FBI Zeros in on 'Killer Dad' Travis Decker at Washington Campground

Currently, we have no evidence that. Travis Decker is alive or dead. At this. time, the FBI is conducting a grid. search operation. Uh, we hope to find. evidence that will lead us to Travis. Decker. The FBI is now leading a massive. two-day grid search at the Rock Island. campground, the very place where Travis. Decker's three young daughters were. found murdered in June. Nearly 100. agents and local partners are combing. through steep terrain looking for any. trace of Decker or evidence that could.

finally answer the haunting question. Is. Travis Decker even alive or is he dead? We're going to break down the search. What happened at this press conference. and the crime with a retired homicide. detective who brings insight into this. kind of case. Welcome to Sidebar. presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse. Weber. [Music]. Just days after we learned that DNA. evidence tied Travis Decker to the. plastic bags and the zip ties that were.

used in the killings of his three young. daughters, there's another major step in. this case that we need to talk about. So, the FBI has now joined the Chalan. County investigators on the ground in. Levvenworth, Washington, launching a. massive two-day grid search at the Rock. Island campground. That is the very. place where Decker's children, Payton, Evelyn, and Olivia, were found dead in. June. Nearly 100 federal agents and. local partners are combing through steep. hillsides and thick brush and remote.

terrain. They are looking for any sign. of Decker, maybe even evidence that. could finally answer this question. Is. he even alive? That's the point. authorities. They attempted to answer. that question during a press conference. that was held yesterday. And we will get. into that and talk about what the latest. details are. But before we even get into. what was announced, we have to take a. quick step back, remember how we got. here. So back on June 2nd, three little. girls, Payton, Evelyn, and Olivia, ages.

9, 8, and five. That's what we're. talking about. Their dead bodies were. found near the Rock Island campground in. Washington. Their bodies were discovered. with plastic bags over their heads, their wrists zip tied. According to the. sheriff's office and court documents, two of those girls had two bags each. over their heads and one had three. Autopsies confirmed that they died from. suffocation and their deaths were ruled. homicides. And investigators, they sent. the bags and the zip ties to the.

Washington State Crime Lab. And on. August 6, the results came back. DNA. from those items matched only one. person, their father, 32-year-old Travis. Decker, an Army veteran with combat. training. And authorities say that makes. him their only suspect. But here's the. problem. Travis Decker has been missing. ever since. For more than 2 months, there has been no confirmed sighting. Law enforcement believes he has the. skills to survive in the wilderness for. long periods of time without equipment.

The US Marshall Service has put up a. $20,000 reward for information leading. to his arrest, and they are warning the. public he should be considered armed and. dangerous. Now, over the summer, there. have been potential possible sightings. There was one in Idaho's Sawtooth. National Forest in early July. There was. another near Snowqualami Pass in. Washington, but nothing was confirmed. Cadaavver dogs search teams. They have. combed through mountains, forests,

campgrounds, but there is still no. Travis Decker. And officials admit the. search, it has scaled back because the. leads have dried up, but they have vowed. they are not giving up. And it's that. timeline, it is the timeline in this. case that is still sending chills. Why? Because here's what we know. Just days. before we go to May 30th, Travis picked. up his daughters from their mother. Whitney's home in Wanachi Valley. told. her that he'd bring them back that. evening. But when Whitney couldn't reach. them and the girls never came home, she.

reported to police. And the next day, authorities learned that Travis and the. girls, they never showed up to a 5K race. that they were supposed to attend. And. despite this, police apparently didn't. issue an Amber Alert, only an endangered. missing person alert because the. criteria for Amber hadn't technically. been met at that time. But then you go. to June 2nd and that is when Travis's. car was found abandoned near the. campground. And that is when deputies. made the devastating discovery of the.

