3 Missing Girls Found Dead, Father Declared Wanted

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LAW enforcement agents are searching for a Washington state man suspected of killing his three daughters and warned that the military veteran could pose a “significant risk.”

Travis Decker, 32, is wanted on first-degree murder charges in connection with the killings, Wenatchee police said Tuesday.

The girls, ages 5, 8 and 9, were found dead Monday after authorities discovered Decker’s truck near a campground roughly 130 miles east of Seattle, police said in a news release.

Decker was not with the truck, the police department said. His daughters’ bodies were found “in relatively close proximity of that vehicle,” Chelan County Sheriff’s Capt. Brian Chance said at a news conference Tuesday night.

A search Tuesday with aircraft and drones, which included the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, did not locate Decker, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said.

“But we are not done searching,” Morrison said, adding, “We will not rest until Travis is located.”

Details about the girls’ possible causes of deaths and a possible motive were not released Tuesday. The girls’ bodies were in the custody of the coroner’s office, and an investigation is ongoing, Morrison said.

Authorities began searching for the girls after their mother filed a civil complaint Friday night when Decker did not bring them home after a planned visitation, the department said.

The department sought an Amber Alert from state police that night, according to the release, but its request “did not meet the required criteria.”

A spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol said the request did not meet two criteria of the alert system, a federal program with strict guidelines set by the U.S. Justice Department: There must be a reason to believe a missing person has been abducted, and there must be a known, imminent danger of serious injury or death.

Decker had some custodial rights, so abduction was not an immediate legal presumption, said the spokesperson, Chris Loftis.

“In a situation where a custodial parent is late returning children to another parent, law enforcement does not automatically have clear indication that the children are in danger,” he said.

On Saturday, the state patrol issued an endangered missing person alert, meant for people who are unable to “assist in their own recovery,” Loftis said. That alert, he said, “accomplished much the same public notification/outreach as an AMBER alert would have.”

Decker’s truck had been seen traveling west from Wenatchee, police said, and authorities continued searching for the girls over the weekend.

With the assistance of the FBI, law enforcement officers narrowed their focus to an area near Leavenworth, roughly 17 miles east of the area where Decker’s truck was found the next day at 3:45 p.m., police said.

Authorities initially obtained a warrant on three counts of custodial interference against Decker. He is now wanted on three counts of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping, the police department said.

It described Decker as a military veteran with extensive training. It isn’t clear whether he is armed. Because of safety concerns, police warned anybody who sees Decker not to contact or approach him.

Credit: NBC News