Beauty Katera Couch: 'Sweet' Instagram influencer found dead at age 22 - man arrested and charged with murder

The boyfriend of an Instagram influencer who was found dead near a burning last week has been arrested and charged with her murder.

Beauty Katera Couch, who went by the names Beauty Katera or Beauty K on social media, was found dead on Wednesday (23 August) in Austell, Georgia, United States. The police said that 22-year-old Couch was found beside her burning car near a wooded area after going missing on Tuesday (22 August), according to local media.

Authorities first said they suspected ‘foul play’ was involved in Couch’s untimely death. Now, Eugene Louis-Jocques, aged 21, of Naples, Floridam has been charged with murder, arson and aggravated assault, as reported by local media.

Since her passing, fans of Couch, who had more than 150,000 followers on her Instagram page, @BeautyKatera, have been leaving tributes on her final post.

But, just who was Couch, what do we know so far about the circumstances of her death, and what tributes have been left to her? Here’s what you need to know.

Who was Beauty Katera Couch?

Beauty Katera Couch was a 22-year-old Instagram influencer. She lived in Austell, a city in Atlanta, United States. She was also a dancer. A pinned post on her page shows that a year ago she began holding one-on-one dance lessons, both in person and virtually. She was also a rollerblader, and held her first rollerblading class earlier this month. Her Instagram page was full of photos and videos of her dancing and rollerblading, and there’s also a number of selfies.

Her last post, from five days ago, she posted a series of photos of herself standing smiling by some sun loungers in a bikini, revealing that she had dyed her hair red. The post was captioned: “He said I look good in red , might as well call me sexy red.”

What happened to Beauty Katera Couch?

The full circumstances surrounding Couch’s death are currently unknown, but police have confirmed that Louis-Jocques has been arrested and charged with murder in connection to her death.

Austell firefighters responded to a brush fire shortly after midnight on Wednesday and found a vehicle ablaze, according to local media reports. They put out the fire and took the burnt out vehicle to a local scrapyard. Fire crews found the registered owners of the vehicle, Couch’s parents, and it was when they phoned them that they revealed their daughter had not been seen since the previous night. Austell police were called and when they returned to the scene to search the area they found Couch’s body nearby.

At the time, the Cobb County Police Department said on social media that the “Cobb County Police Department Major Crimes Unit is investigating a homicide at the request of the City of Austell Police Department.”

The statement on Facebook read, “Austell Police responded to the address where the vehicle was registered and learned the owner's daughter, Beauty Couch (22, Austell), had not been seen since the previous morning and was the one who most commonly drove the vehicle. Austell Police searched the area where the vehicle was found and located a body that matched the description of Beauty Couch in the wood line. Based on the initial scene investigation, foul play is suspected.”

According to information from local law enforcement, Louis-Jocques reportedly arrested on Friday (25 August) in Louisiana by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Proactive Enforcement Unit and is now awaiting extradition to Georgia. Sheriff Randy Smith said in a statement: “Let the message be that we do not take kindly to people who think they can commit a crime elsewhere and try to hide in St. Tammany Parish. We were happy to help our counterparts in Georgia by locating this suspect and taking him into custody so he may face justice and Miss Couch’s family can begin to receive closure during this difficult time.”

No motive for the crime has been revealed.

What tributes have been left to Beauty Katera Couch?

Couch’s mother Kimberly Couch gave a tribute to her daughter to local TV station WSB-TV shortly after her death. She said: “She was a sweet girl, she never bothered nobody. She was a friend to everybody. She loved going skating. She loved going to work. She loved her clothes. She loved wearing her hair so pretty.”

Many tributes have been left to Couch on her Instagram page, and fans have also appealed to people to contact the police if they have any information which could help solve the mystery of what happened to her.

One said: “Such a beautiful soul gone too soon. I want justice for her.” Another said: “Whoever did this to you will be punished by God. I'm so sorry sweet girl, I'm so sorry.” One fan commented: “You didn’t deserve, so sorry, wow this is sick. I pray they find out something and get whoever did this. Wow, RIP pretty.” Another person simply said “roll in peace.”

One person who knew Couch in person said: “RIP Lady, my condolences and love to the family, so sorry this evil happened. Such a beautiful young lady that I loved taking to and videotaping at the rinks. Skate in Heaven Beauty.” Another said: “I miss you so much already. Thank you for everything. Gone too soon to become an angel.”