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[Music] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks
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for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man who even when
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he's stumbling, he don't play a bad guitar. Here is the captain. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks
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for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. [Music] This week we are drinking Tower Station
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India Pale Ale by the good folks over at Mother Road Brewing Company in beautiful
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Flagstaff, Arizona. If you've never been, I highly recommend. That's one of my favorite cities out there in Arizona.
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and want to give a special shout out to the awesome folks, the staff and owners over at Mother Road Brewing Company
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because they we are drinking this beer today in the garage because they gave some of this beer, their great beer to
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our mother. So, shout out to Barbara Jean uh who brought this back from one of her trips very recently. And this is
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delicious stuff here. This is great beer. Check out their beer. Tower Station India Pale Ale ABV 7.3% garage
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grade four and 3/4 bottle caps out of five. And let's give some thanks to our great folks who helped us out as well.
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We have Christina in Americas, Georgia. And a big we like your jib goes out to Britney Black and Monroe, Washington.
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Here's a cheers captain that we're sending out to Katie Lochman from Milwaukee. Milwaukee and a big tall
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hands in the air to Marissa Marissa Bank in Columbia, South Carolina. And last but certainly not least, Captain, we
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have Pete and Repeat up in Calgary. Everybody we just mentioned went to trimegar.com and helped us out with this
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week's beer run. And for that, we thank you. Yeah, BW are you in? Beer run. Hey,
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you want a discount on some merchandise? You want 25% off? Then go to trueimerg.com,
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click on the store page, pick yourself something up nice, and use our promo code garage 2025
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for 25% off. That's garage 2025, and that will be good for the next week or so. So, make sure you pick up some
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swag in the TCG store. And that's enough of the business. I highly recommend the
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sunglasses. All righty, everybody. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
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[Music] When we left off, Captain, unfortunately, the three girls had been located and it was not the news, not the
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situation that anybody had wanted. It was not good news at all. But the news that we are left with is now a crime
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scene. and also the news that we have a manhunt to search for the man that is believed to be responsible for taking
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those three lives. And that man is their father, 32year-old Travis Caleb Decker. And we talked about
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Travis quite a bit in episode 1. We're going to learn a bit a little bit more about him today in our follow-up
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episode. some of the evidence. We went through what was listed on one of the affidavit,
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some evidence that was listed on different articles, news articles online that have come out. And and folks, if
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you are not aware of this case and you want to learn more beyond this episode today, you want to see some of the
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pictures of the wanted man, there are plenty available on the internet if you have time. Some of the evidence and some
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of the observations of this crime scene that made their way to internet news articles are here's some right here,
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Captain. This is from the county sheriff's office that was saying that they collected a large amount of
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evidence which consisted much of the suspect's personal items from his truck. through the analysis of some of this
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evidence. They stated this just creates more questions than it does information for investigators to continue to pursue
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uh and look for for this man and look for additional evidence and and comb through the evidence that they
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collected. They stated that blood samples were taken from the crime scene. These blood samples do include both
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human and nonhuman blood that was found at the scene. Authorities had previously
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said in court documents that the tailgate of the truck had what appeared to be two handprints of blood on them.
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Now, from my understanding regarding these two handprints, the information I've reviewed states that it
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was human blood, male human blood that left those handprints on the tailgate of his truck. Well, yeah. and they believe
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they're the handprints are adult size. I don't know if they came out and said if
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they believe if it was a male handprint or a female handprint. Yeah. So the the a couple places, not saying that it's
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100% confirmed, but a couple places did state that it would was male. Then if it were
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to be that, of course, obviously you would suspect that it was in fact Travis's blood. that would make the most
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sense on his truck handprint male human blood that was found. And they go on to say that further DNA and fingerprint
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analysis would be conducted. And the these reports are reports though that were coming out by the time we are
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recording this here in the garage. It will be about a week since these reports came out. And by the time it hits your
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guys' earballs, it's still yet a couple of days days away. So there could be breaking news at any moment in this
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case. The only the only thing good of any part of this story is that the dog his dog Travis's dog was recovered and
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turned over to the Humane Society. Yeah. But again, that's that's why I I look at
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these cases and go, "This is insane. This is insanity." Yes. You you kill your three daughters, but but he let his
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dog live. I mean, it's just it's so bizarre. Well, and here's the other part of it, too. Like, and I I'm having a big
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problem with portions of this case because there are people and I don't know if defending Travis is the right
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statement to put forward because I don't know if that's their intention. But however, when I read the news articles,
