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THE murder of three Washington sisters has spurred a push for new laws after outraged citizens insisted the tragedy was preventable.
A petition demanding changes to the Amber Alert system is gaining traction as the manhunt persists for fugitive Travis Decker.
Decker, 32, is accused of killing his three young daughters and leaving their bodies at a campsite in Washington state after what was supposed to be a three-hour custody visit on May 30.
An Amber Alert wasn’t issued for the girls, although their mom, Whitney Decker, reported them missing when Decker didn’t drop them off at home in Wenatchee, 150 miles east of Seattle.
Police said the case didn’t meet the Amber Alert criteria because Decker had custody rights to his daughters, and he had never been violent to them before.
Instead, cops issued a lesser notice called an Endangered Missing Persons Advisory.
If an Amber Alert had been issued, a message would have been pushed out to millions of cellphone users across the state, asking for anyone to keep an eye out for the missing girls.
Now, an online petition addressed to the Washington State police is asking for changes to the alert requirements.
“Right now, the AMBER Alert criteria exclude too many high-risk situations, especially involving non-stranger parental abductions, even when a history of abuse or red flags are present,” the petition says.
“If the rules remain unchanged, we risk allowing more children to fall through the cracks—children who could be saved if only their cases were treated with the urgency they deserve.
“We must not let another parent feel Whitney’s unimaginable pain. The system failed her family—and it can fail others too if we don’t act.”
Whitney’s Law, named for the girls’ mom, has over 6,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
The new legislation would mean the alert system includes all at-risk children, whether or not the parent is the abductor.
Activist Tamara Emerson led a rally for change to the system at Seattle’s City Hall in June, according to radio show KIRO-FM.
“Sometimes we wait until harm occurs to put protections in place,” Emerson said.
“But if there are risk factors, children should be protected.”
Timeline of the missing Decker girls
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 20: Memorial is held where Whitney speaks publicly about girls for first time.
July 5: A family spotted a man believed to be Travis Decker in the Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho.
July 9: US Marshals call off the search in Sawtooth National Forest after locating and questioning the man believed to be Travis Decker and confirming it isn’t him.
Shortly after the girls were found suffocated to death at Rock Island Campground, Whitney called for reforms for the state’s Amber Alert system and said her veteran ex-husband was a “broken” man.
Arianna Cozart, Whitney’s attorney, who she allowed to speak on her behalf, told NBC affiliate KING at the time that text alerts would have put the community on the lookout for Decker’s white pickup truck and the girls, which might have made a difference.
MOM’S PRIORITY
The Endangered Missing Persons Advisory doesn’t immediately send out a text to all cell phones in the area, which an Amber Alert would have done.
Cozart said Wenatchee police recognized Decker’s mental instability and noticed the red flags in him not returning the girls or answering his phone, but cops still couldn’t convince Washington State Patrol to issue an Amber Alert.
“It’s very important to Whitney to get that fixed,” Cozart said.
Each state has its own Amber Alert plan.
Recommended criteria for Amber Alert
While each state has its own Amber Alert plan, the US Department of Justice recommends the following criteria for sending out the emergency alerts:
Each state has its own AMBER Alert plan, but the U.S. Department of Justice recommends:
- Reasonable belief by police that an abduction occurred
- Police believe the child is in imminent danger of injury or death
- Enough descriptive information about the victim and abduction for police to issue an alert to help recover the child
- The abducted child is 17 or younger
- The child’s name is entered into the National Crime Information Center system
Source: DOJ
In June, State Representative Brian Burnett showed his support for the idea of Whitney’s Law. Burnett didn’t immediately return The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
The hunt for Travis Decker has lasted over nine weeks.
Police recently they were scaling back their search efforts due to the decreasing number of tips and resources.
However, a former FBI agent told The U.S. Sun the announcement might be a ploy to flush Decker out of his wilderness hiding.
