BREAKING NEWS Bodies of three missing sisters found as police swoop on campsite in search of their 'murderer' father Travis Decker
The three missing sisters who vanished after a three-hour visit with their father have been found dead in Washington after days of frantic searching by authorities.
Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight, and Olivia Decker, five, were found dead on Monday after police swarmed around Rock Island Campground, according to the Wenatchee Police Department.
Their father, Travis Decker - who they were last seen with and said to have been suffering mentally - is at large and police are looking for him.
The father-of-three has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.
A SWAT team was called to the campground around 5pm yesterday and the area was shutdown between 7pm and 9pm.
Decker, 32, a veteran, does not have permanent housing and is known for staying at hotels and campgrounds, police said.
His ex-wife, the girls' mother, is particularly worried because he has 'really struggled since he left the military.'
'His mental health can be hard sometimes,' she told KIRO 7.
The Wenatchee Police Department offered their 'sincere and deep heartfelt condolences,' to the family, Fox 13 Seattle reported.
Suspicions that something had happened to the girls began last night after the Washington State Patrol dropped the amber alert, but no more information was given at the time.
Authorities found Decker's truck around 3:45pm near Rock Island Campground off Icicle Road.
While searching the area, the girls' bodies were found, but Decker was nowhere to be seen.
Shortly after, a SWAT team was deployed to look for the father, who still remains missing.
Travis Decker is described as 5'8" and 190 pounds, with black hair worn in a ponytail and brown eyes.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
New York City Democratic mayoral primary debate: five key takeaways
In the first debate of the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, nine candidates took the stage and fielded questions on housing, affordability, crime, policing, public safety, political regrets and how each candidate would handle the Trump administration if elected. The candidates included former New York governor Andrew Cuomo; democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani; the New York City council speaker, Adrienne Adams; the current New York City comptroller, Brad Lander; former comptroller Scott Stringer; former Bronx assemblyman Michael Blake; state senators Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos; and former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson. The current mayor, Eric Adams, was not present on Wednesday as he is running for re-election as an independent candidate, although he ran as a Democrat in 2021. A few takeaways from the debate: Throughout the debate, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, the current frontrunner in the race, was grilled on his record by his Democratic rivals. Cuomo spent much of the night sparring with progressive state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who is polling second. Mamdani accused Cuomo of being beholden to wealthy donors and corporate interests, saying Cuomo prioritized the '1%, the billionaires and the profitable corporations', over 'working-class New Yorkers'. Cuomo dismissed the 33-year-old as inexperienced, calling Mamdani 'very good on Twitter and with videos' but saying he was someone who 'produces nothing'. 'He's been in government 27 minutes, he passed three bills, that's all he's done,' Cuomo said. 'He has no experience with Washington, no experience with New York City.' Trump came up several times, as the candidates agreed the next mayor must be ready to stand up to his administration if elected mayor, though they differed on who was best equipped to do so. 'I know how to deal with Donald Trump because I've dealt with him before,' Cuomo said, citing his experience as New York governor. Mamdani warned that 'President Trump will target whomever is the next mayor of this city' and said that is 'important that we have a mayor who will fight back and that is what I will do'. 'I am Donald Trump's worst nightmare as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in,' Mamdani added. 'And the difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in DC.' Cuomo fired back, saying that 'Donald Trump would go through Mr Mamdani like a hot knife through butter'. 'He would be Trump's delight,' Cuomo added. Mamdani countered: 'It's true that I don't have experience with corrupt Trump billionaires that are funding my campaign. I don't have experience with party politics and insider consultants. I do have experience, however, with winning $450m in debt relief for thousands of working-class taxi drivers and actually delivering for working-class people.' Adrienne Adams, the speaker of the New York city council, said she would take legal action against Trump when necessary. Asked how they would respond if the Trump administration ordered city-run hospitals to stop providing care to undocumented patients or risk losing millions in federal funding, all candidates voiced strong opposition to Trump's recent crackdown on immigration in general. 'You cannot give in to Mr Trump and his demands,' Cuomo said. 