Brother of Washington state man wanted for killing daughters speaks out

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A brother of the Washington state man accused of killing his three young daughters says his sibling abandoned his wife and kids and didn’t financially support them.

Travis Decker has been on the run since the bodies of his children Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5, were found near Rock Island Campground in early June after they were not returned to their mother following a scheduled visit on May 30.

Thomas Decker said he doesn’t know if his younger brother will surrender peacefully.

“I honestly do not know,” he told Britain’s Daily Mail. “We have been so disconnected for the last three years.

“I hope it is over soon. You know, there’s a lot of people — not just within the family, but outside the family — that wants closure with this.”

All three girls, who were suffocated to death, were found with bags over their heads and bound with zip ties, according to the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office.

The search for the 32-year-old missing father, wanted on three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of kidnapping, has entered its second week.

As children, Decker said they were best friends.

“We did everything together, we hunted, fished, camped and fought with each other.”

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They both joined the U.S. Army in their late teens.

“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.”

However, that changed three years ago when Decker found out he would be stationed closer to where his brother was living.

“Initially, Travis was excited about the news that we were going to be finally living in the same state after all of these years. I was excited, I have young kids, and Travis had three young girls. I thought we all could reconnect … with our wives and kids.”

Decker said, after he moved, a call to his sibling left him taken aback as he appeared “distant and uninterested.”

“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.”

Soon after, Decker found out his brother was about to abandon his wife and kids.

“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.'”

Decker tried to help him and staged an intervention with their father.

“We had hoped to have a good conversation with him – to ask him if he needed anything, any help, financial or otherwise,” he said. “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.”

Decker clarified there was no physical violence during the intervention.