3 young sisters vanish during a planned visit with their homeless dad in Washington
A desperate search is underway in Washington for three young sisters who were last seen with their troubled and homeless father as part of a planned visitation, cops said.
Police are searching for Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and their younger sister, Olivia Decker, 5, who were last seen Friday shortly after 5:30 p.m. when they went to visit their father, Travis Decker, 32, the Wenatchee Police Department wrote on Facebook Saturday.
4 Police are searching for Paitlyn Decker, 9, who vanished with her younger sisters after an arranged visitation with their homeless father on May 30, 2025.
Wenatchee Police Department
The missing girls' mother, Whitney Decker, is pleading for the public's help to track them down.
'Last night at 8pm Travis was supposed to drop the girls back off with me and never showed,' she posted on Facebook. 'The cops have him going north out of Wenatchee at 5:41.
'If you could please all keep an eye out for him, his phone is off and every hotel in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee have been checked.'
Police said the visitation was agreed upon by both parents.
4 Evelyn Decker, 8, vanished with her two sisters on Friday.
Wenatchee Police Department
4 Olivia Decker, 5, has been missing with her two older sisters since May 30, 2025.
Wenatchee Police Department
'The visitation was part of a parenting plan, but he has since gone outside the parameters of it which is not normal and cause for the alarm,' according to a press release by the Wenatchee Police Department.
Travis is homeless, officials said, and has been living out of his vehicle, a white 2017 GMC Sierra, or at various motels or campgrounds in the area, officials said.
'They have not returned and contact cannot be made with the father,' police said.
4 Police are looking for Travis Decker, 32, who vanished May 30 during a planned visit with his missing young daughters.
Wenatchee Police Department
Authorities said the disappearance of the three sisters has 'not met AMBER Alert criteria,' but they have issued an Endangered Missing Person Alert through the Washington State Patrol.
Decker, who is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes, was last seen wearing a light shirt and dark shorts. His pickup truck has Washington plates with the number DC0165C, according to a wanted poster released by police.
Paityn Decker was last seen wearing a blue shirt, purple shorts and pink Nikes, while Olivia had been wearing a coral or pink shirt. Evelyn has blond hair and brown eyes, officials said.
Authorities implored anyone who recognizes Decker or his daughters to call 911.
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USA Today
30 minutes ago
- USA Today
Death of 3 girls in Travis Decker's custody is a familiar tragedy
Death of 3 girls in Travis Decker's custody is a familiar tragedy Show Caption Hide Caption Search underway for Washington man accused of killing his 3 young daughters A manhunt is underway for 32-year-old Travis Decker of Wenatchee, who is wanted in connection with the kidnapping and killing of his three young daughters in Washington state. Scripps News As authorities in Washington state search for a man accused of killing his three young daughters after taking them for a scheduled custody visitation, the tragedy rings all too familiar for the parents of murdered children and advocates who say courts allow this to happen. Travis Decker, 32, is wanted for the deaths of Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, who were found dead on June 2 after their mother reported them missing. Authorities in Wenatchee in central Washington said Decker took the children for a scheduled custody visit and failed to return them to their mother on time. The parents were divorced, and Decker was homeless and staying primarily in his truck. A search turned up Decker's white 2017 GMC Sierra truck near a campground, and the girls' bodies were found nearby, but Decker has not been found, police said as of June 4. Courts are troublingly reluctant to believe mothers who say fathers are a safety risk to their children in custody disputes, and all too often put children at risk to satisfy their bias toward paternal rights, said Joan Meier, director of the National Family Violence Law Center at the George Washington University Law School. The particulars of Decker's custody arrangements are unclear, but Meier said the outcome is a tragic reality: The failure of judges to protect children has led to too many deaths. "What is it going to take for not only society, but especially professionals who practice in family courts, to recognize that one more child being murdered is one too many, and that we need to do something to change how we're adjudicating these cases?" Meier said. Since 2008, there have been nearly 1,000 children killed by a parent when divorce, separation or a custody dispute are at issue, according to data tracked by the Center for Judicial Excellence. Of those, about 140 were deemed preventable cases due to court failures. In those cases, the center found that a protective parent attempted to restrict an abusive parent's access to the victims, or that there were risk factors that should have been detected by a trained judge or child advocate. Some of the deaths are also attributed to failures by law enforcement or child protective agencies. An all too common nightmare Media reports of children murdered by a parent involved in a divorce, separation or custody issue can be found all across the United States. According to the Center for Judicial Excellence, fathers are the perpetrators in these cases 70% of the time, while mothers kill their children 18% of the time. More: A child dies every 6 days amid custody