Alert – Chilling red flags everyone missed before ‘killer’ dad Travis Decker ‘snapped and murdered his three daughters’

Bereaved mother Whitney Decker never imagined that her ex-husband Travis might be on the verge of carrying out a heinous act when he arrived to pick up their three young daughters for a scheduled three-hour visitation last Friday evening.

To Whitney, it was a routine handoff. But those around Travis expressed to the grieving mother after her daughters did not return home that they had seen the warning signs. 

According to Whitney’s attorney, a supervisor at his construction job told Whitney shortly after Travis vanished that he had seemed ‘on the brink of something extreme’ earlier that day while on the job.

Even her ever-reliable neighbor, who Whitney trusted with the messy details of their divorce, recalled that Travis appeared ‘very sad’ during a brief exchange outside the house just before he abducted Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight and Olivia, five. He would go on to allegedly murder all three, suffocating them with plastic bags.

Yet, as Whitney’s lawyer told Daily Mail in an exclusive interview on Thursday, there was nothing in Travis’s behavior at the time of pickup at 5pm on Friday that raised any red flags. ‘She had no reason to suspect anything was wrong,’ the attorney said.

Whitney did know, however that he was having a hard week, having crashed his uninsured vehicle days earlier. 

Travis, who was living in his truck at the time, spent about 15 minutes talking with her, mostly about what to do with his pet dog for the hot summer, wondering if she’d take care of the animal, as she had in the past, or whether he should just give it to the Humane Society.

It was only after Travis failed to return with the kids Friday night did she learn that he’d had some sort of mental health breakdown at his construction job earlier in the day.

Whitney Decker (center) had no idea that a routine visit with their father Travis would be the last time she saw her daughters – (from left) Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight, and Olivia, five – alive  

Travis’ supervisor on the construction site he worked at said the father-of-three appeared ‘on the brink of something extreme’ as he had an unspecified nervous breakdown on the job that day

Travis arrived at Whitney’s home for their scheduled three-hour visitation before driving the girls 20 miles away to a campsite in Leavenworth where he allegedly murdered them by asphyxiation with a plastic bag over their heads

‘The supervisor told her he was acting like he was on the brink of something extreme on Friday,’ Whitney’s lawyer Arianna Cozart said, but said Whitney still doesn’t know the specifics Decker did to raise such alarm in his higher-ups.

As Whitney desperately waited for news of her children and ex’s whereabouts over the weekend, her next-door neighbor Binh Nguyen also shared details of his own strange conversation with Travis when he showed up that night.

Whitney, through her attorney Arianna Cozart (pictured), told the Daily Mail that she knew he was having a tough week after he had crashed his uninsured vehicle, but never suspected he might harm their children

‘He looked very sad and kept asking how I’d been many times over and over,’ he texted her.

It wouldn’t be until Monday that Whitney was informed by police that the unthinkable happened: Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia’s bodies were found at a campsite in Leavenworth, 20 miles from their Washington state home. 

Their wrists had been bound with zip ties and each of them had been suffocated with a plastic bag.

The tragedy appeared to stem back to when the Deckers divorced in 2022, and the father-of-three was supposed to seek mental health treatment and anger management counseling as part of a parenting plan. 

However, there was no sign that he followed through, court documents show.

Nguyen told the Daily Mail that Whitney had told him in the past that he had beaten her and had gone ‘crazy,’ leading to their divorce.

Before Travis took the girls, his conversation with Whitney was normal, asking his ex if she could take his dog for the hot summer or if he should relinquish ownership to the local Humane Society

But Whitney’s trustworthy neighbor Binh Nguyen, 58, told the Daily Mail that he informed the mother of his strange conversation with Travis on the fateful Friday night and that he was ‘really sad’ and kept asking ‘over and over’ how he was doing

A text message between Nguyen and Whitney where she informed him that all three of her daughters had been found dead, with suspected ‘killer’ dad Travis missing

Authorities released photos of Decker from before he went missing, showing him with sunglasses that obscured his eyes and tattoos all down his arm

The former couple had a messy divorce in 2022 where he was court-ordered to undergo counseling for his mental health issues. Cozart, who represented Whitney in their custody case, said there were never allegations of violence against their children

‘She said she can’t work it out, that he’s crazy and he beat me,’ he said.