girl's bodies. Investigators have since. built a growing body of evidence against. Decker. DNA, bloody handprints matching. him, apparently his personal belongings. in the truck, even internet searches. that he apparently made in the days. before the killings about moving to. Canada. And authorities say he now faces. three counts of first-degree murder and. three counts of kidnapping. For nearly. three months, the search for Decker has. stretched across Washington, Idaho, beyond. There's cadaavver dogs, helicopters, drones, countless search.

teams. As I mentioned, there have been. possible sightings. There have been. tips. There have been searches in remote. forests. Nothing has led to a confirmed. trace of him. And authorities admit the. trail has gone cold, but again, they. have never closed the case. And that. brings us to what happened yesterday. At. a press conference in Levvenworth, the. FBI's Peter Orth, senior supervisory. agent for the FBI Seattle field office, made one thing very clear. This new. search operation is about going deeper. and being more thorough than ever. before. At this time, the FBI is.

conducting a grid search operation today. and tomorrow uh near the Rock Island. campground. But I want to be clear that currently we. have no evidence that Travis Decker is. alive or dead, but we are conducting a. grid search operation over the next two. days. It's currently taking place right. now. Uh we hope to find evidence that. will lead us to Travis Decker or any. information regarding the murder of his. three daughters. By thoroughly searching.

and documenting the area, uh we can help. prevent the need to review the area in. the future by collecting all possible. evidence. Today there are nearly 100 FBI. and partner agencies personnel on the. ground uh to participate in this search. operation. We have specialty teams from. the federal government and local partner. agencies all deployed here today and. tomorrow for this operation. For almost. three months, the investigators uh led. by the Chalan County Sheriff's Office.

and the FBI have carefully followed. hundreds of tips regarding the search. for Travis Decker in this investigation. It's taken us over uh rough terrain, difficult areas, multiple states, uh. remote locations that are inaccessible. The residents and visitors of Chalan. County know very well that these areas. are covered with vast dirt roads that. stretch for miles, no cell phone. service, and many other challenges.

That effort gets more difficult as time. goes on. Uh the elements bury, they. carry away, erode the very items that. we're looking to seek and capture for. the investigation. Our search teams. today are out in 90 plus degree weather. trying to gather all this evidence. FBI Seattle wants to assure the. communities in Levvenworth and Wanache. as well as Chalan County and Washington. State that this case is a priority for. the FBI. That is why we're here today. This is a beautiful area um in which a.

heinous crime occurred. We are here to. seek justice for Payton, Evelyn, and. Olivia. We are here to find answers for. their family, friends, and the. community. and we are here to hopefully. provide some measure of closure to their. loved ones in this senseless tragedy. >> By the way, I have to say this. At Long. Crime, we are so proud that viewers turn. to us because what we really try to do. is bring common sense and unbiased. analysis to the world of law. But just. like a jury that needs to be aware of.

any biases to be fair, we need to be. fully aware of biases in the news that. we cover too. And that is where ground. news comes in. So, Ground News is an app. that shows how stories are covered from. the right, left, and center. Plus, who. owns the outlet, who funds it, and the. factuality rating. If you want to get. the full picture, knowing who holds the. purse strings and what their interests. are, that is a major first step. So, let's take the national conversation. about increases in crime in American. cities. Okay, every outlet on both sides. of the spectrum has been covering this, but as I click from right to left to.

center, the tone and framing completely. shifts. According to left-leaning. headlines, it's not that bad. Reactions. are overblown. The Washington Post, for. example, published a headline stating, "Dec attorney general sues Trump. administration over hostile takeover of. police. Right-wing outlets, they're. claiming big measures need to be taken. to combat the crime epidemic. There's. one like Breitbart. Bondi warns. California will lose federal funding. over sanctuary policies." So, as a crime. reporter, I use Ground News because it. cuts through the noise. It's like having. a legal brief for the news. Right now, Ground News, they're offering a special.

