Hunt for Travis Decker looks at whether he left Washington mountains —
or died evading police
[June 25, 2025]
By GENE JOHNSON
SEATTLE (AP) — Authorities who have spent the past three weeks searching
in the mountains of Washington state for an ex-soldier wanted in the
deaths of his three young daughters say there is no evidence that he
remains in the area or that he is alive at all.
Travis Decker, 32, has been wanted since June 2, when a sheriff’s deputy
found his truck and the bodies of his three daughters — 9-year-old
Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker —
at a campground outside Leavenworth. The discovery came three days after
he failed to return the girls to their mother’s home in Wenatchee, about
100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Seattle, following a scheduled visit.
“There is no certain evidence that Decker remains alive or in this
area,” the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office said in a social media post
Monday. “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.”
The post said resources were being shifted to focus on finding Decker's
remains “if he died in the rugged wilderness during this intense search
— a possibility that increases every day.” Sheriff's Inspector Chris
Whitsett said Tuesday that includes the use of dogs trained to find
human remains.
“Because of the ruggedness, the remoteness of the of that country, and
some of the conditions that we’ve observed, it’s clear that the longer
he stays out there — the longer anybody stays out there — the greater
the chance that something’s gonna happen, and whether he intends it or
not, that he’s gonna die,” Whitsett said.
The U.S. Marshals Service is working to track down Decker if he managed
to escape the region, the sheriff's office said, and extra patrols have
been on duty. The killings occurred in neighboring Chelan County, but
backcountry trails link the area to Kittitas and to the Pacific Crest
Trail, which runs from Canada to Mexico.
It would not be unprecedented for Decker to evade a search in the
rugged, remote region for three weeks; the area is dotted with abandoned
buildings as well as unoccupied vacation homes in which he might find
shelter, as well as caves and former mines.
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In 2020, Jorge Alacantara-Gonzalez, who was wanted in the killing of
a turkey hunter, spent 23 days on the run in much of the same
terrain. He was finally caught when someone called police to report
seeing someone in a cabin that should have been unoccupied.
Authorities looking for Decker say they are similarly relying on
tips from the public to help find him. They have asked people to be
alert in the backcountry and to check surveillance or game cameras
on their properties.
Earlier this month, hikers in a popular Cascade Range backpacking
area called The Enchantments reported seeing a lone person who
appeared to be ill-prepared for the conditions and seemed to be
avoiding others. A helicopter crew responded and spotted an
off-trail hiker near an alpine lake.
The person ran from sight as the helicopter passed, the Chelan
County Sheriff’s Office said. Authorities later found a trail, and
K-9 teams tracked the person to the area of the Ingalls Creek
Trailhead, south of Leavenworth, before the trail went cold.
“We still believe public awareness and help is our best tool —
whether it comes from a cabin owner who finds something out of
place, a hiker in the Enchantments who discovers evidence our
searches missed, or anyone else,” the sheriff’s office said.
Decker was an infantryman in the Army from March 2013 to July 2021
and deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2014. He has training
in navigation, survival and other skills, authorities have said, and
he once spent more than two months living in the backwoods off the
grid.
Last September, Decker’s ex-wife, Whitney Decker, wrote in a
petition to modify their parenting plan that his mental health
issues had worsened and that he had become increasingly unstable. He
was often living out of his truck, and she sought to restrict him
from having overnight visits with their daughters until he found
housing.
An autopsy determined the girls’ cause of death to be suffocation.
They had been bound with zip ties and had plastic bags placed over
their heads.
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