Human remains found on a mountainside in Washington state are those of Travis Decker, the man wanted over the killings of his three daughters, police have confirmed.
Forensic tests identified the remains of the 32-year-old U.S. Army veteran more than three months after the bodies of his young children were found.
The location was less than a mile from the campsite where the bodies of 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker were found on June 2, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said.
Searches for Decker had been underway since May 30, when he vanished along with his daughters, with authorities fearing he may have escaped to Canada. He was sought on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping, with multiple possible sightings reported.
The bodies of the three girls were discovered just days later on June 2, near their father’s abandoned pickup at Rock Island Campground in Chelan County. But Decker was nowhere to be found.
A medical examiner previously determined that the girls each died of asphyxiation, and their deaths were ruled homicides.
Law enforcement had continued looking for Decker until last week, when the sheriff’s office announced it had located human remains believed to be his. Sheriff Mike Morrison confirmed 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, for it taking so long. “I hope you can rest easier at night knowing that Travis is accounted for,” Morrison said.
The tragic killings occurred after Decker had been granted a court-approved visit with his daughters. When he failed to return them to their mother, she reported the girls missing, triggering a frantic search.
She told law enforcement previously that Decker’s mental health issues had worsened and that he had become increasingly unstable.
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.
The U.S. Marshals Service offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to his capture.
Officials say the coroner’s office continues to work on determining the cause and time of his death.
