{"id":107240,"date":"2024-09-19T12:03:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T12:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/body-discovered-near-site-of-kentucky-interstate-shooting-believed-to-be-suspect-police\/"},"modified":"2024-09-19T12:03:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T12:03:38","slug":"body-discovered-near-site-of-kentucky-interstate-shooting-believed-to-be-suspect-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/body-discovered-near-site-of-kentucky-interstate-shooting-believed-to-be-suspect-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Body discovered near site of Kentucky interstate shooting believed to be suspect: Police"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
London Police Department, KY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(NEW YORK) — Kentucky State Police announced Wednesday night that the body discovered in the woods earlier in the day not far from where the I-75 shootings took place is believed to be suspect Joseph Couch.<\/p>\n

“There were articles associated with the body that at this time we feel is Joseph Couch,” an official said at an evening news conference.<\/p>\n

The coroner’s office will make a final determination, officials said.<\/p>\n

Troopers and two citizens found the body together in the vicinity of exit 49 in Laurel County, according to the authorities.<\/p>\n

Wednesday was the 12th day of a manhunt for the suspect, who was wanted in connection with an interstate shooting that wounded five people.<\/p>\n

Couch was initially named as a person of interest after deputies found his SUV abandoned on a forest road near exit 49, officials said. An AR-15 rifle Couch purchased in the hours before the shooting and investigators believe was used in the incident was also found in the woods near Couch’s vehicle along with a bag with Couch’s name written on it, officials said.<\/p>\n

A day after the shooting, Couch was upgraded to the primary suspect.<\/p>\n

In addition to searching the national forest, a tip prompted investigators this week to search a home in Laurel County, but found no evidence of Couch having been there, officials said.<\/p>\n

Before the interstate shooting, according to the arrest warrant, a Laurel County 911 dispatcher received a call from a woman who alleged Couch texted her before the interstate shooting and “advised he was going to kill a lot of people. Well, try at least.” The text message was sent to the woman at 5:03 p.m. on Sept. 7, about a half-hour before the interstate shooting started, according to the arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

“Couch sent another message to [the woman] that read, in part, ‘I’ll kill myself afterwards,'” according to the arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s search for Couch focused on the thick woods of the Daniel Boone National Forest, according to the Kentucky State Police.<\/p>\n

Both state and federal teams combed through at least 28,000 acres of the more than 700,000-acre national forest.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said additional state resources were being made available to help with the ongoing search efforts.<\/p>\n

The manhunt prompted local schools to close for over a week. They reopened Tuesday under heavy police guard.<\/p>\n

“We will not live our lives in fear,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The school district said in a statement that the reopening plan “prioritizes the safety of our students and staff.”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London Police Department, KY (NEW YORK) — Kentucky State Police announced Wednesday night that the body discovered in the woods earlier in the day not far from where the I-75 shootings took place is believed to be suspect Joseph Couch. “There were articles associated with the body that at thisRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}