Chilling audio of fugitive dad Travis Decker reveals the suspected triple-murderer claiming he has never done anything “unsafe” with his three daughters — just months before he is alleged to have killed them.
In the eerie recording, the 32-year-old is heard pleading with a family court judge to give him access to his girls again.
“Every time I’ve had the girls, we have been in campsites and national forests and paid campsites that have campers,” Decker says in the audio taken from a September 2024 custody hearing and shared by the Wenatchee World.
“We’ve never done anything that was unsafe, or anything I wouldn’t want to put myself in,” he says in one eerie segment, recorded eight months before he allegedly murdered his three daughters after absconding with them during a court-ordered visitation on May 30.
The bodies of Olivia, 5, Evelyn, 8, and Paityn, 9, were found with plastic bags on their heads and zip ties around their wrists near Rock Island Campground in a remote spot of Washington state, close to Decker’s abandoned truck.
Decker, who faces three counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping, is still on the run despite an extensive manhunt.
The chilling recording was taken from a custody hearing following a judge’s decision to grant the girls’ mother near-full custody of the three children.
Concerns about the veteran’s declining mental health, unstable living situation, and alleged endangerment of his children were raised by his ex-wife, Whitney Decker.
The concerns led to his visiting hours being slashed to a set amount of time every other weekend.
Decker was homeless and had been living between his RV and army accommodation, something he acknowledged wasn’t an “ideal” place to bring three young girls in the audio recording.
“I understand that my current position when I’m by myself isn’t ideal, but my daughters aren’t a part of that,” he said in the clip.
“I only get to see them over the weekends, and camping is something that the four of us have done since the three of them were in diapers,” he said.
He reiterated that he had never put his daughters at risk, and said that he took them to popular campsites.
“I’ve never done anything I feel like that puts them in any sort of a risk … that most families in the state of Washington, every campsite we’ve been to in the last month have been almost completely booked out or sold out because everybody’s out this time of year,” he told the judge, before admitting his financial difficulties.
“When I stepped away from the National Guard, I was making $86,000 a year and now I make I think it’s like $38,000 a year. When you start over from zero and you don’t have help or a hand to get you through, it makes it a little more difficult,” he said.
Decker was warned by the judge that his situation wasn’t a “stable” environment for his young daughters to be in.
“That’s not stable … Whether it’s an RV, a tent, an Airbnb or motel — that’s not stability for these children. That’s always a concern for the court,” the judge can be heard telling Decker in the audio.
The small town of Wenatchee, where the three girls lived with their mother, remains in shock almost three weeks on from the horrific discovery.
“Everybody has nightmares, but can you imagine, this is beyond a nightmare. This is something that should affect us. Never forget and remember to support each other in a time of need — and even in not a time of need,” Wenatchee’s mayor Mike Poirier told Fox 13 on Monday.
