Authorities are spending several days searching a quarter-mile radius near the campground where the Decker sisters were found dead.
LEAVENWORTH, Wash. — The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI will focus their search for Travis Decker this week on the area immediately surrounding the campground where his three daughters were found dead.
Decker is accused of kidnapping and killing his three daughters — Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia — after a visitation in May.
The FBI closed the Rock Island Campground near Leavenworth Sunday for a ground search. It’s expected to remain closed through Tuesday, but Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said authorities are prepared to extend the search through the weekend if needed.
“We want to bring closure; we want to bring answers,” Morrison said.
Peter Orth, supervisory senior resident agent with the Seattle FBI Field Office’s Yakima and Tri-Cities resident agencies, said the two-day search would be a “good old-fashioned boots on the ground search” with teams assigned to GPS grids, bushwhacking through the wilderness.
“You can’t be too thorough in a search like this,” Orth said. “It’s such incredibly dense vegetation…You could walk 10 meters off the trail and nobody would know you’re there.”
The team is looking for evidence that could lead authorities to Decker, whether he’s dead or alive.
The team is focused on the quarter-mile radius near the campground, because homicide suspects in similar cases reviewed by the U.S. Marshals Service were historically and typically found within that distance of the crime scene, either dead or alive, Morrison said.
The FBI brought in various specialists to assist with the search, including electronics experts, intelligence analysts and SWAT team members who are embedded with search crews. Orth said this search has been in the works for “weeks and weeks,” as it took time to assemble nearly 100 people with the expertise needed.
Crews will search during the daytime. Other personnel will be onsite at night to keep the scene secure.
The search will be documented and all evidence collected so future search crews know what has been searched to avoid repeating the same search territory, Orth said.
Morrison said the sheriff’s office understands that the search for Decker could take years but said they wouldn’t give up.
“This is not going to go away until Travis is located,” Morrison said. “We will find him in one fashion or another.”
KING 5 Law Enforcement Analyst and former King County Sheriff John Urquhart said teams are going about the search differently this time, searching every square inch for Decker’s body or evidence, such as a gun, a cellphone or clothing.
Urquhart said the timing is crucial, as snow will cover any evidence in several months, growing undergrowth will make the search difficult, and animals could scatter Decker’s remains if he has died.
“They need to do it now,” Urquhart said.
The Decker girls were last seen May 30 leaving Wenatchee with their father, who had a scheduled visitation.
Police found Decker’s truck at the campground June 2, and the girls were found dead nearby. The discovery prompted a manhunt for Decker throughout the Cascades, however, he has evaded authorities for nearly three months.
Search efforts have slowed in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the King County Sheriff’s Office sent patrols to Snoqualmie Pass after a reported sighting of Decker but called off the search after several hours.
The U.S. Marshals Service has worked with Chelan County to search tens of thousands of acres near Blewett Pass and the Enchantments.
Dalton Day contributed to this report.