Kentucky authorities believe they have found body of highway shooting suspect

Kentucky authorities on Wednesday revealed that a body was discovered in a rural area near where a mass shooting took place on a stretch of highway, which they believe is the suspected shooter. 

Law enforcement officers began a manhunt earlier this month, for suspect Joseph Couch, who they believe injured five people and shot approximately a dozen vehicles on Sept. 7. Authorities said they found an SUV belonging to Couch, and a semiautomatic weapon near the scene of the shooting that they believe was used in the attack.

Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. said on Wednesday that there were other accessories discovered with the body, which led them to believe the deceased person was Couch. But the identity of the body will still need to be confirmed through an autopsy, and no cause of death was released, according to the Associated Press. 

If the identity is confirmed as Couch, it would end a nearly two-week manhunt that has plagued the area. The body was discovered in a rugged and hilly terrain near the shooting site.

“People have been in fear,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said in a news conference. “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 ... I don’t think nobody on this stage wished that we would have found him in the condition that we found ... I’d rather he’d been alive and he could have paid for what he’s done.”

Couch is still only a suspect in the shooting, but he allegedly sent a text message to a woman in which he vowed to "kill a lot of people" and then stated that he would kill himself afterward. He also allegedly purchased an AR-15 weapon and approximately 1,000 rounds of ammunition just hours before the shooting, according to the outlet.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.