By Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) – Police on Wednesday said they had discovered a body believed to be that of a fugitive suspected of shooting and wounding five people in cars traveling along a Kentucky highway on Sept. 7, an outburst that led to a manhunt through rugged, wooded terrain.
Joseph Couch, 32, a former U.S. Army reservist, fired on unsuspecting motorists with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle that he purchased legally on the morning of the shooting along with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, officials said. Investigators have not publicly speculated as to the shooter’s motive.
Kentucky state troopers accompanied by a couple that had been searching for Couch “stumbled upon an unidentified body,” Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett told reporters.
“There were articles associated with the body that at this time we feel is Joseph Couch,” Burnett said, adding the body would be sent to the state capital of Frankfort for identification.
Before the shooting spree, police received a call from Couch’s ex-wife who said he texted her that “I’m going to kill a lot of people … Well try at least,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported, citing an affidavit for an arrest warrant it had reviewed.
The woman later showed officers a follow-up text message saying, “I’ll kill myself afterwards,” the affidavit said.
Kentucky State Police offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to his capture and said a private donor offered an additional $10,000.
Multiple state, federal and local law enforcement agencies had been searching the Daniel Boone National Forest using helicopters, drones, dogs and special response teams, Trooper Scottie Pennington of the Kentucky State Police told reporters two days after the shooting.
The shooting took place on Interstate 75 about 8 miles (13 km) outside the city of London in southeastern Kentucky.
Five people were injured, and at least 12 vehicles were hit, officials said.
Police allege Couch started firing from a cliff above a remote stretch of the interstate.
Police that night recovered the AR rifle, Couch’s car and a cellphone with the battery removed near the shooting site at Exit 49, officials said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Additional reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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