Bloody handprints on truck link fugitive dad to murder of three daughters, police say

Police have made new progress in the manhunt for an army veteran wanted for the murders of his three children in Washington State.

Travis Decker is accused of murdering his three young daughters last month at a Washington campsite. Now, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office says a bloody handprint on a truck found near the children’s bodies matches the DNA profile they “believe” to be his.

“We know, positively, that all of the DNA samples recovered belong to the same, male, subject, who we believe is Mr. Decker,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “With this evidence, along with the other evidentiary items found at the scene, we do not have any reason to believe there are any other suspects.”

Travis Decker’s daughters — Paityn Decker, 9, Evelyn Decker, 8, and Olivia Decker, 5 — were found dead close to his pickup truck on June 2 near the Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, 120 miles east of Seattle.

Their father, a 32-year-old described by authorities as having “extensive tactical training,” has since vanished.

There is a $20,000 reward for information on Decker’s whereabouts. Investigators “do not have any evidence to suggest Mr. Decker is alive, or deceased,” but they will continue their search until Decker is “taken into custody, or recovered,” the sheriff’s office said.

Several agencies are searching for the 32-year-old. The National Park Service is planning to send out “swift water search and rescue teams…to conduct more searches of the bodies of water around the crime scene,” the sheriff’s office said. Officials are also using drones and tracking dogs.

Police say Decker is homeless, typically living in his car or motels. Leading up to his daughters’ deaths, he searched up how to relocate to Canada and find a job there, according to deputy U.S. marshal Keegan Stanley.

Decker served in the Army from 2013 to 2021. He was deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2014, and was an automatic rifleman with the 75th Ranger Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington from 2014 to 2016.

The mother of the three girls filed a petition last September to modify her parenting plan with Decker, citing his worsening mental health and unstable housing situation. She wanted to stop Decker from having overnight visits with their daughters until he found stable housing.