287: Travis Decker Kills His 3 Daughters, Teen Murdered by Roommates, and Toddler Sees Mom’s Murder
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At Bright Horizons, infants discover first steps, toddlers discover independence, and preschoolers discover bold ideas. Our dedicated teachers and discovery-driven curriculum nurture curiosity, inspire creativity, and build lasting confidence so your child is ready to take on the world.

Come visit one of our Bright Horizons centers in the greater Chicago area and see for yourself how we turn wonder into wisdom. Schedule your visit today at brighthorizons.com. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly.

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise, here to talk all things true crime with you and more specifically, to break down everything that's going on this week in true crime. And I'm going to be talking about

Like always, we have a lot to go over. Now, before we get into all of the new cases and some of the case updates, we've got a little bit of admin, a little bit of housekeeping that we have to go over. First, I want to start with all my Spotify listeners, okay? I've been seeing comments coming in here and there, not a ton, but like here and there just saying like, Annie's voice sounds so different. Does she sound high-pitched to anybody? And I

When I tell you, I went down a rabbit hole. Spiraling, I couldn't tell if I was gaslighting myself, if you guys were gaslighting me. I was like, literally nothing has changed with my equipment. I haven't had any sort of vocal cord surgery. And I was like, what is going on? Because then I even took it to Instagram and I was like, okay, guys, you got to help me. I'm getting some comments that I sound different. Do I sound different to you? If I do, can you explain it so I can see what the problem is?

Well, apparently through all my research, my Reddit deep dives and just kind of like scouring what I could find, it seems that sometimes Spotify will glitch. It's not that it puts you on 1.5 or 2x speed, but sometimes there is a glitch to where it speeds people's voices up a little bit. And in order to fix it, you just have to exit out of the app and then come back in.

So for anybody who has maybe encountered that already or is going to encounter that, that apparently is the solve and the hack. I don't have a chipmunk voice. I promise you I don't change my vocal cords. So although I'm sure a lot of you probably wish that I did considering the vocal fry that you love to remind me of. No, so what else do I have for housekeeping? We've got that.

we ended up doing a restock of a couple of the merch items or I'm sorry no no I take that back that I'm lying to you it wasn't a restock we over ordered on the pre-sale items a little bit just in case there were any damages or there was a wrong sizing like issue so we had ordered like a couple pieces extra of the pre-order amounts for our last merch drop and we have a couple left over

which is really good because if you wanted to get your hands on the adventure t-shirt that was like our number one most popular one, we have a couple left of that. The spring version of the Make It Make Sense, a couple other things. So those are up right now at AnnieElise.com. They're probably going to go very quickly because like I said, I think we only have like two or three of each one. We only over order just like, you know, as a safety net. But we have a final few pieces of those. And as you know, we will not be back with new merch until, well,

I don't want to spoil that. I was going to say until fall, but I think I might have a little surprise for you before then. But anyway, those are up. Also, I know I've been teasing it for a while. I've been talking about tour. I've been sharing some of the cities that we're going to, hinting at when it's going to happen. Well, the day has finally come.

We are officially going on tour. The first stop is going to be July 22nd and tickets go on sale tomorrow at 9 a.m. You can get all of the ticket information, all the city breakdowns over at AnnieElise.com. I also will post all the details over on my Instagram, but it's our biggest tour yet. It is an

all-new exclusive case that we have never talked about. We also are going to be covering this case in a very different way than we have covered any case before. It will be an interactive tour with all of you guys meeting, you know, throughout the case presentation. There are some moments where I'm going to

be looking to you to participate. And so I don't want to give too much of it away, but it's going to be our biggest tour yet. It is going to be unlike any episode we've ever done. So I'm excited to meet all of you. Going on tour last year was some of my best memories, just being out in the community, talking with you guys after the show, meeting you. I mean, so I am really excited. So all of that information, all the dates, I'm

Everything goes on sale tomorrow, 9 a.m. Pacific at AnnieElise.com. And just a heads up, don't get any tickets on like Ticketmaster or these third-party websites because their fees are astronomical. So the way to get the cheapest ticket is to go directly to the venue site and you can get there again.

through my website so all of that to say we are going on tour I'm excited so we've got a lot of stuff to go over today we also know that with Karen Reid I know some of you are like sick to death about with the Karen Reid recaps you're like I'm so over it when is this trial going to end I get it it has been a long one it was forecasted to be eight weeks we're there now it looks like it may now spill over into next week although we weren't really anticipating on that but

We are where we are. But the defense has wrapped up their case. It's time for, we're going into rebuttals. Then we'll have closings, all of these things. So we'll have one more recap, maybe two, but it's coming to a close. And it's going to be interesting to see what the verdict is. We know last time it ended with a mistrial. Will that happen again? Will Karen Reid be acquitted? Or will she be found guilty, whether that's of murder too or manslaughter too?

We will see. So I will keep you posted on all of that. And then don't worry if you're not following that case at all. The recaps will end. All right. So we are going to get into our first case of the episode. And it is about a missing Australian teen who was found dead. And this case is just so sad because it really does contrast.

kind of send a chill down your spine when you think of the predators that are quite literally just lurking among us, sometimes even very close to us. And this missing teen was just 17 years old.

