Authorities believe the bones Fred and Sheila McCoy found belong to Joseph Couch. A Kentucky couple known for helping investigators find the body of the shooter who is believed to have opened fire on cars on Interstate 75 earlier this month says they became bounty hunters to find him.
Before uncovering the remains of the man that officials believe to be Joseph Couch, Fred and Sheila McCoy had to travel days in rough terrain, generally, they would spend their retirement years making YouTube movies about their family’s legendary Hatfield-McCoy rivalry.
“We became bounty hunters for a week,” Fred McCoy said Thursday to The Associated Press. “The more we was watching the news and saw lockdowns and school closings, the more we were compelled to search for him.”
Couch, 32, is accused of opening fire on the highway on September 7th and wounding five people. The suspected gunman fired 20 to 30 shots. Authorities said the victims were expected to survive, but some had grave injuries.
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Thousands of acres of woodland were being searched by a combined operation of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in a quest for the gunman. The Kentucky State Police confirmed on Wednesday that the body was found in the area of Laurel County’s exit 49 on Interstate 75.
State police announced Wednesday night that the McCoys will receive a $25,000 reward for the discovery. The coroner’s office is taking in the body to provide an identification. As of Thursday, according to Gov. Andy Beshear, the corpse is believed to be Couch’s.
The McCoys recorded themselves searching a wooded area Wednesday in a live YouTube video after Sheila McCoy, 59, said she caught a bad smell.
“Good God, this is awful. She exclaims, “Oh my goodness, this is disgusting.”
The couple approached police, who also were searching in that area, and introduced themselves about a dozen minutes before the remains were found. According to former police officer Fred McCoy, they also let friends and police know where they were and that they would be live streaming on YouTube in case anything went wrong.
“We didn’t know we was going to find him like that,” he said. “We could’ve found him with a gun pointed at us.”
Fred McCoy said the McCoys had decided to join the hunt on a Friday night date.
“We were just a crippled old man and crippled old woman walking in the woods,” he said Thursday. Fred McCoy said he is a descendant of a Hatfield-McCoy couple, and they run a small museum dedicated to the rivalry’s history together.
