To neighbors and friends, Travis Decker appeared to be a devoted father, the kind who took pride in being a "girl dad" to his three daughters — Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5.
Even after his 2022 divorce from ex-wife Whitney Decker, the 32-year-old Army veteran remained a frequent presence in the girls' lives. He often picked them up with his dog in tow and took them on outdoor adventures in the Cascade Mountains of Washington.
“They loved him a lot, and he loved them too,” said Binh Nguyen, the family’s longtime neighbor in Wenatchee, per PEOPLE. “He was always around for them.” But something felt off the last time Nguyen saw Travis.
It was Friday, May 30, just before a routine court-approved visitation with his daughters. Nguyen was watering his lawn when he spotted a man who looked like a different version of his former neighbor. The once clean-cut construction worker now looked gaunt, with long hair and a grown-out beard.
“He looked so different. I asked, ‘Is that you, Travis?’” Nguyen recalled. They chatted briefly, but Travis seemed distracted, repeatedly asking how Nguyen had been, as if lost in thought. “It was kind of weird,” he said, via The Mirror US. “He had a sad face.”
That same evening, Travis was supposed to return the girls to their mother by 8:00PM. But the drop-off time came and went, and Whitney couldn’t reach him. Her texts and calls went unanswered, which she later told authorities had never happened before.
At 9:34PM, Whitney walked into the Wenatchee Police Department and reported her daughters missing, setting off a frantic multi-day search. What unfolded next shocked an entire community.
On June 2, deputies with the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office located Travis’s abandoned pickup truck at Rock Island Campground, a remote area surrounded by forest. Nearby, they discovered the bodies of Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia. Each had plastic bags over their heads, and at least one had zip ties binding her wrists.
The medical examiner ruled their cause of death as asphyxiation.
Now, authorities are hunting for Travis Decker, a combat-trained survivalist with experience in the wilderness and a history of mental health challenges linked to his military service. Federal investigators have revealed that Decker Googled “how to relocate to Canada” in the days before his disappearance.
He is now wanted on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping, and remains at large.
Earlier this week, authorities said that early leads in the search for Decker have grown cold, and they no longer believe there’s any solid evidence that Decker is still alive, The Independent reports.
In a sobering statement released via social media, the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said (via KCBY): “There is no certain evidence that Decker remains alive or in this area.
"Seemingly strong early leads gave way to less convincing proofs over the last two weeks of searching.
"Still, we can’t and won’t quit this search; Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia Decker deserve justice. And Decker remains a danger to the public as long as he’s at large.”
“Because of the ruggedness, the remoteness of that country, and some of the conditions that we’ve observed,” said Sheriff’s Inspector Chris Whitsett, per CBS, “the longer anybody stays out there, the greater the chance that something’s going to happen, and whether he intends it or not, that he’s going to die.”
The search for Decker has since expanded beyond Washington state, with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies working together to track his movements. As of now, officials haven’t released a motive, but court records and recent behavior suggest a man who may have been spiraling in the weeks leading up to the tragedy.
Whitney and her community are left grieving three young lives taken far too soon, while police urge anyone with information to come forward.