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Travis Decker - Manhunt /// Part 1 /// 850
00:57:10
Travis Decker - Manhunt /// Part 1 /// 850 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com Washington state - 32 year old Travis Decker is believed to be on the run and may have made his way into Canada. The 32 year old former military father is accused of kidnapping and murdering his three young daughters. Decker had limited visitation rights to see his three daughters every other weekend. On Friday, May 30th he never returned them to their mother and home. Travis Decker is described as 5 foot 8 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. He has several tattoos and at the time he had a ponytail and facial hair. He may be armed and is considered to be extremely dangerous. Do not approach Travis Decker, call 911. Beer of the Week - Tower Station IPA by Mother Road Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5
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- [00:00]
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- [01:32]
Nick
Foreign. Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me is a man doing this show today because his car won't start. Here is the captain.
- [01:52]
The Captain
Somebody told me you have to put some gas in it. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
- [02:02]
Nick
This week we are drinking Tower Station India Pale Ale by the good folks over at Mother Road Brewing Company. This is from the great city of Flagstaff, Arizona. This is an unfiltered IPA with aromas of tangerine and pineapple. They used pilsner and pale malts and you get a nice grapefruit peel and pine finish ABV 7.3% garage grade, four and three quarter bottle caps out of five. Let's give some thanks and praise to our good friends who helped us fill up the old garage fridge for this week's shows. First up, a shout out to Patricia Fesperman from Asheville.
- [02:41]
The Captain
And a big we like your jib goes out to Denise and Celeste, Texas.
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Nick
Next up, Captain, we have a cheers to Caitlyn Wiltsey from Milford, New York. And last but certainly not least, we have a double fisted cheers that goes out to the Pacific coast to Rich and Marissa and Newberg, Oregon. Everybody we just mentioned, they went to true crime garage.com clicked on the pint class donated to this week's beer fund and for that we thank you.
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The Captain
Yeah, BWR you in? Beer run for everything. True crime. Check out true crime garage.com while you're there. Sign up on the mailing list and Colonel, that's enough of the beness.
- [03:20]
Nick
All right, everybody, gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Sam.
- [04:02]
News Reporter
It's now been more than two weeks since Travis Decker disappeared. The father's accused of kidnapping and killing his three young daughters. You see here on your screen. And as the search for him continues, we're hearing his voice for the first time.
- [04:16]
Nick
Your Honor, I think it's important that these girls get the opportunity to be with their dad.
- [04:23]
The Captain
I also think that it's important for.
- [04:25]
Nick
Them to understand a little bit about the world.
- [04:30]
News Reporter
That audio was recorded from a custody hearing in September of last year. Now, during that hearing, Decker was fighting to keep custody of the girls on weekends. He also claimed he never did anything unsafe with them. Now, yesterday, lawmakers, community members and advocates gathered in Seattle to hold a moment of silence for Peyton, Olivia and Evelyn and called for stronger child safety laws and changes in how Amber Alerts are issued. Kathy Sherlock says seven year old daughter Kaden was murdered by her father during a court ordered unsupervised parenting visit seven years ago. And despite her efforts, an Amber Alert was not issued. In her daughter's case, she's since created Kayden's Law, federal act to keep children safe from family violence. It's now in 10 states, but not here in Washington.
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Advertiser 2
Maybe if I was here to show up to the Olympia State capital, that maybe these little girls would be here. My heart is broken for the Decker family. I send my love to Whitney and everyone involved. The mom. I know what it's like to lose a child this way. I don't want any other mother to have to feel this suffering again.
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News Reporter
Their calls for change come as the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office is urging people headed into the woods this Father's Day weekend to be vigilant and alert to anything unusual, especially in and around the Tiana Way Valley and Bluett Pass. The Chelan County Sheriff's Office handed off the search for Decker to U.S. border Patrol and U.S. marshals. Investigators advise anybody who sees Decker to call 91 1. But if you have anything else to report, you can also call the number that you see on your screen right here. The United States Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading directly to Travis Decker's arrest. The public, meantime, is invited to honor Peyton, Evelyn and Olivia at a memorial planned next Friday. At Rocky Reach park in Wenatchee, organizers are encouraging everybody to wear pink, purple and green because those were the girls favorite colors.
