Travis Decker's Untreated PTSD - How Military Mental Health Failures Led to Triple Murder
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3 • 791 Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Description: The Travis Decker case reveals a devastating failure of military mental health systems that contributed to the brutal murders of three innocent children. Former Army soldier Travis Decker's untreated PTSD and documented mental health struggles were ignored by both military and civilian systems, ultimately leading to the planned killings of his daughters Olivia, Evelyn, and Paityn. Expert psychotherapist Shavaun Scott provides crucial analysis of how military mental health failures enabled this preventable tragedy.
Our comprehensive investigation examines how Travis Decker's military service and subsequent mental breakdown created the perfect storm for familicide. Despite his PTSD, homelessness, and dangerous behavior, neither military nor civilian mental health systems provided adequate intervention or treatment. The case exposes critical gaps in how mentally ill veterans are monitored and treated, particularly when they pose risks to family members.
Shavaun Scott breaks down the psychological profile of a veteran whose untreated trauma and mental illness escalated to child murder. We analyze how PTSD symptoms can manifest in domestic violence and familicide, the warning signs that were missed, and the specific failures in Decker's treatment history that contributed to this tragedy. The investigation reveals how military culture and inadequate mental health resources failed to address Decker's deteriorating psychological state.
This expert analysis explores the intersection of military service, PTSD, and family violence, examining how veterans' mental health crises can escalate to deadly outcomes when proper intervention and treatment are not provided. We discuss the systemic changes needed in military mental health care to prevent similar tragedies and protect veterans' families from the devastating consequences of untreated trauma.
The Travis Decker case serves as a stark warning about the deadly consequences when military and civilian systems fail to adequately address veterans' mental health needs and the risks they may pose to their own families.
#TravisDecker #PTSD #MilitaryMentalHealth #VeteranCrisis #Familicide #UntreatedTrauma #MentalHealthFailure #TrueCrime #SystemFailure #HiddenKillers
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video?
Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod
Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brewski. |
| 0:03.2 | Here now, Tony Brewski. |
| 0:06.1 | So this guy, Travis Decker, he gets online, starts searching for Canada relocation, how to get to Canada. |
| 0:15.7 | And then he searched for methods of killing as well, plastic bags, zip ties, location choices, things of that nature. |
| 0:24.0 | Then he gets the kids, and he's acting weird. And mom noted it, but it was his time. It was |
| 0:32.3 | his time to go have time with the girls. And that's the last time she ever saw him. |
| 0:39.5 | What the hell do you think's going through this guy's mind? I know that's a very insanely broad question, and we probably |
| 0:42.8 | do never know the answer to it. But he's planning on getting to Canada. He wants to get his |
| 0:46.7 | girls. And clearly, he's planning on killing them as well. It's insidious. You know, there are a |
| 0:53.8 | couple of things that we look for when parents murder their children. |
| 0:58.0 | The first, of course, is psychosis. |
| 1:00.0 | And we think of the case of Andrea Yates, who was schizophrenic, home alone with five kids, hallucinating about the devil, and had the delusion that the children were possessed, and the only way that she could free them and send them to heaven with God was to drown them in the bathtub, and she killed all of them. |
| 1:18.4 | So that's a very different case than something like this, where you look at, most often we would be looking at, was this about revenge? Was this about |
| 1:30.3 | trying to cause pain to the children's mother because he was angry at her? His life was in the |
| 1:39.5 | toilet. He was deteriorating. And how can we fathom someone who thinks that way? I mean, I think for |
| 1:48.2 | you and I, it's just impossible to put yourself in the mind of a person like that. But yeah, |
| 1:55.6 | you know, he was diagnosed borderline. I would guess that there was a lot of antisocial personality, meaning psychopathic |
| 2:02.3 | traits mixed in there. Who knows how his military service affected him, diagnosed with PTSD. |
| 2:09.7 | But there are millions and millions of people diagnosed with PTSD. It doesn't make them violent. |
| 2:14.1 | It doesn't make them hurt their children. So it's a hard one to put together, |
| 2:19.2 | but my guess is that there was this revenge element to it, which of course made him very dangerous |
| 2:26.9 | and inappropriate for ever spending time with them. Is this an example of a family annihilator? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from True Crime Today, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of True Crime Today and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.