Found Deceased Olivia 5, Evelyn 8 & Paityn Decker 9, found dead, manhunt on for father, Travis Decker 32, wh 2017 GMC Sierra PU, Wenatchee, 30 May 2025 #2

[Boxer]

Since the hiking trails and campgrounds have reopened, using thermal imaging now is going to be basically useless since lots of other hikers are out there again.

If the IR hasn't worked so far maybe he has a $2 mylar survival blanket with him.

 

[Boxer]

2 oz mylar blanket
30 1 ib MREs

 

[Protectwomenandgirls]

it is, but one would imagine there would have been much planning beforehand and more importantly, food supplies and clothing/footwear. We do not know what, if anything TD had with him. From the reports from the manhunt, it would appear that the person spotted by the hiker/s was ill equipped?

It would be nice to know if he was living in his car with all his stuff or if he had storage?

Well, I'm not sure we have any confirmed LE sighting of TD as of yet.

The best I could find in this latest article:

"Search crews have been focusing on the Enchantments wilderness and surrounding areas, including Colchuck Lake and the Teanaway Valley, where Decker was potentially spotted by a helicopter. "

That to me means no confirmed eyes on TD yet.

Exactly, no confirmation. Probably just an ultralight thru hiker that spent too much time isolated in the wilderness. IMO

 

[Protectwomenandgirls]

Jeez my heart shatters any time I think about Whitney. While I truly believe she was blindsided here and NEVER, even with some red flags and concerns, thought he was capable of killing those kids, some of these quotes are shocking. The fact that there is absolutely no anger in them… is there any chance those are “coached”?? That she’s being told to seem extra empathetic towards him publicly so if by chance he sees that he’s more likely to turn himself in or give up as opposed to hurting more people (including himself)?

My thoughts almost exactly! That's a hard line to take

 

[Protectwomenandgirls]

If the IR hasn't worked so far maybe he has a $2 mylar survival blanket with him.

Does that prevent infrared from detection?

 

[girlhasnoname]

Just received this email update from the GoFund:

We invite our community to gather in love and remembrance at a public memorial honoring Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia Decker.

Friday, June 20 at 7:00pm
Rocky Reach Park
5000 State Highway 97 A
Wenatchee, Washington

This memorial offers our community a meaningful space to come together in shared grief, love, and support. Out of deep respect for Whitney and her family, we ask all attendees to be present with care and compassion as we cherish the lives and memories of Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia. This will be a time of unity, love, and reflection - honoring their lives together.

We ask that you wear purple, pink and green for the Decker girls. Please bring a chair or blanket to sit on, a candle and glow stick.

Please note:

Rocky Reach Park is a no-fly zone. Drones are not permitted.

All media must check in at the Rocky Reach Dam gate, present valid credentials, and will be directed to a designated media area.

Parking and Shuttle Information for Memorial Event

Due to limited on-site parking at Rocky Reach, guests are encouraged to carpool or use the Link Transit shuttle service.

Shuttles and parking will be available at:

Old Station - Pick up will be in front of the Confluence Technology Center. A continuous shuttle will start at 5:30 pm and throughout the duration of the event.

Lincoln Elementary - Bus Loading Zone off Methow St. Buses will load at 5:30 pm and depart at 6:00 pm. No continuous shuttle will be offered.

Shuttle boarding begins at 5:30 PM, and Rocky Reach will open at 5:00 PM.
Please refer to the map for parking lot locations.

Please bring your own chair or blanket to sit on, and your own candle and glow stick. We encourage you to bring water.

View attachment 594897

I was torn between loving this post and the sad emoji. This brings all of the speculation and guesswork of TD and his 'emotional/mental status' back into perspective for me.

These sweet girls are the victims here and I don't care how TD got to the point of thinking brutally murdering them was the answer. If he was so despondent and emotionally tortured, he should have started his reign of terror with himself. This was a cruel , intentional and selfish act x 3 and I cannot fathom what those girls endured.

A no win situation for WD and I'm sure she will live with the pain and grief for a lifetime. I hope she has a strong support group. She knew when they weren't returned home by 8 pm as scheduled something was wrong and reported it. An Amber Alert should have been issued immediately. It might not have saved these little angels, but it might have helped LE to learn of his whereabouts sooner.