'If you give in to him, he is a bully, I know him well, if you give in to him today, you will be giving him your lunch money for the rest of your life.' 'You have to fight him and the way you fight him is not by suing him,' the former governor said. 'We need a national coalition, which we can put together of like-minded states and cities that will oppose these actions and then we're going to have to eventually beat him politically in Congress.' Whitney Tilson said that if Trump were to act 'illegally to try and blackmail us, you have to sue to restore that funding', adding that he was 'appalled by what Trump is doing to terrorize immigrant communities' and would 'fight him tooth and nail'. Mamdani said that New York City was 'under attack by an authoritarian Trump administration'. 'The way that we fight back is ensure that our local institutions continue to provide the services to each and every New Yorker,' he said. 'We will tell those institutions that we will provide that funding and we will get that funding by taxing the 1% and the wealthiest corporations.' Pressed about his administration's handling of nursing home deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic – a 2021 report by the New York attorney general found that his office undercounted thousands of deaths of state nursing home residents – Cuomo defended his record, claiming the numbers were not, in fact, undercounted. He also denied the sexual harassment allegations against him that led to his resignation. 'I said at the time that if I offended anyone it was unintentional but I apologize and I say that today,' he said. Asked about their biggest political regret, city council speaker Adrienne Adams took a swipe at the current mayor. 'My biggest regret is believing that Eric Adams would be a good mayor for all New Yorkers,' she said. The city's comptroller, Brad Lander, said that he regretted not pushing 'for more housing in his Brooklyn district when he was a city council member'. Mandani used the moment to target Cuomo once more, saying that 'as a Democrat, one of my regrets is having trusted the leaders within our own party, leaders like Andrew Cuomo'. Cuomo, on the other hand, said his biggest regret was 'the state of the Democratic party', which prompted backlash from other candidates on stage. 'No personal regrets?' asked Adrienne Adams. 'No regrets when it comes to cutting Medicaid or healthcare? No regrets when it comes to slow-walking PPE and vaccinations in the season of Covid to Black and brown communities? Really, no regrets?' Cuomo said her claims were 'not accurate', adding: 'Medicaid went up under me. I pushed President Trump to give us everything he had, leading the way during Covid.' The moderators asked the candidates how much they pay in rent or mortgage in New York City. Adams said she owned her home and that it was paid off; Mamdani said he pays $2,300 a month in rent for a rent-stabilized apartment in Astoria. Blake said he spends about $1,800 for a home that he owns, while Myrie said his rent-stabilized apartment was $1,300 a month and Ramos said her rent was $2,500 a month. Lander said his mortgage was $3,300 a month. Cuomo said that he pays $7,800 a month, while Tilson said that he owned his home and paid about $5,000 per month in maintenance fees and taxes. Stringer said he pays $6,400.
Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
President Trump lavishes compliments on top aide Susie Wiles
President Donald Trump lavished praise on his chief of staff Susie Wiles (Pictured right), saying the 'big shots' were 'scared' of the woman referred to as the 'ice maiden.' 'She's the first woman chief of staff in the history of our country,' Trump said of Wiles at an event on the South Lawn of the White House to honor all the political appointees in his administration. 'I watch those men and she watches over them, and if they get a little bit out of line, they may be big, big shots, defense, they may be in Congress. They may be the biggest but they're scared of her. They don't want her coming after them,' he said as the crowd roared its approval. He noted of Wiles that she's 'the most powerful woman in the world.' And then he joked of her power: 'One phone call and a country is wiped out.' The crowd of 3,000 staffers laughed and cheered. Wiles has become a stoic but constant figure in the second Trump administration, laying down the law early on to the likes of former 'First Buddy' Elon Musk. A veteran of GOP politics, Wiles saw her first victory on Trump's first day in office when he confirmed Musk would not have a desk in the West Wing. Musk was reportedly pushing for his own room just yards from the Oval Office but his DOGE team will instead be based in the Eisenhower building, which is across the road from the White House. The chief administrator of DOGE must also report to Wiles, a sign of her control over the White House. Experts have long believed Wiles, who ran Trump's 2016 and 2020 Florida campaigns successfully, has what it takes to handle the president. 'She has an abundance of charm and she'll need every bit of it to survive this job,' said Chris Whipple, author of a book on the 2024 Trump campaign, noting that there were four chiefs of staff in Trump's first term. Just two weeks before Trump took office, Wiles made it clear in an interview she was going to run a tight ship. 'I don't welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,' Wiles told Axios. 