Search expanding for Fort Worth’s Ethan Couch, teenage fugitive

The search for Ethan Couch, the teenager who was driving drunk in 2013 when he plowed into a stranded motorist and people who had stopped to help, killing four and injuring 12, could soon become an international manhunt.

The U.S. Marshals Service, which joined the search for Couch, 18, this week issued a wanted flier Friday. It says a reward of up to $5,000 “is offered for information that leads to the whereabouts and arrest of Couch.”

The Marshals Service could obtain a federal warrant accusing Couch of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, said Danny Defenbaugh, a former FBI supervisor and founder of Defenbaugh and Associates, a Dallas-based security and consulting firm.

The warrant would allow federal authorities to notify agencies such as Interpol and countries with extradition treaties with the United States, Defenbaugh said.

Also, the State Department could put a hold on his passport, Defenbaugh said. That would be a red flag to officials in foreign countries that Couch is wanted in the U.S., Defenbaugh said.

To get such a warrant issued, there would have to be indications that the wanted person had crossed state lines and that the jurisdiction looking for the fugitive is willing to pay extradition costs, Defenbaugh said.

A Marshals Service spokesman said Friday night that there was no indication that such a warrant had been issued.

The marshals joined the search for Couch this week after Tarrant County Juvenile Services issued a directive to area law enforcement agencies to apprehend Couch, who failed to appear for a mandatory meeting with his probation officer.

Waves of national attention

On the night of June 15, 2013, Couch, then 16, had been partying with friends when he decided to drive to a store. With seven passengers in his Ford F-350 pickup, Couch was speeding down Burleson-Retta Road in south Tarrant County when he came on a group of people trying to help a stranded motorist.

He smashed into the vehicles and people, killing four and injuring 12.

During his trial in Tarrant County juvenile court, he acknowledged that he was drunk and caused the deaths and injuries. The case attracted national attention when the judge sentenced him to intensive psychological counseling and 10 years’ probation during which he could not drive or use alcohol or drugs.

The media latched on to a comment made by psychologist Dick Miller during the penalty phase of Couch’s trial. Miller used the word affluenza in an aside while saying that Couch had no sense of right and wrong and his parents taught him, “If it feels good, do it.”

Interest in the case had subsided until last month when a six-second video clip was posted on Twitter showing a teenager resembling Couch laughing and clapping as another partygoer dived onto a table loaded with cups of beer.

Couch recently missed an appointment with his probation officer, and a directive was issued to area officials to watch for him. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson described the directive as “like a juvenile version of an arrest warrant.”

“After he missed his appointment, the probation officials went out to his house where he was supposed to be staying with his mom, and that started the whole process,” Anderson said Thursday.

“My personal belief is when that video came out, he felt like he violated his probation, and I believe that was the trigger that caused him to up and run.”

And the run has inflated national attention. On Friday afternoon, CNN and MSNBC had segments on Couch running at the same time. On Thursday, Sheriff Anderson was interviewed for CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.

An FBI official said Friday that his organization has offered assistance but is not directly involved in the search now. The FBI has been in touch with the Sheriff’s Department to “look at ways that we can assist,” said Thomas M. Class, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas Division.

Anderson said that no warrant has been issued for Couch’s mother, Tonya Couch, but she could face criminal charges if it is found that she helped her son avoid detention.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Search expanding for Fort Worth’s Ethan Couch, teenage fugitive."