‘Autopsy cannot be done’ on Travis Decker remains, coroner says

(NewsNation) — The fragmentary remains of Travis Decker will not yield answers about how the former soldier died in the wilderness after his three young daughters were murdered, a coroner in Washington state said Friday.

Pieces of Decker’s body were found strewn about in a remote, wooded area near Leavenworth last week, following a monthslong regional manhunt for the 32-year-old. Although the remains were confirmed to be Decker’s through DNA tests, there aren’t enough of them to determine what happened to him, Chelan County Coroner Wayne E. Harris said in a written statement.

“An autopsy cannot be done,” Harris said. “The biggest questions are when, and how did he die?  Based on the limited skeletal remains that were obtained, that answer will most likely never be known.”

“The torso and cranium are yet to be located, and they may hold the clues necessary to prove a cause of death.”

Animals are believed to have scattered Decker’s remains, which were found in five different areas far from each other, according to Harris. He noted that “no biological tissue or material” was obtained. A state anthropologist did not find fractures on any of the bones that would suggest a fall, the coroner said.

Search for Travis Decker

A variety of police agencies had been tracking Decker since June 2, when authorities discovered the asphyxiated bodies of his daughters — Paityn, 9; Evelyn, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5 — near a campsite. Decker had picked up his children May 30 for a court-mandated parental visit but did not return them to the Wenatchee home of their mother.

Friends and family have said Decker, a former Army infantry member, suffered from mental illness that appeared to worsen in the months leading up to the murders.

During the manhunt, police said Decker was being sought on three counts of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. The U.S. Marshals Service offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Decker’s arrest.

Travis Decker lost overnight custody rights

In court documents, Decker said he had previously lost overnight custody of his daughters because he was homeless and would often sleep in his vehicle. He said he’d only ever taken the girls to safe, paid campsites.

“Every time I’ve had the girls, we have been in campsites and national forests and paid campsites that have campers. We’ve never done anything that was unsafe or anything I wouldn’t want to put myself in,” Decker, who was homeless, said in an audio recording last fall.