- [06:53]
Nick
We are going out to Washington State to the city of Wenatchee, AKA the Apple Capital of the World. This is a little more than 35000 people but factor in the total population of the very nearby communities, all encompassing. We're talking well over 100,000 people. This is right on the Columbia river and right next door to the Cascade Mountains. Lots of orchards and some really great wineries in this area as well. We will start this week's true crime story kicking things off just a few weeks back. So let's go Back to Friday, May 30, 2025 at approximately 9:30pm we have 35 year old mother of three Whitney Decker who arrived at the Wenatchee Police Department. The woman appeared to be very distraught and she had clearly been crying for some time but had no visible signs of having been attacked or injured in any manner. Once in the lobby for the department building she requested a patrol officer so she may file a civil complaint. Give me the gist of your situation ma' am? The officer asked the sobbing woman. She told the officer that her ex husband, his name is Travis Caleb Decker, was expected to return their three children to her at 8pm that night but had not done so and she cannot reach him via cell phone and this was in violation of their agreed upon and court ordered parenting plan. All right, let's set the table here just a bit just so everyone will know what is going on. Whitney Decker and Travis Decker at one time were married. They had three beautiful little girls together and then they split and got a divorce. At the time that Whitney is filing this complaint, the two had been separated for several years. Along with that divorce they had a parenting plan in place. This is court ordered but sounds like the parents had some say so in this or at least some suggestions for the court on how that this may work out the best for all involved with the three kids of course being of and should be of the utmost concern for all parties. In September of last year 2024, a judge signed off and issued the current parenting plan under which these two mom and dad, Whitney and Travis were to operate. Under this judge issued plan, the mother Whitney has full custody of the three girls with dad Travis. He has a visitation that is allowed every other weekend with specific hours of visitation set for Fridays between the hours of 5am to 8pm, Saturdays from 11am to 7pm and then Sundays from 9am to 7pm I will say this is from an affidavit that was filed with the court. So I have to go. When. When you have a court document like this, you cannot say 100% that every word, every period, everything in this document is 100% factual. But you will get more facts in a court document than you will in any online article out there. So this is. I feel very strongly about the information that was, that I was able to review in this affidavit. I will say this though, Captain, before we march on any further, I have seen other documentation that seems just as legit that says that the visitation on Sundays was only allowable between the hours of 9:00am to 7:00pm now, note the cutoff time for all three of those days. There's no overnight stays for the girls that are set out by this plan that a judge issued in September of last year. So every other weekend for Travis's time with his daughters, and that does include a Friday option with the visitation times following during the time windows provided by the court. And this has to be local. This is not, you know, he has to keep the kids in the local area. Travis is not to take the kids outside of the Wenatchee Valley area. This court order also specifies that he has no overnight privileges. So on this Friday night, May 30th, the kids, and this is the three daughters, little girls that we are talking about, they were to be returned by 8pm that night, no later. Now, this has not happened. So this is why mom, mother Whitney is at the police department because the kids have not been returned and she cannot get in touch with her ex husband.
- [12:00]
The Captain
Yeah, one of the things that are difficult in custody cases is every state is different. So you don't know what process they went through. Did they have to get a guardian ad litem involved? But somebody has found him to be unfit to have his daughters stay with him overnight. That there has to be a reason. Now, Travis Decker is 32 years old at the time. He's a former U.S. army infantry man. He served from 2013 to 2021. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014. I think because of his. His service to this country, you can applaud somebody for that. But there was. There was concerns by his ex wife, Whitney. I know she had petition the court. Now, again, these custody battles, they could go on for years. And if you have a guardian ad litem, there could be multiple visitations and interviews. And, and it's a very long process, but the process continues until they're of 18 years of age where they can then make their own decisions. But she had some concerns because she thought he was mentally unstable with, you know, possibly borderline personality disorder or possibly PTSD from his service.
- [13:21]
Nick
The girls names and their ages are Peyton who is 9, Evelyn who's 8 and Olivia who is 5. Their father, Travis did not return them at the scheduled time that evening and therefore Whitney is now talking with the police trying to resolve the situation. Whitney stated that Travis picked up the three daughters from her home right around 5pm that night. When he didn't return with the daughters by 8pm she started calling his phone. She tried to reach him several times. She reported that when she called Travis's cell phone, the call, all these calls are going straight to voicemail, typically an indicator that the phone is either a shut off or or be without service at that time. But Whitney's concerns do not end there. She also reported that Travis has been experiencing some problems lately and this is to echo some of what the captain has already presented. Whitney is saying that Travis is having some mental health issues. She said he didn't have a stable residence and he is basically homeless at this time, but had been staying on and off at motels and campgrounds because of his lack of a place to live. She didn't have any real great idea about where to start looking for the girls. So if Travis does not answer his phone or for some reason cannot answer his phone, the only real viable options here is that Mama Whitney is driving around aimlessly looking for them and or getting the police and other people involved. All right, so this is not good. But as a parent, look, it's still early on and you're hoping that there is some kind of mix up or that some non threatening event has slowed them down from getting home. But then you have no. This is where. This is where my mind and heart would be racing. You have no, zero, no communication. Thus signaling that there is very likely something very, very wrong. Travis has not called me. I can't get a hold of him. I this. I know it's early on, but I understand her, her level of concern here. We should also mention here, Captain, that Whitney told the officer that this was not typical. Travis has never done this before. He has always returned the girls on time. So this is seems to be out of character or at least out of character per their arrangement thus far.
