Research is expanding the former army soldier accused of having killed his 3 young girls in Washington State

SEATTLE – The authorities have closed a wide band of popular camping terrains and hiking areas along the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington while they are looking for A former army soldier wanted to death of his three young girls.

Dozens of additional police officers in a range of agencies joined the survey and research on Friday Caleb Decker Travis32 years old, four days after the girls – PAITYN DECKER of 9 years, Evelyn Decker, 8 years old and Olivia Decker, 5 years old – were found dead in a campsite remote outside Leavenworth.

The daughter’s mother reported on the night of May 30 Decker failed to return them to her house In Wenatchee, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Seattle, after a planned visit.

Governor Bob Ferguson announced on Friday evening that he ordered the State National Guard to help research, saying “we will provide the transport of helicopters for the application of the law while they are looking for in remote areas”.

“The brutal murder of these young children shocked our condition,” he added in a press release on social networks. “I am determined to support the police while looking for justice for Paitact, Evelyn and Olivia.”

The Chelan County Sheriff’s Bureau said in a statement that there were more than 100 officers involved in the excavation, who covered damaged land in the Cascade mountains of the Washington center, and more than 500 advice had flocked to the public.

“By an abundance of prudence, we have been notified and we work in collaboration with our surrounding counties in the event of the movement of Mr. Decker through the forest in their jurisdiction,” said the press release.

Decker was a infantryman in the army from March 2013 to July 2021 and deployed in Afghanistan for four months in 2014, according to the army spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Ruth Castro. From 2014 to 2016, it was an automatic carabinier with the 75th RANGER REGIMENT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD in Washington.

Last September, his ex-wife, Whitney Decker, wrote in a petition to modify his parental plan that his mental health problems had aggravated and that he had become more and more unstable, often living out of his truck. She tried to prevent him from having night visits with girls until he finds accommodation.

“He has made huge sacrifices to serve our country and loves his daughters very much, but he has to improve,” she wrote. “I do not want to keep it out of girls at all. … But I cannot make our daughters stay in what is essentially a shelter for homeless, sometimes without surveillance, with dozens of strange men, or stay in a tent or live in his truck with him at extreme temperatures and unknown areas for their safety.”

The authorities warned people to be on the lookout and asked those who have distant houses, cabins or outbuildings to keep them locked up, to leave the blinds open so that the police can see inside and leave the outer lights on.

It was not clear if Decker was armed, but the Sheriff’s Bureau of the County Chelan said that it should be considered dangerous. A reward of up to $ 20,000 was offered for information leading to his arrest.

An online fundraising for Whitney Decker has raised more than a million dollars, and his friends Amy Edwards, who taught girls in a theater program entitled “Shakes Shakespearians”, and Mark Belton thanked the supporters at a press conference on Thursday.

“Their laugh, their curiosity and their mind have left a mark on us all,” said Edwards. “They were the kind of children for everyone rooted, impatiently awaited to see and stand closely in their hearts.”

Edwards and Belton have said that Whitney Decker hopes that tragedy will produce changes to the state alert system as well as improvements in mental health care for veterans. The night when the girls were missing, the Wenatchee police asked Washington’s state patrol to issue an Amber alert, but she refused, saying that, as a childcare question without imminent threat, the case did not meet the criteria for one.

The patrol issued an “alert of a disappeared in the process of disappearing” the next day, but they do not lead the notifications sent to mobile phones.

While research widens the girls last weekend, an assistant in the sheriff found the Decker pick-up in the Rock Island campsite region, northwest of Leavenworth. There were two bloody handshakes on the tailgate. The girls’ bodies were discovered on an embankment nearby with evidence that they had been linked to ZIP ties, according to an affidavit deposited to support the murder and accusations of kidnapping against Decker.

County Coroner Wayne Harris said on Friday that his office expected pathology results to determine when and how girls had been killed.

The authorities have published notices of closing the day before for this campsite area, which is in the Okanogan-Onatchee National Forest, as well as for a large band of accidental territory to the north. This included trails and campsite along the Pacific Crest Trail, which extends from the Canadian border to Mexico, and around Stehekin, at the north end of Lake Chelan.