As law enforcement agencies are being flooded with tips related to Travis Decker, the man deputies believe murdered his three daughters, police are advising the public on how to submit a good tip.
Deputies say Decker picked up the girls from their Wenatchee home for a court-approved visit on Friday evening but never brought them back.
Those girls are 9-year-old Paityn, 8-year-old Evelyn, and 5-year-old Olivia Decker.
Their bodies were found west of Leavenworth at Rock Island Campground on Monday afternoon. Deputies say they were sufficated and their hands were zip-tied. Decker was nowhere to be found.
Now the search for Decker is on day six.
Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said they are inundated with tips coming in across the country.
“Worst case scenario we can see he might’ve gotten a head start on Friday so he would’ve had the weekend to be out there,” Morrison said.
KIRO 7 decided to dig into what law enforcement is facing when it comes to filtering through the tips. KCSO is not involved in the search for Travis Decker, but we are asking for their expertise when it comes to large-scale searches.
King County Deputies say only reporting firsthand information is key to not clogging up the tip line.
King County Sgt. Eric Gagnon tells us they never want to discourage people from sending in a tip, even anonymously, but want to share what makes a “good tip.”
“It’s important to have good tips and by good tips I mean we have to know the time and place a sighting happened,” Gagnon said.
He says secondhand information, online chatter, and rumors are not helpful. Gagnon tells us they want multiple pieces of information from a tipster in a search like the one for Travis Decker.
- Time and location of the tip
- Who the tip is about
- If the tip is of a vehicle, share license plate information, and which direction the vehicle is going
- Whether or not you took the picture or video, and if not you, then who
“We want the first person who had that information, then we go back to the time, place, description, direction of travel, that’s helpful to us,” Gagnon said.
He tells us this isn’t meant to discourage people from reporting something, whether that be in the Travis Decker search or any other case.
“I don’t want people to hesitate I think that if your gut is telling you this is important that you should call us and tell us what it is,” Gagnon said.
He said people should also be careful reporting images they didn’t take, because they could be altered or even AI generated.
Right now there is a $20,000 reward out for anyone who provides information that leads to Decker’s arrest.
©2025 Cox Media Group
