A report says that Travis Decker was caught on a police dashboard camera just three days before he was accused of killing his three young girls.
On May 27, Decker, 32, hit a car head-on at a red light in Wenatchee, Washington. He begged the driver “not to call the police.”
After the police officer arrived, Decker leaned against his pickup truck and stared at them while they filled out the report. The video, which lasted almost 20 minutes, was recorded by a dash cam.
A driver who did not want to be named told the news outlet that Decker, a homeless Army veteran, “looked almost intimidating to me” when he told the soon-to-be-fugitive that he had called the police.
The driver said, “I could tell he wasn’t in his right mind” because Decker asked strange questions during the crash report.
Police said Decker was also in a car accident on May 4 where he hit a Honda CRV from behind and then drove off quickly.
The driver of the Honda followed Decker’s truck and gave cops his license plate number, the report says.
The May 27 meeting with Decker finished with a nine-second handshake that made the driver look uncomfortable, and Decker’s dad tried to pull his hand away.
The report said that Decker asked the man several times during that awkward conversation if he was “going to be OK.”
While driving, the other driver was shocked to see Decker’s face on the news three days later.
He said, “I had to stop what I was doing and sit down.”
Authorities say that Decker put plastic bags over the heads of his daughters Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5, on May 30, just hours after picking them up for a planned meeting. This is what they say happened.
Zip ties were used to bind the girls’ wrists and necks. Their bodies were found on June 2 near Rock Island Campground, not far from Decker’s parked truck.
Whitney Decker, the girls’ mom, spoke at a benefit event last month. “I truly hope that the legacy of their lives lives on in everyone’s heart forever,” she said.
“They were amazing,” she said through tears.
The police are still looking for Decker, and they’re not even sure if the alleged serial killer is still alive.
For now, there is no solid proof that Decker is still living or in this area, the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement last month.
“Over the last two weeks of searching, evidence that seemed stronger at first gave way to evidence that wasn’t as strong. Still, we won’t give up on our search; Paityn, Evelyn, and Olivia Decker deserve to be found guilty. It also said that Decker would still be a danger to the public as long as he was free.
In Idaho, the US Marshals ended the search after a false alarm in Sawtooth National Forest. On the Fourth of July weekend, a guy who looked like Decker was seen “behaving strangely” on an ATV trail.
