PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Travis Decker — the Wisconsin native accused of killing his three daughters in Washington before a months-long manhunt — is officially dead, according to a new court filing.
In court documents filed on Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service advised the District Court of the Eastern District of Washington that Decker is dead.
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Last week, Washington authorities confirmed that human remains found in a rural part of the state in August were believed to belong to Decker.
The Marshals Service made its determination based on DNA collected from the remains. However, according to Seattle outlet KIRO reports, local officials said the DNA was collected from the clothing found with the remains and not the remains themselves. This has prompted the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office to accuse U.S. Marshals of jumping the gun.
KIRO reports that DNA results from the bones are expected sometime on Wednesday.
The August discovery of the human remains at Rock Island Campground outside Leavenworth, Washington, marked the final chapter of a months-long manhunt that began on June 2, when the bodies of Decker’s three daughters were located, but he was nowhere to be found.
The bodies — belonging to 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker — showed signs of being zip-tied before being asphyxiated by plastic bags, according to previously filed court documents.
Decker, 32, had been with his daughters on a scheduled visit but failed to bring them back to his ex-wife, who a year ago said that his mental health issues had worsened and that he had become increasingly unstable.
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He was often living out of his truck, she said in a petition seeking to restrict him from having overnight visits with their daughters until he found housing.
Decker was an infantryman in the U.S. Army from March 2013 to July 2021 and deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2014. He had training in navigation, survival and other skills, authorities said, and once spent more than two months living in the backwoods off the grid.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