Personally, I think TD may have un-alived himself and I'm fine with that. If so, I hope they locate him and at least put closure to that part of this tragedy.

jmo

 

[girlhasnoname]

Thank you. I was thinking this agan, that is sounded like another manifestation or Stockholm Syndrome. It’s heartbreaking, because many times family violence victims can learn to see through the trauma bonds that they have with abusers, they can do that if they have enough psychological support. This is why I wish that every county had a dedicated family violence program staffed with therapists and social workers and legal advocates. Some counties in the US have those programs and the services are grant funded and donations funded. But we need more resources. Also, family violence includes many types of abuse, coercion and stalking. The act of inciting fear by yelling, destruction of property, controlling finances or withholding financial support, disrupting a person’s sleep …so many things that are destabilizing to victims. All of those things are more are considered family violence.


And I also wonder if there was an open child protective service case. There need not be physical abuse for a case to be substantiated. And often those the child protective service agency can advocate with the court to put a pause on visitation with a parent who is not mentally stable. Those agencies get various pools of money that they can use to pay for a parent’s psychological eval and recommended treatment. Those things do typically go through juvenile court or family court and sometimes the judge who oversees divorce and custody matters is in a different court. And sometimes judges get upset when they feel like the family court is interfering. But these barriers and egos and all need to go away. Too many children are forced into unhealthy and unsupervised visitation. And this is one of many things that must change.

The child visitation had been restructured to no overnight visitations based on the incident where TD took the girls to a homeless shelter with him, and let them walk unsupervised to a convenience store.

He should not have had unsupervised visitation at this time, Big red flags IMO

 

[girlhasnoname]

No I mean . some people say he may have snapped. or even just consider what he did, someone posted earlier that can be a release.
Adrenaline can keep him on the run for a while but how long before you become emotionaly l exhausted let alone physically.

Probably a stupid question, cause there are so many factors.

I don't believe TD just snapped, I think he made a conscious choice sadly.

TD has been trained to be operational under high stress situations by the Army, but if he is still alive and evading capture after all these weeks, that tells me even more.

MOO

 

[wvmoonangel]

I don't believe TD just snapped, I think he made a conscious choice sadly.

TD has been trained to be operational under high stress situations by the Army, but if he is still alive and evading capture after all these weeks, that tells me even more.

MOO

I don't think he just snapped either. I think he had it all planned out right up to his survival gear, food and his escape. This feels like a classic "If I can't have them nobody will" mentality. This don't look nor feel like it was a spur of the moment thing because of a mental issue JMHO

 

[appleatcha]

I don't know if these statistics are true, so I'm not posting them as fact, but in my experience, social media algorithms feed women who are going through divorce posts that highlight statistics about mothers being more likely to lose custody if they or the child allege that the father is abusive. (Here's an abstract from the Department of Justice website that supports this.) In my opinion, if WD was aware of those statistics and potentially had social media algorithms reminding her of them and frightening her with them, she may have been motivated to minimize TD's potentially abusive behaviors out of fear that she would lose custody to him. I imagine she would have been terrified of being accused of alienation. Again, MOO.

It's also my opinion that this wouldn't have happened to her because surely no judge would award primary custody to someone who's homeless, but I could understand if it was something she feared.

 

[Boxer]

Does that prevent infrared from detection?

Yes.

 

[RedHaus]

Video at the link. From the video:

LE is taking a different approach and Border Patrol is taking the lead on field operations.

134K views · 2.3K reactions | Authorities said a different approach is being taken in the urgent manhunt for Travis Decker, the father being sought in connection with the deaths of... | By ABC News | Facebook

Authorities said a different approach is being taken in the urgent manhunt for Travis Decker, the father being sought in connection with the deaths of...

www.facebook.com

I wonder if BORTAC specifically, is taking the lead?.... They certainly are equiped to do so!

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Border%20Patrol%20Tactical%20Unit.pdf

 

[Boxer]

I don't believe TD just snapped, I think he made a conscious choice sadly.

TD has been trained to be operational under high stress situations by the Army, but if he is still alive and evading capture after all these weeks, that tells me even more.

MOO

All MOO

If he knew he was volatile which by the act of seeking help, he did know, he had a duty to stay away from his kids unless he knew he would be safe with them.
If he was using drugs aka "self-medicating" he was walking down the mental path of self pity that leads to being violent with others.

MOO There is no guilty person on death row who believes themselves really guilty, they were the victim, believing were driven to it.

 

[Boxer]

I wonder if BORTAC specifically, is taking the lead?.... They certainly are equiped to do so!

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Border%20Patrol%20Tactical%20Unit.pdf

I would rather real Rangers look for him. He is obviously gifted.

Which to me means he made all the Army Ranger requirements physically, but something else caused him to fail the course, stull failing the ranger course is common as its has a 60% drop rate.

 

[Gemmie]

If the IR hasn't worked so far maybe he has a $2 mylar survival blanket with him.