- [16:03]
The Captain
Do we have any idea of how long he's been without a home?
- [16:07]
Nick
That's a good question. And it's been reported several different ways going to some of the court documents and documents that have been filed by different law enforcement agencies. In this case, it appears that this was an ongoing situation. It wasn't. Wasn't very recent and may have been going on as long as the latter part of last year of 2024. Now, I don't have. I do want to be clear here to the listeners that I don't have a great idea of exactly when he was without a stable residence or consistent.
- [16:47]
The Captain
Residence that would be concerning. I mean, you were married to somebody. They spent time serving this country. He doesn't have a place to stay. I mean, even if you. There's a lot of people that get married and it doesn't work out, but they don't hate the person. They don't want to see them suffer. They don't want to see the individual without a home.
- [17:07]
Nick
Especially when you have children with this person. I mean, you may. It's easy to cut ties when you don't have ties. Right. And the. The ties that bind are these three children. Whether your heart has a space for this man or not. Yes, it appears that she does have concern for him, even without the children being involved. It does. He does have regular work, though. He has a job. I know that now. Is it seasonal? I can't say. I don't know exactly what he was doing for a living during the time that they've been split up, but the reports are all consistent that he was working. So let's go back to the police station here on that Friday night. We have Wenatchee police officer. This is Corporal Gonzalez. Corporal Gonzalez has the information, took the report from Whitney. Now this, this is your first thing, right? A woman comes in distraught, she's crying. You very quickly have to sort out, is this lady just some rando person in here? That's crazy. Reporting something that's not even real. Or, or do I need to jump into action right away? So the very first thing you can do is you call the cell phone number that she provides to you that she says belongs to Travis. So Corporal Gonzalez calls Travis's cell phone. As Whitney said, the phone goes straight to voicemail. The outgoing message on the phone, it is a message identifying the phone as Travis's. So very likely a message that says something of the nature of, you know, you've reached Travis, or you've reached Travis Decker's phone. Please leave a message or I'm not available at this time. The officer immediately can identify that the number that she says that belongs to her ex husband, Travis Decker. The outgoing message confirms that from an investigator standpoint, this is pretty Easy stuff, right? You now know that this missing person's report is very likely legitimate. So missing persons report times three or times four if you wish, if you want to include Travis in that. But the three you are concerned about due to the ages, most are the are the children. But due to their ages, most likely if you're going to find them, you're going to find them together. Most likely you're going to find them with their father unless something terrible has happened. So you're looking for Travis. That's your first move as an investigator. And what do we always want, Captain? We want that breadcrumb trail. When you don't have a crime scene, which we don't have one here, where are you going to find that first little piece of the breadcrumb trail? That first breadcrumb to start your trail to where you need to go. Simple digital footprint and or paper trail. We have identified his phone, so we've got perhaps the best lead on a digital footprint. Especially given the circumstances that Whitney has described with Travis's living situation. His phone is likely what he is using most, like most of us. But due to his situation, it's not a big leap to say this may be his only device that he was using at the time. Can't say for sure, but I feel confident saying this is his primary device. So digital identified, we will start to follow. Now let's see if we can get a paper trail going here. What do we know from her story? He picked the girls up on that Friday evening. What was he driving? Whitney told the officer that Travis drives a white pickup truck, but she was unsure of the make and model. Now a quick records check identify Travis's vehicle to be a white 2017 GMC Sierra. It's Washington plate D20165C. Now we know his truck and plate.
- [21:03]
The Captain
Information and again, we've said it a million times. It's easier to find a vehicle than it is to find a person.
- [21:08]
Nick
Easier to find a phone than to find a person as well. Using this, what's going to be our next method? Let's go to the flock cameras. We talked about flock cameras quite a bit in our Killing for Chaos episodes. That's the Nikita Cassap case out of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Nailed it. Teenager Nikita is accused of killing his parents in order to fund some bizarre half baked plan to overthrow the US government. Those episodes are 8:39 and 8:40 on your garage radio dial. You know, I love the technology, Captain. I love the technology that's helping us catch criminals on Helping us locate people and save people. So it's the eye in the sky time, Captain. Shout out to Alan Parsons. A quick aside here. Flocks are automatic license plate reader cameras. They are somewhat common, especially in more populated areas. Data, this is how we find people. This is how we catch criminals. The physical evidence data can become physical evidence, which is very important in all of these cases. So we're going to go to the flock cameras. Flock cameras capture images of vehicle license plates and other details such as make, model, and color. And. And in some of the more advanced, sophisticated types, they can detect noises and sounds. These images and data are stored and can be accessed by law enforcement to help investigate crimes, locate stolen vehicles, or wanted individuals. Flock safety provides this technology to various entities, including, but not limited to police departments. The law enforcement folks got hits in the Nikita Cassatt manhunt. And boom, goes the dynamite. We get a hit here as well on Travis Decker's truck.