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it sounds like there's some people defending him that he he was not receiving the level of care that he
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should be receiving, that he was not. And look, I agree with that. However, there appears to be a certain level of
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planning involved with these actions. And so, I'm I'm I'm not going to go down that road. I don't know who This is
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horrible. This is This is horrible. goddamn horrible. There's no nice way to put this. There's no clean good way to
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put any of this. When you talk about things like Sandy Hook, when you talk about Coline, when you talk about any of
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these cases that we cover, what could have prevented it? Who could have stopped it? People very quickly want to
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point a lot of fingers. This agency, this entity, this person, this family, this community didn't do enough. the
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there's here's the thing. I can agree with those statements, but they pale in comparison to this
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statement. The evidence says one man killed these three little girls. One man did this. So, point as many fingers as
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you want, have as many opinions as you want, but understand that at the crux of everything is this one man who did this,
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who made this choice. And it again, it appears there was some planning involved. Yeah. And like we were talking
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about in episode one when people were saying it's almost they were putting some blame on on law enforcement. Well,
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they didn't issue a Amber Alert. It's like again after afterwards we can sit there and nitpick every
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little thing that somebody should have done or could have done, you know, or there could be somebody going, "Well, if
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if Whitney was really concerned, then she should have went against the law and not allowed them to to have any
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visitation with their father. Nobody You can't foresee this shit." You know, like I said, I I think there's
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some situations Chris Watts, Scott Peterson, Coline, so many other cases that it's
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there's just an element of evil and and and I think what happens and rightfully so, is people get so angry about the
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situation that they start looking for every thing to blame. That's human nature. But the captain, I believe,
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dude, you are spot on, my friend. The more and more I looked at this case, the more and and really didn't have to very
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long, but my concern wavered quickly from his mental state to this guy just may be a cold-blooded killer. And again,
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he's at the center of all this. There appears to be some planning involved. Captain points out something that is
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very intriguing. If this guy was completely off the rails, the dog wasn't killed. And and here's here's where my
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mind goes. That blood on the tailgate. Yeah. You ever see a situation where a husband and wife, they're together many
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years, maybe they live together, they were engaged for a period of time, then they're married for a couple years
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before they have a kid, and and they've had this dog, this wonderful dog was a part of their family for the entire time
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that they were together or very long with one of the wife or the the husband. But then the little baby comes along and
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the dog is so protective of that child. Even though that dog had a father or mother or family member prior to the
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little baby coming along. Sometimes these dogs understand this is a child. This this little baby needs to be
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protected no matter what. Protected from everything. I there's I wonder if that blood if and if it's corrected it's
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adult male blood. Is there a chance he started hurting one of these kids and this dog did did something to Travis and
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injured him in the process? Now, and and and I want to also state though, we can
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only view these cases through the lenses that we have and through our experiences. So I I do have issues and
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and and you have and and so many people out there in listener land have had issues with mental instability
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and I can tell you for for a fact I didn't have homicidal thoughts but I had suicidal thoughts but that you you have
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to put some onus on the individual as well and and this is my opinion and through my experiences but if I would
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that took my own life, that would have been partly on me because I had people saying, "Hey, well, why don't you get
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this help or why don't you talk to somebody or or whatever it was, right?" And and so at some point, I had to make
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a decision to say, "I'm not good at this. I'm not figuring this out. I'm not winning these battles in my own head.
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Maybe somebody can help me out with this." And so again, and and I think your point is is a valid
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one and you're probably spot on. This dog probably tried to protect these little girls.
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But even if he has mental instability, that comes and goes with waves. So there was moments that I had suicidal thoughts
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and then there were moments that I didn't have suicidal thoughts. And in those moments, I wasn't having a
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suicidal thought was those were my chances to get help and start trying to get my life back onto a a better path.
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And so, you can't tell me since May 30th, whatever mental instability, there's waves of it. And there there had
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to be a wave of him knowing what he did. Even if he was off his rocker when all this stuff happened, there's a moment of
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clarity. He at any point he could have turned himself in. at any point he could make try to make contact, but that
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that's not what happened, you know. So, this this like I said, this is evil [ __ ] you know. Well, and shout out to
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to one of my favorite rock and rollers of old of of old, Azie Osborne, but if this dude was fullon going off the rails
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of a crazy train, we've reviewed cases like that. I've I've reviewed cases like that. You see them in the news and you
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see you see them in the newspaper unfortunately with a good amount of frequency. Guess where they find the
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perpetrator? Still at the crime scene, still at the they don't they usually don't flee. And when they do flee that
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the egress makes no sense and they're easily apprehended. They're quickly caught. We sit here today and he's not.
