Federal prosecutor says Travis Decker is dead but sheriff says DNA tests are pending

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to drop the arrest warrant for a former soldier wanted in the deaths of his three young daughters because the U.S. Marshals Service says the man is dead, but the sheriff’s office said their decision was premature because DNA test results are pending.

Authorities in Washington state found remains believed to belong to Travis Decker in a remote wooded area of central Washington last week, but investigators are still waiting for DNA results to confirm the man’s identity.

Still, in a court document filed Wednesday, U.S. Attorney S. Peter Serrano said the U.S. Marshals Service has advised prosecutors that Decker is dead.

The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office sent out a press release Wednesday afternoon saying they had just learned about Marshals Service’s filing, and said they’re not in a position to make a positive identification or confirmation of Mr. Decker’s status.

“We are currently awaiting DNA test results from the state Crime Lab, which are expected to be returned within the next few days,” the release says. “Once the DNA results are confirmed, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office will hold a press conference to share findings and address any questions from the media and public.”

Law enforcement teams had searched for more than three months for Decker after the bodies of his daughters — 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker — were found in June at a campground near Leavenworth.

The sheriff’s office said an autopsy determined they died from suffocation. They had been bound with zip ties and had plastic bags placed over their heads.

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.

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.