- [22:57]
The Captain
Boom.
- [22:58]
Nick
Officer Gonzalez is checking all of the right boxes. So checks Travis's. Travis Decker's vehicle registration through flock safety and gets a hit. The vehicle slash plate last registered an automatic read on the Wenatchee bridge. So for locals, I've never been to the great state of Washington. I've wanted to go there for quite some time now. Going to make it out there one day, God willing. But for the locals, you will know that this is right at north Wenatchee Avenue and horse lake road. Okay, so this location and the timestamp gives us some information and possibly some clues. So this was from 5:41pm Friday evening. So this has got to be shortly after picking up the kids. The officers reviewing this believe that this is an indicator that Travis may be heading to a motel, hotel or campground or Holiday Inn in the north end. So WPD will start checking with hotels in the city as well as a place called confluence state park. They're checking to see if Travis and or his truck are registered or listed at any one of these. The short of it is, unfortunately, no. We get no hits on locating Travis as being at any of these establishments or at the confluence state park. We do have a situation, too, that after they take this report and after they're able to confirm the authenticity of some of the statements given by the mother, they did contact the Wenatchee police department. They did contact the missing persons unit. And while they agreed that there should be concern and that the girl should be considered missing and possibly endangered there, they decided not to issue an amber alert. And this is always a sticky situation because people get in A big uproar about, well, why wasn't there an Amber Alert issued? Especially when you can look in the rear view mirror, Objects are closer than they. Than they are. And you go with hindsight, the powers of hindsight. You say, well, why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do everything you possibly can do? Well, there are specific parameters for issuing an Amber Alert, and that does vary by jurisdiction we've gone through. I don't want to go through the list again. There's a. There's a pretty general list of. Of the parameters to. For issuing this report or this alert, I should say. But again, it does vary depending on the state and. Or jurisdiction within that state. Now, I get that people get in an uproar, but I've also been sitting with people and an Amber Alert goes off on their phones. You know that loud man, you get one of those things at three in the morning, you're popping up right out of bed. Right? You're popping up. What's going on? Every time I hear it at three in the morning, I assume there's some kind of tornado hitting the area. But I've. I've sat with people who could. Who could give a. They turn. They just disregard it right away. So I don't know if these are the same people that are up in arms that, that when Amber Alerts are not issued. If it were up to me, Captain, we would issue them more often. But that also takes away from the level of concern by the masses if, if you're getting hit with these things with a high frequency.
- [26:38]
The Captain
Yeah, but a couple things. When you have the wife and her story checks out, and I know there's a lot of. Because the police get called about a lot of custody issues, and there could be a situation where the ex husband is supposed to have the kids all weekend, but they made other arrangements. Somehow the ex gets mad at the. The other ex. So he doesn't return the kids, but he legally doesn't have to because he's supposed to have them all weekend. But that's not the case. The case is this guy does not have privileges to have his daughters overnight. He is not known to not return the kids on time. So he's known to be somewhat responsible, but also ptsd, also maybe some other mental instabilities. So these kids then could be in danger just in general.
- [27:34]
Nick
Yeah.
- [27:36]
The Captain
Or they could be in danger from their own father because he possibly has these mental issues.
- [27:43]
Nick
And I won't circle around this for too long because I don't have a Great opinion on this matter. You know, we've. Again, it goes back to what is the criteria? So in some of the cases we've reviewed where you and I thought that an Amber Alert should have gone out, they. They didn't send one out because in some jurisdictions you need like, suspect information, right? You need. Right description, you need a vehicle information. If it's some kid that was pulled off the street, snatched off the street, they want vehicle information. In other jurisdictions, you don't need the suspect description or vehicle description. Here, obviously, if you want to say that the. The ex husband should be a suspect, at least it's. It's very easy to say that he is the one responsible for returning them and has not done so. You clearly have his information. So that's not the hiccup here. Apparently here the hiccup was that when they reviewed this with the Missing Persons Unit. So, and this is a different outfit, too, the Missing Persons Unit that they contacted the Wenatchee Police Department, they contacted the state Police because I'm guessing that in Washington, it's the state police that would issue the Amber Alert. And in many states, it is the state that. The state police that do this. So the state Police, from my understanding, not trying to throw anybody or any particular outfit under the bus, from my understanding, it was the state Police that said, well, we don't. We don't want to issue one because we don't have obvious and clear evidence that suggests that they are in danger. But it's weird because at the same time, you have the information coming out that they are. They're immediately listed as missing with possible endangerment. And I don't know. There's. There's no great way to. I love that we have the Amber Alert system, and I would never go back from not having it. But it, like many other things we do, is still flawed and there's still room for improvement. And I, and I hope that, that each state will review this and continue to improve on the Amber Alert. Now, we do need to point out here that by Saturday morning, Travis has still not returned the three girls home to their mother. There has been zero communication from him. No one can reach him. No one can locate him or the children. We have no additional hits on his truck at that time. One of the kids had an event scheduled for that morning. She was not back in time for this event. The situation is getting more dire with every passing hour.