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And I tell you the f the more we go through this the more you're going to see that there was some level of
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planning involved. Let's let's start here. Let's start here. Dog dog was unharmed. Now, was that just happen
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stance? Possibly. That could very be very likely be happen stance. But cell phone, his cell phone was left at the
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scene. That was a choice that this man made. Could it be happen stance? Yes. I put the percentage of that prob
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probability at very little. I think he chose not to leave, not to bring his cell phone with him because he chose to
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flee. And when he chose to flee, given his background in the military, he understands at some point, it's human
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nature, I'm going to be compelled to check my phone or turn it on or do something with this phone. At some
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point, the longer on a on a long enough timeline, I'm human and I will I will turn on this phone and then they will
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find me. They will hone in on me. So, he had the wherewithal to go, you know what? I'm not going to bring that
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temptation with me. I'm going to leave that behind. You know, one of the things I find fascinating in the true crime
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world, and I haven't this it's just a thought that just popped into my head, so prepare yourself. You've not explored
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it. Yeah. But it it seems to me with certain cases like uh you know I was watching that documentary last night on
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um the Gilgo Beach murders and you have somebody like Rex Hamman where we don't know the full details. We don't have a
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ton of information about Rex. It seems like the true crime world has just kind of went, "Okay, well, they must have a
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bunch of evidence on him and and there there's not this a ground swell of, well, he's probably not the killer." But
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in other cases, like the Delphi case, you then get a a ground swell of people doing the opposite where they go, "Well,
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I don't know if we can trust law enforcement and and and maybe he's innocent." It it's weird that in some
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cases the whole true crime community just kind of goes, "Okay, this guy's probably guilty and then we're going to
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learn more about it." And as we learn more about it, we're probably going to still agree with law enforcement. But in
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other cases, it's it's almost like we start disagreeing for almost no reason. I I wonder somebody should look into why
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that happens in some cases and why it hap doesn't happen in other cases. Sometimes it's just because there's dumb
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people out there. Um well, right. Right. There is. I mean, every community has them. Um and and uh this community of is
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not um is not above that. It definitely is not. Well, like I said, it's not something I I really uh have thought
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about. just popped into my head. But it's also then I guess maybe in some cases uh I guess the weight of the
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evidence would would matter more. Absolutely. And I tell you what, we this is a conversation we should probably be
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having in the garage off the record or in the garage. No mics turned on at all. But I did want to mention, you know,
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just popped into your head, just popped into my head. We could do an entire episode just on the Peaches, the Peaches
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victim information that that I've reviewed in the past couple of months. There is so much information and thought
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because that one that particular victim is significantly different than all of the other victims in the Lisk case. But
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all right, we went down still go beach murders. Yeah, we got sidetracked here. Uh we mentioned the cell phone. my
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thoughts on the cell phone. Again, we got to remind the listeners here that this is a complicated area. Like we
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already said earlier, this is a very complicated area to try to locate someone. So, very quickly, just looking
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at an aerial view map. Very nearby, you have the Cashmere Mountain. You have Dragon Tale Peak. Very cool name. Mount
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Stewart, not such a cool name. And you have the Okanogan Wan that National Forest. Nailed it. Now that you can hear
00:19:04
the mountains, National Forest, that implies lots of places for someone to hide, especially given his background.
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And again, he's making moves. I don't care what anybody says about his level of stability or instability. He is
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making moves. That's what my eye sees. He left the cell phone there on purpose. the zip ties, the the bags that were
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found on the victims. These items could Yes, he's living out of his truck, living in a tent. Maybe were these items
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there? Yes. But he had those items and these items were used in the commission of these murders. Let's be clear about
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that. Now, full on, right from the get, we have we're finding the victims. We're
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finding the truck. We have a fullon manhunt because this dude appears to me to just straight up leave the cell
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phone, drop the cell phone, and leave. We have an arrest warrant that we went through for triple homicide and
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kidnapping. The description of this man, if you're not familiar with this story,
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Travis Decker is described as being 5'8 in tall with black hair and brown eyes. Many of the images that have been shared
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online by the sheriff's department show him with his hair in a ponytail and facial hair. And authorities have said
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this time and time again in the coverage of the story, reminding everybody that he is considered to be dangerous, should
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be considered to be dangerous going forward, and he may be armed. He should not be approached by any civilian out
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there. Call 911 if you believe that you have seen Travis Decker. Why do I why am
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I saying you in that weird way? In my weird colonel way here. That's because if you are at the salon and somebody
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tells you that their cousin thinks they spotted him on some road yesterday, right? Don't bother police. They're
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getting a lot of information coming in and they've not located this man yet. So that tells me that while people have
00:21:03
good intentions, the information is not great. It's not led them to the end goal, which everyone's goal here should
00:21:11
be to apprehend this man as quickly as possible. Travis Decker was last seen wearing either a tan or green t-shirt.
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And why would you say tan or green? That's two completely different colors. It I've seen these images and I know you
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have as well, Captain. And and I will back this statement of tan or green t-shirt because I've seen some pictures
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where the same shirt appears to be a neon green like like what you would see a road worker or maybe a construction
00:21:42
worker or landscaper wearing to be bright and vibrant so that so there's no accident. But I've seen other images
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from different angles and maybe he's in the shade or in the light and the same shirt appears to be more of a tan color.
