The Chelan County sheriff shared updates for the ongoing search for Travis Decker, who has been at the center of a three-week manhunt in central Washington.
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FBI, U.S. Marshals, and psychics: Inside the Decker manhunt as it stretches into third week
The Chelan County Sheriff revealed he has been consulting investigators from some of the nation’s most notorious fugitive cases as multiple law enforcement agencies search for Travis Decker, the man accused of killing his three young daughters at a campground near Leavenworth.
Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison is also working with a U.S. Marshals psychologist on site in Wenatchee to better understand what Decker might be thinking, in addition to using tips from psychics with federal agents.
Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison spoke with KIRO Newsradio about the ongoing search for the homeless, former soldier, Travis Decker, who has been at the center of a three-week manhunt in central Washington.
Wednesday afternoon, there was a new helicopter search in the mountains near the town of Cashmere in Chelan County. Flight tracking data showed a government-owned UH-72A Lakota Eurocopter circling the area around Mission Creek Road, in some spots that were less than a mile from Cashmere.
Morrison said he believes Decker is still alive and might be accessing multiple caves and old mine shafts throughout the mountains of Chelan County to hide or seek shelter from the elements.
“I do believe he’s still alive, and until I find something that would prove otherwise, we’re going to consider that he is alive,” Morrison said. “We have not found a body. And at this point, I figured if that had been the case, just the amount of people who do come and recreate here in Chelan County, that we would have found something that we’re going to continue to take into account that we’ll either find him in one state or the other.”
Morrison also explained that they have consulted with behavioral experts from the FBI, and have a U.S. Marshal’s psychologist on site in Wenatchee to help understand what Decker might be thinking and where he may go next. Morrison said he recently contacted investigators who conducted other high-profile fugitive cases, including the 21-day search for Jorge Alcantara-Gonzalez, the 2020 murder suspect who hid in the woods of Kittitas County. Alcantara-Gonzales survived by breaking into cabins and stealing food from campsites. Morrison said he also recently chatted with a former FBI Special Agent who worked on the 1996 case and five-year manhunt for Centennial Olympic Park bomber, Eric Rudolph.
“He told me, he’s like, hey, that was a five-year effort. And it really was that patrol deputy on the road that saw a subject dumpster diving, contacted him, and there was Eric Rudolph,” Morrison said. “He was taken into custody.”
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