- [30:46]
The Captain
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- [34:05]
Nick
Yeah, cheers to you, Captain. Thanks to all of you listeners that tune in each and every week joining us here in the garage. It is straight up our pleasure to have you here with us each and every week. Now our timeline, where we left off before the beer break was up to about Saturday afternoon. Now I do want to circle back to this court order. Okay, we have a court order here, Captain, and this is how it is going to go. All right, Travis failed to return the girls by the Friday, May 30, 8pm cutoff. Then moving our timeline forward, he failed to return the girls by this by Saturday, May 31, 7pm deadline, and then again for a third time Sunday, June 1. And now this report states that the cutoff for that would be 5:00pm the mandatory return time was 5:00pm on Sundays. This brings us to Monday, June 2nd here, Captain. At 9:00am, Travis Decker did not show up for his job, did not show up to work. Police are now speaking with Travis's boss. The boss noted some mental health concerns. Not specific, but kind of backing up what mother Whitney was telling the police. And then we have all weekend long, the phone is going straight to voicemail. And then this is true for Monday morning as well. And thus we get a probable cause arrest warrant requested and granted by Judge Robert Jordan for the arrest of Travis Decker for three counts of custodial interference in the first degree.
- [35:51]
The Captain
But like I was saying, these custody issues, they, they get difficult because not everybody that is involved in a custody battle or custody issue are they always honest with the court system. So you have somebody in Whitney's situation saying, hey, look, for the most part he's responsible, but I can't trust him to have the girls overnight. Or I think there's some mental issues that I think he needs to address. And then maybe the custody situation can change or the custody schedule can change. But these courts hear so many lies that you have to go through every claim. And there has to be a checks and balance system. And that doesn't serve the people that are trying to be honest with the court system well.
- [36:42]
Nick
And I do want to point out here too as well, Captain, that this situation, the way that I understand it between Travis Decker and his ex wife, Whitney Decker, this is not a Betty Broderick, Daniel Broderick type split up custody battle situation where you have mom or dad calling the police once a week with allegations and trying to get the kids and all that. It wasn't this super volatile, highly, you know, incredibly messy situation. It was, it seemed to be, it seemed to be going along pretty swimmingly up until this point. Now again, there are concerns with Travis from several parties, but it seems to be the, the. The court issued parenting plan seemed to be working out right now later that day. So we're at Monday morning here, but later that day we get some very, some very sad news. This is just before 4pm on Monday, June 2, in Chelain County. We have a deputy finds, locates Travis Decker's truck. So finds the truck unoccupied in the area of Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth, Washington. This is off of Icicle road. This is approximately 50 minutes, 5, 0 minutes drive from where the girls live. Now I want to be very clear. That's very approximate. This is, this area is quite complicated to look at and to convey from a storyteller's perspective. Now I want to go to the affidavit for this next bit of information directly from the affidavit because there's a lot of reports out there. And this is, this is a story that is catching a lot of eyeballs, a lot of earballs all around the nation. And when there's a rush to report, you got to be concerned about the reporting. I've seen a lot of great reporting on, on this case, but there's also some stuff that you have to sift through because there is speculation, especially with the early reports coming out. Not criticizing because when you come to the garage you get a heavy dose of speculation.
- [39:00]
The Captain
Yeah, look, it's, it's a, it's a simple problem that we have. People trying to be first as opposed to trying to be right.
- [39:08]
Nick
Yeah, let's be right, not first. Captain and I are striving to improve every day ourselves. All right, here we go.
- [39:15]
The Captain
We're trying to be right and last.
