A NURSE has claimed she spent weeks trying to get police to investigate after she believed she saw fugitive dad Travis Decker – and is begging them to follow up quicker on future tips.
Jennifer Rice said she noticed a man matching Travis Decker’s description in Idaho last month, 500 miles from where the ex-soldier dad is alleged to have suffocated his three daughters to death.
YouTube/KiviTVNewsJennifer Rice also spoke to KIVITV News about the possible sighting[/caption] Chelan County Sheriff's OfficeOfficials have released several photos and videos of Travis Decker to assist the public[/caption] Whitney Decker and her daughters Olivia, 5, Evelyn, 8, and Paityn, 9Facebook/Whitney DeckerHer sighting in Idaho City was weeks before two separate possible sightings in Sawtooth National Forest in the same state, which resulted in US Marshals shifting the multi-agency hunt.
Although the further tips have been ruled out after they questioned a lookalike hiker, Rice says police have still not done enough to rule out her sighting, including checking for video surveillance footage.
“I tried so hard to get anybody to listen, and that’s the part that was frustrating,” she said.
“It was unsettling enough. The U.S. Marshall’s was the fifth phone call that I had made, in addition to two police officers that I caught at a local car show.
“Maybe one of these reports will be helpful – so encouraging everyone to be aware and report what they see is still appropriate.”
Decker, 32, has been on the run since his daughters, 9-year-old Paityn, 8-year-old Evelyn, and 5-year-old Olivia, were found suffocated to death at a campground outside Wenatchee, Washington, on June 2.
The search switched to Idaho after possible sightings.
Rice said she was leaving Gentry’s Outpost on June 18 at around 4.21 pm when she spotted a man who seemed “out of place.”
The store is about 500 miles away from the campsite where the girls’ bodies were found, but she is confident the man she saw was identical to Decker.
She said, “He stuck out like a sore thumb, I’ll say that. Idaho City is a pretty small town. I don’t know the population, certainly less than a thousand people.
“There’s this guy and he has like a sleeping roll. He didn’t have a sleeping bag. There was no bag snapped on the outside.
“And then certainly the backpack that he was carrying was not big enough to be holding much of anything.
“You’re gonna walk outside of a town that is 30 to 40 minutes from anywhere else, and you’re gonna take that backpack.
“I backed out the parking spot, I had to cross to get into the street essentially. And he was walking literally right in front of me, probably within about 20 feet.
“So there’s just a random guy walking across the parking lot carrying a backpack and a sleeping roll, no vehicle, no nothing. I couldn’t figure out.
“So he walks in front of me, he was not quite shuffling, like causing dirt to stir, but he was just like meandering, like he didn’t have a purpose and was walking like that.”
I saw that middle photo and I was like, ‘That’s the guy, that’s the guy that was in front of me.’
Caldwell resident Jennifer RiceShe remembered the news reports about Decker and warnings to report anyone who seemed underprepared in remote areas, and began looking up photographs of him.
“They had updated pictures [online],” she said. “This is what he could look like with a beard, with a hat, it’s three photos in a row.
“I saw that middle photo and I was like, ‘That’s the guy, that’s the guy that was in front of me.’
Timeline of the search for Travis Decker
Paityn, 9; Evelyn, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were found dead at a campground after they were last seen on a custody visit to their dad.
Below is a timeline of events:
May 29: Cell phone activity shows that the girls’ dad, Travis Decker, drove to the Rock Island Campground and left.
May 30: 5 pm – Travis Decker picks the three girls up from their mom, Whitney Decker.
8 pm – Travis Decker is supposed to return the girls but doesn’t. Whitney Decker calls him and it goes to voicemail.
9:45 pm – Whitney Decker calls the Wenatchee Police Department to report her daughters missing.
Travis Decker’s truck is seen driving westbound on Highway 2.
Washington State Patrol is contacted for an Amber Alert but said the situation didn’t match their criteria.
May 31 : WPD issues an Endangered Missing Persons Alert.
June 2: 3:45 pm – Travis Decker’s truck is found empty at Rock Island Campground with two bloody handprints and items inside.
5 pm – Cops search the area and find the bodies of the three girls.
June 3: 9:30 am – Cops notify the public that they are still searching for Decker.
2 pm – WPD tells the public that the three girls were found dead and that Travis Decker is still on the loose.
June 8: Federal authorities take over search efforts.
June 9: Autopsy results confirm three girls were murdered by suffocation.
June 13: An affidavit revealed Whitney described Travis as having “recent mental health concerns.”
“She provided the examples of randomly leaving or waking her up by screaming at her in the middle of the night,” it read.
“She also said near the end of the marriage he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder that she believes he currently does not take medications for.”
June 17: New audio of Travis in court fighting for custody of his daughters is released.
“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 September 2024.
“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.”
June 18: Jennifer Rice spotted a man meeting Decker’s description in Idaho City while leaving Gentry’s Outpost at 4.21 pm.
June 20: Memorial is held where Whitney speaks publicly about girls for first time.
July 5: US Marshals say a family spotted a man believed to be Travis Decker in the Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho.
