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Law enforcement teams had been searching more than three months
for Decker, 32, before the sheriff's office announced last week
it had located human remains believed to be his. Sheriff Mike
Morrison said Thursday that DNA tests on clothing found at the
scene as well as from the remains matched Decker.
The sheriff said investigators wanted to honor the girls’ memory
by solving the case, and he apologized to their mother, Whitney
Decker, that it took so long.
“I hope you can rest easier at night knowing that Travis is
accounted for,” Morrison said.
Decker had been with his daughters on a scheduled visit but
failed bring them back to his former 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 them.
A deputy found Decker’s truck as well as the girls’ bodies three
days after Decker failed to return them to their mother’s house.
Autopsies found the girls had been suffocated.
Decker was an infantryman in the 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.
More than 100 officials with an array of state and federal
agencies searched hundreds of square miles, much of it
mountainous and remote, by land, water and air during the on and
off search. The U.S. Marshals Service offered a reward of up to
$20,000 for information leading to his capture.
At one point early in the search, authorities thought they
spotted Decker near a remote alpine lake after receiving a tip
from hikers.
Officials say the coroner’s office continues to work on
determining the cause and time of his death.
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