Search For Suspect In Kentucky Highway Shooting Ends With Discovery Of Body Believed To Be His

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A body found in rural southeastern Kentucky is believed to be the man suspected of shooting and wounding five people on an interstate highway, authorities said Wednesday night.

Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. said at a news briefing that the body discovered earlier in the day is believed to be Joseph Couch, of Woodbine. Authorities hoped the discovery would end an intense, nearly two-week search that had area residents on edge.

“People have been in fear,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said. “That’s not the normal here in Laurel County. So now that this has been discovered, I hope that our county can get back to what’s normal.”

Burnett said accessories found with the body led authorities to conclude it is him. He had no details on the cause of death, saying that will be confirmed in an autopsy, but he said a weapon was found at the site.

“I don’t think nobody on this stage wished that we would have found him in the condition that we found,” Rood said at the news conference. “I’d rather he’d been alive and he could have paid for what he’s done.”

Authorities said the body was found following a lengthy search of the rugged and hilly terrain in the area where the Sept. 7 attack happened.

Investigators were working to identify it, state police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington said earlier in a social media post. It was located in the vicinity of the Interstate 75 exit near London, a city of about 8,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.

The highway shootings led some schools to shut down shift to virtual learning for several days as authorities warned area residents to be vigilant. Schools reopened Tuesday with extra police security in the county where the