Suspect in Kentucky highway shooting found dead, officials believe

The suspect in the Shooting on Kentucky highway was found dead earlier this month, authorities announced on Wednesday.

Presumed remains of 32-year-old Joseph Bank were found in the area near Exit 49 of Interstate 75 in Laurel County, the same exit where the shooting occurred, Kentucky State Police Chief Phillip “PJ” Burnett Jr. said at a news conference. A weapon was also found near the body.

The unidentified body was discovered around 3:30 p.m. local time by “two officers and two civilians” in “deep brush,” Burnett said.

“There were articles that related to the agency that we currently believe to be Joseph Couch,” the commissioner said.

The body will be sent to the coroner in Frankfort, Kentucky on Thursday for positive identification. There is no word on a cause of death.

Couch has been the subject of a manhunt in the southeastern part of the state since five people were shot on Interstate 75 on the evening of Sept. 7.

All five victims were expected to survive the shooting, which occurred near London, a town of about 8,000 people outside the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Burnett said the two officers, who had been searching for Couch all day, saw vultures hovering in the air. When they tried to determine where the vultures were coming from, they noticed “a strong odor of what was believed to be decomposing flesh.”

At about the same time, officers heard voices and encountered a civilian couple, identified as the McCoys, who said they were also looking for the suspect.

“Almost immediately following that interaction… the officers and the McCoys encountered an unidentified body,” said Burnett, who thanked the couple for being “very cooperative” and providing “relevant information” to the officers.

The McCoys appeared to livestream the discovery on social media, but Burnett indicated that the troopers were with them when the body was found.

“We did have soldiers there,” Burnett said.

Burnett said the landscape and dense undergrowth made the search difficult, describing the area as “one of the most treacherous areas in Kentucky.”

State police had warned people to consider the suspect armed and dangerous as authorities searched for him for days in the dense forest.

Officials had urged residents to check on their neighbors, postpone outdoor activities and scroll through their security camera feeds before returning home from an outing. Schools were closed in the entire area in the days immediately following the shooting.

Investigators found an AR-15 rifle and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition near the shooting, which the suspect had legally purchased on the day of the shooting, authorities said.

According to an arrest warrant obtained by CBS News last week, the suspect sent a text message less than 30 minutes before the shooting in which he wrote that he planned to “kill a lot of people.” The woman who received the text message called 911 before the shooting and alerted emergency services, the affidavit said.

The Lexington Herald-Leader identified the woman as the suspect’s ex-wife.

According to an army spokesman, the suspect had served in the army reserve as a combat engineer for nearly six years but had never been deployed.

Burnett had no regrets about the way the multi-day manhunt was conducted.

“I feel like we did our very best, everyone did, every day.”

Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.