So back on May 15th, 17-year-old Phoebe Bishop, who was from Queensland, Australia, was packing to get ready to catch a flight to go visit her boyfriend who lived in Western Australia. Meanwhile, her two roommates, 34-year-old James Wood and 33-year-old Tanika Bromley, offered to give her a ride to the airport.

Just kind of one of those like nice unwritten rules of being a good roommate, right? I mean, it's what you do for each other. You give each other a ride. Sometimes you'll spot food, you know, just help each other out. However, what was different about this situation is Phoebe never boarded her flight.

In fact, according to the CCTV footage, she never even stepped foot inside the terminal. So when Phoebe's boyfriend arrived at the airport to pick her up, you know, after she landed and she wasn't there, he immediately knew that something must have happened to her.

It wasn't like her to just not call her boyfriend or not call her family and let them know where she was or that she had missed her flight or that she was getting on the next flight. Something here was not making sense. And he knew if she had missed her flight or if she was delayed for any reason, she would 1000% have let him know. And not only that, but he had actually spoken to Phoebe earlier that morning before she headed to the airport. And when he did, everything seemed completely fine. So...

So, it begs the question, where the heck was Phoebe? That was the question on everyone's minds. So in the days following Phoebe's disappearance, police launched a full-on suspicious missing persons investigation. They searched the airport, they scoured the surrounding areas, they started checking in with friends, with family, with anybody who might have any sort of information, right? But they found virtually nothing. No sign of Phoebe anywhere.

So now, obviously, the next logical step was to interview the last known person or persons that Phoebe was with, right? Who had seen her last? Who had she spoken with last? And that, of course, were her roommates, the ones who supposedly drove her to the airport, were very graciously giving her a ride so that she could catch her flight to go see her boyfriend.

So when police questioned the couple, James and Tanika, they claimed Phoebe had actually slept through her alarm that morning, the morning of her scheduled flight. And because of that, she was, according to them, quote, furious that she might miss her flight. James told the police, quote, So then he said that they ended up stopping the car on Airport Drive, which is just over a half mile away from the airport.

Now this was very odd and very interesting, because if she was already running late, had slept through her alarm, was rushing, was, according to him, quote, furious that she might miss her flight, and there was all this chaos that morning, why on earth would you stop?

on your way to the airport a half mile away. Well, according to James, he said that it was to give her five minutes to cool down, just to collect her thoughts, to gather herself, to just calm down. We're almost there. We're going to get there. Just relax. Now, the details are a little bit vague about this pullover situation. At first, when I was researching this, I thought, okay, maybe he's meaning they just pulled off onto like the shoulder of the road. They all sat in the car together and then pulled

allowed her to calm down. But then as James continued talking, he indicated they got out of the vehicle, which, look, I don't know who's running late for a flight, who's pulling over a half mile away from the airport, who's then getting out of the car to go walk for five minutes to cool down. It does not make sense.

And this next part, sure as shit doesn't make sense, okay? Because he says that when they returned back to the car after going for whatever this little walk was or cooling off, 17-year-old Phoebe and her luggage were just gone. She had booked it. She had left. James said that he and Tanika did look for her for a little bit, but when they couldn't find her, they just assumed that she had walked to the airport and boarded her flight.

Which, again, kind of combats the issue of pulling off the side of the road to cool off and having extra time because if she's so desperate to board her flight that she is going to walk a half a mile to the airport, which would take longer than the five minutes you're pulled over, you know, I'm not a mathematician. I never claim to be, guys, but something here ain't adding up. Like, that does not make sense. It's just...

So ridiculous. So, of course, it didn't take very long for the police to start catching the inconsistencies in the story either. Which, big surprise, I think anybody with a brain could realize that something was wrong here with this story, right? So shortly after all of this, law enforcement released a statement saying that they had enough evidence to believe that three people got into the car that morning, but three people never exited that vehicle.

Whitney Woodfield is Phoebe's cousin. Here she is celebrating New Year's Eve with Tanika Bromley. They all work together at Phoebe's mum's business, Smiley Support Services. We were very close, like we had very close connections before.

I've only known James probably for a short time through Tanika. Tanika I knew through family. Admittedly, we did work together. And how is Phoebe's mum, Kylie, holding up? As you can imagine, not doing the best, which...

Can't expect anything else, really. Police declared the home that James and Tanika shared with 17-year-old Phoebe as a crime scene. They also said that they considered the gray Hyundai, the car that Phoebe was last seen in, a crime scene as well. And apparently inside the home, they found weapons, dead animals, and apparently the entire home was just filthy, which we have talked about a lot of House of Horrors on this podcast, and...

a lot of hoarder situations, dirty houses, people who like have feces on walls and here and there, and people who have a lot of animals. We don't often hear of people who have a lot of dead animals. Something about that is weird. And is it because they are just so gross and disgusting that they're not cleaning their house? Their animals have died and they're not doing anything with their bodies and disposing of them? Or could it be something more sinister where people

they are the ones killing these animals because, as we know, there usually is a pattern of escalation with murderers and killers where they start with animals, then they escalate to a human. And look, I'm getting way ahead of myself, but I'm just talking through it with you. Just like how when I research these things, I'm like, oh, when I come across little details, that's kind of the thoughts that go into my mind. Now, I don't know if that means I'm completely unbalanced and unhinged, that my mind would even go there, or if it just means...