But Whitney’s lawyer, who represented her in the custody case, said there were never allegations of violence and that she doesn’t believe Travis ever hit her or the children.

‘Travis could be abrasive,’ she said.

She also said that while Whitney filed for the divorce, it was Travis who initiated it.

‘He’s the one who left the home and said I want a divorce,’ the lawyer said. ‘She’s the one who ended up filing, but at his request.

‘I think he just really suffered from some self-worth issues as far as having the mental issues that he had, seeing the combat that he saw, and then feeling like he wasn’t worthy of his wife and children,’ Cozart added.

But even after he left, the lawyer said, they remained close, talking with each other daily.

Travis’s (right) mental health issues stemmed from his time as a former Army ranger and National Guardsman. Whitney said he suffered from borderline personality disorder and complex PTSD

The home where Whitney and her three daughters lived and where Travis picked them up on Friday 

Whitney said she knows her ex is responsible for their girl’s deaths, but said she knows he would have never hurt them had the lack of mental health services provided for veterans been addressed

The children’s lifeless bodies were discovered in a campsite in rural Washington state

‘These were just good co-parents and friends,’ she said.

Whitney’s faith in Travis even extended to the point where her lawyer told the Daily Mail that the bereaved mother of three feels ‘almost purely empathy’ for her dead children’s father. 

The lawyer clarified that the grieving mother has no doubts her ex-husband is responsible for her children’s horrific death but also knows that he was a good father who loved his children and would never hurt them if it hadn’t been for the lack of mental health services provided for veterans. 

She now wants Decker, a former Army ranger and National Guardsman, found not so he could be punished, but so he can finally receive treatment for borderline personality disorder and possibly post-traumatic stress disorder, left untreated by a broken VA system.

She knows that the monster that came and out and killed her babies is not Travis,’ said Cozart, who has spoken with the grieving mom extensively since the kids were found near a campsite Monday. 

‘She has a lot of empathy still for Travis,’ Cozart said and recalled Whitney telling her to ‘think about what he must have fought and struggled with all these years. For this to come out of this man who was a loving father, he’s broken, a broken man. It’s not him.’

‘She just wants him to come back to humanity here because obviously he suffered some sort of break,’ Cozart told the Daily Mail.

Travis remains on the run, as law enforcement has fanned across the vast wilderness of Wenatchee National Forest searching for the ‘killer’ dad.

Flowers and tributes pile up in the Wenatchee Memorial Park (the national forest the girl’s bodies were discovered in) dedicated to the three murdered Decker sisters

Travis remains on the run, as law enforcement has fanned across the vast wilderness of Wenatchee National Forest searching for the ‘killer’ dad

A search helicopter can be seen working a ridgeline atop the Icicle gorge area of the Wenatchee mountains as authorities search for Travis 

Whitney is staying out of town while the search for her ex continues, and she is being supported by friends and family. 

‘She is surrounded by love and support from not only her own friends and family who have always been amazing, but also Travis’s family,’ Cozart said. ‘And she’s very grateful for that. I think she’s holding up as best as one could hope.’

Even though her children have yet to be buried and her ex-husband is being hunted down for their murder, she has already begun channeling her grief into advocacy. 

Whitney criticized the state for failing to issue an AMBER Alert the night the children went missing and called for expanded mental health services for veterans.

‘We are putting together a task force of local attorneys, emergency management professionals, law enforcement to work on these issues in memory of the Decker girls,’ Cozart said.

‘I absolutely think she’ll get through this, and I think she’ll get through this by helping others. 

‘She knows she can’t save her babies, but she wants to save other babies.’