After a weekslong manhunt, authorities in Washington state said they don’t have evidence that a man accused of killing his three young daughters “remains alive or in this area.”
Despite this, the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said they will continue looking for the suspect, Travis Caleb Decker, according to a Monday press release. Decker is wanted on three counts of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.
“At this time, there is no certain evidence that Decker remains alive or in this area. Seemingly strong early leads gave way to less convincing proofs over the last two weeks of searching,” the sheriff’s office said, noting that detectives have looked into dozens of potential sightings and leads. “Still, we can’t and won’t quit this search; Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia Decker deserve justice. And Decker remains a danger to the public as long as he’s at large.”
“Some search resources are being redirected to find and recover Decker if he died in the rugged wilderness during this intense search—a possibility that increases every day,” the sheriff’s office added.
Wenatchee Police Department
Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia Decker, 5, were found dead on June 2, days after their mother, Whitney Decker, reported them missing when they didn’t come back from a “planned visitation” with their dad.
The sisters were found near their father’s truck in a campground in the North Cascades with zip-tied hands and plastic bags over their heads.
An autopsy revealed that the girls died from suffocation.
The girls’ deaths come after Whitney Decker sought an amended parenting schedule in court, where she indicated she had concerns about her ex-husband’s mental health and his relationship to their children, according to KIRO7.
“Travis just keeps getting more and more unstable,” Whitney Decker said in the court documents, the local outlet reported. “He has made huge sacrifices to serve our country and loves his girls very much but he has got to get better for our girls. I do not want to keep Travis from the girls at all.”
At one point, the court directed Travis Decker, who served in the U.S. Army from 2013 to 2021, to obtain an anger management/domestic violence evaluation and a psychiatric evaluation, which he refused to do, KIRO7 also reported.
Washington State Patrol did not issue an Amber Alert despite a request from Wenatchee Police in Chelan County, Washington, when Whitney Decker reported her children missing, HuffPost previously reported.
“They did not see him as an immediate physical danger to his children despite the fact that he had a well-established history of mental health issues and had they…seen it that way, those children might still be alive,” Whitney Decker’s attorney, Arianna Cozart, told local NBC affiliate KING 5 News. “That’s the thing that is so brutal, and the one thing that she’s really hoping can be changed in this tragedy.”
Whitney Decker spoke out on Friday about the loss of her daughters, breaking her public silence since the manhunt for Travis Decker began.
“They were incredible,” Whitney Decker said, KING 5 reported. “I truly hope that the legacy of the girls’ lives lives in everyone’s heart.”
A GoFundMe page aiming to support Whitney Decker with expenses and legal costs has been active since June 2.