Alright, Annie, you're probably being rational because you've covered a lot of shit in your day, but that's where my mind went. So anyways, I know I digressed a lot there, but anyway. Weeks passed with very little information being released to the press about what happened. But then, on June 4th, police arrested James and Tanika.

Now this was quite surprising given the fact that they hadn't even found Phoebe's body yet. It's pretty difficult to charge somebody with murder without having a body. It happens, but you usually would have to have tons and tons of evidence to feel confident in that charge. So this tells me that the police must have had a solid amount of evidence against the couple.

Now during this arrest, on the body cam footage, you can see James being escorted out of his home. He's barefoot, he's wearing this like really tight t-shirt that says menace across the front of it, which, fitting, right? And it just feels very eerie. Which for those of you listening to the podcast audio only version of this episode, that footage will be on my YouTube channel later today. So they arrest the two of them and charge them with murder. And then sadly, two days later on June 6th,

The police found Phoebe's body. They found her body near the Goodnight Scrub National Park, which is only a few miles away from the airport, which to me indicates that they did lure her over there. They did offer to give her this ride, and then they diverted on their way to the airport.

She thought, this 17-year-old girl thought she was going to the airport. She was going to go fly and see her boyfriend. Her nice roommates were giving her a ride when in reality they were promising her that and then were driving her to her death. And it's just incredibly sad to think about that because I can't imagine the fear that

was going through this 17-year-old girl's mind as she sees that they're in the car together and veering off the road, right? It's incredibly sad. And one of the questions I had too, which I have not been able to find clarity on yet, is why this 17-year-old lived with roommates rather than her family.

Because when you think about it too, the roommates were older, right? 34 years old and 33 years old. What business does a 17-year-old have living with two people in their early to mid-30s? Something doesn't feel good about that. So I don't know. We'll find out more information as we go. But of course, as they found Phoebe's body, her family was just absolutely crushed.

Today, Phoebe's sister, Kayleigh, showed up at Bundaberg Courthouse where the housemates formally face charges. Do you mind if we ask how you're holding up? As best as can be, I guess. We just want a home.

Yeah, she was loved. She's missed. So now everybody's left wondering, why? What the heck was the motive here behind this senseless murder? Was she dead when they put her in the car that morning? Did they kill her when they drove off? What are the details of this case? And it's still active and breaking, so maybe there's a couple more details that have been released since the time of this recording, but it is one that I am going to definitely follow because I am very curious about it.

all the way to why she was living with them, to what happened that morning, to what the motive was, there are so many unanswered questions. The lead detective, Craig Mansfield, did state that the investigators, quote, do have information that would suggest some form of motivation.

Now, I don't know what that means. Read between the lines however you want. At this time, they haven't disclosed any information, so that's all open to interpretation. But we will keep a close eye on it. Now we're going to talk about another case, which is...

beyond, beyond, beyond tragic because it involves a two-year-old quite literally watching their mom bleed out all in a case of mistaken identity. It's horrific. So on the night of May 18th, 2024, Neza and her two-year-old son were headed to the grocery store. Just a little quick late night run to go get some juice, a few other things. But in a very horrible turn of events on the drive over there, Neza was gunned down.

And her two-year-old son was only inches away from her while she just bled out and took her last breaths. I mean, that poor baby, the only hope or prayer that I think we can have in this is that because he was so young, he won't remember any of this, right? And that it won't be a core memory. But still, even if he can't actually remember the events that happened, can you imagine growing up knowing that you witnessed the murder of your own mother?

It is devastating. Now, obviously, Neza's family could not make sense of any of this. Like, why her? She wasn't involved in any gang activity. She wasn't a criminal. She had no known enemies. She was just going to the grocery store with her two-year-old to get juice and a couple other items. They just could not wrap their minds around it.

Everyone who knew her also said that she was just a very hardworking mother, someone who was trying her best to raise her young son, doing everything that she could. There's no joke when a two-year-old watches their 21-year-old mother die. So the police were determined to catch the people responsible for her murder. And as luck would have it,

There did happen to be surveillance footage near the exact location of the shooting. Prosecutor Green says video shows Baker in the light-colored hoodie and two others as they walk toward an apartment complex to look for their intended target. Then they walked around a corner toward a wood line where they lay in wait and the car carrying Ms. Cox came out of the complex into an ambush. Jamal and his accomplices fired over 39 bullets at her car that night.

