Federal prosecutor says Travis Decker is dead but sheriff says DNA tests
are pending
[September 25, 2025]
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to
drop the arrest warrant for a former soldier wanted in the deaths of his
three young daughters because the U.S. Marshals Service says the man is
dead, but the sheriff's office said their decision was premature because
DNA test results are pending.
Authorities in Washington state found remains believed to belong to
Travis Decker in a remote wooded area of central Washington last week,
but investigators are still waiting for DNA results to confirm the man's
identity. |
Pictures, flowers and candles mark a makeshift memorial, June 3, 2025,
in Wenatchee, Wash., in honor of Olivia, Paityn and Evelyn Decker, who
were found dead near Leavenworth after their father Travis Decker failed
to return them after a scheduled visitation. (Nick Wagner/The Seattle
Times via AP) |
|
Still, in a court document filed Wednesday, U.S. Attorney S.
Peter Serrano said the U.S. Marshals Service has advised
prosecutors that Decker is dead.
The Chelan County Sheriff's Office sent out a press release
Wednesday afternoon saying they had just learned about Marshals
Service's filing, and said they're not in a position to make a
positive identification or confirmation of Mr. Decker’s status.
"We are currently awaiting DNA test results from the state Crime
Lab, which are expected to be returned within the next few
days," the release says. “Once the DNA results are confirmed,
the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office will hold a press conference
to share findings and address any questions from the media and
public.”
Law enforcement teams had searched for more than three months
for Decker after the bodies of his daughters — 9-year-old Paityn
Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker —
were found in June at a campground near Leavenworth.
The sheriff's office said an autopsy determined they died from
suffocation. They had been bound with zip ties and had plastic
bags placed over their heads.
Decker, 32, had been with his daughters on a scheduled visit but
failed to bring them back to his ex-wife, who a year ago said
that his mental health issues had worsened and that he had
become increasingly unstable.
He was often living out of his truck, she said in a petition
seeking to restrict him from having overnight visits with their
daughters until he found housing.
Decker was an infantryman in the U.S. Army from March 2013 to
July 2021 and deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2014.
He had training in navigation, survival and other skills,
authorities said, and once spent more than two months living in
the backwoods off the grid.
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