The three young sisters who vanished while visiting their troubled and homeless father have been found dead, police confirmed Tuesday.
The remains of the Decker sisters — Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5 — were discovered late Monday near their father’s truck close to a campground in Wenatchee, where SWAT teams had saturated the area, as reported by KIRO 7.
Officials had canceled the endangered missing person alerts for them Monday, without initially confirming the tragic discovery.
The last sighting of the girls alive was on Friday when their father, Travis Decker, picked them up from their mother’s residence for a scheduled visit, according to police.
Travis had been charged with three counts of first-degree custodial interference for allegedly not returning his children, but he was not located during the search for his daughters, according to local reports.
The bodies were found after a SWAT team swooped in on Rock Island Campground, about 18 miles west of the town of Leavenworth, at around 5 p.m. on Monday.
Decker, who is homeless and divorced from his children’s mother, is known to stay at campgrounds and hotels in the local area with his dog, according to police.
A warrant was issued for his arrest at around 5 p.m. on Monday by Superior Court Judge Robert Jourdan.
The offense is a Class C felony in Washington and carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Decker picked his three daughters up at around 5 p.m. on Friday but did not tell their mother where he planned to take the girls, who were last seen traveling in his truck, a white 2017 GMC Sierra.
The vehicle was spotted on the Wenatchee River Bridge heading north some 40 minutes later, according to a filed police affidavit seen by NCWLIFE.
Later that weekend, the truck was spotted in the west end of Leavenworth, triggering a police search in the wooded areas around the town, NCWLIFE reported.
Federal agencies, including Homeland Security and the Forest Service, were enlisted in the search for the missing girls.
The girl’s mother had issued a heartbreaking appeal for their safe return Monday, hours before the bodies were found.
“I just want the girls back home safe and sound — that is the most important thing to me,” she said in the emailed statement sent to NCWLIFE.
“I am concerned about the safety and wellbeing of my girls and their dad. This is an unimaginable situation.” I am pleading for everyone to look out for them,” she said in the emailed statement sent to NCWLIFE.”
