Travis Decker: the police embrace a “tactical change” in the long search for Killer accused

While the search for the father accused of having killed his three young girls is approaching his third week, Washington State authorities adopt a “tactical change,” said the Sheriff of Chelan County, Mike Morrison, at a press conference on Wednesday evening.

In the initial phase of Travis Decker’s search, the sheriff’s office used planes and drones costing more than $ 2 million, Morrison told CNN on Wednesday evening. “We recognize that it will not be long -term sustainable for us small medium counties, so we have to move away.”

There will always be air assets when it is “appropriate,” said Morrison, but “we are not going to have the helicopter of the National Guard by flying for 12, 16 hours both” in search of the suspect.

Decker, 32, has not been seen since May 30. Her three daughters – all under 10 years old – were found on June 2, stifled in an isolated and abandoned campsite east of Seattle. Since then, an intense manhunt over hundreds of square miles has been held.

The father is accused of the aggravated murder and the kidnapping of the Decker sisters: Olivia, 5, Evelyn, 8, and Paitact, 9. Federal agents now involved in the search for him, Decker also faces a federal accusation of illegal flight to avoid prosecution. A reward of up to $ 20,000 is offered for information leading to his arrest.

The American marshals, who help local police in research, will also begin to deploy their “fast -advance man hunting program,” said Chef Jerome Brown of the Oriental District of Washington Marshals Service at a press conference on Wednesday.

“This program brings resources everywhere to include funding to support your community, the Sheriff department, the border patrol and all the other resources so that we can sail on the field and locate and apprehend the fugitive,” said Brown.

“By discussing with experts in the matter in these areas, you have really managed to flood and flood the region with as many resources as possible, by coordinating these efforts,” Morrison told CNN. “And then when the situation changes and the information becomes rarer … You must start looking at your other partners who have done more of this long -term research, and say:” OK, now our tactics must change a little. “”

Tuesday evening, the County Sheriff’s office of Chelan said that he had followed someone they believed to be a decker in the Blewett Pass district in Washington. Morrison said on Wednesday that the authorities were still continuing.

The sheriff’s office had received a tip from a hiker who seemed to be “poorly prepared” for track conditions and weather, and who avoided other people, according to a press release.

“The follow-up teams immediately acted on the information and spotted a lonely hiker out of the track of a helicopter near Lake Colchuck which ran from sight while the helicopter passed,” he said. “Additional assets were called in the region while they were developing a plan to follow the individual. The teams then picked up a path and deployed K9 in the region, following the subject of the Engalls Creek Trailhead area on the 97 motorway.”

The police ask anyone who lives in the region to lock their homes and cars and report a suspicious activity.

“The follow -up teams believe that they are on the Decker path, community support and advice are still necessary!” The sheriff’s office said.

The United States border patrol took command of operations and the research of Decker, which also used members of the National Guard, according to the press release. The detectives of the Sheriff’s office “remain strongly engaged in the investigation into the murder”.

The Decker truck, his dog and “many personal articles of the suspect” were found about 75 meters from the girls’ bodies, said the sheriff’s office. A certain blood on the truck belonged to a human man, while other blood was not human, he said, citing the tests. The dog was given to a local human society, said the Sheriff’s office; The social protection agency “will not publish information on animals in detention involved in an active case”.

Governor Bob Ferguson has authorized emergency funding so that the helicopters of the National Guard can help in search of Decker.

The rugged field of waterfalls – as well as the own survivalist history of Decker – is difficult for the agents of the police who try to catch it.

Suspect underwent training on survival and interest in Canada, say court documents

Decker, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, “has often engaged in hiking, campsite, the practice of survival skills, hunting and even experienced the grid in the woods for about 2.5 months in once,” said Marshal US Keegan Stanley in a affidavit.

Four days before his disappearance, Decker did several research on Google related to the search for a job in Canada, as well as “how a person is moving to Canada,” said Stanley.

The Decker truck and the leftovers have been found less than a dozen kilometers from the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650 mile path which takes place to the Canadian border. From the region closest to the Decker campsite, it is a hike at around 200 miles in Canada.

The researchers from the Chelan County Sheriff’s Bureau spent several days to seek Decker in the area around his campsite, the leisure areas around the Icicle river temporarily closed.

Late Monday evening, the Sheriff’s office said that it had reduced research in the Ingalls Creek region west of Wenatchee, the largest city in the county and about 15 miles south-east of the campsite through damaged land.

“During any criminal investigation, including this, there is information sensitive to the application of the law which is not shared with the public in order to protect the integrity of the survey,” said the sheriff’s office. “We appreciate the patience, understanding and cooperation of the public during this complex and emotional investigation.”

Decker has not been seen since he picked up the children on May 30 for a three-hour visit on May 30, said his ex-wife, according to a state court. Although the exchange “occurred without problems”, Whitney Decker later said that he was “quieter than usual”.

She advised investigators that Travis Decker was diagnosed a few years ago with a limited personality disorder, which the Cleveland Clinic describes as implying “extreme mood fluctuations, the instability of interpersonal relationships and impulsivity”.

Travis Decker had served in the US military for eight years, said an army spokesman. He is in the Washington National Guard, faced with the discipline for missing compulsory exercises, said a guard spokesperson. CNN contacted the Veterans Department to find out if Decker has requested treatment for mental illness through its facilities.

Decker had refused to sign his most recent parental agreement in Whitney, which forced him to request mental health treatment and anger management, she told Wenatchee police. He was homeless at the time of his disappearance, she said, living in motels and campsite.

Whitney Decker called the police after his ex-husband failed to introduce themselves with their daughters as planned at 8 p.m. on May 30. The custody agreement does not allow Travis Decker to keep the children overnight.

The children were discovered three days later with plastic bags above their heads, their cuffs attached. The cause of the death was sufficient, said the medical examiner.

“Whitney saw the worst nightmare of each mother,” said the friend of the Amy Edwards family in a statement published by Whitney Decker’s lawyer. “The hole in his heart is immeasurable. There are no words that can capture the weight of this loss.”