Those are believed to be those of the man of the state of Washington suspected of killing their three young daughters who met this week in a remote wooded area, authorities said Thursday.
The preliminary results suggest that the remains are those of Travis Decker, 32, whom the authorities have been looking for more than three months. The remains were found south of the city of Leavenworth during a search, said the Sheriff’s Office of Chelan County
A DNA analysis will be performed, said the office.
Three weeks after human hunting, the authorities issued a long statement that threw doubts about whether Decker, a veteran military and a national guard man whom the local sheriff described as an outdoor man for a long time, remained alive.
The authorities said the resources had changed to concentrate on finding the remains of Decker, assuming that the probability that his death “increases every day.”
On June 10, the authorities said they believed they had tracked Decker in an area near the remote camp where their daughters were found dead days before, approximately 130 miles east of Seattle.
Chelan County Sheriff’s office said in a press release that the person was seen by helicopter after a hiking part reported to have seen someone who seemed to be prepared for the path and climate and seemed to avoid others.
The Sheriff’s office said the person fled from the view, but was then tracked with dogs to a nearby path.
Decker, whom his ex -wife described the authorities as homeless and experiencing mental health problems, had a planned visit with his daughters a few days before his bodies were found.
When Decker did not return to the girls and his ex -wife, Whitney Decker, could not contact him on the phone, she filed a complaint that day before the Wenatchee police, which caused a search that lasted during the weekend.
Evelyn, 8, Paityn, 9, and Olivia Decker, 5, were found on June 2 near a camp where they also discovered the White Travis Decker truck.
They had been tied with a zipper and had plastic bags on their heads, wrote a Wenatchee police detective in an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant. A preliminary examination discovered that they probably died of suffocation, the detective wrote.
The unoccupied white truck of Travis Decker was found near two bloody footprints on its back gate, according to the affidavit.
Whitney and Travis Decker were married for seven years, but they divorced several years ago, according to the affidavit. Whitney Decker told the detective that her ex -husband had always been communicative about her children and previously returned them when she was supposed to do so.
A raising plan in force since September 2024 demanded that he seek mental health treatment and management advice of domestic violence, but he had not done so, says the affidavit.
A copy of the parenting plan shows that Travis Decker refused to sign it.
In the days after their girls were found dead, Whitney Decker asked for reforms to the Amber Alert System, which sends text messages to all cell phones in areas where they have been informed of missing children. The local police tried to send an alert on Friday before being found dead, but the agency that manages the program in the state of Washington refused to do so.
A Washington state patrol spokesman said the application did not comply with strict criteria established by the United States Department of Justice. A different alert sent that on Saturday achieved “the same public notification/dissemination that would have an amber alert,” he said.
Whitney Decker talked publicly about the murders of his daughters for the first time at the end of June.
“They were incredible,” he told a multitude of thousands of mourners. “I really hope that the legacy of girls’ lives lives in everyone’s heart.”
