URGENT: Search for killer dad Travis Decker hones in on key area + some DNA results revealed 
we’re going to talk about the search for Travis Decker. Yes, that search continues. They haven’t got him yet, but there’s reason to believe that he is alive and still at large. Let’s discuss.

If you’re only just coming into this case, Travis Decker is a 32-year-old father — and I use that term loosely — who murdered his three young daughters: 9-year-old Payton, 8-year-old Evelyn, and 5-year-old Olivia on or around May 30th, when he failed to return the girls after a scheduled three-hour court-ordered visit. He didn’t return them.

Their mother, Whitney, called the cops. There was a search for them over the weekend, which led investigators to Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth. We’re talking here about a very rural area of Washington State.

Monday afternoon, Travis’s white GMC truck was found at the campground, and nearby — down an embankment — were the bodies of the three girls.

Charging documents tell us that the girls had been asphyxiated, that they’d been zip-tied, and that they had plastic bags over their heads. Two bloody handprints were found on the back of his truck, and we’re going to talk about those in a moment.

But first — this is an urgent community alert issued by the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, which came out just two hours ago as I record this:

Community Alert: Area of Engles Creek and Valley High
Law enforcement is searching for suspect Travis Decker in the area of Engles Creek and Valley High, as he is believed to potentially be in this area. Please secure your homes and vehicles. Stay alert and report any suspicious activity to 911. Residents and visitors will see a visible increase in law enforcement presence tonight as a precaution. Your safety remains a top priority. If you see something, say something.

Let’s look at the map here. This is Rock Island Campground, and down here — this is Engles Creek Trailhead. That’s just 31 or 32 miles away from Rock Island Campground.

Now, what they were saying the other day is that he was potentially trying to head up into Canada using the Pacific Crest Trail — which would be up this way, going north. You’ve got to hike to the Pacific Crest Trail, and then you’re straight up into Canada.

But I’ve been looking at routes. You could go this way — it’s quicker. But now they’re saying he’s potentially down here, if I’m in the right spot.

So, has there been a sighting?

These are the things we don’t know. Why did they think the other day that he was heading to the Pacific Crest Trail? I was thinking maybe they got a ping on his phone, because we don’t know that his phone’s been found. Maybe they got a sighting of someone heading that way and thought it was him. Or maybe they just assumed that was the easiest route into Canada — especially considering his Google searches, where he’d been looking up things like how to live in Canada.

But what if he’s not heading to Canada? What if he’s heading in the opposite direction? If he planned this, and he’s really astute, why wouldn’t he plant misleading Google searches to throw investigators off?

I don’t know if he’s that astute. But anything’s possible.

Here’s the media release from yesterday — Update #9, issued 12 hours ago:

Investigation uncovers new details and new search areas.
Crime scene evidence begins to shed more information, with hundreds of square miles searched by land, water, and air. Search operations have been handed over to federal authorities.
Our investigators have begun to receive more analysis information back from evidence found at the crime scene. While this assists in the investigation and later prosecution, it also creates more questions and information for investigators to pursue.
We have collected a large amount of evidence — many of the suspect’s personal items — from the truck recovered at the scene.

So, we don’t know whether his phone was included in that, but by now, unless he’s got a way to charge it, it would be dead anyway. Obviously, the battery would have run out — unless he’s using it sparingly, like turning it off and just turning it on for a minute at a time. If that’s the case, maybe that’s how they got a ping.

The suspect’s dog was recovered and turned over to the Humane Society for safe care. That’s good — the dog’s alive, unharmed, and safe.

I assumed the dog was alive, but in the last video on this case, I said, “Well, do we actually know the dog’s alive? Because of those bloody prints, did he kill the dog?” But no — the dog is okay. I think this is possibly the dog — this husky — that we see in a picture of him.

Blood samples taken from the scene have come back positive for a male, and another was not human blood. Further DNA and fingerprint analysis is still being conducted.

So we know we’ve got male human blood. We don’t know yet whether it’s Travis’s. You would assume it is, but we don’t know. Because if Travis was bleeding, he’s injured — where did he go if he’s injured? So is it someone else’s blood? Is this a staged scene?

I mean, look — anything’s possible with this guy. He is survival-trained. He’s probably very good at eluding cops. Well — he is good at eluding cops, if he’s still alive.

My assumption was that he would’ve gone for a hike and taken his own life. But that’s not what the cops are thinking.

The majority of people who murder their kids actually go on to kill themselves. They can’t live with it. That’s the outcome they planned — the final annihilation of the self as well as the family. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. And I’m surprised at that.

So — we don’t know. What other type of animal? Did he kill an animal for food? If so, is there any evidence of that?

There’s so much we don’t know. But further DNA and fingerprint analysis is still being conducted.

An autopsy was completed on Friday by the medical examiner. The cause of death of the three girls was determined to be suffocation. The manner of death: homicide.

As of approximately 18:00 hours last night — which is 6:00 p.m. — Chelan County Sheriff’s Office handed over command for search operations to federal authorities.

“We have reached a point where we need to rest our local resources.
Our command staff continues to be engaged with the search command, while we give our teams time off to rest and recuperate and be ready to rejoin the search for and capture of the suspect.”

Chelan County Sheriff’s Office remains in command of the criminal investigation — so that’s the investigation into the murder of the girls.

Should our investigation lead to more information regarding the suspect’s location, search teams will be notified.

“We understand the frustration many citizens have in not having all of the details of this investigation.
During any criminal investigation — including this one — there is law enforcement–sensitive information that is not shared with the public, in order to protect the integrity of the investigation.”

And I suspect there’s a lot they know that we don’t — which is why they have reason to believe he’s still alive.

And if they’re honing in on a specific area, you have to assume they’ve had some kind of tip-off or evidence that led them there. This is a huge area to search, so they need tips — they need help narrowing it down.

We appreciate the public’s patience, understanding, and cooperation during this complex and emotional investigation.

So, there we are. That’s the latest update.

We know that Icicle Creek near Leavenworth has now been given back to the public — they’ve finished with that area. So there’s reason to believe he’s somewhere else.

If you’re in Engles Creek or Valley High, then please do as the sheriff’s office says and protect your homes and vehicles. He may be reaching out into an occupied area to get food — or to steal a vehicle.

And we don’t want that, do we?

Then again, if he steals a vehicle, they’ll know what vehicle he’s in — and they’ll be able to find him more easily.