- [39:17]
Nick
Right and last and buried in the garage. Okay, this is directly from the affidavit. So this is directly from law enforcement. Law enforcement personnel from the Chilean County Sheriff's Office and Wenatchee Police Department along helicopter, along with helicopter support from Homeland Security investigations converged into the area. The area that we just mentioned, that Rock Island Campground off of Icicle Road. Think of what the first part of this affidavit says. The sheriff's office, the police department. Now the sheriff's office makes sense because they're going to have better resources than the Wenatchee Police Department. But the Wenatchee Police Department is the one that took the, the initial report from the mother. But we also get helicopter support from Homeland Security Investigations. So they're not taking this lightly. And there's lots of persons and a lot of resources being pulled in very quickly to try to locate these three girls. The report states that approximately 75 to 100 yards beyond where the vehicle where Travis was Decker's truck was located, this is down a small embankment. The sheriff's office deputies located the bodies of three school aged children. And the affidavit goes on to state. Due to the current, current safety concerns and the scene preservation, the bodies have yet to be approached. But there are some clear signs of lividity. Each have plastic bags over their head or a plastic bag over the head. Based on the totality of the circumstances, including the proximity to the vehicle and visible attire of the bodies, which is consistent with the clothing the children were wearing when they were transferred from Whitney to Travis for visitation. Look, from what they're saying is from afar, we're not approaching the, the, these victims because they, they're obviously have passed by this time.
- [41:25]
The Captain
Right.
- [41:25]
Nick
And, and we're limiting the. They probably sent personnel. My guess would be one person in there to confirm this because in case they could be helped or could be saved, you got to send somebody in there, but you're sending limited personnel in there. Whether it be one, two or three persons. I wouldn't send any more than three because you don't want to contaminate this area. And we've already talked about on many cases, especially Delphi, Amy Mihaljevic, in several other cases, the complications with an outdoor crime scene. This is now an outdoor crime scene. This is a public area. This is nature. Mother Nature is always in control. We're just the weak little small people that live by under her rule.
- [42:07]
The Captain
Well, law enforcement, don't you think you have to be concerned? Like you said, we, we found his truck, but then a distance away from the truck we see this tent. From our vantage point, we can see some items or some clothing that's connected to a child and that's the same clothing that was described to law enforcement. But one, you have to be worried, like you said, about contaminating the scene. It's a, it's a indoor, it's an outdoor case. But in some ways this is good for law enforcement because all the stuff should be contained with inside that tent. But I would think that you'd have to have some concern as law enforcement of this guy served in the military for quite a long time. Where is he at? We don't see him in the truck. We, from our vantage point, we don't see him in the tent. But we don't know if he's perched somewhere and waiting for people to show up and we don't know what this guy's capable of.
- [43:04]
Nick
You nailed it. That, that's got to be a concern. And, and just you say perched. That's spot on. Because from that vantage point, he would have an advantage over any of the officers if he were elevated above them and given the description of where the bodies were found. It, it's down a hill or down into this ravine area.
- [43:28]
The Captain
And you have to applaud law enforce, any of the law enforcement officers that were willing to take that chance to see if any of these victims possibly were not dead yet and that maybe that they could help. You have to applaud them for taking that risk.
- [43:45]
Nick
Yeah. And the, the concern here too is, is obvious, right. They, they know based off of everything that they're seeing, that the three kids they were looking for, unfortunately they believe they found them. They found them in a, in a way that, that nobody wanted to find them. But per. For the purpose of this document, this document is being filed and requested to be granted at 9am the following morning. So this is less than 24 hours after the discovery of the truck and these three bodies. So you have to be factual when you are asking for a judge to sign off on something. And they're just simply giving them the facts as they understand them at the time of this filing. So they're going to do their due diligence later to confirm which would probably be taking place that night and early in the morning on June 3rd to confirm that the three victims are who they think they are. And unfortunately they. It turns out to be just that. Now what is the purpose of this filing? Well, they're. They're filing another arrest warrant. They're seeking another arrest warrant for Travis Decker upon finding the truck and the bodies, because they're, they're now seeking a murder, a triple homicide arrest warrant as opposed to the child custody interference warrant that they already had from Monday morning.
- [45:23]
The Captain
It's so, it's so sad to think Travis Decker serves this country, goes to war. Anybody that wants to protect my freedoms is a hero. Something happened. Something snaps. Something's not right mentally or. I keep telling people, the more we do the show, the more I realize there's just evil in this world and there's good. And sometimes it doesn't seem like the good is winning out. You have three daughters. Nine. Nine years old, eight years old and five years old. And we find them zip tied and suffocated with bags on their head. This is. You can't imagine what the hell is going on in this guy's head.
