Found Deceased WA - Olivia 5, Evelyn 8 & Paityn Decker 9, found dead, Wenatchee, 30 May 2025 *father, Travis Decker 32, found dead* #3

[Seattle1]

Chelan County Sheriff's Office press conference on Travis Decker's DNA result​

 

[Seattle1]

LIVE: Chelan County sheriff to give Decker case update​

YT includes a recap of the investigation leading up to the presser. Begins at 5 min mark

 

[Seattle1]

The Chelan County Sheriff is an elected position. I know several here, including myself, have appreciated the work, direct communication, and updates-- specifically by (gorgeous) Sheriff Michael Morrison. Not sure what's next for the Sheriff.

8/1/2025

Meet Michael Morrison, Chelan County Sheriff - Wenatchee Business Journal

 

[Lalalacasbah]

Great news for a final confirmation!

Now, will we get to know the approx date he died or how?

 

[Seattle1]

Dr. Stacy Cecchet, PhD, ABPP
Forensic & Operational Psychologist | Board Certified Psychologist | Criminal Behavioral Analysis

Cecchet is the profiler/psychologist Morrison referenced during the presser who was helpful in locating TD's remains-- right down to the elevation. Interesting that her focus is on child predators.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drstacycecchet/

Stacy Cecchet, PhD, ABPP - Fraternal Order of Police

Dr. Cecchet is the forensic and operational psychologist for both the Washington State Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and the Idaho ICAC Task Force. Dr. Cecchet’s specializations include: […]

fop.net

 

[Lalalacasbah]

Interesting....

"Authorities were ultimately led to Grindstone Mountain by Stacy Cecchet, a psychologist with expertise in operational psychology, criminal behavioral analysis, and human performance optimization, according to her website."

"Her insights and guidance led us to an important area to search, where we did eventually locate Mr. Decker," Morrison said.

Remains found near Rock Island Campground confirmed as Travis Decker

Remains discovered last week in the Icicle Creek drainage have been confirmed through DNA testing as those of Travis Decker, the man accused of killing his three young daughters, Chelan

www.wenatcheeworld.com

 

[Lalalacasbah]

Dr. Stacy Cecchet, PhD, ABPP
Forensic & Operational Psychologist | Board Certified Psychologist | Criminal Behavioral Analysis

Cecchet is the profiler/psychologist Morrison referenced during the presser who was helpful in locating TD's remains-- right down to the elevation. Interesting that her focus is on child predators.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drstacycecchet/

Stacy Cecchet, PhD, ABPP - Fraternal Order of Police

Dr. Cecchet is the forensic and operational psychologist for both the Washington State Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and the Idaho ICAC Task Force. Dr. Cecchet’s specializations include: […]

fop.net

I posted about that too lol, just after you not knowing you were too Quite a feat and fascinating!

 

[waitin'4thewrld2chg]

Dr. Stacy Cecchet, PhD, ABPP
Forensic & Operational Psychologist | Board Certified Psychologist | Criminal Behavioral Analysis

Cecchet is the profiler/psychologist Morrison referenced during the presser who was helpful in locating TD's remains-- right down to the elevation. Interesting that her focus is on child predators.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drstacycecchet/

Stacy Cecchet, PhD, ABPP - Fraternal Order of Police

Dr. Cecchet is the forensic and operational psychologist for both the Washington State Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and the Idaho ICAC Task Force. Dr. Cecchet’s specializations include: […]

fop.net

OK, here's my dream. I'm on a flight and Stacy Gutchett (the contracted operational psychologist through the Washington State Patrol) is my seatmate. She feels like talking. A lot.

To suggest Grindstone Mountain for remains and even come close to estimating the correct elevation where they might be found---I need to hear all about her thought processes. Wow.

Edit: spelling of first name

 

[Claire_Quintette]

Morrison said all indications are that Decker died in that location a while ago.

After the announcement of the discovery Thursday, the sheriff office said it had been in contact with the Decker family and is "providing them with support and updates as the investigation proceeds."

"We are praying that the remains found are confirmed to be Travis's. We continue to be grateful for law enforcement's efforts in this case and are forever appreciative of the entire world's love, compassion, and support for Whitney," said Arianna Cozart, the attorney for Whitney Decker, Decker's ex-wife and mother of the three girls killed.

Travis Decker search: Officials say remains believed to be dad accused of killing 3 girls

Travis Decker's daughters -- Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5 -- had left home for a "planned visitation" with him on May 30, officials said.

abcnews.go.com

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/25/us/travis-decker-dead-manhunt

 

[Charlot123]

A few new (to me) tidbits in a news story today:

"A dive team recovered a key fob from Icicle Creek, which was consistent with the key fob belonging to Decker's truck. Following this evidence discovery, a search team from U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service located clothing and skeletal remains believed to be of Travis Decker on Sep. 18 at around 2 p.m."