00:21:59
So Decker was last seen wearing either a tan or green t-shirt as well as dark colored shorts and identifiers, right?
00:22:08
Identifiers. We're talking about his clothing here. We mentioned his hair in a ponytail, longer hair in a ponytail,
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but and facial hair. Facial hair can be changed like that. a ponytail. You can cut that baby off like that. All right.
00:22:23
Don't consume yourself with the ponytail and the facial hair. What's a great identifier when you have no phone, no
00:22:31
vehicle, a dude on the run that can change his look quickly. I will also say I've seen probably a dozen to 15
00:22:39
different pictures of Travis Decker recently. He can look a lot different. Yes. Thank you for saying that. facial
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hair or his actual hair. There's there's one picture that they recently released
00:22:52
of him. He's shirtless like where he looks like he's wearing swim trunks. And the purpose of that picture was to so
00:23:01
that people could view his tattoos. And I want to go through the tattoo information because those are
00:23:06
identifiers that are not easily changed. Right? Can't change the tattoos not easily while you're on the run. And in
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that picture in particular, Captain Shirtless swim trunks. If you've seen the different images, you'll know what
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I'm talking about. I was like, "This isn't even Travis Decker. Why did they release this?" And then I read all the
00:23:25
information. I'm like, "Oh, it is him." Now, let's review the tattoo. So, he's got multiple looks, has looked
00:23:32
differently throughout the last most recent years according to the pictures that are easily viewed online. going off
00:23:41
the swim trunk picture to describe some of these tattoos. Uh, looking at the picture itself. So, when I say it's
00:23:50
lefthand side, this would be his right hand side. The outside of the bicep appears to have like a black fish tattoo
00:23:59
just above the elbow with a thick black line next to it on the inner elbow. Then
00:24:06
on his the inside of the forearm, there's like a black skull with maybe a parachute
00:24:13
or maybe a cigar out of the side of the mouth and some kind of smoke coming up, but some kind of black wording is is
00:24:20
there as well. He's got a bunch of tattoos on the right side shoulder bicep area. There's two lines of black
00:24:27
lettering drops into black and purple. Maybe these are clouds or something, but this looks like
00:24:33
a a rather big tattoo. It covers up the nearly the entire bicep, if not the whole bicep, but it's
00:24:41
it's a little too blurry for me to tell exactly what it's supposed to be. And then it goes into a flag
00:24:47
on the inside of the bar bicep. Under the his armpit area on the one side, there's a black tribal symbol tattoo
00:24:56
that appears to me to be wrapping around to his back. And on his forearm, there's
00:25:02
two black parallel lines that wrap around. He also has a tattoo on his ankle, which appears to be a woman. It's
00:25:09
a picture of a woman with long hair. And then on his calf muscle on one of the calf muscles, he has uh it's a black
00:25:18
tattoo. I can't tell what it is, but it covers up most of the back of of his shin area, lower leg area. And captain,
00:25:26
when we get back from our quick little beer break, we'll review a little bit more of Travis Decker's background and
00:25:34
where he possibly could be [Music] [Music] All right, we are back. Cheers, mates.
00:25:58
Cheers to you, Colonel. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to all the the folks out there in Washington State looking for
00:26:06
this individual and being tasked and stressed and saddened by the case and what they've had to see and experience
00:26:13
in the last week or so. Well, what's tough is, you know, we get bombarded by people and look, it's it's our job and
00:26:23
and we love it. We're obsessed, right? So, we get bombarded by people saying, "Hey, was it what's going on with this
00:26:30
uh Travis Decker guy?" And uh the whole time we're recording these episodes, I I'm googling
00:26:39
um to to see if there's any updates because obviously this is one that I think we'll have an update soon on. Um I
00:26:49
don't think it's going to end well as far as them arresting him. If I had to bet a Franklin on it, I'd say uh they
00:26:57
just find his remains. Well, and as of this recording, there's been a lot of air quotes potential sightings Yeah. of
00:27:06
Decker. But of course, you know, I was having a conversation with somebody last night and and said,
00:27:14
you know, that there's some suspected sightings of this dude and they said, well, does that mean they're closing in?
00:27:20
I go, well, I mean, who knows, right? Where we sit now, who truly knows? And they said, well, what what's the level?
