter who attacked people on an interstate highway and then disappeared, it emerged on Thursday.

After the shooter fled, leaving a Kentucky community scared and on guard, Fred and Sheila McCoy decided to plunge into rugged terrain in search of what was widely anticipated to be the gunman’s remains, as law enforcement were also searching.

Kentucky state police have now credited the McCoys with helping investigators find what they believe to be the remains of Joseph Couch. Couch, 32, is suspected of firing randomly at vehicles on Interstate 75 on 7 September, wounding five people.

Related: Body found near site of Kentucky highway mass shooting believed to be suspect’s

Teams of local, state and federal law enforcement had searched tens of thousands of acres of woods since the shooting. Authorities warned residents to be extra vigilant and some schools temporarily shifted to virtual learning.

“For one week we turned into bounty hunters,” Fred McCoy told 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 remains calmed fears in the eastern Kentucky community of London, just a few miles from where the shooter perched above the highway and opened fire with an AR-15. State police said on Wednesday night that the McCoys would receive a $25,000 reward for the find.

Once the identification is fully confirmed, it will “bring to a close a pretty scary time in that community and the surrounding communities”, Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, said on Thursday. He said there was every reason to believe the remains were those of Couch.

In a 30-minute YouTube livestream on Wednesday, the McCoys were seen in dense woods, and Sheila McCoy said she smelt a foul odor after they saw vultures in the air.

At the end of the video, they discover the remains, having not known if they would stumble on a body or someone alive, armed and dangerous.

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