Investigators narrow search for ex-soldier wanted in deaths of 3 young daughters in Washington state

LEAVENWORTH, Wash. (AP) — Authorities in Washington state are focusing their search for an ex-soldier wanted in the deaths of his three young daughters in an area south of where their bodies were discovered more than a week ago.

The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert Monday night for an area near Ingalls Creek and the Valleyhi community, a small neighborhood about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Leavenworth. The alert remained in effect Tuesday.

Authorities did not specify what prompted them to focus on that area, beyond saying “he is believed to potentially be in this area.”

“Residents and visitors are urged to secure homes and vehicles, remain vigilant, and report any suspicious activity to 911,” the alert said. “A heightened law enforcement presence will persist as a precautionary measure.”

Investigators have been looking for Travis Caleb Decker, 32, since the night of May 30, when he failed to return the girls to their mother’s home in Wenatchee, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Seattle, after a scheduled visit.

Three days later, a sheriff’s deputy discovered the bodies of 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker down an embankment at the Rock Island Campground west of Leavenworth.

The site is about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border, and it is connected to the newly focused search area by backcountry trails.

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 has training in navigation, survival and other skills, authorities said. He once spent more than two months living in the backwoods off the grid.

Officials have searched hundreds of square miles, much of it mountainous and remote, by land, water and air.

Last September, his ex-wife, Whitney Decker, wrote in a petition to modify their parenting plan that his mental health issues had worsened and that he had become increasingly unstable, often living out of his truck. She sought to restrict him from having overnight visits with the girls until he found housing.

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