July 10: The sighting at the campsite has now been ruled out by authorities.
“So that picture that I saw has him with a mustache and kind of a shady sort of a beard, like a five o’clock shadow. He had way more than that.
“It was so sparse, you wanted to kind of color it in for him.
“And this gentleman was the same way because I remember thinking he looks like a teenager because his beard is so not grown in, but his body was obviously an adult.”
Jennifer, from Caldwell, said she contacted local police multiple times and rang the alert line, but they didn’t follow up.
The U.S. Marshals have now been in touch with her and allegedly told her they will investigate her sighting.
She claimed the man was about 5′ 7″ or 5′ 8″ and weighed about 175-180lbs.
Decker is described as 5′ 8 inches tall and 190 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
“I did see that he was wearing black pants or dark blue of some kind. But they weren’t like slacks, like work slacks. Maybe they would be considered like cargo or mountain pants or something,” she said.
“But that was another weird thing too because I think on that day it would’ve been, gosh, 91 degrees outside.
“I’m like, why is this guy wearing pants? So everything about him just kind of stood out.
“They asked me if he had tattoos, but I actually think he might’ve had a long sleeve on. And that also seemed weird for the weather.
“His face was fairly thin, a little bit sunken in cheeks, and then that really sparse beard.
“The visitor center has the only public bathrooms in town.
“He was basically approaching the steps to go into the center, but when I had to turn, I looked away and I didn’t see if he went up the stairs or just walked in front of them. After 4pm it is unmanned.”
“That intersection is the highway. And then right there, too, there’s an RV park and there’s a gas station.
“What if the RV park or the gas station has cameras? Because any of those people might have had some sort of security or something, but nobody wants to call and check.”
The U.S. Sun has followed up on her claims and reached out to nearby businesses.
Decker is charged with kidnapping and killing his three daughters after picking them up from his ex-wife, Whitney Decker, for a scheduled custody visit on May 30.
Discussing the alleged murders, Rice said: “These girls didn’t do anything. They were just going to visit their dad, and it’s just heartbreaking.
“I just can’t imagine what that mom would be going through. Being forced to make her kids go and then having them not come back.”
Authorities have ruled out the sighting on July 5, near the Bear Creek Campground east of Boise.
The man had hair, beard, and tattoos on his arm and calf similar to Decker, the US Marshals Service Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force said in a press release obtained by ABC and CBS affiliate KIFI.
“It was described that he didn’t have hiking boots. He’s avoiding eye contact, and he was on an ATV, UTV trail that usually isn’t trafficked by hikers,” it added.
“Investigators interviewed the cooperative man and confirmed he was hiking in the Bear Creek area this past weekend,” the U.S. Marshals later said in the press release after a search of the area.
“At this time, law enforcement has stopped searching for Decker at the Sawtooth National Forest and has begun to demobilize their resources.”
US Marshal Brent Bunn shared his gratitude for the public’s help in the search and thanked the agencies that supported the operation over the past five days.
It’s unclear if the man Rice saw was the one questioned and cleared by the US Marshals.
Statement from US Marshals
On Wednesday, the US Marshals Service issued the following statement after searching for Travis Decker in Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest:
This afternoon, the U.S. Marshals Service Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force located the man multiple witnesses saw at the Sawtooth National Forest who was believed to be Travis Decker.
The hiker who is the same height and roughly the same weight as Decker, also has dark features, a beard and tattoos on his arm and calf. Investigators interviewed the cooperative man and confirmed he was hiking in the Bear Creek area this past weekend.
At this time, law enforcement has stopped searching for Decker at the Sawtooth National Forest and has begun to demobilize their resources.
United States Marshal Brent Bunn is grateful for the public’s assistance with this fugitive investigation.
Marshal Bunn also thanks the many law enforcement agencies who provided critical assistance over kthe past five days to include the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, Nampa Police Department, Caldwell Police Department, Bureau of Land Management, Camas County Sheriff’s Office, Blaine County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Idaho Department of Correction, Coeur d’Alene Police Department and FBI.
Source: ABC and CBS affiliate KIFI
Authorities have said there is no evidence to suggest Travis Decker is alive or dead as the hunt for him extends into a second month.
A reward of $20,000 has been offered for any information leading to his arrest.
Last month, a group of hikers saw a man believed to be Decker hiking near the Enchantments in Washington’s Cascade Mountain Range.
When police went to locate him with a helicopter, he sprinted off the hiking trail.
The search will likely return to the mountains in Washington state, where the grueling hunt has spanned hundreds of miles in the rough terrain.
Decker is a military veteran with extensive survival skills, which initially led police to believe he could stay hidden in the wilderness alone for months at a time.
Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said last week that he hopes the season’s foot traffic through Washington nature brings more attention to the mountains and eventually leads to Decker’s arrest.
He said the receding waters in summer weather also might bring answers as it allows authorities to search creeks and rivers.
Facebook/chelancountysheriffsofficeTravis Decker is thought to be on the run after allegedly murdering his three daughters[/caption] The girls were found dead on June 2, and Decker was not present at the sceneAP Read More Details
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