SEATTLE — Authorities may have found the remains of Travis Decker, the Wenatchee, Washington, man accused of murdering his three young daughters nearly four months ago, a crime that triggered terrible grief across the region and an intense and sweeping search.
The Chelan County sheriff's office announced Thursday evening that remains found in a wooded area south of Leavenworth could be Decker's.
While positive identification has not yet been confirmed, preliminary findings suggest the remains belong to Travis Decker, a news release from the office said.
It said the sheriff's office is processing the scene and will complete DNA analysis to determine identity. The remains were discovered this week when the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force headed up a search with the sheriff's office and other law enforcement agencies.
The sheriff's office did not provide additional details Thursday night, and attempts to reach a spokesperson were not successful.
The summerlong search for Decker, 32, of Wenatchee, began May 30 after his three daughters, Olivia, 5, Evelyn, 8, and Paityn, 9, were reported missing. On June 2, police found the girls' bodies near the Rock Island Campground near his 2017 GMC Sierra pickup.
Decker, an Army veteran, was known as a skilled outdoorsman, and the search spanned several states and involved multiple law enforcement agencies. The FBI had closed multiple campgrounds, hiking trails and roads in the Leavenworth area as part of the search, and repeatedly sought the public's help to try to find him.
A judge issued a warrant for Decker’s arrest in June, ordering no bail. Chelan County prosecutors charged Decker with three counts of first-degree aggravated murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping.
Autopsies showed the girls died from asphyxiation. They were reported missing after Decker did not return them to their mother on time per a court order. The truck’s tailgate had bloody handprints, and Decker’s cellphone records showed him in the area around that time. The girls were found wearing the same clothes Decker picked them up in.
The girls’ mother, Whitney Decker, had sought a protection order due to Decker’s deteriorating mental health. Whitney Decker also filed for divorce in 2024, citing Travis’ instability. She wrote in the divorce paperwork that Decker had borderline personality disorder and narcissism.
As the case received national attention, possible sightings were reported in forests around the Pacific Northwest as authorities didn’t know whether Decker was alive or dead.
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