00:27:28
Is there any level of confirmation? Are these confirmed sightings? Well, it won't be a confirmed sighting until you
00:27:34
arrest the guy, confront the guy, arrest the guy, or find his body, obviously. So, well, there was one sighting that I
00:27:41
think is pretty interesting. So, they they see this hiker uh out in the wilderness. He's alone,
00:27:49
but they called him the ill-prepared hiker. And this this he was spotted by a helicopter. And see, and this is what I
00:27:58
was talking about about this terrain is so hard to search for an individual. Look,
00:28:06
when you're out in the city and the ghetto bird gets you, right? The ghetto bird locks in with their spotlight. Most
00:28:13
people don't get away from that, right? They can run and hide, but that ghetto bird's got them. But in this wilderness,
00:28:21
this helicopter sees this individual, tries to track them, and loses them. So, it's we don't even have confirmation
00:28:30
that this ill-prepared hiker is Travis Decker. We can just assume. Yeah, it's difficult because you can go, well, it's
00:28:37
probably not him because you'd think they would be able to hone in on him quickly. But the the flip of that coin
00:28:43
is saying, well, it probably is him because if it was just some rando person that was walking around, they would be
00:28:51
able to confront them and confirm that it was not him. So, look, good luck to everybody out there looking for him. We
00:28:57
wish you obviously the very, very best of luck and uh Godspeed with all of you. Now, I was curious about Travis Decker.
00:29:05
Let's dive into his background here a bit. wanted to know if he had had any previous run-ins with the law, if he had
00:29:12
a history of violence. I've run a background check on this guy. He does not. He doesn't have anything that that
00:29:20
says he's been arrested or charged for anything violent. He The one thing that I did call in a
00:29:28
question, there was a judgment in May of 2024 for over $13,000 here. I don't know
00:29:36
if that has anything to do with the divorce or with the uh child support, but that that certainly is something to
00:29:46
to consider when you factor in he was having what's reported by many people as financial troubles. He had no real place
00:29:56
to live. He did have a job, but this dude's whether he's mentally there feeling good or not, his world is
00:30:09
crumbling. And could that be because of his mental state? Very likely. But his world is kind of crumbling and falling
00:30:16
apart. And that's why I had said in in the first episode on Travis Decker that this is reminding me a lot of the list
00:30:25
case and the Bishop case from one of the arrest affidavit. It does go into some of the marriage information, some of the
00:30:35
background here. And if you allow me, I'll go ahead and read portions of this. This is from his ex-wife Whitney. It
00:30:42
says, "Whitney explained that she and Decker were married for about seven years, but have since been divorced for
00:30:47
a few years. And while this document says they've since been divorced for a few years, just keep in mind that
00:30:54
sometimes these divorce proceedings can be lengthy and we have other information
00:30:57
that says that it that may have been just that." It goes on to say, "She explained the divorce was civil and
00:31:04
initially Travis had housing and was allowed overnight visits. However, when he lost housing, the parenting plan was
00:31:13
readressed to accommodate accordingly. Whitney denied any domestic violence during their marriage, but did mention
00:31:21
moments of power or control that he used. She provided the examples of randomly leaving or waking her up by
00:31:30
screaming at her in the middle of the night. She also said near the end of the marriage he was diagnosed with
00:31:36
borderline personality disorder and she believes he currently does not take medication for this diagnosis. All
00:31:44
right. Taking a break from the document here just briefly. Yeah. One thing I want to point out, and again, we can't
00:31:51
say with 1,000% certainty, but from everything we're seeing and everything we're reading on this case, what
00:31:58
complicates matters about what's going on with Travis and what plans he may have had, it gets very complicated and
00:32:06
very difficult because I would describe him very much as a solitary man. Okay? Where are we getting the most
00:32:14
information about this guy on a personal level? We're getting it from his ex-wife
00:32:19
who he doesn't live with. We're getting it from his boss who only knows him when
00:32:24
he shows up for his 9 to5. Both of them saying, "We have mental health concerns with this guy. He doesn't have a stable
00:32:31
place to live." Meaning, he doesn't we don't we're not hearing from his family. We're not hearing from neighbors. We're
00:32:36
not hearing from people that hung out with this guy a lot that know about this guy, that know him at his core. He's a
00:32:43
solitary man. We don't really know what is going on with this guy. there's so little to report on him because he's
00:32:49
he's kind of removed from everybody. Well, and saying that my heart is broken is probably an understatement for
00:32:59
Whitney. But what I like about what she is saying or the statements that she's making and the statements that she has
00:33:06
made to law enforcement from the beginning is that she's not trying to sugarcoat anything, but she's also she
00:33:14
hasn't lied to paint him in a negative picture, if that makes any sense. Like when when she goes to report this to the
00:33:21
cops, they say she says, "Well, look, this is not normal. He's normally on time." And and so again, I think
00:33:30
whatever she's stating has been very truthful and she's not trying to just paint him in in the worst
00:33:39
uh light. Exactly. And and I feel like with her that we are getting the just the fact spam and I think that that can
00:33:49
be helpful and and you'll see that as it as this report continues. So, this is where she is talking about after the
00:33:57
divorce. Okay, we talked a little bit about when they were still married, when they were still together. She's telling
00:34:03
law enforcement that they have a good relationship. The overall relationship is reported to be good and the children
00:34:12
enjoy spending time with Travis, with their father. Whitney also reported no issues with recent visitations and
00:34:19
stated her and Travis are communicative with issues surrounding them and if either would ever be late for any
00:34:29
reason. This is something that is discussed. There's there's communication. They reach out to one
00:34:34
another. So, she's saying there's never been any problem. She's not al also saying he's always been incredibly
00:34:40
punctual, but when in the past when he wasn't or if there was going to be a delay that he is he's notifying her. It
00:34:48
goes on to state that the parenting plan provided by Whitney specifies the visitation hours which we went through.