fights, family court lapses. Advocates want change. In recent years, the deaths have included: A 10-month-old infant in Tucson, Arizona, who authorities said was killed by his father Jimmy Torre McElroy in October 2024, the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. The month before the child's death, McElroy had been given temporary custody, according to KOLD-TV. Ellie Lorenzo, 3 years old, whose body was found in July 2024 at a recycling facility in San Jose, California, after going with her father, Jared Lorenzo, for a scheduled custody visit. Jared Lorenzo was also found dead in an apparent suicide, police said. ABC7 San Francisco reported that the child's mother had made repeated requests that court-ordered visits with the father be supervised because she feared for her safety, but the court continued to grant him unsupervised access. Rashawd Hines' 2-year-old son Jayden in 2021 in Florida. Hines sought full custody of Jayden and said he feared for the boy's safety while with his mother, but the court did not immediately act. The mother's boyfriend, Alegray Damiah Jones, was charged with the boy's murder and aggravated child abuse. How advocates say courts play a role The deaths of children at the hands of their parents have occurred under many different circumstances, including during custody disputes and after courts have ordered the children spend time with a parent accused of being unsafe. The Center for Judicial Excellence said domestic violence experts believe the most dangerous time for a victim of abuse and their children is in the days immediately following separation from the alleged perpetrator. Meier's research revealed a disturbing pattern, she said: When a mother alleges abuse by the father against the children or says she fears for the children's safety, courts may often end up giving more custody to fathers. In a review of about 2,000 court decisions from January 2005 through December 2014, Meier found that courts believed less than half (41%) of mothers who claimed any kind of abuse by the father, with an even lower rate when the allegation involved abuse of the children. "There's a very strong bias... – it's embedded and unstated – against believing that a father's dangerous to a child and believing a mother who's saying it or child who's saying it," Meier said. The Center for Judicial Excellence said on its website that court transcripts show that judges and other court officials were warned about a parent's violent history before placing child victims into their care unsupervised. "There is a crisis in the family court system that is putting children in danger,' said Kathleen Russell, executive director of the Center for Judicial Excellence, said in 2023. 'When a child is murdered, the system failed. It's irrefutable evidence that something went wrong.' How to prevent the tragedy of child murders by unsafe parents Meier said a big red flag that a custody issue could end in tragedy include demonstrated behaviors of what's known as "coercive control," which many states consider a form of domestic abuse and is defined as "a pattern of threatening or intimidating behavior that interferes with the free will of another person," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Coercive controllers sometimes take their children's lives as a means of controlling or retaliating against the other parent, Meier said. Other potential signs include prior threats to kill or threats of suicide, along with firearm ownership, she said. Advocates are hoping to pass legislation known as Kayden's Law in many states, which would require courts to consider past evidence of abuse in custody cases along with other requirements they hope will curb deadly and violent outcomes. The law is named after 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, who was killed by her father during an unsupervised visit in 2018 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, before he also killed himself, the Bucks County Courier Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. The law passed in Pennsylvania last year despite opposition by groups including the ACLU of Pennsylvania which argued that while the measure had good intentions, it could end up harming mothers' contact with their children, especially within families of color, because it would require courts to consider any history of abuse, no matter how old, against any household member. An important step forward is the education of family judges on the realities of domestic abuse and child abuse, Meier said, adding that serious change is needed in the culture of the family court system in the United States. "How many kids need to be murdered?" Meier said. Contributing: Ken Alltucker and Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Travis Decker Was Last Seen with His 3 Daughters Before They Were Found Dead. Inside the Manhunt for the Missing Washington Dad
Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia Decker were reported missing on May 30, after a "planned visitation" with their dad, Travis Decker The young sisters were found dead on June 2 Travis, who is facing charges related to their death, has yet to be foundThe three young sisters who went missing during a visitation with their father, Travis Decker, have been tragically found dead. The Decker sisters — Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8 and Olivia, 5 — were found dead on June 2, after vanishing on May 30. Following the news of their deaths, a GoFundMe page was set up for their mother, Whitney Decker, by friend Amy Edwards, who described the tragedy as "heartbreaking." "We are heartbroken to share that the girls have since passed. Their light touched so many, and the pain of this loss is immeasurable," Edwards wrote, adding in an update that she will "miss seeing