'My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.' Trump's first term in office was marked by infighting, backstabbing and leaks. Aides set up competing fiefdoms inside the West Wing and battled among each other to have the most influence on the president, a dynamic that played out in real time like a reality TV show. Nicknamed the 'Ice Maiden' by Trump himself, Wiles takes a no-nonsense approach to her job. She is the first woman to occupy the chief of staff's office. Wiles is a mother and grandmother who is a lifelong Republican who was all-in on the MAGA agenda when it hit the scene in the mid 2010s. She is the daughter of legendary former NFL player and commentator Pat Summerall. The White House chief of staff did press secretary work for years and worked as a campaign scheduler on President Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign. She was also chief of staff for the Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida from 1996-1999. She said early on that the staff are prepared to work long, hard hours in order to hit the ground running. 'The West Wing staff is a mix of new and veterans — many are young, all are prepared to work punishing hours,' she said. 'To my core, I believe in teamwork. Anyone who cannot be counted on to be collaborative, and focused on our shared goals, isn't working in the West Wing.' Wiles is credited with running an efficient, well-organized campaign in 2024. During the Cabinet nomination process, she imposed a social media ban on his Cabinet nominees, ordering them not to post without approval. 'While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,' Wiles wrote in a memo reported by the New York Post. 'Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel.' One of the top responsibilities of the chief of staff is managing the president's time and who has access to him. Trump chafed at such restrictions in his first term in office, when he went through four chiefs of staff in four years. Aides often slipped into the Oval Office to speak to him, knowing he was most likely to listen to the last person in the room. Additionally, Trump also spoke frequently to outside advisers, family members and other people who got access to him - often upending processes and decision making with his last minute changes. Wiles is highly respected in politics and is credited with running a disciplined, professional campaign operation that gave Trump an enormous victory in November. However, she has been willing to give Trump some hard truths after the 2020 election loss and advised him on how to turn it around in the next cycle. 'Coming to him after the 2020 election in [20]21 and telling him what he thought was the circumstance, wasn't, which is how I got into all this,' she revealed in a March interview. 'He said, 'well, can you fix it?'' Wiles recalled. But he's such a resilient person and he's seen so much, it's very hard to surprise him.' She appears to be referring to how she helped Trump turn around his loss in 2020 into a win in 2024. The White House chief of staff has said that ultimately, her job is to 'keep the trains on the tracks' of Trump 2.0.
Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Moment rapper threatens murder victim on YouTube - before knifing him in the neck in front of his horrified son
This is the horrifying moment a rapper threatened his murder victim on YouTube before brutally knifing him in front of his young son. Renai Belle, 30, boasted of his 'gangster lifestyle' before stabbing father-of-two Josh McKay, 33 to death in a barbers on July 6, 2024. Belle, who posted online under his nickname Topz had written a rap song the previous year threatening to attack Mr McKay. In his video posted to YouTube, he rapped: 'How many times I put my flicky in man's head?' and 'I pray every day that I buck JMK,' referring to Josh McKay. Police tried to save Mr McKay but were unsuccessful and Belle was convicted of murder. A year prior to the fatal stabbing, Belle posted a song on YoutTube where he directly threatened Mr McKay. In the song, Belle bragged about his gangster lifestyle and his intention to hurt the father-of-two. In the three-minute song, the rap included the lines: 'How many times I put my flicky in man's head?' which Louis Mably, KC, prosecuting told the Old Bailey is a reference to stabbing someone in the head with a flick knife. Belle crept into Hollywood Cuts in Leyton wearing a balaclava before stabbing Mr McKay (pictured) in the neck while he and his barber discussed holiday plans Another line stated: 'I pray every day that I buck JMK.' Mr Mably explained: 'This is a reference to meeting JMK, and the inference is this is Josh McKay,' the prosecutor said. The rap continued: 'That's a good day, not for him though, jakes (police) couldn't catch me...' A year later, Belle carried out his intention and attacked Mr McKay in a barber shop in East London. He crept into Hollywood Cuts in Leyton wearing a balaclava before stabbing Mr McKay in the neck while he and his barber discussed holiday plans. The violent attacker was helped by his teaching assistant girlfriend Tenika Parker, 39, and 22-year-old Daniel Cooper, the Old Bailey heard. Following the gruesome stabbing police descended on the barbershop and tried to save the father-of-two using a scarf to stem the bleeding from the wound but he was unresponsive. The officers began