Latest news with #daughters
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Manhunt for 'killer dad' Travis Decker narrows in on remote mountain trail after tip off from hikers
The search for a father-of-three accused of killing his daughters has narrowed in on a remote mountain trail after hikers tipped off police. Travis Decker, 32, is accused of killing his daughters, Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight, and Olivia Decker, five, whose bodies were found at a campsite in Leavenworth, after he failed to return them to their mother in Wenatchee following a scheduled three-hour visit. A tip from hikers has given police new hope in honing in on finding Decker alive after witnesses reported spotting a lone person who appeared to be ill-prepared for the conditions. The Chelan County Sheriff's office said Tuesday that tracking teams responded immediately, and a helicopter crew spotted an off-trail hiker on their own near Colchuk Lake, in a popular Cascade Range backpacking area called The Enchantments. As authorities search for Decker, who is believed to be mentally unstable, they warned locals that he could be dangerous due to his military back. 'Residents and visitors are urged to secure homes and vehicles, remain vigilant, and report any suspicious activity to 911,' an alert said. 'A heightened law enforcement presence will persist as a precautionary measure.' Decker joined the Army in 2013, according to the Associated Press. He served in Afghanistan before transferring to the Washington National Guard in 2021, Karina Shagren, communications director for the the Washington Military Department, confirmed to the Daily Mail. He was a full-time member of the Guard until 2023 or 2024, when he switched to part-time. Decker stopped attending mandatory monthly drills a little over a year ago, and the Guard was in the process of a disciplinary discharge. He likely has advanced combat training and was an airborne paratrooper who earned the elite rank of 'Ranger,' indicating he would have excellent wilderness and survival skills, Fox 13 Seattle reported, citing social media posts. It is unknown if the veteran is currently armed, but local law enforcement cautioned people from approaching him. Authorities swarmed the Rock Island Campground on Monday evening after finding Decker's truck. Chelan County Sheriff's Office deputies found the girls' bodies about 75 to 100 yards from the truck. Police believe the girls died from asphyxiation and reported that their wrists were zip-tied, court documents said. Decker's truck also had two bloody handprints on the tailgate, and inside were personal items including blankets, food, car seats and a wallet on the center console. The campground also showed signs of recent activity, with a tent and a cooler located a short distance away, but Decker was nowhere to be found. The girls' mother, Whitney Decker, who is divorced from the veteran, told police that he had picked the girls up around 5pm but had not returned them by 8pm, and his phone went straight to voicemail, court documents said. Detectives said she 'expressed concern because Decker reportedly has never done this before and … is currently experiencing some mental health issues.'
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Health
- News.com.au
Jamie Foxx gets emotional in speech about near-death experience
Jamie Foxx has opened up about the stroke which nearly killed him in a speech at the BET Awards, expressing gratitude for his two daughters who were present during the health crisis.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Their toxic break-up was the talk of the sporting world - now Nathan Lyon's ex reveals the TRUTH about her relationship with the cricket star and the WAG who replaced her
There's never an easy way to learn your spouse is having an affair. But for Mel Waring, the way she discovered her partner and the father of her two daughters, Nathan Lyon, had another girlfriend on the other side of the country was particularly cruel.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
How ordinary men became unpaid Taliban enforcers in their own homes
To be a father of daughters in the Taliban's Afghanistan has become a daily nightmare for Amir. Now, he says, he is more prison guard than loving parent, an unwilling and unpaid enforcer of a system of gender apartheid that he despises yet feels compelled to inflict on his two teenage girls in order to protect them from the Taliban's rage and reprisals. Just a few years ago, Amir's daughters had a life and a future. They went to school, to see friends and moved around their community. Now, he says he would prefer it if his daughters never left the house. He, like many other fathers in Afghanistan, has heard stories about what can happen to young women who find themselves in the crosshairs of the Taliban's 'morality police'. In the rare instances when their begging and pleading to be allowed out in the world gets too much for him, he ensures they go accompanied by a male member of the family and are fully covered. 'I insist that they wear the hijab and I tell them they are not allowed to laugh outside the house or at the market,' he says. 