"A shirt, pair of shorts, bracelet and chewing tobacco recovered from the scene were consistent with belonging to Decker..."

"Several bones were collected and sent to the Washington State Crime Lab for DNA testing."

How WA authorities found Travis Decker's possible remains

After a dive team discovered a key fob belonging to Travis Decker's truck in Icicle Creek, his likely remains were found not long after.

www.fox13seattle.com

All of this was happening in the worst conditions, between two large fires in Chelan County that are not contained. The air quality in the area where the divers, the Border Patrol and the US Marchals were working is horrible. Just to understand how selfless they were. I hope they are feeling OK after having toiled so hard.

ETA. I surely hope it is Travis, and most likely it is him. The searchers were exceptionally lucky to have found the remains. Many areas around the search zone are level 2 or even level 3 of evacuation now. The worst case scenario would have been the remains burning in the fire or buried under the mudslide. Wishing the inhabitants of eastern WA strong rain and less wind, and sooner.

 

[airportwoman]

Thanks for the update of the confirmation.

 

[waitin'4thewrld2chg]

OK, here's my dream. I'm on a flight and Stacy Gutchett (the contracted operational psychologist through the Washington State Patrol) is my seatmate. She feels like talking. A lot.

To suggest Grindstone Mountain for remains and even come close to estimating the correct elevation where they might be found---I need to hear all about her thought processes. Wow.

Edit: spelling of first name

Too late to edit, and I see that I have the psychologist's last name completely wrong. I copied it from a Fox 13 transcript of today's press conference and now notice the transcript was a bonanza of creative spelling. Not only was Cecchet incorrectly listed as Gutchett, but it shows up later on in the text as Chuckett. Wenatchee appears one time as Wenashee and Chelan County shows up once as Chelin. Oops.

Assuming the content itself of the presser is accurate at the link, I notice that during the Q & A period Sheriff Morrison was asked by a reporter:

"Sheriff, were there any clues to try to figure out whether he had been on the run all this time or if he went straight to the rescue route?"

The sheriff's response: "Based off the information we have, it appears that the potential of him going directly up Grindstone Mountain shortly after the event or within that day would be pretty consistent.

Would the information the sheriff refers to simply mean that the distance to Grindstone Mountain from Rock Island Campground is doable within the timeframe mentioned and TD likely didn't double back? My curiosity is piqued by "Based off the information we have...".

Travis Decker 'case closed:' Here's what Chelan County sheriff said about DNA match

"We can finally bring a close to a dark chapter in Chelan County. To Whitney, we apologize it took us this long to get closure."

www.fox13seattle.com

 

[Lalalacasbah]

Too late to edit, and I see that I have the psychologist's last name completely wrong. I copied it from a Fox 13 transcript of today's press conference and now notice the transcript was a bonanza of creative spelling. Not only was Cecchet incorrectly listed as Gutchett, but it shows up later on in the text as Chuckett. Wenatchee appears one time as Wenashee and Chelan County shows up once as Chelin. Oops.

Assuming the content itself of the presser is accurate at the link, I notice that during the Q & A period Sheriff Morrison was asked by a reporter:

"Sheriff, were there any clues to try to figure out whether he had been on the run all this time or if he went straight to the rescue route?"
The sheriff's response: "Based off the information we have, it appears that the potential of him going directly up Grindstone Mountain shortly after the event or within that day would be pretty consistent.

Would the information the sheriff refers to simply mean that the distance to Grindstone Mountain from Rock Island Campground is doable within the timeframe mentioned and TD likely didn't double back? My curiosity is piqued by "Based off the information we have...". What is it consistent wi

Travis Decker 'case closed:' Here's what Chelan County sheriff said about DNA match

"We can finally bring a close to a dark chapter in Chelan County. To Whitney, we apologize it took us this long to get closure."

www.fox13seattle.com

Sorry when I reply lots of your post is missing(?)

Great catch! Thanks for sharing that.

So sounds like he wasn't alive maybe no more than a day after and he possibly spent that time focused on getting atop that mountain. Still curious why that was his focus (or seems to be if psychologist led them that direction).

I don't think he had a firearm. If he did, was he getting up high enough to shoot police if they zeroed in? Did he pick a mountain top for suicide? Did he want to just get high to have a bird's eye view to avoid LE?

Still lots of questions I guess. Might never know.

 

[waitin'4thewrld2chg]

Sorry when I reply lots of your post is missing(?)

Great catch! Thanks for sharing that.

So sounds like he wasn't alive maybe no more than a day after and he possibly spent that time focused on getting atop that mountain. Still curious why that was his focus (or seems to be if psychologist led them that direction).

I don't think he had a firearm. If he did, was he getting up high enough to shoot police if they zeroed in? Did he pick a mountain top for suicide? Did he want to just get high to have a bird's eye view to avoid LE?

Still lots of questions I guess. Might never know.

