21 hours ago
Disturbing new details revealed in autopsy for three sisters 'killed by their on-the-run father Travis Decker'
Disturbing new details have emerged from the autopsies of three sisters allegedly to have been killed by their father.
Travis Decker, 32, remains on the run a week after the bodies of his daughters, nine-year-old Paityn, eight-year-old Evelyn and five-year-old Olivia were found near the Rock Island Campground in Washington.
The Chelan County Sheriff's Office revealed 'blood samples taken from the scene have come back positive for belonging to a male, and another was not human blood.'
Decker abandoned his dog when he went on the run.
'The suspect's dog was recovered and turned over to the humane society for safe care,' a spokesperson for the sheriff's office said.
'Further DNA and fingerprint analyses are still being conducted.'
Autopsies have now been conducted on each of the little girls to determine their cause of death.
'The cause of death was determined to be suffocation and the manner of death was determined to be homicide,' the spokesperson said.
Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia were reported missing on May 30 after Decker failed to return them home from a scheduled visitation.
Whitney Decker, the fugitive father's ex-wife and mom of their late daughters, never imagined he might have been on the verge of carrying out a heinous act after he arrived to pick up their girls for a scheduled three-hour visitation
According to Whitney's attorney Arianna Cozart, 'she had no reason to suspect anything was wrong.'
But a supervisor at his construction job told Whitney shortly after Travis vanished that he had seemed 'on the brink of something extreme' earlier that day while on the job.
Whitney said through her lawyer that she initially begged police to issue an Amber Alert for them but was told the case did not meet the requirements.
When the bodies of her daughters were found, their wrists had been bound with zip ties and each of them had been suffocated with a plastic bag.
After finding the girls, investigators 'obtained and served multiple search warrants for records contained in Decker's Google accounts,' leading them to discover that the 32-year-old appeared to be planning how to relocate to Canada, according to an affidavit reviewed by the Independent.
In the affidavit, Deputy U.S. Marshal Keegan Stanley wrote that Decker made several searches on May 26, including: 'how does a person move to Canada,' 'how to relocate to Canada' and 'jobs Canada.'
The father, who remains on the run, then visited the website 'Find a job - Stanley detailed.
His daughters' remains were also found 'relatively close to the Canadian border and approximately 11 miles from the Pacific Crest Trail, a well-established trail that leads directly to Canada,' per the affidavit.
Decker, who is wanted on three counts each of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping, also 'has training in navigation, woodland/mountainous terrain, long distance movements, survival and numerous other disciplines needed to be able to flee,' the affidavit continued.
'Prior to the above alleged crimes, Decker frequently recreated in outdoor, woodland and mountainous areas throughout the Eastern District of Washington and surrounding states,' it read.
'Amongst other outdoorsman activities, Decker frequently engaged in hiking, camping, survival skill practice, hunting and even lived off the grid in the backwoods for approximately 2.5 months on one occasion.'
On June 8, local authorities handed search efforts for Decker over to federal authorities to 'rest local resources.'
'We had reached a point where we need to rest our local resources,' the spokesperson said.
'Our command staff continues to be engaged with the search command while we give our teams time off to rest and recuperate and be ready to rejoin the search for, and capture of, the suspect.'
Decker is 5'8'' with black hair and brown eyes.
An updated wanted poster showed Decker wearing a tan shirt with the number 59 on the sleeve, dark shorts, flip flops with his hair tied back, carrying pizza boxes.
The poster also included close up photos of Decker's tattoos on his arms and ankle, and stated that Decker was 'last seen wearing tan or green t-shirt, dark shorts.'
He is considered very dangerous given his extensive military training and propensity for violence.