CPR and carried on trying to revive the man until paramedics arrived but there was no pulse. Barber Wray Esson, who was cutting Mr McKay's hair said the pair were 'talking about holiday plans, when all of a sudden he saw a man wearing a balaclava creeping through the door,' (Belle pictured walking to the barbershop in a balaclava) After the fatal stabbing, Mr McKay grabbed the blade and 'went for the attacker' chasing him out of the shop and CCTV caught the moment Belle fled the scene (pictured) Specialist medics including a doctor even performed an emergency operation on the side of the road, but nothing could be done to revive Mr McKay and he was pronounced dead at 3.53pm. Mr Mably said: 'The colour had drained from his face, his eyes were wide open, and he was not breathing.' The prosecutor told the court it appeared Belle 'had an existing, violent hostility towards Mr McKay.' There were no cameras inside the shop but CCTV footage outside showed Mr McKay and his son arriving in their car 30 minutes before the attack. 'Footage also showed that at that time, Mr Belle was also in the very same area. He was in a car, and then on foot, in the same area of Lea Bridge Road, at the same time, going right past the barber's,' the prosecutor said. The attack was carried out 25 minutes later. 'What happened in those 25 minutes? Because he didn't go straight in,' the prosecutor said. 'What happened is that straightaway, and very quickly, he saw the opportunity, and made preparations for the attack to make sure he could carry it out before Mr McKay had finished having his hair cut. 'What he did was to go off and get the knife, and the balaclava, before coming back and creeping into the shop.' Barber Wray Esson, who was cutting Mr McKay's hair said the pair were 'talking about holiday plans, when all of a sudden he saw a man wearing a balaclava creeping through the door,' said Mr Mably. 'He thought it was a joke at first, but then saw the man had a large kitchen knife in his hand. 'The man approached Mr McKay, and just as Mr McKay swivelled round on the chair to see what was going on, the man plunged the knife into his neck, and then pulled the knife out. 'Mr McKay stood up. The man went to stab him again but Mr McKay put his arms up to defend himself. 'There was a scuffle and the knife fell to the ground.' Mr McKay grabbed the blade and 'went for the attacker' chasing him out of the shop. Passer-by Debbie Osu saw a man wearing dark clothes with a hood up 'creeping towards the shop' carrying something close to his leg. Moments later Mr McKay came out holding the knife after disarming the attacker, the court heard. Ms Osu heard Mr McKay say: 'I can't believe he caught me.' The prosecutor said the witness saw Mr McKay's distraught son outside saying 'that's my dad.' Parker and Cooper helped Belle carry out the attack, it was said. 'Tanika Parker was obviously a close friend and associate of Mr Belle - it seems they were in fact in a relationship,' the prosecutor said. Parker drove Belle drove to Lea Bridge Road in her SsangYong Turismo, the court heard. The prosecutor said telephone records show Belle had been in touch with Cooper that day asking him 'to provide him with the knife and balaclava'. CCTV footage showed that Belle and Parker attended Cooper's address to collects balaclava and knife, the court heard. Parker was arrested on the night of 7 July while Belle was arrested the next day. He made no comment in police interviews. Parker gave a written statement, in which he said she was in a relationship with Belle, but denied knowing that he was going to carry out an attack. Parker was initially arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and Cooper was arrested after handing himself in to police She was stopped by police while driving the car that had been identified as involved in the murder and after a search of the vehicle, officers found distinct black sliders Belle was seen wearing in CCTV footage, as well as traces of blood that officers sent for forensic testing. Parker was rearrested on Wednesday, 2 October, and charged with perverting the course of justice after CCTV footage showed her attempting to clean her car after the attack to remove any evidence. Belle, of Edmonton, denied but was convicted of murder. Parker and Cooper, both of Walthamstow, denied murder and were cleared by the jury. Parker was cleared of murder by the jury along with Cooper. Cooper had admitted possessing a bladed article, while Parker denied but was convicted of that offence. Parker denied but was unanimously convicted of perverting the course of justice by cleaning her SsangYong Turismo SUV after the attack. Belle and Parker will return for sentence at the Old Bailey on 30 July. Cooper will be sentenced separately on Friday. Detective Inspector Chris Griffith, from Specialist Crime North, who led the investigation, said: 'This was a savage and pre-planned attack, committed in broad daylight and with scant regard for passers-by. What took place left the local community reeling, and two young children without their father. 'My heart goes out to Josh's family and friends. He was a loving parent, whose life was ended in the most horrendous way. 'I hope that today's result provides Josh's family with some closure, and allows the community to feel safer knowing that Belle is no longer free to commit such heinous crimes.'