It is seriously a miracle from God that her two-year-old son survived this. 39 bullets being sprayed into your car or at your car. Can you even imagine? And Jamal, he was known by police. He was a known member of the Young Slime Life.

otherwise known as the YSL gang. And sadly, it seemed that she had so senselessly been murdered, all in a case of mistaken identity. Prosecutors said that Jamal and his crew mistook her car for a member of a rival gang, which

How awful is that? It's like, if you're going to spray 39 bullets at a car, uh, I don't know, maybe step one is making sure that you have the right fucking car, you moron. It makes me enraged. Here is this, like, young mom just gunned down and killed in front of her baby for literally no reason at all. It is unacceptable and it is heartbreaking. Now, almost a year to the day of her murder, Jamal was sentenced just this last week to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

plus an additional 65 years. The other two defendants are scheduled for trial later this month, which thankfully Jamal will never see the light of day again, but that doesn't at all in any way excuse what happened or make up for the fact that her son is now going to grow up without his mother and with having to hold the weight of knowing as a toddler he witnessed his mother get murdered and bleed out. It is

So sick. Now, switching gears into more of a case update situation, and...

you know, a trial and all of that stuff. This next case is one that you might be pretty familiar with, but it is a wild one. And we're talking about Victoria Goodwin. She's the wife of Ghost Adventure star Aaron Goodwin. And let me give you a quick recap of this case. So Victoria and Aaron were married back in 2022. And they were actually coincidentally married at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride, which I had a friend in high school get married there as well, now that I think about it. And

Wait, why did they get married in high school? Maybe they were older and like I was in high school, but maybe they were in college. But anyway, it's apparently a thing. You can like rent space out and get married on these rides. And so they got married in the Haunted Mansion ride, which kind of tracks, right? Because a ghost hunter getting married inside a haunted house, I don't know, feels very on brand. Just made sense. So Aaron's soon-to-be wife, Victoria, was on board for all of it.

Because Victoria also loved all things spooky, all things dark. And honestly, they just kind of seemed like a match made in heaven. They had these loving Instagram posts, these cute date night photos with one another. Friends and family thought that, you know, the two of them had it all. They had kind of some fame. They had a great love story. They had similar interests. It seemed perfect.

perfect. Fairytale, right? However, like I always say, things are not always as they seem, because by late 2024, things in their marriage had shifted. Victoria had apparently taken her love of true crime a bit too far. And you know, most of us true crime junkies, I think, can admit we love to binge watch all things true crime all the time, the docs, the series, everything. But that's where we stop. That's where it ends.

Not Victoria, though. No, no, no. She decided that she was going to take it a step further. Apparently, she had watched the true crime series Control-Alt-Desire, which obviously that's a play off Control-Alt-Delete, the function on a keyboard, and it was about convicted killer Grant Amato. So she watches this doc, and she becomes just...

entrenched in this, obsessed, in love, just infatuated. And God only knows, but for some reason, she thought that it was a good idea to start secretly messaging him while he's in prison. This killer. This killer from this documentary. And look, I'm gonna just say it right now, this is something that's pretty common out there. That...

is really unsettling. We know Chris Watts has a plethora of fans who are sending him letters, naked photos, all sorts of things. We saw it with Wade Wilson, the psychopath, what do they call him, the tattooed face killer that was more recent, and all of those jail calls ended up being released, and people become so obsessive with

It's almost as though they don't view them as murderers anymore, but they view them as celebrities. So there's like...

I don't want to say a parasocial relationship happening, but there's something happening to where they either feel like they're misunderstood or that they can save them or they're so blinded by the headlines and the docuseries of it all that they feel like if they connect with them, they somehow are celebrity by proxy or they're dating a celebrity. I don't know. I need like a psychologist to come in here and break it all down, which maybe I will. That I would love to know what goes on in people's minds.

But, anyway, she starts secretly messaging him, and she quickly becomes obsessed with Grant. Just falls deeply in love with him. Which, side note, let me just say, this guy Grant, he was in prison for murdering his own family. In case you're not familiar with the case, that is what this guy's all about. Which, again, there's something seriously wrong with you if you fall in love with a man like that who is a family annihilator. Just...

Please make it make sense. So she's messaging him, falling in love, all the while her poor husband Aaron had absolutely no idea about her secret relationship with this convicted psychopath. And of course, it gets worse because Victoria starts writing to Grant, professing her love, saying, we could be together. I just, you're my soulmate. I just want Aaron gone.

completely gone. Out of the picture. And we're not talking about divorce here, which you always hear me say, just get a divorce. But that wasn't in the cards. She wanted to get rid of him permanently. So she and Grant started plotting how they were going to get rid of him. And we're talking Google searches, burner phones. She even put aside 11 grand to hire a hitman.

And not only that, but she also delivers to Grant on a silver platter Aaron's filming schedule for Ghost Adventures. Letting him know when exactly he's going to be out of town, when it's a good time to strike. Just truly plotting and planning this entire thing. Which, so evil. So heartless. But then, in March of 2025, Victoria's entire plan blew up. I mean, big time. Victoria was completely just...

gobsmacked and shocked when police showed up at her door and arrested her for conspiracy to commit murder. It turns out that as smart as she and Grant thought that they were, prison guards had found Grant's burner phone. And when the police seized the phone, they found a whole treasure trove of evidence. I mean, we're talking text messages from Victoria to Grant where, like a complete moron idiot, she laid out all of her details and plan of how she was going to end

end Aaron's existence. They had so much information. It was all right there. So Florida detectives reached out to Las Vegas police where she and Aaron lived, and they started a full blown investigation on Victoria. And here this whole time, she thought that she was so smart, that she was so calculated that she was working with this convicted murderer. So of course she was going to get away with it, which I just want to point out the obvious.

the murderer that you're in love with got caught, is in prison. So why you think that, first of all, why you think he could get away with murder a second time and not be caught, you're an idiot. But also, he's in prison. His stuff is going to be searched.

