Travis Decker was apparently already planning something at least a week before he allegedly killed his three little girls — Googling “how to relocate to Canada’’ and “jobs Canada,’’ according to new court papers.
Decker, 32, conducted the online searches and visited the Canadian government’s “Find a job” webpage on Monday, May 26 — several days before he vanished with his daughters, Deputy US Marshal Keegan Stanley wrote in an affidavit.
Decker’s ex-wife, Whitney Decker, reported their three children — Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5 — missing when their dad failed to bring them home after a scheduled custody visit last Friday.
The bodies of the girls were then found with plastic bags over their heads and their wrists zip-tied this past Monday, not far from their father’s abandoned truck in a remote campground about 170 miles of the Canadian border. Travis is still in the wind.
Preliminary investigations indicate the sisters likely died from asphyxiation.
Investigators obtained multiple search warrants this week for Decker’s Google accounts after the gruesome discovery, according to the affidavit filed Thursday and first reported by the Independent.
The girls’ remains were discovered only 11 miles away from the Pacific Crest Trail, which leads directly to Canada, Stanley noted in the court documents, adding that there is probable cause to believe Decker was fleeing to avoid prosecution.
“Decker is a former military member with training in navigation, woodland/mountainous terrain, long distance movements, survival and numerous other disciplines needed to be able to flee from the Eastern District of Washington,” Stanley wrote.
Decker, who was most recently living out of his car as his mental state was reportedly deteriorating, is believed to have been an elite paratrooper and member of the Washington National Guard.
He “frequently engaged in hiking, camping, survival skill practice, hunting and even lived off the grid in the backwoods for approximately 2.5 months on one occasion,” Stanley wrote.
Remote areas throughout the state have since been temporarily closed as multiple agencies continue their manhunt for the triple-slay suspect.
The Enchantments trail and mountain region will be closed until at least June 18, and campgrounds and trails in parts of the North Cascades National Park and the Pacific Crest Trail have also been shut to visitors, according to authorities.
“Please know that law enforcement professionals are patrolling at all hours, in all spaces throughout this region,” the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office warned residents in nearby Chelan, Kittitas King, Snohomish, and Okanagan counties.
“As law enforcement conducts their searches, we are asking for those owners to lock all of their doors, to include any sheds out outbuildings, and leave their window blinds open and we recommend leaving outside lights on,” the department said in a Facebook post Thursday.
Police have warned the public not to try contacting or approaching Decker and do not know if he is armed. A $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest.