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LEAVENWORTH, Wash. (AP) — Authorities believe they have discovered the remains of Travis Decker, a former soldier sought in connection with the deaths of his three daughters, in the mountains of Washington state.
The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday that it is processing the site with assistance from the Washington State Patrol crime scene response team. A DNA analysis will follow, officials stated.
“While positive identification has not yet been confirmed, preliminary findings suggest the remains belong to Travis Decker,” the statement said.
Decker, 32, has been pursued since June 2, after a sheriff’s deputy located his truck alongside the bodies of his three daughters: 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker, and 5-year-old Olivia Decker, at a campsite near Leavenworth.
He disappeared three days after failing to return the girls to their mother’s residence in Wenatchee, approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Seattle, following a scheduled visit.
A former Army infantryman from March 2013 to July 2021, Decker served a four-month deployment in Afghanistan in 2014. Authorities noted his training in navigation, survival, and other skills, citing his experience living off the grid in the wilderness for over two months.
Over 100 officials from various state and federal agencies combed through hundreds of square miles, much of it difficult and secluded terrain, using land, water, and aerial methods during intermittent searches. The U.S. Marshals Service offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to his capture.
Last September, Decker’s ex-wife, Whitney Decker, wrote in a petition to modify their parenting plan that his mental health issues had worsened and that he had become increasingly unstable. He was often living out of his truck, and she sought to restrict him from having overnight visits with their daughters until he found housing.
An autopsy determined the girls’ cause of death to be suffocation, the sheriff’s office said. They had been bound with zip ties and had plastic bags placed over their heads.