He probably is just looking for a thrill outside of prison because he's bored. He may talk to somebody, confide in them. Like, do these people not have brain cells? I truly don't understand. So she's thinking she's getting away with it, that she like has this new love, that they're dangerous, that all this stuff. And then bam, she's arrested. So Victoria appeared in court on June 5th. And there she stood and just had full on, in my opinion, crocodile tears in front of the judge. I'm so immensely sorry.

for the pain and anxiety I've caused you and the betrayal you undoubtedly and rightfully feel by my actions. I need you to know that I will always hold love for you. I only pray you find your joy and peace again and I will bow out of your life forever to hopefully ease that process. I'm sorry I broke us and I am consumed with regret every day. My absolute promise to you is that you will never see or hear from me. I intend to leave the state of Nevada

and you and anyone else will never be in danger of me ever again. Secondly, I'd like to apologize to my parents. My actions are not a reflection of how you raised me with unwavering love and support, and I know I'm better than this. Next, I'd like to apologize to the court. I recognize and understand my stupidity, the terrible nature of my crime against Aaron,

my regrettable choices and monumental lapse in judgment. This is my rough bottom and I'll never forgive myself. I am truly ashamed, embarrassed, and disappointed with myself and am deeply and sincerely remorseful for my actions. This is not a reflection of who I am nor the person

Now for how disturbing this plan was, how calculated, strategic, and not to mention how scary it is with the players involved, like a convicted murderer, they couldn't charge her with actual murder, of course, which thankfully nobody was murdered, but conspiracy. So the judge ended up sentencing her to a minimum of three years to a maximum of seven and a half years in Nevada State Prison.

Which, in my opinion, again, for the people involved, for how dangerous this was, for how calculated it was, I think that that sentence should have been longer. But apparently she ended up copying a plea deal to avoid a full-blown murder-for-hire trial. Still though, I mean, you plan out your husband's entire murder, you walk free after just a few years served, that's...

that doesn't quite seem fair, doesn't feel like justice. And in all of this, Erin is the one who I really feel the most sorry for, obviously, because during the sentencing, he just broke down and detailed how devastating all of this has been on him. Not only how scary it is that she was going to take a hit out on him, but that he's losing the love of his life, that his heart's broken. I mean, take a listen. Yeah.

Someone who I trusted with all my heart and laughed with every day. Someone who made me feel like I was her one and only. I was loyal to her and did whatever I could to make her happy. I thought we were something very special and so did everyone else. After finding out she was cheating on me in September of last year with multiple men including the man going by the name Vincent who turned out to be Gran Amato.

I gave her the option of divorce where we could try to work it out because I loved her so much. She felt so bad and didn't want to lose me. Every day she made me feel more special and she was so sorry. At least that's what she told me. Now discovering she put a hit out to kill me more than once. Black got blackmailed and spent almost all our savings to keep it quiet.

and fell more in love with the motto. They even got spiritually married. And now I was called the first husband. They talked until she was arrested and she sought out

Now we have a few more cases to go into, but with that case, I'm going to leave you with something I have said before, and I'm just going to say it again for anybody listening. And a lot of you probably know where I'm going, so say it with me on the count of three. One, two, three. Just get a divorce. Honestly. Honestly. All right, I just talked a lot. I'm going to grab some water. We're going to take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors.

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Free meals applied as discount on the first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That is HelloFresh.com slash AE10FM to get 10 free meals with a free item for life. Okay, so this next story is like borderline. I don't even know. I need like, again, I need a new word for unhinge. It's just like what a freak. Like a freak of nature. That's the term I need to bring back. Because a man killed his fiance and he kept...

Her body for literal weeks. This next story is nightmare fuel, straight up. So William Otto and LaVera Woodall of Texas had recently gotten engaged. And you know, kind of that like glowy, giddy stage where most couples are picking out their future baby names, maybe making a playlist for their wedding, figuring out what they're going to dance to. Normal people bask in that.

It's the new engagement glow, just the excitement, the optimism of it all. But not William. Because on the night of May 6th, the two of them apparently got into a very heated argument. Now, William claims that LaVera came at him with a knife and that through all of that, somehow, somehow, someway, it ended with him shooting her in the head.

Which let me just stop right here and say, there are a lot of ways to de-escalate a fight with your fiancé. Even if they have a weapon, maybe there's a way to intervene. I don't know. But murder? Shooting her in the head? Mm.

Probably not one of them. So William doesn't call 911. He doesn't tell anyone. And instead, he stays in the home with her dead body for three full days. Not pacing back and forth, not making arrangements, not trying to figure out what to do, not hiding her or putting her in a tarp or a bag or all these other things that we have seen so many times. No.

