As this story unfolds, we’re getting a better picture… of an uglier image.
For those who have avoided this story so far, Travis Decker picked up his daughters — Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5 — for a visitation on Friday, May 30. It was supposed to be just three hours; they never returned. The following Monday investigators found Decker’s truck at the Rock Island Campground near Leavenworth, Washington. It wasn’t an unusual place for him to go as he’d been living out of the vehicle. Sadly, there was blood on it. And soon the most horrifying discovery — the three young girls in a tent nearby. Their wrists were zip-tied, and they were asphyxiated with plastic bags. Travis was charged with three counts of murder, and a manhunt was launched immediately. Terrifyingly, as of this writing, it’s still ongoing.
But if he really murdered those little girls, his own daughters… what changed in him? How did he become… this?? That’s not yet clear, but we’re getting closer. Travis’ brother is now speaking out about the changes he saw — changes that led them to become estranged.
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Thomas Decker spoke to DailyMail.com on Wednesday about what he saw happening with his brother. He says they grew up super close since they were only two years apart in age:
“We did everything together, we hunted, fished, camped and fought with each other. We were best friends as kids.”
They even both went into the military, which made them connected in a new way — but also more apart than they’d ever been:
“At times we were stationed at opposite ends of the world, but we stayed in touch with phone calls and emails. We rarely saw each other because of our military careers.”
Thomas was over the moon when, just over three years ago, he learned he was being stationed near Tacoma, Washington — just a three hour drive from Wenatchee. It was finally a chance to “reconnect” and hang out more often. They even both had small children now, so it was perfect. Well, it should have been.
“Initially, Travis was excited about the news that we were going to be finally living in the same state after all of these years. Then, after I moved out, I called Travis on the phone, he appeared distant and uninterested, I was taken back by his demeanor.”
What happened?? Thomas wasn’t close enough to see what started everything, just when. But clearly it wasn’t some brotherly squabble. Whatever changed in Travis destroyed his marriage as well:
“Months later I found out that Travis and Whitney were getting a divorce. He was still living at the house, but every time I spoke with him… it’s hard to explain, but you couldn’t communicate with him. He listened but wasn’t listening.”
Sounds similar to the way a neighbor described trying to speak to him. But he was growing more distant from his daughters, too — something a family man like Thomas couldn’t wrap his head around:
“I told him, ‘You can’t leave your family like this. People get divorced all the time, if you are not happy in your marriage, that’s okay. But your kids do not deserve this, just because you are getting a divorce doesn’t allow you to forgo your parental obligations.”
Thomas and his father even tried an “intervention,” showing up at Travis’ house, with Whitney taking the kids away for the day:
“We were trying to help him. We had hoped to have a good conversation with him – to ask him if he needed anything, any help, financial or otherwise. We are family, we want to help him and see what we could do to get him back on track. But things did not go well, he tried to resort to violence, because we were not supposed to be there and we just showed up unannounced.”
HE TRIED TO RESORT TO VIOLENCE? AGAINST HIS OWN BROTHER AND FATHER??
Thomas clarified no physical violence actually occurred. Maybe because it was two on one? And they weren’t defenseless children??
Thomas didn’t reach out much after that. However, about a year later their mother died — so he called to check on him and ask him if there was anything of hers he’d want. No discernible effect:
“Again, whatever I said fell on deaf ears. By this time, he and Whitney were divorced, and he wasn’t paying child support, nor fulfilling his parental obligations.”
Travis apparently responded to the brotherly attention by lashing out — and Thomas soon had to shut his brother out of his life completely:
“He was spreading lies about me and I just no longer wanted to deal with it. I have worked hard for what I have accomplished, and I did not want his lies to ruin my career or anything else. So I told myself I would not communicate with him anymore. And to cut him off was tough. We grew up together, he is my baby brother, we did a lot of things together, and I thought we were going to be a big happy family, take our kids on trips, be uncles and dads. It’s tough now knowing that will never be the case.”
Thomas did see Whitney and the girls one more time — about a week before the murders, actually. He recalled:
“We were being transferred again, and we were going to be driving near where they lived so we spent a night in Wenatchee. We got a hotel and Whit, the girls came swimming, and we had a little pizza party. We laughed and played and just caught up on conversation, normal family stuff. Whitney told my wife that she still wanted Travis to find help.”
Thomas makes clear Whitney “never mentioned that she was concerned about her and her daughters’ safety around Travis” — who was “still attending the girls’ sporting events.” The bare minimum for a dad who was no longer “financially providing.” But still, he was around and didn’t seem scary to Whitney. Obviously everyone should have been terrified, but the grieving uncle wants everyone to know:
“[If we] knew of any potential danger we would have acted upon it. We did not get any vibe Whitney had any concern of potential violence.”
Thomas declared about his brother:
“The guy on the wanted poster for murdering my three nieces is not the brother I know. I can’t even comprehend what is going on. I am in complete shock that he would do something like this. He loves his daughters — at least I thought he did. And Whitney is devastated beyond belief.”
Unimaginable.
As both Travis’ brother and a fellow military man, Thomas was a good guy to ask a question that’s formed in the minds of many following the case. Could his mental struggles have been caused by his time as a soldier??
Travis served as an infantryman in the US Army from March 2013 to July 2021; he deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2o14. Thomas said the issues seemed to start about three years ago, but maybe that was just when he noticed. He didn’t get a close look until then.
Whitney previously communicated to the press through attorney Arianna Cozart, explaining that Travis had sought professional help through the VA — the Department of Veteran Affairs. There was also a veteran crisis line. She said Travis was suffering from PTSD and from borderline personality disorder.
What went wrong? Whitney told Thomas and his wife that as soon as he started to get better, he stopped going. And that was the end of that.
Whatever happened to Travis, it turned violent under everyone’s noses, even those who knew him best. In a statement to The New York Post last Friday, Whitney said through her lawyer:
“It’s clear that something broke in him because no person can go out there and be a parent to three beautiful girls for nine years, pretend like he loves them, if he’s intending to kill them for nine years. It’s obvious something broke in him. He’s a broken human, like anybody who could commit such a heinous act is, you know, I don’t know the better way to put it.”
Does Thomas think it his brother was suffering PTSD? Or that it could have cuased him to become violent with his daughters? That he couldn’t say:
“I don’t know. I mean, everybody gets affected from different things differently. There are people in the military that can see the worst things and they’re fine. And there’s people that go to the office every day and they are out.”
That’s true. For now it’s still a mystery what changed. One that will haunt Thomas — who keeps looking back on those months they were planning to spend time together as a family:
“Then all of a sudden he changed — I don’t know what changed or why, it is something I have been trying to figure out these past three years.”
One more horrible question. Will Travis surrender when the authorities finally surround him? Thomas says, “I honestly do not know.” He just doesn’t know the guy anymore.
So so sad.
For resources on mental health, visit https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help. You can find more on the Veterans Crisis Line at https://www.veteranscrisisline.net.
[Image via Wenatchee Police Department/Chelan County Sheriff’s Office]
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