their sweet little faces." While their dad, Travis, has yet to be found, he is facing charges related to his daughters' deaths. According to ABC News, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison had a message for him during a June 3 press conference: "Travis, if you're listening, this is your opportunity to turn yourself in, do the right thing, do what you need to do and take accountability for your actions." "We're not going to rest, and we're going to make sure we find you," he continued. "You will be brought to justice, those young ladies deserve it." From what led to their tragic deaths to the charges against him, here's everything to know so far about Travis Decker's case after his three daughters were found dead. The Decker sisters were last seen on Friday, May 30, after leaving their Washington home for a "planned visitation" with their father, Travis. The next day, the Wenatchee Police Department released an endangered missing persons alert and said that the young girls were "believed to be missing and unable to return home on their own," explaining that they headed out with their dad around 5 p.m. the day before and hadn't been heard from or seen since then. The statement also noted that the investigation had "not met AMBER Alert criteria" at the time. Per The New York Times, they were reported missing by their mother, who is divorced from Travis. According to Wenatchee Police Department's statement, the "visitation was part of a parenting plan," noting that he had "gone outside the parameters of it which is not normal and cause for alarm." Per The New York Times, their mother reported them missing on May 30 around 9:45 p.m. Travis was supposed to drop them off back home by 8 p.m. that night, but that didn't happen. "It was late enough that she felt the need to call police because it was out of the ordinary," Capt. Brian Chance of the Wenatchee Police Department said, per the outlet. According to the affidavit, his ex-wife told the police she was concerned because Travis was "currently experiencing some mental health issues," per The New York Times. Per Wenatchee Police Department's statement, Travis is "homeless and living in his vehicle or at various hotels/motels or at campgrounds in the area." On Monday, June 2, Washington State Patrol announced that they had canceled the endangered missing persons alert. Though officials did not immediately say why the alert was canceled, they announced the next day that the three young girls had been found dead. In a press release, the Wenatchee Police Department shared that authorities located their father's car near the Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, Wash., and found Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia dead at 3:45 p.m. on June 2. Travis, however, was not located at the scene. Fox 13 Seattle reported that his vehicle was found "with two bloody handprints" nearby where the girls' deceased bodies were located. The outlet also reported that various personal items were found inside, including blankets, food, car seats and a wallet "on the center console." According to court documents obtained by Fox 13 Seattle, Travis' cell phone activity reportedly showed "he drove to and left the same campground a day prior to the kidnapping." The causes of death for the three sisters is likely to be "asphyxiation," according to a preliminary report seen by Fox 13 Seattle. Per Cleveland Clinic, asphyxiation happens when a person doesn't get enough oxygen in their body, more commonly known as suffocation. As of June 4, Travis has yet to be located. "It is unknown whether Decker is currently armed, but he may pose a significant risk, if approached," police said in their June 2 press release, adding that he has former military experience. Per The New York Times, Morrison said at a news conference that authorities had no leads on his location and believed "he could be anywhere within the nation." "We are searching anywhere and everywhere for him," Morrison explained. According to ABC News, police said during the press conference that there would be a $20,000 reward for any information leading to his arrest. After the girls' death was announced, police said in their release that Travis had been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of kidnapping, on top of the custodial interference charges he was already facing. Read the original article on People
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Three sisters who vanished while visiting homeless dad were found with bags over their heads, wrists zip-tied
The bodies of three young sisters allegedly killed by their dad in Washington state were found with plastic bags over their heads and wrists zip-tied, investigators said. The gruesome new details were laid bare in court papers as cops continued the manhunt for their homeless father, 32-year-old Travis Decker, on Wednesday, KOMO reported. 3 From left to right: Olivia Decker, Paityn Decker, and Evelyn Decker. Wenatchee Police Department Advertisement 3 The police have asked for the public's help in finding Travis Caleb Decker. Wenatchee Police Department via AP The bodies of the Decker sisters — Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5 — were discovered in an embankment near the Rock Island Campground in Wenatchee — roughly three hours east of Seattle — on Monday evening. A preliminary report found the girls were likely asphyxiated. In addition to the bags and zip-ties, the girls' bodies were found in clothes the same outfits they were wearing when they vanished Friday. 3 Travis Decker is on the run after his daughters were found dead. Whitney Decker Advertisement Their bodies were found close to their father's white 2017 GMC Sierra truck, which allegedly had two bloody handprints smeared on the back, the papers state.