He keeps her in the house for three full days and just lays next to her corpse. This man literally slept next to her decomposing body for days because according to him, quote, he just wanted to sleep next to her. Uh...

creepy number one uh number two now is probably not the time to be romantic right to be like I just love sleeping next door no you shot her in the head are you out of your fucking mind so after three days the odor because we know how dead bodies have a very pungent very foul odor it finally got to him and got to him enough that William decided he needed to do something and what did William do

Well, because the odor was so bad to take, he didn't finally call the police and have them take her away. No, he just decided to leave her, check into a hotel, go get some room service and like chill out for a little bit. He just left his fiancee, Lavera, dead, behind in the home like she was nothing more than an inconvenience to him at this point.

Well then, cut to May 19th, nearly two weeks after LaVera was killed, and a neighbor ended up calling the police to report a very foul smell, odor, disgusting thing coming from the couple's apartment. And when the police finally arrived at the residence, they discovered LaVera's decomposing body.

She was there all alone while William, meanwhile after police tracked him down, was just chilling at a hotel called Mount Pleasant Hotel without a care in the world. Just as if he was on vacation or something. So on June 2nd, William was charged with murder. He's currently behind bars. That's where he belongs and what a freak and...

I need more details about this because like, did he really just think that he was going to check into a hotel and like, nobody would ask questions? Nobody would come looking for him? Nobody would notice that there was a dead body in his house? Like, and the only reason he left wasn't because he was trying to hide or he was trying to get away with this. It was because the smell got so bad, he couldn't share space with her anymore.

That's the only reason he left. I mean, what was his plan here? What was he going to do? Just an idiot. Now, I want to warn you guys, okay? Before we get into this last case, I want to warn you, it's extremely triggering. It's very upsetting. And I'm going to, honestly, I'm going to try to do my best to get through this case as

as best as I can because I had no intention of covering it. I really didn't. I even made a post on social media last week that I was choosing not to cover it and I've received so many requests to get my take on it, to explain this case and I haven't been able to because I see a lot of very dark, dark shit.

in the true crime world and I don't think that I've hardened at all but I always say as uncomfortable as it is to talk about or as difficult as it is to talk about these victims voices deserve to be heard their story continues to should be shared and whether it's to just ensure that they get justice and their voices heard or if it's going to create awareness or educate somebody it just it's

To me, it's like all of those positives outweigh any discomfort or difficulty I feel in that moment covering the case. But for some reason, this case was different. And I've covered family annihilators before. Too many times to count, unfortunately. But when this case first came across my social media over a week ago, I don't know what happened. I had...

I don't know how to describe it as like some sort of emotional, visceral reaction to where I was hysterical. I was in tears. I was crying in my husband's arms. I just, I don't know. The weight of it was just so much to where that's when I made the social media post and I said, look, I know a lot of you guys are requesting me to cover this case. I can't. I can't. It's too difficult for me. I know other people will pick it up and cover it, but I cannot be one of them. It's just...

It's too much. And anytime I saw any update of this case coming in my feed, I would scroll past it because like I didn't want my I didn't want to feed my algorithm the idea that I was interested in it that I wanted to know more information. So like and I personally could not even watch it because I didn't want to know any information. I just it was too much for me. And

For the very first time in five years, I took the next day off from recording. I record almost every day, most days, or I at least am working on something, I'm editing, we're doing something almost every day, five days a week, sometimes six. I was

I had things scheduled I needed to record the following day and I couldn't. I just had to take the day off because like it's just that heavy of a case. So I'm sorry for this very long-winded explanation. But my point being, this next one is incredibly heavy. It's incredibly difficult. I am going to try to get through it as best as I can. I apologize in advance if my voice breaks a bit. But if it becomes too much for you as well, pause.

please know that you can pause it, you can turn it off, you can do whatever you need to do to

protect your peace and you know just your heart through all of this and the only reason I'm even covering it now a week later is because I'm continuing to get so many requests from you guys and there still is that voice in the back of my head that's saying Annie these three girls need their story told this monster needs to be caught you have a platform you need to do this you need to do this and so

That's why I'm talking about it. And hopefully we're going to get through this together because it is certainly not an easy one. And if you haven't guessed by now, we're talking about the case of Travis Decker, a 32-year-old father from Washington State. On Friday, May 30th, Travis picked up his three beautiful, adorable little girls. Their names are Peyton, Evelyn, and Olivia. They're all

so incredibly beautiful. They're just these little amazing sisters. You can see photos of them. And he picked them up for their weekly scheduled visitation. And their mom, Whitney, said goodbye to the girls like she had done dozens of times before. But this time, the girls never returned home. Now, Travis was supposed to bring the girls home by 8 p.m. But when 8 p.m. came and went and there was no answer when Whitney tried calling Travis's phone, she knew something was wrong. She started to panic.

She tried to stay calm and not overreact. I mean, she was hoping that maybe he just lost track of time or something. But finally, by 9.45 p.m., she knew in her gut that something was wrong. So she called the police department to report the girls as missing. Now here is where we have a complete mystery.

total system failure because instead of issuing an Amber Alert as Whitney had requested the police to do, they only put out an Endangered Missing Persons Alert. And that might not sound like a big deal, but it is a very big deal because let me break down the differences between the two of them. An Amber Alert

is an urgent alert that is used exclusively for abducted children that are believed to be in imminent danger versus an endangered persons alert which is less urgent it can be used for adults or children there's also no confirmed abduction in those kinds of alerts so obviously a very different level of urgency with those reports right and here they didn't issue the amber alert

And as we all know, the major advantage to the Amber Alert is that it's broadcasted everywhere within hours, sometimes within minutes. It goes to people's phones. It goes on billboards. It goes everywhere. TVs, radios, everywhere. The goal is to get as many eyeballs as possible on the case, on the photos, just as fast as possible.

