A body believed to be the remains of the madman who shot and wounded five motorists on a Kentucky highway earlier this month was found Wednesday by a “bounty-hunting” couple during a YouTube livestream, state police announced.
Officials believed the “deteriorated” remains belong to the alleged gunman Joseph Couch, 32, based on the clothes found on the body matching the suspect’s description, Col. Phillip “PJ” Burnett said at a press conference, according to WLWT5.
The body is being transferred to the medical examiner to make an official identification — as well as to determine the cause of death — Burnett said.
Officers from multiple agencies had been searching for the “armed and dangerous” man for a week and a half since the Sept. 7 shooting on Interstate 75 near London, KY, and had combed through 28,000 acres of dense woods in the Daniel Boone National Forest, only to turn up empty.
The couple behind the YouTube account “Hatfield McCoy Museum Adventures” was credited by Kentucky State Police for the discovery and will be awarded $15,000 from Laurel County Crimestoppers and $10,000 from a private donor, the local news station reported.
The YouTubers and self-proclaimed “bounty hunters,” Fred and Sheila McCoy, were live streaming their search for Couch through thick woods when they made the shocking discovery on camera.
The video shows the couple following vultures circling overhead and then tracking a foul odor of “something dead” through the heavy brush when Fred screams out.
“Oh! Found him!” he yelled out to officers nearby who they had called. “Here he is!”
“Oh my lanta! You found him?” his wife Shelia replies in the clip.
“He’s deteriorated!” Fred then shouts out.
The camera then zooms in on the remains lying on a patch of dirt with human legs clearly visible in the fuzzy footage.
“Oh, gross!” exclaims Shelia, who is filming.
Officers off-camera can then be heard shouting “no pictures!” as Fred appears to snap a pic of the body with his phone before the live stream ends.
The human remains were found in the woods “in the vicinity of Exit 49 in Laurel County” — which is where Couch unleashed his trail of terror.
He allegedly shot five people as they drove on I-75 and caused a crash that injured two others. All of the victims survived though some — including a person who was shot in the face — suffered serious injuries, officials said.
Police had recovered a silver SUV registered to Couch and an AR-15 rifle abandoned near the exit early in their search.
Investigators are still searching for a motive in the mass shooting and said road rage was not a factor. They believe Couch planned the attack ahead of time but picked his targets at random.
Neighbors of the gunman said he had threatened them with a rifle and was not mentally well before the shooting. One neighbor’s three dogs were found dead after he had confronted Couch about throwing a rock at one of the pets.