00:34:54
It also touches upon considerations for holidays and for birthdays that we did not go through. I still just can't
00:35:02
imagine what she's going through. She does point out notable concerns here and she does state that as far as the
00:35:10
parenting goes, Travis has neglected his par parental duties in the past and has
00:35:16
a long-term emotional or physical problem that gets in the way of his ability to parent. The plan also notes
00:35:24
details about access to the children and the ability to talk with them via cell phone when needed. Whitney said they
00:35:30
agreed to the plan. So the plan that we discussed on the first part, she says they agreed to it verbally, but she
00:35:39
stated the signature line on this the court document for that parenting plan that Travis refused to sign it, but it
00:35:46
appears he was adhering to it. Right. She goes on to state that Travis Decker is also supposed to seek mental health
00:35:55
treatment and domestic violence, anger management counseling under that parenting plan.
00:36:02
She states to her knowledge he has not done so on either regard. She also mentioned to police recent a recent
00:36:11
ticket being a financial burden for him along with garnished wages due to back child support. Okay, recent ticket. I
00:36:21
did a little digging on what what could that mean? So, one of the things that the officers found, remember when they
00:36:27
they were uh she says, "Hey, he drives a white pickup truck, but I don't know what kind of truck it is, right?" Well,
00:36:33
then when when they looked into his registration and found that he was registered and for the make and model of
00:36:38
that truck, that GMC Sierra 2017 white that they found at the crime scene. They quickly figured out that on the Tuesday
00:36:48
before he abducted the children on that Friday, on that Tuesday he was in some kind of collision, some kind of car
00:36:55
accident that he was I don't know if he was deemed to be responsible for the accident, but the officers reported that
00:37:04
at the time he he didn't have any insurance. So, it's what I could find here, Captain, was that he was cited for
00:37:12
multiple infractions. So, ticketed for multiple infractions. The the one that seems to stand out. I couldn't get the
00:37:20
particulars of them with the exception of one of those infractions was driving without insurance. Unfortunately, Travis
00:37:28
had recently been talking about getting rid of his dog due to his housing problem and further financial concerns.
00:37:35
And she does state to the officers, "Look, his children and his dog are the two big positives in his life. He's got,
00:37:46
as we said earlier, a lot of stuff crumbling around him. Life's not going good for this guy, but the positives,
00:37:52
she states, were his dog and the children." She also says that in the past there have been overnight camping
00:38:01
trips that were allowed by her for Travis and the kids. But she says in those scenarios, it was agreed upon well
00:38:10
in advance. It was discussed well at at length to put in a plan for that and the
00:38:16
kids were sent with the proper uh provisions for an overnight trip where they were sent with additional clothing
00:38:24
and whatnot. And she says in in this case, this was not communicated to her ever. There was no discussion of an
00:38:30
overnight trip. And the kids when they left my home, they left with the clothes they had on their backs. More
00:38:37
information on the divorce. I found that and some of this is a little without having a a complete road map of their
00:38:45
court situation. It might seem like this is a little divergent or maybe even contradictory to what we've already
00:38:53
stated, but there are reports that she Whitney first filed a petition for divorce in November of 2022 without
00:39:01
requesting a restraining order or any type of protection order. The divorce was finalized according to a couple of
00:39:09
news outlets in September of 2024 with Whitney Decker citing quote emotional/ mental health issues that
00:39:19
were the primary catalyst of the divorce. As we know, it was later that year, a short time after that the
00:39:28
parental schedule parenting plan was put together and issued. As the captain has
00:39:36
informed us, Travis Decker was an infantry man in the army from March 2013 to July of 2021. An Army spokesperson,
00:39:47
this is Major Travis Shaw, confirmed to NPR that Travis served in Afghanistan from March to July of 2014 and left
00:39:59
active duty as a staff sergeant. He is a military veteran and other reports state
00:40:05
that he has extensive training, but it is unknown whether he is currently armed while he's on the run. I've seen other
00:40:12
reports out there and I'm a little hesitant to go down this road, but but let's just do it anyway to air on the
00:40:20
side of giving out too information, too much information, and and maybe some of it not being 100% factual. I've seen
00:40:28
reports that say that he that he was a ranger, but it seems like the the spokesperson from the Army information
00:40:35
