Remains believed to be those of a former soldier suspected of kidnapping and murdering his three daughters have been found in a remote wooded area of Washington state, authorities have said.
“While positive identification has not yet been confirmed, preliminary findings suggest the remains belong to Travis Decker,” Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Thursday.
Decker, 32, had been wanted since 2 June when an officer found his truck and the bodies of his three daughters – nine-year-old Paityn Decker, eight-year-old Evelyn Decker and five-year-old Olivia Decker – at a campsite outside Leavenworth.
They had been bound with zip ties and had plastic bags placed over their heads. A preliminary examination found they died of asphyxiation.
Three days earlier, Decker had failed to return the girls to their mother’s home in Wenatchee, about 100 miles east of Seattle, following a scheduled visit.
The children attended Lincoln Elementary in Wenatchee school district.
Their mother told police the girls did not return as planned and that Decker’s phone went straight to voicemail.
Last September she had warned authorities Decker was experiencing mental health issues and that he had become increasingly unstable.
She described him as homeless and sought to have their parenting plan changed to restrict him from having overnight visits with their daughters until he found somewhere to live.
Officials said Decker joined the US army in 2013 and was deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2014.
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He moved to the Washington National Guard in 2021, going part-time in the past few years, but stopped attending drills about a year ago.
Authorities said he had training in navigation, survival and other skills, and once spent more than two months living in the backwoods off the grid.
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The search for Decker involved 100 personnel from state and federal agencies across hundreds of square miles, much of it mountainous and remote, by land, water and air.
The US Marshals Service offered a reward of up to $20,000 (£14,800) for information leading to his capture.