discount for new subscribers to their. Vantage plan. Go to the link in our. description, groundnews.com/ssidebar, or check out the QR code for 40% off. unlimited access to their worldwide. coverage. Look, in today's climate, knowing why a headline is written the. way it is might be the most powerful. tool you have. And ground news puts that. power back in your hands. And the press. conference also revealed the extent of. the operation. We're talking about FBI. evidence response teams, SWAT, electronic experts, even dive teams from. Spokane County searching the waters near.

the campground. And we're going to get a. little bit more into the search. But. first, to help me break this down, I. want to bring on a special guest, retired homicide detective, Dr. Ken. Lang, who hasn't been on the program in. quite some time, but it's good to see. him nonetheless. Uh, doctor, thank you. so much for taking the time. Really. appreciate it. >> Well, thank you for having me here, Jesse. I I appreciate the opportunity. What exactly is a grid search? Uh. >> so a grid search is where uh law. enforcement officials identify a. particular area of interest in which uh.

they map it out into grids into. quadrants and sub quadrants and then. they will take officers and they will. comb through each of those quadrants uh. in in a variety of ways. So they can. start along the x- axis and go. horizontally left or right or go along. the y axis and then go uh vertical and. uh in that way a grid search will allow. officers to thoroughly search each of.

the quadrants for evidence or in in this. case for the suspect himself. >> What did you make of this announcement? Because from your experience to how do. you evaluate this the the FBI's choice. to conduct such a massive grid search. three months later this announcement of. really as I said going deeper really. doing extensive two-day search in this. area. Um what do you make of it doing at. this point in time and you also have to. wonder could crucial evidence still.

survive in that environment? >> Uh yes it's very possible. My initial. thoughts were uh this is based on what. the investigators now know and still. what they don't know. Uh what they now. know is is they have more information. that they have derived out of laboratory. results and the culmination of the. information that they've had. They've. had a chance to look for if there's any. cell phone uh information or I if that's.

even plausible. uh they've uh they've. also had the ability to analyze the each. of the pieces of evidence. So, for. example, these cable ties, uh maybe they. now know that they're cut and there. could be remnants uh laying back at the. original crime scene in different areas. that may help them to map out further uh. the exact events as they unfolded when. the crime uh happened. As far as what. they don't know, they don't know where.

his location is. Um, and so, uh, the. because of that, the first thing that we. look at is our is a suspect's cell phone. if we could ping it, but he's in a. remote territory, so that's highly. unlikely or if he had one at all. Uh, he. may have gotten rid of that. Uh, he may. be using a burner phone at this point, or he could have gotten rid of phones. altogether. But at some point, if he was. able to traverse through this. mountainous region, the 50 60 miles to.

the Canadian border, at some point he's. going to need to be able to reach out. and use banking or something to begin to. reestablish himself. And so, the second. area that we start looking at is this. banking information to see if uh the. suspect has become active in trying to. relocate or reestablish themselves. How. concerning is it to approach a suspect. like this? What do I mean by that? I. mean, you're searching for a guy who's. considered armed and dangerous and may. even have the skills to be out on his.

own for such a prolonged period of time. You look at the gravity, the depravity. of this attack. Investigators are not. looking for John Smith. They're looking. for somebody who is a very different. kind of suspect. Talk to me about how. that complicates the search and. complicates the apprehension. >> So, it complicates the search. not only. because of the gravity and the. seriousness of this violent act he. committed against his daughters, but we. also have to keep in mind of his mental. health and the reports that we've been.

seeing about that concerning the. possible PTSD, the possible border. borderline personality disorder, uh the. paranoia, uh and the the failed attempts. of the VA to uh to intervene and how is. that compounded to bring him to this. point of violence. And so with that, uh. we have when we approach these sub s sub. s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s. sub s sub s sub suspects, we have to. approach them very carefully, very. cautiously. And it's often in these.

