Newly released footage of Travis Decker shows him asking the cops a chilling question just days before allegedly murdering his children.
Decker, 32, became a wanted man after his daughters - Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight, and Olivia, five, - were found suffocated under plastic bags with their wrists zip-tied at Rock Island Campground, around two hours east of Seattle, on June 2.
Wenatchee Police have newly released dashcam footage from a minor crash involving Decker on May 27.
Video shows him appearing anxious and disoriented as he rear-ended another vehicle at a stoplight.
According to an NBC affiliate KING-TV report, he repeatedly questioned: “I’m not going to jail tonight?”
When the officer replied it was an infraction, Decker also asked if driving without a license would land him behind bars.
The other driver described Decker as “not in his full senses,” nervous and fidgety.
At one point, Decker even offered a tight, prolonged handshake, asking the driver: “Are you going to be OK?”
Three days after the crash, on May 30, Decker picked up the girls from their mother, Whitney Decker, during a planned visit.
However, he never returned them by the agreed time, prompting Whitney to file a missing persons report that evening, per the Sun.
On June 2, authorities found his abandoned truck near the campsite, its tailgate splattered with blood matching Decker’s DNA. Not long after, the girls were discovered dead. Autopsy results confirmed asphyxiation by suffocation.
Decker’s ex-wife raised red flags months earlier about his mental health. Legal filings noted his diagnosed borderline personality disorder, possible PTSD from U.S. Army service, insomnia, and erratic behavior - including waking her by screaming at night.
He’d even tried to rekindle their marriage just a week before the tragedy.
In custody court audio from September 2024, Decker argued he had never endangered his children: “We’ve never done anything that was unsafe or anything I would not want to put myself in.”
More alarmingly, his brother TJ told NPR his sibling had “lost his identity” post-military, and turned away from scheduled counselling sessions just weeks before the girls vanished.
The search for Decker now spans rugged terrain from Washington into Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest.
A recent sighting by an Idaho woman in mid-June, who described a man matching Decker’s features on a grocery run, was initially dismissed - but later supported by U.S. Marshals after additional sightings.
Authorities now describe Decker as armed and dangerous. A joint operation by the U.S. Marshals, Coast Guard, SWAT, and local agencies continues to hunt for him.
They have offered a $20,000 reward and cautioned the public not to approach him.