Manhunt continues for father suspected of killing three daughters near Wenatchee

Olivia, 5, Evelyn, 8, Paityn Decker, 9, were found with their hands zip-tied and plastic bags over their heads, with asphyxiation the likely cause of death

Carleen Johnson
The Center Square Washington

The manhunt continues for the father of three little girls found dead Monday just outside Leavenworth in Chelan County, Wash.

Court documents obtained by The Center Square reveal the timeline starting Friday, when the children’s panicked mother, Whitney Decker, went to Wenatchee police to report her ex-husband had not returned with their daughters, through Monday, when law enforcement discovered the dead children near a campsite off Icicle Road.

“Approximately seventy-five to one hundred yards past where the vehicle was located, and down a small embankment, CCSO [Chelan County Sheriff’s Office] deputies located the bodies of three school-aged children,” wrote Wenatchee Police Detective Brian Hewitt in court documents filed with Chelan County Superior Court.

Olivia, 5, Evelyn, 8, Paityn Decker, 9, were found with their hands zip-tied and plastic bags over their heads, with asphyxiation the likely cause of death.

Authorities in Wenatchee and Chelan County began the search for the girls when their father, 32-year-old Travis Decker, did not return them to their mother as scheduled on Friday. The girls were spending time with their father as part of a court-ordered visitation, but given that Decker was dealing with mental health issues and was homeless, he was not to keep them overnight.

According to court documents, “Whitney noted Decker was quieter than usual, which was out of character. She mentioned the recent ticket being a financial burden for him, along with garnished wages due to back child support.”

The ticket was related to a recent vehicle accident Travis Decker was involved in, in which he was cited for not having auto insurance.

When the mother went to the Wenatchee Police Department on Friday, the agency contacted Washington State Patrol to see if an Amber Alert was appropriate.

“You had to have reason to believe abduction, which, at that point on Friday night, it was just parent with custodial and visitation rights who was late with the returning of the children, which in its own right is not an indication of abduction,” WSP spokesperson Chris Loftis told The Center Square.

Loftis noted that the second criterion is whether the children are known to be in imminent danger of injury or death.

“The information that had been provided by the mother was that there was no concern for the safety of the children,” he said. “Saturday comes along, they call back, and the kids are still missing, so we issued an Endangered Missing Persons alert.”

Like an Amber Alert, the endangered missing persons alert goes out to broadcasters and goes up on reader boards to alert the public to watch out for a specific vehicle.

“The only thing that it doesn’t do automatically that the Amber [Alert] does is it doesn’t do that push notification to the wireless emergency system, where you get that loud alarm sound on your phone. So that’s the only thing that it doesn’t do, and whether that would have made a difference, we don’t know,” Loftis said.

Former Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett, who is currently a Republican representative for Wenatchee in the state House of Representatives, told The Center Square he learned of the case over the weekend.

“It’s a horrible situation for everyone, including for the father that he’s even in that mental mindset to be able to do this type of horrific thing to his own children,” he said.

The state lawmaker said it is very concerning that a judge allowed the father to have unsupervised visitation, given that he was homeless and had documented mental health issues.

“I’m all about visitation, but if you don’t have a place set up and a safe environment for your children, then you shouldn’t be having them,” Burnett said. “I’m sick and tired of hearing families first. If parts of the family or members of the family have some serious mental health or drug abuse issues, then you have to get them healthy, and then you bring the children back in, and that’s truly being family first.”

Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, who has worked extensively on family court and child protection issues, told The Center Square that it doesn’t make sense that the father would have had unsupervised visitation.

“You can’t stop every crime from happening, but you have to be able to use common sense and deterrence, and a decision that says we’re going to protect your rights, but we also understand that you’re a danger and that you have no shelter and no way to care for your kids, so that maybe unsupervised weekend visitation isn’t the safest thing to do,” Couture said. “I think it’s neglect to give unsupervised visitation to a mentally ill parent who is homeless.”

The search for Travis Decker, who is considered to be armed and dangerous, continues. He has been charged with three counts each of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping

Anyone with information is urged to call the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office at 509-667-6845 or submit information here. 

The GoFundMe  fundraising platform has generated more than half a million dollars for the grieving family as of early Wednesday afternoon. 

This report was first published by The Center Square Washington.