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Authorities revealed on Thursday that remains, likely belonging to a Washington state man accused of murdering his three daughters, were located in a secluded forested region this week.
Initial investigations indicate these remains are those of 32-year-old Travis Decker, who had been the focus of a search for over three months. The discovery occurred during a search operation south of Leavenworth, announced by the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office.
A DNA analysis will be done, the office said.
Almost a month into the search, officials released a detailed statement questioning whether Decker, described by the local sheriff as a seasoned outdoorsman, military veteran, and National Guardsman, was still alive.
Officials said resources had been shifted to focus on finding Decker’s remains, presuming the likelihood of his death “increases every day.”
On June 10, it was reported that authorities tracked Decker near a secluded campsite, where his daughters had tragically been discovered deceased a few days earlier, about 130 miles from Seattle.
The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office noted in a press release that a helicopter spotted him after a hiking group reported seeing someone seemingly unprepared for the trail and weather, actively avoiding others.
The sheriff’s office said the person ran from sight but was later tracked with dogs to a nearby trailhead.
Decker, homeless and facing mental health struggles according to his ex-wife, had scheduled a visit with their daughters shortly before their tragic deaths.
When Decker did not return the girls and his ex-wife, Whitney Decker, could not reach him by phone, she filed a complaint that day with Wenatchee police, prompting a search that lasted through the weekend.
Evelyn, 8, Paityn, 9, and Olivia Decker, 5, were found June 2 near a campground where they also discovered Travis Decker’s white pickup truck.
They had been zip-tied and had plastic bags over their heads, a Wenatchee police detective wrote in an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant. A preliminary examination found that they most likely died of asphyxiation, the detective wrote.
Travis Decker’s unoccupied white pickup was found nearby with two bloody handprints on its tailgate, according to the affidavit.
Whitney and Travis Decker were married for seven years but divorced several years ago, according to the affidavit. Whitney Decker told the detective her ex-husband had always been communicative about their children and previously returned them when he was supposed to.
A parenting plan in effect since September 2024 required him to seek mental health treatment and domestic violence anger-management counseling, but he had not done so, the affidavit says.
A copy of the parenting plan shows that Travis Decker refused to sign it.
In the days after her girls were found dead, Whitney Decker called for reforms to the Amber alert system, which sends out text messages to all cellphones in areas where missing children have been reported. Local police sought to have an alert sent out the Friday before they were found dead, but the agency that manages the program in Washington state declined to do so.
A spokesman for the Washington State Patrol said the request did not meet strict criteria set by the U.S. Justice Department. A different alert sent that Saturday accomplished “much the same public notification/outreach as an AMBER alert would have,” he said.
Whitney Decker spoke publicly about her daughters’ killings for the first time in late June.
“They were incredible,” she told a crowd of thousands of mourners. “I truly hope that the legacy of the girls’ lives lives in everyone’s heart.”