I'm thinking he doesn't have a mylar blanket, even though it would sure help if he's the guy seen out there wearing shorts. My reasoning is they are HIGHLY visible and can even be used in emergency situations to flag people to rescue you. Unless they come in camouflage... I don't think he'd be using one of the highly reflective ones. JMO

From an ad:

• Emergency Signaling: High-visibility reflective surface can be used as an emergency signaling device.

SOURCE

Most others look like this:

Reflective Emergency Blanket

Emergency blankets are a must have for emergency situations. They trap your natural body heat, helping to keep you warm when you need it most.

totalprepare.ca

Neither type would be good at hiding a fugitive IMO.

 

[LucyOso]

While I agree that there needs to be more mental health assistance available etc I believe those aspects are a little beside the point here. TD had medication but he stopped taking it. He refused the court mandated mental health evaluation. He stopped the counselling sessions he had. What was desperately needed here was more flexibility within the family court system to pivot and amend parenting agreements when there are (imo extremely obvious) red flags. No one who refused their evaluation and stopped taking their meds should have been allowed continued unsupervised visitation, and the courts should have acted when Whitney applied to amend the agreement due to these changes.

Respectfully snipped and BBM.

First and foremost, the wife reported he had BPD and stopped taking meds for this. There is no true confirmation he had BPD because symptoms do overlap with PTSD, Bipolar, and other diagnoses.
Two key points with this A) Medications do not treat BPD or any personality disorder (PD). PD are typically non-modifiable like eye color, height, body type. B) While medications can be used as a "supplement", stopping these would not really have a huge notable impact or cause more dysregulation of symptoms.

The counseling was seemingly not true clinical psychological counseling. This was a faith-based counseling situation. This was not a prescriptive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or a inpatient partial hospitalization program. This would be similar to talking with an AA sponsor or phoning a hotline for help. To quit this type of scenario should not be equated with stopping meaningful treatment. It is not like he was a diabetic stopping insulin. It is more like stopping a multivitamin. Sure, there is a benefit, but it's not life preserving.

Divorces and custody situations can be contentious. It is a civil matter. In the perfect world, everyone would behave with decorum, objectivity, and fairness. I am not saying that mom was not accurately reporting, but TD also had rights. You simply can't strip people of rights frivolously based upon what could be hearsay, retaliation, or drama. TD did indeed have the right to refuse an evaluation or have an attorney dispute this.

Ultimately, due to the horrific situation, for our minds to comprehend this tragedy, we string together past events that make sense of things. In hindsight we can point fingers and blame, but there is a process for these types of situations. We can't just do witch hunts these days for a reason.

Respectfully, I disagree with your post. Can you provide sources for the BBM?

I am on the same page as you.

 

[LucyOso]

I am old enough to remember the old days where a person could involuntarily be put into a mental facility without evaluation. Changed in 1975 with O'Connor vs Donaldson. A person must be a danger to themselves or to others, and this must be legally shown. Before the murders, TD did not fit these categories. He spent time alone. No one LEGALLY suspected he could be dangerous.

I agree 100%. He did indeed have rights. Legally he did not met criteria to lose rights or be compelled to treatment involuntarily.

I don't know if we'll ever know TD's full psychological profile/diagnosis. I still think he had some paranoia setting in where he was isolating and not trusting anyone around him but who knows...

Respectfully snipped. I agree. There are so many overlapping issues occurring and we are seemingly trying to forget that TD had every reason to NOT want to get a diagnosis or seek on record treatment for mental health. Doing so would end his career. Period. He would not be able to pass required medical screenings to continue active duty in any form. This would eliminate any chance of pension and benefits. He would entirely be without income. The military is a he part of his identity. This is a horrific prospect for any of us. Imagine not only losing your marriage, housing, custody, and then your job/identity? He would lose his ability to contribute to child-support. As a man, he'd slip into the stigma of deadbeat. Most of us would fight to preserve this. He had every right and reason to be terrified of this. It can take years to jump through VA loopholes to get disability or other benefits.

Agree, a bunch of stressors that built up over time that felt insurmountable. I dont know much about how one just snaps, or what it takes, everyone is different. It just doesnt sound like you can have both can you? planned and snap?
Can it just be that you've thought about it and prepared and eventually you reach your breaking point. Hard to imagine it, when it comes to your kids.

The sheer amount of stress in his life with his life changes in the previous couple years was tremendous. It did indeed seem insurmountable. And in many ways it was. He was trying to do the tasks, albeit somewhat poorly, to rectify the situation. And the resources simply weren't out there. VA is notoriously difficult to navigate and gain access to and with recent administrative changes, so many vital programs have simply been eliminated without additional pathways to access remaining programs. Literally, he did snap.


