THE truth has come to light about eerie images of a campsite near where the bodies of the three Decker sisters were found.
An image showing an orange tent alongside a cooler has been widely shared online as the search for 32-year-old Travis Decker enters its fourth week, incurring costs in the millions.
The police initiated a hunt for Decker following the tragic discovery of his three young daughters — Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5 — who were found suffocated at a campsite in Washington state on June 2.
Decker, a homeless veteran suffering from PTSD, is accused of abducting the girls and allegedly murdering them after collecting them from his ex-wife for a “scheduled visitation” on May 30, according to authorities.
The girls’ bodies were discovered at Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth, over 20 miles away from their home in Wenatchee, with plastic bags over their heads and zip ties around their wrists.
About 100 yards away from the bodies, Decker’s white truck was found abandoned with his wallet inside and bloody handprints containing his DNA on the tailgate.
Cops initially reported they found a tent and a cooler in the remote area, suggesting the site had recently been used.
An abandoned orange tent was located about a mile away from where the girls’ bodies were found, as shown in pictures shared by CCSO Forest Service Deputy Mike McLeod with USA Today.
“It looked like a homeless person tent. Floor was ripped, haphazardly put up, not an expensive tent,” McLeod told the outlet.
“However, the cooler was placed neatly next to it, squared up to the tent.”
Images of the same tent and cooler set up were published by the Daily Mail in an article claiming it was the site where Decker allegedly murdered his daughters.
McLeod said he believed the tent was Decker’s. The Daily Mail article suggested the same idea.
However, CCSO Chief of Special Operations Ryan Moody said the tent has not been linked to Decker or the murders at all.
“We have no reason to believe it’s connected in any way to the homicide or to Travis Decker,” Moody told The U.S. Sun.
“It wasn’t even taken as evidence.”
He said Decker’s truck was parked at a campsite, but it wasn’t the same one where the tent was located.
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 saidin 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 mom Whitney speak publicly about girls for first time.
Pictures of a bullet casing said to be found near the tent were also published online, which Moody added were questionable because he hadn’t heard of any such evidence.
“I’m not sure where those photos came from,” Moody said.
The confusion surrounding the pictures of the campsite comes as the search for Decker faces mounting uncertainty as the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said last week there’s “no certain evidence” he’s alive.
Cops believed Decker was on the run and able to survive in the wilderness for months due to skills he learned in the military.
Plus, a potential sighting last month ramped up the search after a group of hikers spotted a man believed to be Decker off the trail.
MILLION DOLLAR SEARCH
As officials thought Decker was hiding somewhere in the mountains of northern Washington, multiple agencies including the FBI have scoured the rough terrain with helicopters and search parties.
CCSO Sheriff Mike Morrison estimated earlier this week that the price tag for the manhunt has now crossed over $6 million.
“If we’d had to take on the investigation by ourselves, I’d imagine it would’ve eaten up close to half of our budget,” Morrison said at a Chelan County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
While there’s no evidence that Decker is alive or dead, Morrison said he won’t rest until the alleged killer is found.
“At this point, unless we find him deceased, I’m going to consider him alive,” Morrison told NBC affiliate KING-TV last month.