that's being put out there doesn't cite any of that. Well, no. And you know, I had a friend for a while that was was a
00:40:44
marine and then after he was a marine for a time period when he went back into service, he went into the army. Um, so
00:40:53
it maybe it's one of those situations, but again, I I I just think it's silly on this idea of like, well, he he has
00:41:05
extensive knowledge about survival. Okay, well, he can survive. But the guy when he had resources and people
00:41:14
couldn't have a he didn't have a home. He was living out of a vehicle. Yeah. He then wrecked that vehicle. He didn't
00:41:23
have any money. So, even if he's able to survive in the woods for a while, he doesn't have the skills to go start a
00:41:33
new life somewhere. Well, I I would say ranger or no ranger. And and maybe there
00:41:38
was some movement towards that or some goal of becoming a ranger. Who knows? When we covered Timothy McVey, we know
00:41:46
that he spent time in the army and then couldn't cut it to become a ranger when he went back and attempted to do so. I
00:41:53
will say this, ranger or no ranger infantrymen, you it does give you a level of expertise and training on how
00:42:03
to move about undetected because that's what you would have to do in battle conditions, right? And for him right
00:42:10
now, if he is still on the run and not dead, not not dead somewhere that we're later going to find him, he he is in
00:42:18
battle conditions and and so he is moving and attempting to do that the best he can undetected. I I would push a
00:42:27
little bit back on the idea that he might not be able to set up shop elsewhere just because I I keep I can't
00:42:33
get away from the idea that this is that Decker is what I keep referring to as a
00:42:39
solitary man. We don't know much about him. So, I have to believe that he has lived a little bit off of the grid. And
00:42:48
I think there's some evidence to suggest that he has during his lifetime with his
00:42:54
kids and when he was still showing up to work that he was somewhat off the grid as we don't have a lot of people talking
00:43:01
about who he is and what kind of person he was. Now, some information that has come out recently as to what his plans
00:43:09
were. This goes back to the the part that I get so damn aggravated about because this again shows a level of
00:43:16
planning. And again, what what is the order of the motivating factors here? Was what's the psychology? Was he
00:43:25
planning on leaving and starting a new life and then decided because I'm doing that I I have to I have to eliminate the
00:43:31
kids or was it eliminate the kids and then move on? But what we do know that is fact is that on May 26, according to
00:43:41
law enforcement, this is from the US Marshall Service. And the US Marshall Service has a whole lot of Jensen's
00:43:48
working there. They don't play around. Okay? So, this is legit information here that and it's they're stating that when
00:43:55
they checked into his phone into his search engine history that on May 26 and I've seen the document that has the
00:44:06
print out here, Captain. And it is rapid fire, my friend. He is searching and in
00:44:12
about a 20 minute period he does a search of jobs in Canada, how to relocate to Canada, how does a person
00:44:20
move to Canada and and that's it's all Canada, it's all fleeing to Canada type of searches. So that will tell you where
00:44:28
he he at least at one point had some consideration in that being where he would go. On the 6th of June, we got
00:44:38
more information. This was coming from the governor, Bob Ferguson. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson called in the
00:44:44
National Guard to help aid in this search for wanted fugitive manhunt fugitive Travis Decker. several reports
00:44:54
coming out saying that during this ongoing search that it's believed by the media that authorities have closed in on
00:45:02
him maybe a a time or two, but have certainly closed in attempts to locate him or pin him in. They've closed down
00:45:11
numerous trails. They've closed down campgrounds and forest service roads across parts of the
00:45:19
North Cascades and surrounding areas. Parts of the Pacific Crest Trail have all also been
00:45:26
shut down as an effort to keep him inside this country. Okay. So if he were to leave, my understanding of this area,
00:45:36
the if you wanted to do it on the up and up and you weren't trying to to hide that this Pacific Crest area is a
00:45:43
natural part to to leave the United States and go into Canada, I don't know how well
00:45:50
that's monitored. It it sounds like it it's somewhat monitored, but look, if you're on foot and you're in the woods,
00:45:57
there's a way around everything. All you have to do is figure it out. One thing we mentioned a lot of these different
00:46:03
agencies and and I don't want I'm not putting any of these agencies down. All of these agencies are absolutely great.
00:46:10
Calling in the National National Guard is a great idea here. It can only help. I don't think it can hurt in any regard.