Yes, pretty much all we can do is speculate. If there was no accident or incident and he indeed took his own life, it would have been easier to have done so at the crime scene. Since he didn't do that, what was going on?

He could have started hiking with the intention to flee but soon grew despondent. He could have known all along that he was going to take his life but wanted his body to be in a spot where it would not be discovered for a long time, if ever. A desire to keep fear going---in other words, revenge---could have been behind his choice of a location, though I have never felt too sure of that motive.

I think the person who would have the best educated guess about the why would be the psychologist who had the best educated guess about the where. That is one reason why I'd wish to have her as a talkative seatmate on a plane. Maybe she'll write a book someday.

 

[girlhasnoname]

Confirmation it's TD...good news for everyone IMO. It looks like he never made it far from where he murdered his daughters.

<snipped>

Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison: "Based off the information we have, it appears that the potential of him going directly up Grindstone Mountain shortly after the event or within that day would be pretty consistent. But again, we'll look at the timeframe once we are back in the coroner's office and, hopefully we can get a clearer picture on what was the cause of death.

Travis Decker 'case closed:' Here's what Chelan County sheriff said about DNA match

 

[girlhasnoname]

I see that @waitin'4thewrld2chg already posted this. Lots of good info in the article.

 

[Nikynoo]

Yes, pretty much all we can do is speculate. If there was no accident or incident and he indeed took his own life, it would have been easier to have done so at the crime scene. Since he didn't do that, what was going on?

He could have started hiking with the intention to flee but soon grew despondent. He could have known all along that he was going to take his life but wanted his body to be in a spot where it would not be discovered for a long time, if ever. A desire to keep fear going---in other words, revenge---could have been behind his choice of a location, though I have never felt too sure of that motive.

I think the person who would have the best educated guess about the why would be the psychologist who had the best educated guess about the where. That is one reason why I'd wish to have her as a talkative seatmate on a plane. Maybe she'll write a book someday.

My best guess (why he chose a different location to die) is shame.

Another best guess is that the psychologist was over ruled by persons who thought they knew better (looking at you FBI).

 

[UsernameRequired]

All of this was happening in the worst conditions, between two large fires in Chelan County that are not contained. The air quality in the area where the divers, the Border Patrol and the US Marchals were working is horrible. Just to understand how selfless they were. I hope they are feeling OK after having toiled so hard.

ETA. I surely hope it is Travis, and most likely it is him. The searchers were exceptionally lucky to have found the remains. Many areas around the search zone are level 2 or even level 3 of evacuation now. The worst case scenario would have been the remains burning in the fire or buried under the mudslide. Wishing the inhabitants of eastern WA strong rain and less wind, and sooner.

Fortunately, the Labor Mountain and Sugarloaf fires are no where near the Icicle River and the area where they found his remains and are not on any alerts.

 

[nao]

Moo.. they all died on mountain and he is higher watching over his girls. Also up higher he could probably see people's coming his way. It was May, would still be chilly up there. He might of just waited it out and let the elements take him..moo

 

[UsernameRequired]

My best guess (why he chose a different location to die) is shame.

Another best guess is that the psychologist was over ruled by persons who thought they knew better (looking at you FBI).

I agree 100% on both theories.

My guess is after murdering the girls, he likely didn't know what to do next but instinctively needed to leave the scene. He knew driving his truck back into town he would likely be spotted very quickly (by police, license plate readers, etc). So he wandered down the Icicle Rd about 40 mins until he reached Chatter Creek trailhead and headed up that trail towards Grindstone mountain. This is the closest hiking trail up Grindstone from the crime scene. It is also far less traveled of the trails in the area compared to The Enchantments and other popular hiking trails nearby.

Chatter Creek

No matter how you tackle it, this hike is a workout. March through thick Ponderosa forests up to subalpine larch stands and a view from the pass, with options to continue on for a small alpine lake with backcountry campsites and access to other wilderness trails.

www.wta.org

He hiked that trail up until around the 4,000 ft elevation and he traversed off the trail into hiding. There are vantage points along there where you can view down to Icicle Rd and the campgrounds. It's possible he could have waited to see if authorities or someone came to the campground looking for them. But it was several days until it was discovered by the forest deputy McLeod. Sometime within a day or two of the murders I think he took his life. Searchers state they didn't find a firearm but there are many other ways he could have taken himself out.

I also think there were too many "cooks in the kitchen" during this search. And many not local who ended up being in charge of the search. This is also a problem with opening this up to the public for tips. You'll here on many cases like this where so many tips come in it can overwhelm the task force and bog down resources quick. Also, it can throw them off his trail which is what I believe happened. They kept following tips and possible sightings of Decker that lead them the complete wrong direction heading South. Instead they should have focused on within a mile or two radius of the crime scene. Decker wasn't prepared at all. Had nearly no supplies with him. And there was no evidence of him getting help or anyone coming forward that gave him a ride back into town. Those girls were his life and he had very little reason to keep going.