Hundreds of leads in search for ‘affluenza’ teen

The U.S. Marshals Service issued a wanted poster for him on Friday. The U.S. Marshals Service have joined the search for Couch, a teenager who was serving probation for killing four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck after invoking a defense that he suffered from “affluenza”.

A missing person report has been filed for Tonya Couch, the mother of Ethan Couch – the notorious “affluenza” teen who killed four people in a drunk-driving crash.

Attorneys said Couch was supposed to meet with juvenile justice probation officers in early December.

Anyone who sees Couch or his mother is asked to call authorities.

The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office confirmed Tonya Couch is now considered a missing person after a report was filed over the weekend.

Couch vanished after failing to show up for a scheduled meeting with a probation officer last week.

In June 2013 at age 16, Couch was driving drunk and speeding on a dark two-lane road south of Fort Worth when he crashed into a disabled SUV off to the side, killing four people. State District Judge Jean Boyd, now retired, sentenced Couch to 10 years of probation and therapy, including a stint at a state hospital in Vernon.

During the sentencing phase of his juvenile court trial, Couch’s attorneys relied on a defense expert who argued that Couch’s wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility – a condition the expert termed affluenza.

The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize affluenza as an illness, and Couch’s probation sparked outrage.

Tonya Couch is suspected to be helping her son, the sheriff said Monday, but it can not be proved, and it is not at the point where she is named as a suspect. “They’re both missing. But no one has placed them together outside of Tarrant County”.

Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Monday that the tips about 18-year-old Ethan Couch’s disappearance are useful but can be a “double-edged sword” because they can lead investigators down dead ends.