00:46:18
The National Guard due to the current situation in America. If anybody's got eyes on LA and California, there are
00:46:27
certainly people out there that are calling into question, what is the National Guard used for? What are they
00:46:31
supposed to be used for? When are they who has the authority to call them in? Well, if you can go to the National
00:46:39
Guard's website and it states very clearly what the purpose of the National Guard is for. and they it simply states
00:46:47
the National Guard is often the first to respond to natural disasters which we all know we've seen that on TV many
00:46:54
times with things like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfire fires, but they're also called in for things like
00:47:01
civil unrest and other domestic emergencies. They can also provide assistance with search and rescue
00:47:08
missions, traffic control, and maintaining public order. This here is a search mission. Not necessarily search
00:47:15
and rescue, but it is a search mission for this man. Now, another agency that I don't know if they are involved or not,
00:47:25
but could certainly be helpful here is look, just last week we were discussing another manhunt completely separate on
00:47:32
the other side of the country down in Arkansas. They were Yes. theme in the garage. Well, hopefully hopefully not
00:47:38
hopefully not a theme, but it feels a bit like one. But down in Arkansas, they were looking for a prison escapee,
00:47:46
murder, rapist, former police chief Grant Harden. If you haven't done so already, check out last week's episode,
00:47:52
Devil in the Ozarks. And this is a quote from after they apprehended and found Grant Harden. says, quote, "That was one
00:48:02
of the most frustrating things that they were able to track him, but then they lost him because of the rain." So, the
00:48:08
rain really slowed down finding this guy because of they're trying to track him using dogs. Now, ultimately, it was a
00:48:18
group effort amongst many agencies there in Arkansas that led to the apprehension
00:48:22
of this very, very horrible evil man. But in particular, it was the elite and highly trained US border patrol team
00:48:32
that joined the search. The border patrol tactical team provided advanced search capabilities and opera
00:48:39
operational support and its members are experienced in navigating complex terrain. The agency said that their team
00:48:47
tracked Grant Harden through the region, known for its rocky and rugged landscape, thick forest, and extensive
00:48:54
cave network. The US Customs and Border Patrol shared photos on Facebook of Grant Harden, shirtless and covered in
00:49:02
mud, lying face down with his hands tied behind his back. The post said that Grant Harden was quote turned over to
00:49:09
Arkansas State Police unharmed end quote by the federal agency. And that is the conclusion that we want here as well. We
00:49:19
want him, we want Travis Decker to be found, located, apprehended, unharmed, and turned over to the state police so
00:49:29
that he can face a judge, so that he can stand in court, and so he can pay for these horrible, horrific crimes. Again,
00:49:37
we continue to get regular updates on this as to where he may be or potential sightings, but every one of them is
00:49:45
reminding people in this local area to please secure their homes and vehicles. Stay alert and report any suspicious
00:49:54
activity to 911. We don't need to give out a specific agency number here to you today for this particular case. call
00:50:02
911. And all of the agencies involved in searching for this man and figuring out
00:50:08
what happened here in this case are reminding the public that their safety, everyone's the general public's safety
00:50:16
remains the top priority. But if you see something, say something. [Music] Want to thank you all so much for
00:50:32
joining us here in the garage. For everything true crime, check out true crimegar.com.
00:50:37
Remember, we have a promo code going on right now for 25% off in the store page.
00:50:43
That's garage 2025. Garage2025. A little recommended viewing. If you haven't seen on the Peacock Network,
00:50:53
they have a new documentary called The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets. and they talked to Rex Herman's wife and
00:51:01
his daughter. I thought it was fascinating. So, give that a watch if you have the time or if you're looking
00:51:08
for something good in the true crime world to watch. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading from the Colonel
00:51:14
this week? H yes, this week I'm recommending Unlikely Angel, the untold story of the Atlanta hostage hero by
00:51:22
Ashley Smith with Stacy Mattingley. Back in 2005, Ashley Smith made headlines around the globe when she miraculously
00:51:32
talked her way out of the hands of alleged courthouse killer Brian Nichols after he took her hostage for 7 hours in
00:51:40
her apartment. In this moving, inspirational account, the 27year-old widowed mother of a six-year-old girl
00:51:49
shares the littleknown details of her traumatic ordeal and expands on how her faith in the best-selling book, The
00:51:56
Purposedriven Life, helped her survive and bring the killer's murderous rampage to a peaceful end. Again, that
00:52:05
recommendation is Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero by Ashley Smith. You don't have to write
00:52:14
that great title down right now because you can go to our website, trucrimegrage.com,
00:52:19
click on the recommended page, and there you shall find all of our recommendations, whether they be
00:52:25
podcast, books, or documentaries. Please go there and check that out. And again,
00:52:32
garage 2025 for 25% off. Cheers, mates, and until next week. And get you some sunglasses. Be good, be kind, and don't
00:52:51
[Music]