Couple behind Hatfield & McCoy museum finds body of man who shot at cars on I-75
A livestreaming couple who previously operated a museum for the famous feuding Appalachian families the Hatfields and McCoys found the body of the man who shot five people this month on Interstate 75 in Southern Kentucky.
The discovery will net them $25,000, as police confirmed that unspecified articles on the body indicated it was 32-year-old Joseph Couch.
Couch shot five people in vehicles Sept. 7 on Interstate 75 in Southern Kentucky, setting off a manhunt that sent dozens of law enforcement into the rugged terrain of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
Fred and Sheila McCoy posted a live YouTube video around 3:30 p.m. claiming they’d found Couch’s body after searching for six days and nights. Police found a car and gun belonging to Couch following the shootings, but he had not been seen since.
The couple said they saw vultures circling nearby, and they commented on a foul smell as they walked toward the vultures.
Then Fred McCoy shouted, “I got him!”
Sheila replied, “Oh, my ‘Lanta!” Oh, my ‘Lanta! Oh, gosh. Oh, gross.”
The video showed a body, which the couple said appeared to have deteriorated.
Someone off-screen said to the couple, “Hey, no pictures. This is a crime scene.”
And then the video ended.
The couple went live a second time after finding the body, and they appear to be discussing what they’ll do with reward money. Authorities had offered a $35,000 reward for information that led to Couch’s arrest.
Fred and Sheila say they are descendants of the famous feuding families the Hatfields and McCoys from West Virginia and Kentucky.
The couple previously operated the Hatfields and McCoys museum in Casey County, according to the museum’s website. Casey County is about an hour west of the I-75 shootings.
Though the museum is closed indefinitely, the couple still operates a YouTube channel with more than 5,000 subscribers. Before the shooting, they posted mostly about the two families, but for several days they’ve posted about searching for Couch in the woods of north Laurel County.
They called themselves “bounty hunters on the hunt.”
Fred McCoy is a retired police officer, according to the museum website.
Before the Sept. 7 shooting, Couch sent texts to his ex-wife that said he was “going to kill a lot of people,” adding, “Well (I’m going to) try at least,” according to court documents.
He told the woman he planned to kill himself afterward.
Police later found his Toyota parked atop a hill on a U.S. Forest Service Road near Exit 49, where the shooting happened, and they found the AR-15 they think he used in the shooting.
This story was originally published September 18, 2024 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Couple behind Hatfield & McCoy museum finds body of man who shot at cars on I-75."