Human remains found in a remote wooded area of Washington state have been confirmed to be those of a former soldier suspected of kidnapping and murdering his three daughters, authorities have said.
Travis 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. Post-mortems found they had been suffocated.
Human remains believed to be Decker’s were discovered on a steep, remote, wooded slope up Grindstone Mountain, less than a mile (1.6km) from the campsite, last week, according to the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Mike Morrison said DNA tests on clothing found at the scene, as well as from the remains, matched Decker. The coroner’s office is working to determine the cause and time of his death.
The identification of the remains as Decker ended a three-month search by officers, who wanted to honour the girls’ memory, the sheriff said.
Mr Morrison apologised to the daughters’ mother, Whitney Decker, for the search taking so long, telling her: “I hope you can rest easier at night knowing that Travis is accounted for.”
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The girls’ bodies were found three days after Decker had failed to return his daughters to their mother’s home in Wenatchee, about 100 miles east of Seattle, following a scheduled visit.
Mrs Decker told police the girls did not return as planned and that Decker’s phone went straight to voicemail.
Last September, she had warned authorities that Decker was experiencing mental health issues and had become increasingly unstable.
She described him as homeless and living in his truck, 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.
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.
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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.
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.