'The 'morality police' are very strict, and if they don't comply, they might get detained.' Last summer, three years after they swept to power in August 2021, the scale of the Taliban's ambition to erase women from public life was laid bare in their unveiling of an extensive set of 'vice and virtue' laws. Under the new rules, women were told to cover themselves completely when outside the house; not to allow their voices to be heard talking loudly; to only appear in public with a male escort and never to look at a man who was not their direct relation. When the rules were announced, it was unclear how a relatively small number of 'morality police' employed by the Taliban would enforce and implement these rules. Yet, in the months since the rules were announced, it has been fathers, brothers and husbands who have become, in effect, unpaid foot soldiers imposing the Taliban's oppressive regime on Afghanistan's women and girls. They are driven not just by fear of what will happen to women if apprehended by Taliban enforcers. Under the Taliban's new rules, if a woman is deemed to be found in breach of its morality rules, it is her male relative, not her, who could be punished and face fines or even prison. The Guardian and Rukhshana Media spoke to more than a dozen men, as well as young women across Afghanistan, about how the Taliban's morality laws were changing their attitudes and behaviours towards the women in their families. 'Men have become unpaid soldiers of the Taliban,' says Jawid Hakimi, from Bamyan province. 'We are forced, for the sake of our honour, reputation and social standing, to enforce the Taliban's orders on the women in our families. Day by day, society is adjusting to the Taliban's rules, and their restrictions [on women] are gradually reshaping society according to their vision – and we feel compelled to align our families with their expectations. It is a suffocating atmosphere.' Parwiz, a young man from a province in the north-east of Afghanistan says when his sister was detained by the Taliban's 'morality police' for not wearing a hijab, he was terrified for her safety and determined that this would never happen again. 'I was forced to go to the police station, where I was insulted and told I had to do whatever the Taliban said,' he says. 'When I came home, I took out all my anger and frustration on my mother and sister.' Other men who spoke of how the fear of social shame if they were punished for 'immoral' behaviour was spilling over into repression and violence towards their female family members. Freshta, a young woman from Badakhshan province, says she is beaten by her husband if she leaves the house, even to get food at the market. 'I went to the corner of the street to buy vegetables and I had put on a long, black hijab but no burqa. When I returned, he hit me across the face and beat me. He said: 'Do you want us to break the rules? What if one of my work colleagues saw you?' For months now I have barely left the house. He says if I do leave I need to wear the burqa.' Rabia, 22, says he cannot risk the family facing the 'dishonour' of his elder sister Maryam going out and people thinking that she is dressed immodestly. 'Our pride doesn't allow it. We have shame, we have honour. We can't bear the thought that, God forbid, something might be said about her in the city or the market,' he says. Young women spoke of the pain of their families turning into enforcers of a morality code imposed on them by an extremist ideology that had already stripped them of their right to education, work and self-autonomy. 'My father's behaviour changed after the Taliban came. Before that, he didn't care much about our [his daughters'] clothing,' says 25-year-old Masha. 'Before, he never told us not to wear something or to avoid certain places, but as soon as the Taliban came he changed. He said: 'If you consider me your father and care about the dignity of your family you will wear the hijab. Don't wear makeup, not even a strand of your hair should be visible, don't wear high-heeled shoes, and you don't need to go out so often. Tell me or your brothers so we can get it for you from the market,'' she says. 'So now every time I have my period I have to go without sanitary products or medicine. I just stay inside.' Richard Bennett, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan says that, while he has documented 'acts of resistance' from Afghan men against the Taliban's institutionalised repression of women, 'within families, male family members are increasingly enforcing restrictions on their female relatives, and more women report needing permission to leave their homes. There are also increasing reports of female family members ensuring compliance.' 'The presence of de facto officials and suspected informers in communities, the threat of constant surveillance and the unpredictability of enforcement are further contributing to feelings of insecurity, heightening psychological stress and anxiety, especially among young women,' he says.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Chilling red flags everyone missed before 'killer' dad Travis Decker 'snapped and murdered his three daughters'
Bereaved mother Whitney Decker never imagined that her ex-husband Travis might be on the verge of carrying out a heinous act when he arrived to pick up their three young daughters for a scheduled three-hour visitation last Friday evening. To Whitney, it was a routine handoff. But those around Travis expressed to the grieving mother after her daughters did not return home that they had seen the warning signs.
