WENATCHEE, Wash. — It’s been one year since Travis Decker killed his three young daughters, then went on the run into the Cascade Mountains.
The nationwide search for Decker ended in Chelan County four months later. It’s now considered the largest manhunt in the county’s history.
SEE MORE: Remembering the Decker Girls
On May 30, 2025, police say the Wenatchee father picked up his three young daughters for a scheduled visit.
This visit was part of the parenting plan he and the girl’s mother, Whitney, agreed on. Decker was allowed to pick up the girls every Friday evening, but needed to return them to their home by 8 p.m.
By 8:30 p.m., Wenatchee Police Det. Sgt. Joe Eaton said something was wrong.
“Whitney came to our lobby to report that her kids hadn’t returned home yet,” Eaton said.
WPD Chief Edgar Reinfeld said they often get parenting plan disputes in that region, but most of them resolve themselves within a few hours.
What started as a possible miscommunication quickly turned into a case that hangs over the Wenatchee Valley.
Wenatchee Police were the first to find out Payton, Evelyn, and Olivia Decker were missing, and this case wasn’t routine.
WPD is exclusively walking KIRO 7 through the first 48 hours of the case for the first time.
“He would always bring the girls to their events and always participate and want to spectate at those events, and there were a couple on Saturday they didn’t show up to,” Eaton said.
Decker’s truck was last seen leaving Wenatchee, driving to Leavenworth around 6 p.m. on May 30, shortly after he picked up the girls. Two days later, it was found at the Rock Island Campground, with the sisters’ bodies abandoned nearby.
“That was when we realized the very bad outcome had occurred, and the hunt is on,” Reinfeld said.
Sheriff Mike Morrison said the hunt for the girl’s father spanned across Chelan County.
“You’re looking at a county that’s 2,900-plus square miles, and 87% is not accessible by road,” Morrison said.
FBI Supervisory Senior Agent Peter Orth said the search brought in every local, state, and federal agency to Washington.
“Essentially requesting a blank check for resources, and they said you have it, go. Whatever you need, ask for it, and you’ll get it,” Orth said.
Over the course of four months, teams from the Wenatchee Police Department worked alongside sheriff’s office teams from King, Chelan, Kittitas, Snohomish, and Spokane Counties. Also helping were the FBI, Homeland Security, Army National Guard, Washington State Police, and more.
Crews hiked shoulder to shoulder on grid searches, used helicopters and drones, and combed through hundreds of tips, still assuming Decker might be alive.
“There were no leads that weren’t pursued, including overseas,” Orth said.
The biggest issue was the treacherous terrain. Crews say the topography of the region complicated all search efforts.
“They can maybe do an acre of search in a few hours, Reinfeld said. “It’s rough and steep, and there’s a billion places to hide.”
Intense operations in June yielded little to no results. SWAT teams, the King County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, Homeland Security, and Chelan County combed Blewitt Pass from sunup to almost sundown after getting a legitimate tip that Decker, or someone who looks like him, was spotted in the Blewitt Pass area.
KIRO 7 was there as helicopters scanned the pass and teams in tactical gear searched every inch of the area. Electronic billboards even broadcast the effort, telling people not to pick up hitchhikers.
In August, a grid search by the FBI almost brought answers. The two-day search started back at the Rock Island Campground and fanned out for about 250 mapped square acres.
Orth tells us the search was methodical and thorough, as most situations like this one historically produce the suspect within a quarter mile of the scene.
Brooke: “How close did you get, if at all, to where his remains were actually found?”
Orth: “It was within about an acre, yeah, he was just outside of the search zone, up in an area that required more technical safety equipment for searches to access.”
That area was a rocky cliffside, only safely and quickly accessible by rappelling in by helicopter.
Finally, in September, they got a break in the case when Forensic and Operational Psychologist Dr. Stacy Cecchet helped narrow the search.
Dr. Cecchet was called in by Washington State Police to help with the mental health of the officers on site. Instead, she said she was better able to offer profiling services on Decker instead.
She looked at his declining mental health, military background, religious beliefs, and more, starting in the summer.
“My hypothesis is that while very, very misguided, he did believe he was protecting his daughters, and things like this are not always black and white; they are complicated,” Cecchet said.
She says Decker’s love for the girls was evident.
“I found many, many documents he had kept from his children, whether they were letters the girls had written him, photos they had drawn, games they had played together, so many things that told me he loved his girls so much,” Cecchet said.
By September, she had narrowed down where she believed Decker would have run to.
“One of the things I do for every crime scene is imagine I’m standing at the crime scene,” Cecchet said. “If I am that person that just committed that crime, I’m thinking like them, viewing the world like them, I know the things they know and the goals they have, how am I going to view my environment?”
All of this clicked the puzzle pieces into place.
“I hypothesized it was very likely he would want to be in line of sight of the girl’s location when he passed away,” she said.
Ultimately, Decker’s remains were found on Grindstone Mountain, a sheer cliffside, only .73 miles from where the girls were killed.
“I’m guessing there would’ve been a 24-48 hour window [after he killed the girls] that I believe he succumbed to hypothermia based off the conditions and clothing he was wearing,” Morrison said.
At the time of death, police say Decker was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
Morrison says the remains were scattered by animals, but DNA testing confirms the bones are a match. Morrison said they know for a fact the remains are Decker’s, and there is no chance the man is still alive or on the run.
After four intense months and thousands of acres searched, the case came to a close.
“It was relief and a surge of adrenaline,” Orth said. “It was at the same time a very happy and a very tragic moment bringing this to closure.”
They say the devastation will never leave the girl’s mother and their families, but they are grateful to have brought some closure in the end.