- [46:15]
Nick
Yeah, there's nothing about this story that is good at all. And it's. And it's one of those, man, that's the tightrope that I was walking all week long looking into this, because, like you said, somebody that protects our freedom, somebody that serves the country, somebody that goes overseas and. And does something that none of us really, truly want to have to do. Defend our lives, defend our countries, defend our families, but would do when called upon. But it's also one of those things, man. It's hero status is earned, but it can be taken away. Yeah, you can lose hero status. And I will say that the one thing that I found to be compelling and to be insightful was the sheriff of Chelan county who says this is Sheriff, I believe his name is Michael Morrison. And he said that we went through the definition of a soldier multiple times in our coverage. Hate American made. When we got to Timothy McVeigh. And one of the parts of being a U.S. soldier, an American soldier in any branch of our military, is to serve with honor. And the sheriff points out, Sheriff Mike Morrison points out that nothing that this man is accused of is honorable in any form or fashion. And so he has a hard time referring to him as a soldier because he thinks he, as he stated, it completely takes away from what all of those other soldiers have done for our country and for each and every one of us.
- [47:59]
The Captain
And I can't even begin to imagine what Whitney is feeling through all this. I mean, purely, this is simply innocence, innocent lives that didn't need to be lost.
- [48:15]
Nick
We talk regularly. We regularly cover senseless murders and senseless killings. This goes beyond the definition of that. This is incomprehensible. So continuing on in the affidavit here, Captain, it says Deckers. Travis Decker's location is currently unknown. And there is currently a coordinated effort to search the immediate area, if not further, for him. So the scene we have can be searched around the vehicle along the way to where the children were located. Officers, deputies located zip ties and plastic bags strewn throughout the area. The tailgate of the pickup truck also has what appears to be two handprints of blood.
- [49:05]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [49:05]
Nick
On them. The truck has personal items to include. So, like you pointed out, tent. Find some items in the tent. They find some of these items strewn about the area. But we're also going to have the inside of the truck that's going to contain some personal items as well, and the, the items that they chose to list here for the purpose of this document were blankets, car seats, food, miscellaneous items, a wallet. And they state that the wallet was found on the center console. I'm not seeing it. And we'll continue on here. But the, I've seen several reports that his cell phone was found inside the truck.
- [49:48]
The Captain
Yeah, seems like he, he has taken off. But how much, how much did he take off with? I mean, you would probably have to assume because he was a soldier that he owns firearms. So did he take off in the woods with a backpack with a bunch of supplies and guns or that, that. I, I think that becomes a difficult thing for law enforcement is what his, his motivation for taking off. And somebody could be listening to this and going, captain, are you stupid? He just killed his children. That's his motivation for taking off. But I'd say it's not that simple because his motivation for taking off could be to take his own life. It might not necessarily just be like, I'm running to freedom.
- [50:38]
Nick
Yeah, right.
- [50:39]
The Captain
His motivation could be to get to a certain location and to take his own life. Or again, if you're law enforcement, is he trying to flee or is he trying to have a standoff somewhere?
- [50:51]
Nick
Well, and there's some psychology in there too, that is above my pay grade. But when we reviewed, hey, I pay.
- [50:59]
The Captain
You good money to be a doctor.
- [51:02]
Nick
Yeah, the captain pays me weekly, very weekly.
- [51:07]
The Captain
The a buck 75 we reviewed, in.
- [51:10]
Nick
Short, we kind of did a short version of the Bradford Bishop case. A man who's never been located, who murdered his entire family and left them up in the Smoky Mountains where they were later recovered. And we've never reviewed the John List case, which is famous for being solved by the good people over at America's Most Wanted. When I say solved, they, their programming led to the, to locating John List who killed his mother. And I believe it was his mother and his entire family. Bishop did about pretty much the same thing, killed his mother and, or her mother and the rest of the family. Now when I say there's some psychology involved there persons that were interviewed to review those case that are doctors have stated that that the thought is okay, this man, husband, father sets out to do this plan of leaving his family or killing his family and then leaving because he killed them. But it's with without crawling in side the ear and up into the brain of this demented person. There's no way to know what was the first goal, what was the first seed. What was the idea here that I'm going to leave them. And because I'm leaving them, I'm going to eliminate them or I'm eliminating them and then I have to leave for my own preservation.
- [52:42]
The Captain
Let me know if you agree with this all week. My feelings on this case, it feels the same as like Chris Watts or even Scott Peterson in the sense of, like, you could have, you could just bowed out, you know, you could have just said, I don't want to be.
- [53:02]
Nick
A dad, and Liston Bishop could have done the exact same thing.
- [53:07]
The Captain
Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it's this feeling of like, okay, like in the Chris Watts case, okay, you got a girlfriend, fine, whatever. Let your child be born. And if you're just not involved in their life, if you disappear, so what, you know, it doesn't make any sense. And so your solution is to, to kill your children? It's be, it's beyond bizarre.
- [53:34]
Nick
Yeah, you don't have to tell me. I'm a child of the 80s and the 90s and, and you know, it was few and far between, but, and not to make light of it, but there were a couple, couple kids I knew, a couple friends I had that. It was the old cliche. Dad left one day to go out and pick up a pack of cigarettes and he never came home.
