Is Someone ‘Sympathetic’ Helping Him?

As the search for Travis Decker — the man suspected of killing his three daughters nearly two months ago — continues, the Washington Sheriff leading the investigation says it’s possible someone is helping the former combat veteran evade the law.

“Certainly, [there’s the] potential that he could have someone that was just more sympathetic to him and is providing him assistance,” Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison tells PEOPLE. “We put the message out that we don’t think that’s a wise decision, but we get that everyone’s going to make their own choices.”

The sheriff’s office, along with search and rescue organizations, have conducted an exhaustive search for Decker in the surrounding counties. The manhunt began on June 2 after his three daughters, Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5, were found asphyxiated in a remote area of the Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, Wash.

Decker’s pickup truck was found at the campground, but the 32-year-old murder suspect was nowhere to be found.

Decker had picked up the girls on May 30 for a court-approved visit but failed to return them to their mother. The mom, Whitney Decker, reported her daughters missing to police later that night, setting off a frantic search for the four missing people.

On Friday, July 25, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said they were scaling back the search for Decker due to a “decrease in leads and tips” into Decker’s location. 

The office said “there is insufficient information to suggest that he is alive, nor if he is deceased.”

Morrison tells PEOPLE “there’s still a potential” that Decker is alive.

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“Unless he’s accounted for, there’s still the potential that he could be alive and still actively fleeing from us,” he says. “Right now, you’re in a pretty leisurely time for our county that you could be outdoors and probably live decently comfortable.”

“We get that the probability that if he is still out there, he’s going to be looking to obtain supplies, food, other resources, which right now we’re not getting any reports of anything like that missing,” Morrison says. “The probability of him just surviving off foraging or trapping — not likely.”

Morrison says he can’t discount the possibility that Decker may have hitchhiked out of the area or gotten picked up by someone.

“Could be a potential,” he says. “There are roads in the area that he could have made it to. And if someone wasn’t paying attention, they might’ve provided a ride to him not knowing what he was associated with. Or maybe they did know, and they did provide him a ride.”

The most recent search for Decker was conducted in the Blewett Pass area in the Wenatchee Mountains. There were two possible sightings of Decker — one in June and another in July — but authorities have since confirmed they were not him.

Authorities have also previously said Decker may have 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.

“We’re frustrated because, certainly, we’d like to have closure not only for our community, but for the family,” says Morrison. “And with the amount of resources we put in there, I was kind of hopeful that we would’ve gotten something. This could be a longer, drawn-out search and we’re still optimistic that we will get closure.”

Decker is wanted on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.