Days Before Possible Travis Decker Sighting, Sheriff Said He Was ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Unpredictable’

Days before a possible sighting of missing murder suspect Travis Decker, the local sheriff described him as “dangerous” and “unpredictable” amid an intensifying manhunt.

Decker, 32, is wanted on three counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping in connection with the deaths of his three daughters, Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5, officials have said.

The sisters were found asphyxiated on June 2 near Decker’s abandoned pickup truck in a remote area of the Rock Island Campground in Washington State. They hadn’t been seen since heading off with their father for a court-approved visitation in Wenatchee, Wash., on May 30.

Since then, local and federal authorities have scoured the surrounding area for Decker, a U.S. Army veteran trained to survive in the wilderness. Search teams have used human remains detection dogs and also searched nearby mountain areas and bodies of water.

There have since been at least two possible sightings of Decker: one on June 10 near Highway 97 in Washington State and another as recently as July 5 in the Bear Creek area of the Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho. Officials are now focusing on that area and a $20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his arrest.

Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison told PEOPLE on July 2 that as long as Decker is still out there, he should be considered “dangerous.”

“We recognize he is dangerous and we’ve told citizens he’s accused of killing three people,” the sheriff said. “Right now he is unaccounted for and there’s a possibility he’s still out in our county.”

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Sheriff Morrison further alleged, “I would say that he’s unpredictable and what I just saw, the fact that you could kill three young girls, especially your own daughters, makes me think that he’s capable of doing anything.”

Authorities have also previously said they believed Travis may have fled on foot and attempted to cross into Canada because he allegedly searched “how to relocate to Canada” online, according to a U.S. Marshals Service affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.

In regards to whether Decker is still alive, Sheriff Morrison told PEOPLE, “I would imagine most likely if he were to have died, it would’ve been from falling; an injury maybe got infected to the point where it did cause him, you know, some further issues or he drowned.”

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He added, “there’s certainly a lot of possibilities and if we do find him deceased, of course we’re going to do a full autopsy on him just to get confirmation on his cause of death.”

Decker’s ex-wife and the mother of their daughters, Whitney Decker, hopes that Travis is found, “dead or alive,” her attorney said on NewsNation’s Banfield on June 26.