I recommend checking out the Life Change Index Scale (The Stress Test). Calculate the stressors he's had over the past year or two. In someone who wasn't dealing with possible PTSD or other mental health decompensation, the life change index in itself could push anyone over the edge.


Again, as I have said before, what occurred is horrific. But, I do believe there is a difference between someone like Bundy or Gacy and someone who has clearly been a decent and functional human in the past.


This is more about how WE, as a society, can do better.

 

[RedHaus]

I'm thinking he doesn't have a mylar blanket,.. My reasoning is they are HIGHLY visible and can even be used in emergency situations to flag people to rescue you. Unless they come in camouflage... I don't think he'd be using one of the highly reflective ones. JMO

RS&BBM

Well, indeed, mylar bivvys come in camo! Perhaps military standard issue to Rangers in training?

https://a.co/d/7KUkiH0

 

[LucyOso]

The Amber Alert thing is so darned tricky. We have heard it both ways.
Too many alerts, people start to ignore. Too few, something very critical gets missed (mostly in hindsight, but still!).
How to fine-tune it? I don't know.

I agree. We become desensitized and ignore information. I also think the potential of this being misused or abused is high. In this case, with hindsight, we do not even know if this would have helped. I can imagine AA being flooded with pettiness and disagreements in contentious civil situations that eventually cause society to fully ignore AA.

Yes, a mixed bag, and 90% of times, AA is a loud signal with the message about the car type. And, to be fair, this very situation is an extreme outlier as compared to most AAs. The most common first thought is, “the heck do I know how GMC Sierra even looks like? It is a pickup truck”. Perhaps in Eastern WA, the locals would have recognized the car, but there is another problem there: off the main roads, the chance to encounter the car would have been slim.

I just think that given how many AAs we get, this case merited one.

There is a huge possibility it would have been too late as well. This was not predictable. I mean yeah, in hindsight.

Advocates push for child safety reforms following Decker sister deaths

Travis Decker, 32, is charged in the deaths of his three daughters and remains on the run.

www.kgw.com

Child safety advocates and state lawmakers gathered near the front steps of Seattle City Hall on Friday to demand immediate reforms to Amber Alert protocols and family court practices. This comes following the deaths of three young girls allegedly killed by their father during a custody visit in Wenatchee.

*****

Community calls for change amid manhunt for triple murder suspect Travis Decker

As the search for triple murder suspect Travis Decker continues, the community is searching for answers and calling for change--particularly to how Amber Alerts are handled.

www.fox13seattle.com

Sadly, this type of thing could result in ending the program through lawsuits and legal stays. All it will take is a couple AA in situations unmerited that violate someones rights. Mom has anxiety and depression, so she is a danger, when in fact mom poses no threat any more than you or I. Dad has PTSD, so there is a potential he is a risk. A vengeful ex, fabrication, or retaliation.

Unless already established within legal terms, there are no scientific tools that accurately predict who could suddenly present a risk to harm. This won't go well.

 

[Nikynoo]

Respectfully snipped and BBM.

First and foremost, the wife reported he had BPD and stopped taking meds for this. There is no true confirmation he had BPD because symptoms do overlap with PTSD, Bipolar, and other diagnoses.
Two key points with this A) Medications do not treat BPD or any personality disorder (PD). PD are typically non-modifiable like eye color, height, body type. B) While medications can be used as a "supplement", stopping these would not really have a huge notable impact or cause more dysregulation of symptoms.

The counseling was seemingly not true clinical psychological counseling. This was a faith-based counseling situation. This was not a prescriptive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or a inpatient partial hospitalization program. This would be similar to talking with an AA sponsor or phoning a hotline for help. To quit this type of scenario should not be equated with stopping meaningful treatment. It is not like he was a diabetic stopping insulin. It is more like stopping a multivitamin. Sure, there is a benefit, but it's not life preserving.

Divorces and custody situations can be contentious. It is a civil matter. In the perfect world, everyone would behave with decorum, objectivity, and fairness. I am not saying that mom was not accurately reporting, but TD also had rights. You simply can't strip people of rights frivolously based upon what could be hearsay, retaliation, or drama. TD did indeed have the right to refuse an evaluation or have an attorney dispute this.

Ultimately, due to the horrific situation, for our minds to comprehend this tragedy, we string together past events that make sense of things. In hindsight we can point fingers and blame, but there is a process for these types of situations. We can't just do witch hunts these days for a reason.



I am on the same page as you.

Thank you so much for your very eloquent post. You put into words which I could not.