• Chilling Online Searches: Days before his daughters went missing, Travis Decker searched how to move to Canada and looked at Canadian job sites, suggesting a planned escape.
• Tragic Timeline: Decker picked up his daughters on May 30 for a planned visitation. Authorities found their bodies on June 2 near the Canadian border. He remains at large.
• Nationwide Manhunt: Authorities believe Decker may be fleeing through remote wilderness toward Canada. Authorities warn: armed, dangerous, and leveraging military training to evade capture.

Just days before authorities reported his three young daughters missing and later found them dead, Travis Decker sat behind a screen and typed out a series of internet searches that now haunt everyone following the case. The words he looked up weren’t random. They pointed to something dark forming in the background—something desperate, something planned.

According to federal authorities, Decker searched, “how to relocate to Canada” and “how does a person move to Canada” on May 26. At that time, his three daughters — Paityn, 9; Evelyn, 8; and Olivia, 5 — were safe, living with their mother. But just four days later, on May 30, the girls disappeared during a routine visitation with their father. Three days after that, their lifeless bodies were found. And Decker? Gone.

What started as simple web searches now looks like the first step in an escape plan.

A Digital Trail of Alarming Intent

Decker didn’t just ask how to move to Canada — he also explored Canadian job listings. Investigators believe these searches were far more than idle curiosity. They were blueprints for flight.

The timing was no coincidence.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service affidavit, Decker’s activity on May 26 suggests he was already thinking about leaving the country before anyone even picked up the girls for visitation. That detail changes everything. It raises the chilling possibility that Decker wasn’t just planning a trip with his daughters—he might have been plotting how to disappear alone.

Investigators suspect Decker may have fled via the Pacific Crest Trail—a brutal, isolated path stretching straight to Canada. The chilling connection? The girls’ bodies were discovered just 11 miles from the trailhead.

He knew where he was going.

A Visit That Turned Into a Nightmare

May 30 started off like any other day in Wenatchee, Washington. That evening, the three girls were picked up by their father as part of a planned visitation. There was no argument. No scene. Just a quiet exchange that happens between separated parents every day.

But this time, something was terribly wrong.

By the next day, when the girls hadn’t returned, their mother knew something was off. The police agreed. An endangered missing persons alert was issued. Officers said they were “unable to confirm the safety or whereabouts of the children” and feared the worst.

Still, the community hoped for a miracle. That maybe they were just delayed. That maybe it was all a misunderstanding.

But by June 2, hope vanished.

The alert was canceled. Authorities confirmed what no one wanted to hear — the bodies of Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia had been found.

And their father, the last person to see them alive, had vanished.

Escaping Justice?

The chilling online searches now serve as the strongest clue that Decker may have been preparing not just for murder, but for life on the run. Investigators believe he had the skills and the mindset to pull it off.

He served in the military, giving him survival training. He knew the outdoors. And he had chosen a location close enough to the wilderness to make tracking him extremely difficult.

“We believe he may have attempted to flee the country,” said Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison. “We’re searching everywhere for him. He’s dangerous and may be armed.”

That fear isn’t unfounded. Authorities are now coordinating with Canadian officials, watching border crossings and scanning the trail routes leading north.

Still, he hasn’t been found.

Community in Shock, Outrage Grows

Back home in Wenatchee, devastation has gripped the community. The girls filled the neighborhood with life—playing in the yard, riding bikes, waving to neighbors.

“They were full of life,” said a neighbor who often watched them walk to school. “You just can’t believe this happened here.”

Now, fear stalks parents. Anger burns in families. A furious question spreads: How could someone with such clear intent take his kids—legally? The court approved the custody arrangement. No one saw immediate danger. But now, hindsight sharpens the pain—were there red flags everyone missed?

Online, grief and rage explode. “How did this happen?” one post demands. “Those girls needed protection.”

Others are demanding reforms in the family court system. Strangers from across the country have joined in, sharing photos of the girls, lighting candles in their memory, and calling for justice.

The Search Continues

Travis Decker is still out there. He’s been formally charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of kidnapping. There is a nationwide warrant for his arrest. His face is on wanted posters, news broadcasts, and highway signs.

But as each day passes, the urgency deepens. Authorities are racing against time. The Canadian wilderness is vast, and if Decker planned his escape as carefully as his online searches suggest, he could be anywhere.

Officials are begging the public for help. “If you see him, do not approach,” Sheriff Morrison warned. “Call 911 immediately.”

The FBI, U.S. Marshals, and local law enforcement are involved. And still — no sign of him.

A Broken Family, A Broken Town

The mother of the girls has not spoken publicly, but friends say she’s inconsolable. She had trusted that her daughters would return home from a standard visitation. Instead, she was left to bury them.

Three little girls. Gone in an instant. And a father who, just days earlier, was already searching for the door.

The haunting part is how quiet it all was. The calm before a storm no one saw coming. A few typed questions in a search bar. Some job listings in a new country. No one knew that those simple online actions would be the first step toward something unthinkable.

Final Thoughts: A Warning in Hindsight

This story is heartbreaking not just because of what happened — but because of how it happened. Quietly. Under the radar. With no alarms until it was too late.

The internet searches offer a rare glimpse into the mind of a man now accused of the worst kind of betrayal. They weren’t just questions. They were clues — signs of a plan that may have been forming long before anyone knew danger was near.

Now, three little girls are gone. Their town is grieving. And a manhunt is still underway, fueled by sorrow, anger, and a desperate need for justice.

Until he’s found, one question lingers louder than all the others:

Why?

And how far did he plan to go before the world caught on?