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    Hunt for Father Accused of Killing 3 Daughters Expands in Washington Forest

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    Travis Decker is a former member of the military who has enough wilderness survival skills to live in the woods on his own for weeks or months, the authorities said.The National Guard is joining the search in Washington State for a man the police say killed his three young daughters.More than a hundred law enforcement officers are combing parts of central and northern Washington State for the man, Travis Decker, who the police say has wilderness skills that could help him survive for weeks on his own.The police say Mr. Decker kidnapped the three girls — Olivia Decker, 5; Evelyn, 8; and Paityn, 9 — on May 30. They were found dead on Monday near a campsite roughly 70 miles east of Seattle. Each child had a plastic bag over her head, according to an affidavit from the police in Wenatchee, Wash., where the girls lived with their mother.Travis Caleb DeckerWenatchee Police DepartmentLarge swaths of wilderness around where the girls’ bodies were found have been closed to the public as the manhunt has intensified. The U.S. Forest Service closed some trails, roads and campsites in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. On Thursday, the National Park Service closed parts of the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, a part of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex to the north of the national forest.On Friday, Gov. Bob Ferguson pledged to support the investigation by sending National Guard resources and emergency funding.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tom Brown Jr., World-Renowned Survivalist, Is Dead at 74

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      For decades, he ran a school in the New Jersey wilderness that taught thousands of students how to survive and even thrive in the great outdoors.Tom Brown Jr., who was considered the country’s foremost authority on wilderness survival, and who taught thousands of people how to track deer, fletch arrows, forage for food and generally thrive in the great outdoors, died on Aug. 16 in Neptune, N.J. He was 74.His son Coty confirmed the death, in a hospital. He said his father had recently been in failing health.Though Mr. Brown’s trim, sturdy build and neatly coifed mustache were more reminiscent of the media magnate Ted Turner than John Rambo, he was in every way the quintessential outdoorsman.His preferred wilderness was the Pine Barrens, a vast, unpeopled expanse of sandy forest that stretches across the middle of New Jersey. He would disappear into the woods for weeks at a time, often with nothing but the clothes on his back, and emerge ruddy in health and even a few pounds heavier.“If you have clothes or a knife, then you aren’t really surviving,” he told The Maine Times in 1998.By way of income, Mr. Brown ran Tracker School, a series of weeklong courses in the intricacies of bare-bones wilderness living and what he referred to as “the wisdom of the track.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Tourist From New Mexico Is Killed by an Elephant in Zambia

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      The incident came months after another tourist was killed in Zambia when an elephant charged her group. One wildlife expert said the attacks were most likely “freak accidents.”A tourist from New Mexico was killed in Zambia when an elephant charged her, according to the police commissioner who investigated the incident. She is the second tourist to be fatally attacked by an elephant in the southern African country this year.The woman who was killed, Juliana G. Letourneau, 64, of Albuquerque, had just visited Victoria Falls, a 350-foot waterfall that straddles the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was heading back to her hotel on Wednesday when the group that she was traveling with encountered a herd of elephants on the road.She and others stepped out of their vehicle to observe the animals, said Auxensio Daka, the police commissioner for the southern province of Zambia, in a telephone interview on Saturday.“They stopped to watch the elephants, and unfortunately one of them charged towards them as they were standing there watching,” Mr. Daka said.Mr. Daka said that Ms. Letourneau was taken to a clinic in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park near Livingstone, Zambia, where she was declared dead on arrival. Her injuries included deep wounds on the right shoulder blade and forehead, a fractured left ankle and a slightly depressed chest, according to a police statement.No other injuries were reported from the encounter with the elephant.Ms. Letourneau’s brother said on Saturday that he had no details about the incident, and declined to be interviewed. Other relatives could not be reached.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More