cases that we're going to use our. resources such as a SWAT team, uh hot. negotiation, so on and so forth. So. members of those teams are most likely. present with this search that's going on. now with the FBI. >> Do you find it strange, surprising that. they haven't found them? I mean, is it. possible that his survival survival. skills not only could lead him to live. off the grid in this fashion, but be. undetected? >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh again, another good.

reason to close down uh this campground. and and the park and to search because. uh here during this search, not only are. they going to be able to look for him. himself, but also look for any evidence. of where he may have been. uh if he's. using these skill sets that he has to. hunt game, uh to make fires, to cook. food for himself to survive, there's. going to be evidence of that. And that. evidence is going to give us an idea of. of the his direction of travel as he's. moving and progressing through uh this.

terrain. >> How will they know if he's dead if they. don't find his body? Is there other. evidence that would indicate that? you know in in a normal urban society. where there is so much attached to a. person. You know, I was speaking earlier. about the the cell phone, electronics, emails, uh bank accounts, all those. things that most people are so. accustomed to being uh attached to. Uh.

that when there is a sudden drop off in. an urban area, uh you could begin moving. towards that calculated conclusion that. uh they're now deceased. In this. situation though, we don't have that. luxury. uh we have all this terrain, we. have all this mountainous region, uh we. have him with his survival skill sets. that he's been trained in. Uh and uh it. it makes it that much more difficult to. discern whether or not he is dead or. alive.

>> I want to talk about this crime for a. second. Okay. What we know about Decker, this military veteran combat training. and allegedly murders his own children. in such a despicable way. Um, it's. horrifying to think about what those. kids went through. What do you make of. that attack? What do you make of the, if. the allegations are true, the. psychological factors, the stressors. that would drive a father to kill his. own daughters in such a way? You know,

typically in in homicide investigations, we see this as a revenge attack and uh. certainly this has been accentuated with. uh his possible mental ill illness that. he he suffers from. Uh but to take uh. and bind up the girls and then to put. plastic bags, not one but two and in one. instance three bags over their head and. probably use those cable ties to seal up. the bag around their neck to prevent air. from getting in. uh the uh it's very.

cold. It's very calculated. It's very. sadistic. Uh sociopathic, if you will. Uh and so uh again, this leans back on. his uh possible mental illness issues. >> And it seems like that I mean, the. evidence is leading back to him. The DNA. evidence on the on the plastic bags and. the zip ties only comes back to him. I. first of all, great police work, right, that they were able to determine that in. such a quick fashion, but also um I I.

don't think it leads to anyone else but. him. >> Yeah. You know, advances in DNA over the. years have been remarkable. You know, when I first started uh in sex crimes. and worked with DNA, we were using STR. analysis, which is basically a a DNA. analysis to determine fatherhood of of a. of a child. Um in um now we use. mitochondrial DNA, which is such a.

finite DNA. uh the ratios that are. returned in those results. I mean is are. are just astronomical in conclusions and. simply comes down to the matter of. saying that you are the only person on. this earth who has this DNA. >> I want to get a little bit more into. what came from this press conference. because it was significant. So, while. Orth and Chellan County Sheriff Michael. Morrison stressed the FBI's involvement. isn't about a new lead, per se, they did.

say this is about making sure nothing's. overlooked and setting up future. investigators for success if Decker. isn't found soon. >> We want to bring closure. We want to. bring answers. We understand the. frustration. We're feeling it as well. It's been three months. We would love to. have Travis Decker in custody standing. in front of a judge. You've seen this. over the last several months with our. partnering and neighboring agencies, not. only nationally within the state, but. also internationally that have followed. up on leads on our behalf. Again, the. sheriff's office and the citizens of. Schlank County are appreciative. We'll.

continue to be appreciative, but again, we will not relent. We will not give up. until this investigation is concluded. and that Travis is accounted for andor. taken into custody. >> So, Dr. Lang, what do you make of that? You have these different agencies. working together. They are definitely. committed to this. there's not, you. know, significant developments to tell. them one way or another whether he's. alive or whether or not they're even. close to capture, but you have all these. agencies working together. Um, talk to. me about that. >> Yeah. So when I see this partnership.

happening, um this is just uh. reminiscent of my time in that our. larger cases that we had uh the FBI will. offer their services simply because they. have more equipment uh and more. expansive laboratories uh that that can. be utilized in these investigations that. necessarily local agencies don't have. budgets to uh to power or use in in. their uh in their agency.

