YouTube sleuth couple who found Kentucky highway shooter's body are given massive payday

The Kentucky couple that live streamed the moment they discovered the remains of  a wanted shooter are cashing in on their find.

Sheila and Fred McCoy filmed themselves trekking through thick brush and climbing over branches at the Daniel Boone National Forest on September 18 before ultimately finding a dead body. 

Two weeks prior on September 7, 32-year-old army veteran Joseph Couch shot at unsuspecting motorists on Interstate 75 with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle, injuring five people.

Authorities believed the suspected gunman may have been hiding in the wooded area and offered a $35,000 reward for any information leading to his arrest.

The McCoy's received a $10,000 portion of the reward on Tuesday and officials said they will get the rest of their payout in installments.

'It was a life changing event for me,' Fred told WKYT. 'I said [to Shelia] how about for date night we go get something to eat then find this guy.'

'The good Lord just told us, we just felt like we were going to find this body.'

Sheila said their mission was to find Couch, convince him to turn himself in and let him know that nobody had died.

They had been searching the forest for days in an effort to track down the suspected gunman, who been charged with five counts of attempted murder and five counts of first-degree assault for the shooting. 

Eventually 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, to which is wife responded: 'You found him? Oh my Lanta!' She is heard repeating the phrase several times in the clip.

The couple are then seen easing down a slope to where the body was, at which point a third voice - assumed to be a cop - can be heard telling them to not take photos.

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.

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.