YouTube streamers discover crime scene linked to mass shooting

A Kentucky couple live streamed the moment they discovered a crime scene linked to a mass shooting that left five people injured and an 'armed and dangerous' suspect on the loose.

Sheila and Fred McCoy filmed themselves trekking through thick brush and climbing over branches at the Daniel Boone National Forest on Wednesday before ultimately finding a dead body. 

The discovery was made less than a mile from the location of a shooting on Interstate 75 near London, Kentucky on September 7, WLKY reports.

Authorities have said they believed suspected gunman Joseph Couch, 32, may have been hiding in the wooded area and offered a $35,000 reward for any information leading to his arrest. Local and federal spent days scouring the forest. 

Officials have not yet confirmed whether the body found by the McCoys was Couch's, as DNA samples were rushed to a lab.

The McCoys told WLKY they have been searching the forest for days in an effort to track down the suspected gunman, who has been charged with five counts of attempted murder and five counts of first-degree assault for the shooting.

On Wednesday, they noticed dozens of vultures circling a particular area of the forest, with Fred noting that 'At least one of them appeared to have something, so they're eating on something.'

As they continued their search, the couple noticed a foul smell, which they also started to follow.

'Something's dead cause I got a whiff of something,' Sheila says in the video.

'Something's here, we're going to find it, we're going to find it,' Fred, a retired police chief, agrees.

At first, though, the couple thought they might just find a dead animal or a carcass that the suspect may have been eating to survive.

But they soon noticed that Kentucky State Police were scouring an area nearby, and after about half an hour of searching, Fred cried out: 'Oh got him here!'

'He's deteriorated!' Fred said. 

Authorities have alleged that Couch, a former member of the US Army Reserves, fired 20 to 30 rounds at around 5.30pm on September 7.

When officers arrived at the scene, they noticed multiple vehicles were parked on the side of the interstate highway with shattered windows and visible bullet holes, according to the Courier-Journal.

Fortunately, nobody was killed in the rampage, but Rebecca Puryear, who was shot across her chest in her right arm told the Lexington Herald-Leader she's thankful to be alive.

Another bullet burst into fragments upon hitting the door of her Toyota Camry, injuring her left arm, too. 

She said she was with her husband and four-year-old son, on their way home from dinner at Olive Garden, when she was shot.

'I looked at my husband and said, "What was that?" He said it was gunshots. I said, "Oh my God!"' Puryear, 28, told the newspaper.

She went on to say she started 'gushing blood' as the bullet struck her, but her husband urged her to continue driving.

But she could only go about one more mile before she pulled her vehicle over and her husband told her to take off her shirt and press it to the wound while he called 911. 

Puryear is out of the hospital but will have to have surgery at a later date.

It was later revealed that Couch sent a chilling text message to the mother of his child, informing her that he was 'going to kill a lot of people' and 'kill myself afterwards.'

The woman called 911 after receiving the messages and was later interviewed by police.

Laurel County Dispatch received a call from a woman who told them Couch had sent her the text messages at 5.03pm on Saturday, according to an affidavit written by Capt. Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities then received the first report of the shooting at around 5.30pm. 

In response to the woman's 911 call, police initiated a tracker on Couch's cellphone but the location wasn't received until 6.53pm, the affidavit states, almost 90 minutes after the highway shooting.

Police said they later discovered Couch's abandoned Toyota on top of a hill near a forest access road, and when searching the nearby area on Sunday, officers found a green Army-style duffel bag, ammunition and numerous spent shell casings, the affidavit says.

A short distance away, they found a Colt AR-15 rifle with a site mounted to the weapon and several additional magazines. 

The duffel bag had 'Couch' hand-written in black marker.

An employee of a gun store in London, Center Target Firearms, informed authorities that Couch purchased an AR-15 and 1,000 rounds of ammunition just hours before the shooting, the affidavit said.

Joe Arnold, the gun store's manager, declined to comment Monday. He said he did not want to interfere with the investigation, but added: 'We'd love for him to be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'

Couch was previously arrested last month on charges of terroristic threatening in the third-degree, and was released on a $1,000 bond.  

The status of his case is not clear, however Kentucky has some of the loosest gun laws in the nation, including not requiring a background check or permit to buy a firearm. 

Couch was also previously arrested in 2020 on charges of DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, and failure to maintain insurance.