And I know that we've all at one point probably received the very loud siren-like sound on our phone, and it stops you in your tracks, and you're like, what the hell's going on? And you look at it, and it tells you. And these alerts work. They have over a 90% success rate of recovering a child safely. 90%. That is huge. And the missing persons alert, on the other hand, it does not broadcast everywhere. Instead, it typically only goes out to law enforcement. So...

Here, three young minor children were missing. Their father didn't return them after his scheduled visitation. And they're not issuing an Amber Alert? They're not broadcasting their faces everywhere? What are you even talking about? So clearly, Whitney was beyond upset when police would not issue the Amber Alert. I mean, can you even imagine? I would have lost my shit on the police if I were in her position. It's...

So infuriating. And look, you might also be wondering why this mom was so worried in this moment if she knew that the girls were with their dad. It's not like they had been abducted by some stranger, which I understand that question. But as it turns out, Travis was not in a good place mentally. Not at all. And Whitney was well aware of this. Travis was a former member of the military, and he struggled with pretty severe mental health issues.

Some of these issues included depression, borderline personality disorder, also PTSD. Travis and Whitney had been married for 10 years before Travis initiated their divorce in 2023, and the reason he initiated the divorce was because, quote, he felt like he wasn't worth it.

Just a man defeated, depleted, suffering from all sorts of mental health. And trust me, I'm not giving him a pass on any of this. I think this guy is scum and a monster. But you can see, like, she was very well aware of his mental state, which is why she was so concerned. Now, according to Whitney's attorney, Travis's PTSD was always something that he carried with him all throughout their marriage.

But she said that he didn't really begin to spiral until he got out of the Army back in 2023. Apparently, Travis had tried to receive help from the VA for his severe PTSD, but they lacked the resources to provide him with any real assistance. Record showed Decker was diagnosed with a serious mental illness. The attorney says that was most likely related to his combat and that Decker tried and tried to get help.

but there was too much red tape to get better in services. - So given Travis's mental state, Whitney fought for full custody of the girls in 2024, and she won. Travis was granted visitation with his daughters though for three hours every Friday night and for eight hours every other weekend. So in the grand scheme of things, not a whole lot of time.

But according to Whitney, this custody agreement seemed to be working well for them this last year. She says that she and her ex were on good terms and that Travis was actually a very active father in his daughter's lives.

He always came to the girls' dance recitals, their school plays, their soccer games, and despite his depression and his PTSD, she says that he was still a very loving father to them. So when Travis picked up the girls for his visitation that Friday night, she said that the two of them chatted for about 15 minutes, and then he and the girls left.

And the last thing that he said to Whitney was, hey, I'll see you at 8 p.m. But as we know, he never returned with the girls at 8 p.m. So fast forward to June 2nd. While they're searching for him, searching for the girls, and the police do end up finding his truck. It's right near a local campground. But this scene was anything but normal. Nothing that they were expecting to see because they found his wallet still inside the truck. They found bloody handprints on the truck.

And then just off a little ways into the trees, the police found three bodies. The bodies of all three of his three little tiny daughters. All three girls. Dead. And look, not that there is any right way that these bodies could have been discovered, but the manner in which they were discovered...

It's really difficult to even imagine because all three of them were just there dead with their wrists zip tied and with plastic bags over their heads. His own children, his own daughters. Meanwhile, Travis was nowhere to be found. And even at the time of this recording, he still is out there on the run. And it has been a week now. And so he just left his little girls behind.

with plastic bags over their heads zip-tied next to a ravine, just discarding them like they are nothing.

And we talk a lot too on here about cases when it's family members or spouses and loved ones who kill you and what those final moments must be like when you're looking up at someone who you're supposed to trust, who is supposed to love you, who you love, and trying to grapple with the thought of, why is my dad doing this to me? What did I do wrong? What's happening? And think about the sisters too. You know it didn't all happen simultaneously. So...

It kind of brings me back to Chris Watts. Think about the fear going through the girls' minds as they're seeing their sisters being killed by their own father just in this secluded campground near a ravine. It's devastating. And the reason I think, too, why this case is so difficult for me isn't just because of what happened, but because the empathy I have for their mother and what she must be going through and what it was like to receive that call was

It is everybody's worst nightmare, truly. I don't even know. I don't know how you continue. I don't know how you go on. I'm sorry. I know I'm like derailing a little bit here, but it just...

is absolutely devastating. So after their bodies were found, the sheriff's office released a statement saying, we are asking our citizens who own cabins or reside in all of our remote areas and counties to please be aware that Mr. Decker is still missing. As law enforcement conducts their searches, we are asking for those owners to lock all of their doors, to include any sheds, outbuildings, and to leave their window blinds open. And we recommend leaving the outside lights on.