- [53:56]
The Captain
Yeah. You know, and then Sometimes in the 70s and 80s, if you find out that the father lived like three blocks over and like the kids never knew.
- [54:07]
Nick
But hey, had another family the entire.
- [54:09]
The Captain
Time, say what you will, but that's on the low totem pole of pieces of. I mean, you want to be king of pieces of, you know.
- [54:18]
Nick
Yeah. That's a dingleberry compared to a full giant turd here in the.
- [54:23]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [54:24]
Nick
So with Peterson, that guy angers me to no end because he is, he's a walking 5 foot 10 lie. His whole life is a lie. Everything about him is a lie. He's, he's a facade. He's, he's, he's hollow inside. There's no soul, no guts, no, no nothing. He doesn't care anything about anybody. He, he didn't want to have kids. Never wanted to have kids, I believe. Never really wanted to be tied down in a marriage, and that's why he did his despicable acts. And Chris Watts, I don't know, I don't know if he never wanted to have kids. I think that he probably did because he had several of them and was in this marriage for a considerable time compared to Peterson. But he's a monster because he just, I, I, I wiped out my family for a, a secret love interest and then with, with Bishop enlist. You have two completely different scenarios where I think, I think that it is more in line with this scenario because Travis doesn't seem to have or doesn't appear to have. He doesn't need to eliminate any family member because he's having some secret relationship. He's not in a marriage anymore. And with List and with Bishop, they, their lives were failing. Their lives were failing and Travis's life is failing. He's, he's flawed and he's a failed man. I, if he's got ailments, I apologize, but, but I'm not going to apologize for what he did. He's still despicable. And so I think it's more in line with Bishop and with List. And there is again some psychology of well, I'm going to hit the reset button and it's better for you all that I get rid of you before, before I do hit the reset button because I can't, because I can't save you, because I can't take care of you, because I didn't do my duty to you as a father, as, as a husband, as a protector, as a provider, then I'm going to hit the reset button. You guys won't be included. I think that really, truly there's a lot more. Let's take the psychology out of it and let's take this so the potential psychosis out of it in all, all of these situations that we just discussed. And it's, it's the most incredible, incredibly selfish act that I've ever seen, ever heard of in my entire life.
- [56:57]
The Captain
Yeah. And I'd be interesting to know. Was, was Travis Decker the type of individual that kept on trying to get a second chance or was. I've not heard any statements about that, but you just wonder if that maybe is part of the motivation that he couldn't ever put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And this is his. Is the result or the solution to his problems that he created in his mentally unstable head because we're not. Whether or not he's been diagnosed with anything. You have to be mentally unstable to kill your nine year old, your eight year old and your five year old daughter. That's, that's, it's. I was watching this thing the other day and they're talking about, you know, there, there's no crime in history that has been known as like a sacrifice or a ritual or whatever, you know, this whole satanic panic. But if, if these things aren't evil by nature, then I don't know what they are.
- [58:01]
Nick
No. Yeah. There's no other way to describe them. Especially if you're. If you're forced into a box to do give a description with just one simple word. I'll continue on this affidavit here. It says during the search of the area, an abandoned camp was located nearby with signs of recent activity. The camp consists of a fire pit, tent, cooler and within a short walk from where the vehicle and bodies were located. Let's, let's go to the. The cell phone record information that is listed here. It says that Travis Deckard's cell phone information showed that he likely traveled to the area. So to this specific area where his truck and the bodies were found. That he had traveled there on Thursday, May 29th in the evening. So that was approximately, let's say 24 hours before he picked up his children. He traveled to this area. Now we do know that he's staying. He may have just been simply staying there. This may not have been to scout it out or to, or to pre plan anything. But his cell phone information says that he was there or his phone was there the previous evening. And it also says that he returned to that location Friday morning. The document continues under the totality of the situation. It appears that Travis Decker drove through the area the night prior, returned the next day with the children. Preliminary examination suggests the likely cause of death was asphyxiation. Their wrist. Their children wrists were also zip tied or showed signs of being zip tied. They were also positively identified. So we now know that they were very quickly identified as as the victims that they we thought they were. And it states that this is probable cause to arrest Travis Caleb Decker for three counts of murder in the first degree and three counts of kidnapping in the first degree.
- [60:16]
The Captain
If you'd like to support True Crime Garage and get something back in return, go to trust truecrimegarage.com go to the store page. Use our promo code GARAGE2025 for 25 off. That code should work for the next two weeks or so. Stick around for part two and until then, be good, be kind and don't litter.
- [60:46]
Nick
Sa.