Mother Of Girls Allegedly Kidnapped, Killed By Father, Says The System Failed Them
Whitney Decker, the mother of three young girls that were found dead in Washington, is urging reforms to the Amber Alert system after state authorities declined to issue one when her daughters went missing.
Wenatchee Police in Chelan County, Washington, had requested an Amber Alert after she reported that her daughters hadn't returned from a scheduled visit with their father, Travis Decker, on May 30. Washington State Patrol, however, denied this request, telling HuffPost there wasn't sufficient evidence that an abduction was taking place, or that Travis would harm his daughters.
'They did not see him as an immediate physical danger to his children despite the fact that he had a well-established history of mental health issues and had they…seen it that way, those children might still be alive,' Whitney's attorney Arianna Cozart told local NBC affiliate KING 5 News. 'That's the thing that is so brutal, and the one thing that she's really hoping can be changed in this tragedy.'
Amber Alerts are designed specifically to respond to child abductions and allow law enforcement to send a text alert to cell phones in the area about a missing child. The Washington State Patrol eventually issued an Endangered Missing Persons Advisory on June 1, though that does not immediately include a text alert.
Cozart, who didn't immediately respond to HuffPost's request for comment, told KING 5 that an Amber Alert might have enabled people to keep a look out for Travis Decker and the white GMC truck he was driving when he was with his girls.
Whitney's daughters ― Paityn, 9; Evelyn, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5 ― were found dead on June 2 near their father's car, which was parked at a campground in western Washington. Police believe they died from asphyxiation after finding plastic bags over their heads and zip ties around their wrists. Travis Decker is still missing, however, and police are currently engaged in a manhunt as they continue to search for him. Officers have asked the public for information, though they caution against approaching Travis because he might be dangerous.
Cozart emphasized that Whitney and her daughters were failed numerous times by government systems including difficult-to-access veteran support services along with authorities' decision to pass on an Amber Alert.
She cited Travis Decker's past mental health struggles after he voluntarily left the U.S. Army, and the challenges he faced in obtaining help. Last fall, Whitney had requested changes to the couple's parenting plan, noting that Travis was unstable and had 'borderline personality disorder.' Cozart also told the court that he was homeless and living out of his car.
Under a revised parenting plan, Travis Decker was able to see his daughters every other weekend, though he was not able to have them overnight.
'She really feels the system let her children down,' Cozart told KING 5. 'It was the inadequacies in the services for our veterans that killed those children.'
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