And I also just want to remind you, I mean, we are talking about a trained army vet, someone with survival skills, who knows how to be off the grid, who has experience being off the grid, and now at this point has absolutely nothing to lose. People are terrified, and honestly, rightfully so, they should be. A man with nothing to lose and no way out and all of this skill set,

That's incredibly dangerous. Now, obviously, nobody is more shattered than Whitney through all of this. I mean, this woman, she did everything right. She warned people, she begged for help, and yet she still lost her girls. And you guys, this wasn't just a failure. This was a massacre with a paper trail of ignored red flags. Amazingly enough, though, and I don't know how because I would never have the strength and like, God bless her.

Whitney's attorney said that despite her ex-husband being on the run for killing their girls, she still has, quote, a lot of love and empathy for Travis and who he is at his core. They claim that he was a loving man, but that something broke and that whatever monster came out of him, it's something that he was trained to do in the military, that it's not the real him. And I just think that that takes an incredible amount of time

bravery, courage, strength, whatever it is you can even draw on that moment. Compassion to say I still have a lot of empathy for him. This isn't who he is. He's a monster of what the army and the military training and experience did to him and we saw kind of a similar sentiment in the Lindsay Clancy case and you know that one was very personal to me for other reasons and

but she killed her children after suffering from postpartum psychosis and her husband made a statement after saying she tried to get the help she was wrongly medicated like I stand I don't know if his exact words don't quote me we're like I stand by her I support her but like being supportive and I just don't know as a human being as a mother if if I would be as intact and

strong as they have shown. I don't know that I would be. And not only that, but Whitney and her attorney are also now advocating for change in the mental health resources that are available for veterans. And they are also working with law enforcement to improve the current requirements that must be met in order for an Amber Alert to be issued. The attorney and the mom are also raising concerns about the state's Amber Alert system. Law enforcement officials say they did not see Decker as an immediate beneficiary

danger to his own children. So no Amber Alert was sent out. The attorney says the mother thinks that was a deadly mistake. They did not see him as an immediate physical danger to his Children, despite the fact that he had a well established history of mental health issues. And had they have had seen it that way, um, those Children might still be alive. And that's the thing that is so brutal.

And the one thing she's really hoping can be changed in this tragedy. I mean, she's just a lot bigger of a person than I am because I don't think that I would ever find it in my heart to forgive him, which don't get me wrong. I agree with her 100%. There were definitely multiple systems that failed here. There is no denying that not in any way.

But I just don't know how she's able to be so empathetic towards him. I mean, he killed her three beautiful babies and they had their whole lives ahead of them. Her whole family now just shattered, gone.

That pain is so truly unimaginable. So there really is no happy ending to this tragic story. There's not going to be. Even once Travis is eventually found, whether he's found alive or whether he takes his own life in all of this and already has and is somewhere in the mountains, who knows? But there's no happy ending. And I mean, even if and when police do find Travis, it's not going to bring the girls back. It's not going to even provide any sort of understanding or motive or...

answer any questions which personally I know I already said this I think that he probably did take his own life if he already was having thoughts of not being worth it and that's the direct quote and that's what caused him to file for divorce then taking his girls I can't imagine that he's on the run trying to make it trying to have a life and survive maybe but my guess is that they're gonna find him deceased my heart just breaks for Whitney it

so deeply and so heavily. And I do want to share, and I shared this on my social media, a GoFundMe has been set up for Whitney for all the expenses she's going to incur for everything with while she's advocating and trying to fight all these legal battles. And so a lot of people are donating. I encourage you, if you feel called to donate, it's a very personal decision. Please do so. I will link it all in the show notes below. But

If you would like to donate, yeah, I'll have all that information for you. So I'm sorry that that was a really heavy one to end on, but I knew that if I started with that case at the top of this episode, I was probably never going to get through it. So I had to move it to the last one, but...

I will keep you updated on that case as we learn more. Hopefully Travis is found one way or another soon and that Whitney can somehow, I don't even want to say somehow rebuild or have peace or move forward because that doesn't even exist, but at least she won't have this constant reminder of like these news reports showing he's on the run. They haven't found him like at least there will be, you

you know, a new page turned. Maybe that's the best way to describe it. Thank you guys so much for listening today. I really appreciate it. We will have the Karen Reed recap this week as well. Don't forget, we are going on tour and we are going to be covering a case in a brand new way, an all new exclusive case. And you can get all of those details at AnnieElise.com. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 9 a.m. Pacific. And we also don't forget, we have a couple of last few merch pieces available on the website as well.

All right. Thank you guys so much. Until the next one, just get a divorce. Be nice. Don't kill people and just hug your babies. Hug your babies because you never know what can happen. All right. Thank you guys.

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At Bright Horizons, infants discover first steps, toddlers discover independence, and preschoolers discover bold ideas. Our dedicated teachers and discovery-driven curriculum nurture curiosity, inspire creativity, and build lasting confidence so your child is ready to take on the world.

Come visit one of our Bright Horizons centers in the greater Chicago area and see for yourself how we turn wonder into wisdom. Schedule your visit today at brighthorizons.com.