Latest news with #BinhNguyen
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Yahoo
Travis Decker's Neighbor Details Odd Encounter Before Kids' Murders
Originally appeared on E! Online seemed off the last day his daughters were seen alive. As authorities continue to search for the fugitive, who is wanted for the murders of his and ex-wife Whitney Decker's daughters Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5, his ex's neighbor Binh Nguyen—who has lived next door to the Decker family home for years—detailed his final interaction with Travis. 'He was skinny,' Binh recalled in an interview with People published June 26. 'He had long hair and a beard. I said, 'Is that you, Travis?'" Binh, who said he had a friendly relationship with Travis over the years admitted that the military veteran seemed distracted during their 10-minute exchange. 'It was kind of weird,' the neighbor continued. 'He had a sad face.' But like Travis' ex-wife, Binh shared that he never noticed any red flags in Travis' previous behavior, recalling how he often saw the 32-year-old pick his daughters up for camping trips in the three years since the Deckers' 2022 divorce. As he put it, when it came to Travis and his daughters, who were found asphyxiated in a Washington state campground June 2, 'They loved him a lot, and he loved them too.' More from E! Online 1,000-lb. Sisters' Tammy Slaton Engaged to Andrea Dalton 2 Months After Revealing Romance Influencer Tanner Martin Announces His Own Death at 30 Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom Break Up After 9 Years Together Travis was last seen by Whitney during their custody hand-off with their daughters May 31. At the time, he had told his ex that he would bring their three daughters back to her residence at 8 p.m. that night, but she became worried when he did not show and his phone began going to voicemail. After a two-day search, the Decker girls were ultimately found dead near Travis' abandoned pick-up truck. And while Travis left no trace of his own whereabouts, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said during a press conference earlier this month that they were 'closing in' on the suspect. Weeks after her daughters' deaths, Whitney shared her first public statement regarding her 'incredible' little girls at a June 20 memorial service, where she detailed her daughters' 'warm and open hearts." As she said in her statement, per NBC K5 Seattle, 'I truly hope that the legacy of the girls' lives lives in everyone's heart forever." For everything to know about the Decker case, keep reading… (E! and NBC K5 Seattle are both part of the NBC Universal family.) Who is Travis Decker?When Did Travis Decker and Whitney Decker's 3 Daughters Go Missing?What Happened to Travis Decker and Whitney Decker's 3 Daughters?Has Travis Decker Been Found?What Has Whitney Decker Said About the Deaths of Her Daughters?What Are the Next Steps In the Search For Travis Decker? For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Yahoo
Travis Decker's Neighbor Reveals 'Weird' Encounter Before His 3 Daughters Died
By all accounts, Travis Decker was an enthusiastic 'girl dad' to his trio of daughters, Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5, whom he shared with his ex-wife Whitney. The family's longtime next-door neighbor Binh Nguyen recalls Travis taking the girls on camping trips in the Cascade Mountains near their home in Wenatchee, Wash. And when the Deckers' marriage crumbled in 2022, Travis, 32, moved out of the house but still regularly stopped by with his dog to pick up the girls for visits. 'They loved him a lot, and he loved them too,' Nguyen tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, on newsstands Friday. Yet when Travis — a formerly clean-cut U.S. Army veteran who went on to work in construction — arrived for a pickup on Friday, May 30, Nguyen, who was watering his lawn at the time, was struck by how different his former neighbor looked. 'He was skinny. He had long hair and a beard. I said, 'Is that you, Travis?' ' Nguyen recalls. As the two men chatted for 10 minutes, Travis, while polite, seemed distracted, absentmindedly asking how he'd been three times. 'It was kind of weird,' says Nguyen. 'He had a sad face.' According to the Deckers' court-approved parenting plan, Travis was to have a three-hour visitation with his daughters that evening, beginning at 5 p.m. But when the scheduled drop-off time of 8 p.m. came and went, Whitney's initial concern turned into fear for her daughters' safety. Her calls to Travis went straight to voicemail even though her ex-husband had always been reachable, as she would later tell investigators. At 9:34 p.m. Whitney, 35, went to the Wenatchee Police Department to report Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia missing, setting off a frantic search for the girls, as well as their father, led by local police. Three days later, on June 2, investigators with the Chelan County Sheriff's Office found the girls' bodies — with plastic bags over their heads and at least one with zip ties around her wrists — near Travis's abandoned pickup truck at the remote Rock Island Campground. A medical examiner determined they had died of asphyxiation. Now Travis — a combat veteran trained in survival skills who federal authorities claim searched online for 'how to relocate to Canada' days before he disappeared — is the subject of a massive ongoing manhunt, wanted on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping. Born into a family that valued military service, Travis, whose father and brother were also soldiers, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2013. When he met Whitney the following year, he had recently completed an Army Rangers deployment in Afghanistan. The couple fell in love and married in 2015; they were stationed in Italy for three years and then in Georgia for three years before settling with their girls in Washington state, where both have family. Almost from the beginning of the marriage, Travis' mental health was a challenge, according to Whitney's attorney, Arianna Cozart. 'He seemed to suffer from PTSD as a result of combat,' she says. 'Whitney struggled to help Travis through severe paranoia, nightmares and insomnia.' Family life became more difficult for Travis after he left the Army and joined the Washington National Guard in 2021, Cozart says: 'His issues seemed to spiral once he was out of what Whitney calls the bumpers of the military that kept him in line. He tried to get help — he went to the VA, he called the Veterans Crisis Line.' But nothing seemed to change, Cozart adds. Two years after the Deckers legally separated, Whitney went to court to rewrite the couple's custody agreement. Travis, who by then was living in his RV and spending nights at shelters, would no longer have overnight stays with the girls. Instead, Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia spent days with their father every other weekend, and they seemed to enjoy it. Meanwhile, Travis was reportedly having trouble at work and was even considering rehoming his beloved husky. But until their daughters were found on June 2, Whitney never suspected him of causing harm. 'This man never laid a hand on those girls,' says Cozart. As the hunt for the fugitive entered its fourth week, Whitney — who says she regrets that authorities never issued an Amber Alert about her missing daughters — will advocate to improve the alert system and provide more mental health services for veterans. But first, as Cozart says, she must 'say goodbye to her babies.' At a memorial service in a Wenatchee park on June 20 — where mourners were asked to wear purple, pink and green — Whitney told the crowd that Evelyn would have 'oohed and aahed' over their colorful outfits, and Paityn would have sought out something to compliment about each attendee. 'I'm so thankful for the time that I had with the girls,' she said. 'They were incredible.' If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor. Read the original article on People
