Remains found in Washington state are of Travis Decker, wanted in daughters’ killings, officials say

WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) — Forensic tests confirmed that human remains found on a remote mountain in Washington state this month were those of a former soldier wanted in the deaths of his three young daughters last spring, officials confirmed Thursday.

His remains were discovered in a remote wooded area in central Washington, south of the city of Leavenworth, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said.

Law enforcement teams have been searching more than three months for Decker ever since the bodies of daughters — 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker — were found in early June along with his truck at a campground in outside of Leavenworth.

An autopsy determined the girls’ cause of death to be suffocation, the sheriff’s office said. They had been bound with zip ties and had plastic bags placed over their heads.

Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison 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, 32, 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 their daughters until he found housing.

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 a cause and time of death.