THE grueling three-month hunt for the Washington dad accused of murdering his own daughters might finally be over.
After 112 days of searching the rugged wilderness for Travis Decker, police believe they found the ex-soldier’s remains in the mountains near where he allegedly suffocated his three daughters to death.
Travis Decker, 33, is accused of killing his three daughters over three months ago[/caption]
The crime scene where three girls were found in Rock Island Campground[/caption]
Decker, who would now be 33, was found at around 3:15 pm on Thursday in a remote wooded area south of Leavenworth, which is near the campsite where the girls were found, police said.
Investigators are now processing the site. DNA evidence was sent out for analysis to confirm that the body they found belongs to Decker, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office announced.
“While positive identification has not yet been confirmed, preliminary findings suggest the remains belong to Travis Decker,” the statement said.
Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said the remains matched the clothes that Decker was last seen in, local outlet NCWLife reported.
The body was found in the Icicle River drainage, which Morrison said was “outside of the search area” initially covered by foot.
NIGHTMARE BEGAN WITH CUSTODY VISIT
Decker disappeared on May 30 after he picked Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia Decker, 5, up from his ex-wife’s home in Wenatchee, Washington, for a scheduled three-hour custody visit.
Whitney Decker reported the girls missing when their dad didn’t return them on time and wouldn’t answer his phone.
An Amber Alert wasn’t issued for the disappearance because the children weren’t believed to be in any danger.
Whitney later said that Decker, a former military member who was homeless and suffered from PTSD, had never been violent to his daughters before and had always been an active and caring dad.
On June 2, the girls were found murdered near a remote campsite at Rock Island Campground along Icicle Creek.
They had been suffocated to death, with bags on their heads and zip ties around their wrists.
Decker’s dog and his truck, which he had been living out of at the time of the killings, were found abandoned nearby.
He was nowhere to be found.
A national manhunt was launched for the fugitive after he was charged with three counts of murder and three counts of kidnapping, with a $20,000 reward at stake.
Statement from Chelan County Sheriff’s Office
On September 18, investigators recovered remains they believe belong to the dad accused of killing his three daughters.
The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office is announcing the potential discovery of human remains believed to be those of Travis Decker. This week the US Marshals Service Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force headed up a search, to include Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, Washington State Patrol, US Border Patrol, US Forrest Service, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI. During the search, human remains were located in a remote wooded area south of the town of Leavenworth. While positive identification has not yet been confirmed, preliminary findings suggest the remains belong to Travis Decker.
The Sheriff’s Office is currently processing the scene with the assistance of WSP crime scene response team, to be followed up with DNA analysis.
Chelan County Sheriff’s Office has been in contact with the Decker family and are providing them with support and updates as the investigation proceeds and are asking for continued privacy and respect for the family.
Further updates will be provided as more information becomes available through the ongoing forensic examination and investigation.
Source: Chelan County Sheriff’s Office
Investigators initially believed Decker fled the scene on foot and disappeared into the Washington mountains near the crime scene.
Cops warned the public that Decker had military skills and survival knowledge, even having previously spent months in the wilderness alone.
Decker served as an infantryman in the US Army from 2013 to 2021, including a deployment to Afghanistan.
After his divorce from Whitney in November 2022, Decker was ordered by a family court judge to seek mental health treatment for his PTSD and reported anger issues, but he never got help.
Decker had long hair and facial hair when he disappeared[/caption]
Police believe they found Decker’s remains on Thursday[/caption]
Decker was living out of his truck at the time he went missing[/caption]
112-DAY SEARCH
The search for Decker sparked terror across Washington and neighboring states as false alarms were called in, with calls ranging from hikers in the area over to Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest.
Local, state, and federal authorities combed hundreds of square miles by land, water, and air throughout the summer.
Agencies performed water searches in Icicle Creek and sent teams on foot and horseback to cover the ground with dogs and tracking technology.
Timeline of the missing Decker girls
Paityn, 9; Evelyn, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were found dead at a campground after they were last seen on a custody visit to their dad.
Below is a timeline of events:
May 29: Cell phone activity shows that the girls’ dad, Travis Decker, drove to the Rock Island Campground and left.
May 30: 5 pm – Travis Decker picks the three girls up from their mom, Whitney Decker.
8 pm – Travis Decker is supposed to return the girls but doesn’t. Whitney Decker calls him and it goes to voicemail.
9:45 pm – Whitney Decker calls the Wenatchee Police Department to report her daughters missing.
Travis Decker’s truck is seen driving westbound on Highway 2.
Washington State Patrol is contacted for an Amber Alert but said the situation didn’t match their criteria.
May 31 : WPD issues an Endangered Missing Persons Alert.
June 2: 3:45 pm – Travis Decker’s truck is found empty at Rock Island Campground with two bloody handprints and items inside.
5 pm – Cops search the area and find the bodies of the three girls.
June 3: 9:30 am – Cops notify the public that they are still searching for Decker.
2 pm – WPD tells the public that the three girls were found dead and that Travis Decker is still on the loose.
June 8: Federal authorities take over search efforts.
June 9: Autopsy results confirm three girls were murdered by suffocation.
June 13: An affidavit revealed Whitney described Travis as having “recent mental health concerns.”
“She provided the examples of randomly leaving or waking her up by screaming at her in the middle of the night,” it read.
“She also said near the end of the marriage he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder that she believes he currently does not take medications for.”
June 17: New audio of Travis in court fighting for custody of his daughters is released.
“I understand that my current position when I’m by myself isn’t ideal, but my daughters aren’t a part of that,” he said in September 2024.
“I only get to see them over the weekends and camping is something that the four of us have done since the three of them were in diapers.”
June 20: Memorial is held where Whitney speaks publicly about girls for first time.
July 5: A family spotted a man believed to be Travis Decker in the Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho.
July 9: US Marshals call off the search in Sawtooth National Forest after locating and questioning the man believed to be Travis Decker and confirming it isn’t him.
August 25: FBI agents announce they are conducting a two-day grid search of the heavily wooded area near Rock Island Campground.
September 18: 3:15 pm – Human remains believed to be those of Travis Decker are recovered in Icicle Creek drainage, police say.
Last month, the FBI led a grid search in the area and found bones that were later determined to belong to an animal.
As the public lost hope that Decker would ever be found, Morrison vowed multiple times that police would never give up looking for the alleged killer.
In June, Whitney bravely spoke about her daughters at a memorial service and remembered their kindness and positivity.
Throughout the search for her ex-husband, she told officials that she wanted Decker found dead or alive so that she could have closure for her loss.
An abandoned campsite at Rock Island Campground found about 13 miles away from where the girls’ bodies were found[/caption]
The search for Travis Decker has spanned hundreds of square miles by land, water, and air[/caption]
The manhunt search for Decker began at Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth, Washington[/caption]
Morrison said Whitney and the girls’ surviving family have been updated about the discovery on Thursday.
“We wanted to remind the public that we were never going to give up,” Morrison said.
“We were going to keep looking until we found what we were looking for.”
He added, “We feel like we’re one more step closer to bringing closure for the family, to bringing justice for Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia.”
Final identification of the remains is expected to be confirmed on Friday.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 800 422 4453 or live chat at https://www.childhelphotline.org/.
If a child or other person is in immediate danger, contact 911 immediately.
Whitney Decker and her daughters Olivia, Evelyn, and Paityn Decker[/caption]
A makeshift memorial to honor the three girls in Wenatchee, Washington[/caption]
