In a story that’s both devastating and infuriating, Whitney Decker is now demanding answers after her three daughters were tragically killed — and she says it all could have been prevented.
It’s a case that continues to grip the nation — and with each passing day, new heartbreaking details emerge. Earlier this week, the bodies of Paityn 9, Evelyn 8, and Olivia Decker, 5, were found near their father’s pickup truck in a remote area close to Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, roughly 120 miles east of Seattle, authorities confirmed.
The sister’s father, 32-year-old Travis Decker, has now been charged with three counts each of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. Shockingly, he has not yet been caught and remains on the run as law enforcement agencies across the region search for him.
According to court documents obtained by ABC News, each of the young girls was found with a plastic bag over her head and her wrists bound with zip ties.
Deputies also discovered disturbing evidence near Travis Decker’s vehicle. Zip ties and plastic bags were reportedly “strewn throughout the area,” and the tailgate of the truck had what looked like “two hand prints of blood,” the documents revealed.
Living in local motels and campgrounds
Last Friday, officials revealed that the girls’ mother, Whitney Decker, had reached out to police to file a civil complaint after her ex-husband failed to return their daughters following a scheduled visit. According to court documents, Travis Decker picked up the children around 5 p.m., but when they hadn’t returned by 10 p.m., Whitney grew concerned. She told authorities she tried calling him several times, but his phone kept going straight to voicemail.
Whitney noted in the report that her ex-husband “reportedly has never done this before and further noted he is currently experiencing some mental health issues,” according to the court documents.
As the search for the missing girls unfolded, investigators learned that Travis Decker was homeless and had been living out of his white GMC Sierra pickup truck.
He was also reportedly staying at a series of local motels and campgrounds in the area. Police described the visitation with the girls as “part of a parenting plan,” but added that Decker “has since gone outside the parameters of it, which is not normal and cause for the alarm.”
Isn’t ready to speak publicly yet
On Wednesday, KING 5 Seattle spoke with Greg Joyce, the attorney representing Whitney Decker — the mother of the three murdered girls in Wenatchee. Joyce had just finished a meeting with Whitney, joined by U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement. While Whitney was tearful, she remained composed and isn’t ready to speak publicly yet.
According to the news station, they learned learned more about Travis Decker, the father accused of killing his daughters. Once an engaged father, Decker’s life had been unraveling for some time. After leaving the Army Rangers voluntarily about 18 months ago, he became homeless and struggled with serious mental health issues. His discharge was reportedly honorable, though he eventually stopped attending reserve duty.
Despite efforts to find work, including minimum wage jobs and a conversation with the carpenters union, his military skills didn’t transfer into civilian employment.
The plea
According to Greg Joyce, Decker had a documented history of severe mental illness, likely tied to his combat experience, and he repeatedly tried to get help through veterans services but was met with bureaucratic red tape.
“She really feels that the system let her children down,” Joyce said of Whitney Decker. “It was the inadequacies in the services for our veterans that killed those children. That’s it.”
The family is also questioning why an Amber Alert was never issued. Law enforcement claimed they didn’t view Decker as an immediate threat to his children, despite his mental health history. Whitney believes that failure may have cost her daughters their lives.
The mother is now pushing for change, believing that the failure to issue an AMBER Alert was a devastating mistake — one she hopes will lead to reforms so no other family has to endure the same heartbreak.
Why was no Amber Alert sent out?
The decision not to issue an AMBER Alert has sparked widespread criticism, but officials are defending their decision not to issue an AMBER Alert during the critical hours after the girls went missing.
Despite two reported requests from local police on Friday to activate the state’s child abduction alert system, the Washington State Patrol declined to issue an AMBER Alert.
“We were having discussions with Wenatchee police from Friday night on,” the agency’s Director of Public Affairs, Chris Loftis, told KOMO News. “If we weren’t eligible for AMBER, then what could we do?”
According to the Department of Justice, AMBER Alerts require five specific conditions: evidence of an abduction, belief that the child is in imminent danger, the victim must be under 18, adequate descriptive information must be available, and the child’s name must be entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.
Since the case didn’t check every box, the WSP instead issued an Endangered Missing Person Alert (EMPA), which included the names of the three girls, Travis Decker, and a description of his vehicle. But unlike AMBER Alerts, EMPAs don’t generate push notifications to phones.
“The difference between EMPA and AMBER, the AMBER has that push notification that we all get on our phones, you have to look at it, you have to address it. The EMPA does not have that,” Chris Loftis said.
Hiding in the wilderness?
According to KING 5 Seattle, Whitney Decker is now being supported by her mother and even Travis Decker’s father, who has been in contact and is now flying in from the Midwest.
As per the latest reports, investigators are working with the theory that Travis Decker may have prepared a hiding place before going off grid.
“It sounds like at times he would go out and would be leaving off grid for sometimes up to two and a half months,” Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison told reporters at a June 4 news conference.
“So we understand that that’s a possibility, that he could have scoped out this area before put supplies out there and has the ability and the knowledge to survive for a long period of time.”
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