LEAVENWORTH, Wash. (AP) — Authorities have found remains they believe are those of Travis Decker, an ex-soldier sought in connection with the tragic deaths of his three daughters, in the mountainous regions of Washington state.
The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office announced on Thursday that they are currently processing the site with assistance from the Washington State Patrol crime scene response team and will conduct DNA analysis for confirmation.
“While positive identification has not yet been confirmed, preliminary findings suggest the remains belong to Travis Decker,” the sheriff’s office stated in their report.
Decker, 32, has been a fugitive since June 2, when a sheriff’s deputy discovered his abandoned truck and the bodies of his three daughters — 9-year-old Paityn, 8-year-old Evelyn, and 5-year-old Olivia — at a campsite near Leavenworth.
The incident followed Decker’s failure to return his daughters to their mother’s residence in Wenatchee, roughly 100 miles east of Seattle, after a scheduled visitation.
During his military service from March 2013 to July 2021, Decker served as an infantryman in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014. He had received training in navigation and survival skills, including a notable period where he lived off the grid for over two months.
More than 100 officials, including various state and federal agencies, have been involved in the search efforts, covering vast and rugged terrain from land to aerial searches. The U.S. Marshals Service had previously offered a $20,000 reward for leads in his capture.
Concerns regarding Decker’s mental health had intensified prior to this incident. His ex-wife, Whitney Decker, filed a petition last September seeking to modify their parenting arrangement, stating he had become increasingly unstable and was often living out of his vehicle. This petition sought to limit his overnight visitation with the girls until he was able to secure stable housing.
An autopsy subsequently determined that the three children had died of suffocation, revealing that they had been bound with zip ties and had plastic bags placed over their heads.
