Suspect in Kentucky Highway shooting early this month is believed to have been found dead, the authorities announced Wednesday.
He should still have 32 years of life left Joseph Kasur found in the area of ​​exit 49 of Interstate 75 in Laurel County, they exited near which the shooting happened, Kentucky Police Commissioner Phillip “PJ” Burnett, Jr. in a news conference. Weapons were also found with the body as well.
The unidentified body was found at about 3:30 p.m. local time by “two soldiers and two civilians” in “deep brush,” Burnett said.
“There are articles associated with the body that we now believe is Joseph Couch,” the commissioner said.
The body will be sent to the coroner in Frankfort, Kentucky, for positive identification Thursday. No word on the cause of death.
Couch has been the subject of a manhunt in the southeastern part of the state since five people were shot on Interstate 75 on the evening of September 7.
Five victims are expected to survive the shooting, which happened near London, a town of about 8,000 just outside the Daniel Boone National Forest.
Timothy D. Easley / AP
Burnett said the two soldiers – who had been searching for Couch all day – saw a vulture in the air, and while trying to find the source of what attracted it, they noticed “a strong odor of what they believed to be rotting flesh.”
At the same time, the trooper heard a noise and encountered a civilian couple, known as the McCoys, who said they were also looking for the suspect.
“Almost immediately after that interaction … the trooper and the McCoys stumbled upon an unknown body,” said Burnett, who thanked the pair for being “very cooperative” and providing troopers “with relevant information.”
The McCoys appear to have circulated the discovery on social media. However, Burnett indicated that the trooper was with him when the body was found.
“We have a troop that’s out there,” Burnett said.
Burnett said the landscape and thick brush made the search difficult, describing the area as “some of the most dangerous terrain there is in Kentucky.”
State police have warned people that the suspect should be considered armed and dangerous as authorities spent days searching for him in the dense forest.
Officials are urging residents to check their neighborhoods, not be active outdoors and scroll through security camera footage before returning home after going out. The same school closed throughout the region in the days immediately following the shooting.
Investigators recovered from the area near the shooting an AR-15 rifle and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition that the suspect had purchased legally on the day of the shooting, authorities previously said.
Burnett has no regrets about how the multi-day hunt turned out.
“I think we put in our best effort, everybody, every day.”
According to an arrest warrant obtained by CBS News last week, the suspect had sent a text message less than 30 minutes before the shooting in which he wrote that he planned to “kill a lot of people.” The woman who received the text called 911 before taking it and alerted emergency dispatchers, the affidavit read.
The Lexington Herald-Leader identified the woman as the suspect’s ex-wife. Laurel County Sheriff John Root said Wednesday that the motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
The suspect had served in the Army for nearly six years as a combat engineer without deployment, according to an Army spokesman.
Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.