Uh and so with that, the FBI is bringing. a host of hardware that they can put. into this crime scene area uh in. searching for him. Uh it maybe even. documenting the crime scene. So, for. example, uh they they would have more of. the 3D laser scanners that they can scan. and make a 3D model replica of the crime. scene um to help later when we get down. the road in prosecuting the case and. help documenting that case. Uh they have.

again far superior surveillance and and. then they have even they even have money. uh to be able to throw out different. things. And so in my experience, uh, they were able to do what we call tower. dumps. Uh, and so through doing tower. dumps of the data that's cell phones are. used on each tower, we're able to watch. and and see, uh, different information. happen. So the FBI is is has a lot of. resources like that, not available to.

local agencies. Uh, and they they often. come and they'll help uh help facilitate. that. Now, the Rock Island campground, uh, the. nearby trails, they remain closed while. the operation continues. And as for. Travis Decker, 30 still don't know if. he's hiding in the wilderness, if he's. long gone. But I will tell you, Sheriff. Morrison kind of put it bluntly. >> I've said it before, I don't believe. he's special in any way. Uh, right now. he's a criminal at large. He's wanted. for murder and kidnapping. I've said it.

before, he's got to be perfect every. single day. We just have to be perfect. once. And uh if he is still alive, I got. to imagine he's pretty tired by now. Um. but we understand the likelihood that. there could be a potential that he is. deceased. But until we find him alive or. dead, we're going to continue to search. >> Dr. Lang, talk to me about that. What. role do fatigue, environmental. conditions, time play in not only this. fugitive survival, but the effectiveness. of s search operations, them being able. to find evidence of where he might be.

I mean, well, fatigue for for the. suspect here is uh a crucial thing, right? Because fatigue is going to cause. you to make mistakes uh not to be on. your guard and whatnot. And so, uh one, he could have very well went out into. the wilderness, fatigue could set in and. then he could decide that he is going to. end his life uh by suicide. Um and and. could have done that or uh in fatigue, he's not.

traversing the terrain very well. It is. treacherous travine and he may have even. uh he could have even uh injured. himself. And if he is, then he's going. to be bottled down, held up and not able. to take uh and move on at the at the. speed that he wants to if his injuries. permit him to move on. I mean, but that. fatigue also falls onto law enforcement. and uh and FBI and those that are.

involved in this search. Uh and so to to. combat that, what we tend to do is we. work in shifts. Uh they'll offer. overtime um opportunities for different. officers. So road officers who worked on. the road for patrol for eight hours uh. may want to extend their shift by four. or another eight hours and then go to. this location. uh they can create a task. force uh where they're creating. specialized shifts ensuring that um uh. these frontline workers are getting the.

rest the food and all that that they. need as they work through this. investigation. >> So nearly 3 months after these three. little girls were found murdered or we. just don't know what to even take away. from this. The fight for answers is. continuing. They have that reward put up. the week's massive FBI grid search. It. may not solve the case. We will see what. comes of it. But I will tell you this. seems to be the strongest signal yet. that investigators aren't letting the.

story fade. And meanwhile, their mother. Whitney is left grieving. There is a. GoFundMe to support her. It has raised. more than $1.2 million, which is. incredible to say the least. And all. eyes, we'll see what happens next. We'll. continue to follow it here on Sidebar. Dr. Ken Lenn, thank you so much for. taking the time. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so. much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple. Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should. get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll. speak to you next time.

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