'I just sparked a manhunt.' Idaho man misidentified as fugitive shares story

Shannon Tyler, Idaho Statesman on Jul 16, 2025

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BOISE, Idaho — What happens when the wrong person is at the center of a large-scale manhunt? A Garden City man can tell you.

Nick went to Bear Creek in Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest to spend his July 4 weekend hiking, camping and enjoying the outdoors with a friend.

While he was able to thoroughly enjoy the weekend, Nick had a shocking realization when he returned home: U.S. marshals launched a search to find a man accused of killing his three young daughters, focusing on the same spot Nick was hiking that weekend — and he may have been the man who set it off.

Nick said that when he saw the news stating a manhunt was underway to find Travis Decker, the Wenatchee, Washington, man authorities have been trying to find for over a month, he first thought he could have been hiking right near the fugitive.

Nick requested that the Idaho Statesman identify him by first name only to avoid being publicly connected to Decker long term.

“When I got back to work on Monday, my friend who was with me sent me a news article, and he said, ‘Bro, we were in the camp with a murderer. They’re hunting a murderer,’ ” he said. “We’re thinking, holy cow, that was a close call.”

When Nick read further into the stories and saw the description of the man seen on the trails, he found eerily similar descriptions to what he had been wearing that day.

“The person believed to be Travis Decker was described as a white male, (5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10) wearing a black mesh cap, black gauged earrings, cream colored t-shirt, black shorts, long ponytail, black Garmin style watch, beard and mustache overgrown, wearing a black Jan Sport backpack and either converse or vans low top shoes,” a July 6 U.S. Marshals press release stated.

Nick said the description matched what he wore that day.

“It was like, the height, the weight, the hat, the beard, the hair, the earrings, visible tattoos, dressed in a light-colored shirt. Aside from the color of the shorts and the watch, those are like the only things that didn’t match the description,” Nick said.

“That was about the time we realized, I just sparked a manhunt.”

Nick called the Fairfield Ranger Station, which covers that area, and tried to explain the situation. He knew this manhunt was taking away resources from trying to find the right guy, and authorities were looking for the van of the friend who drove to camp with him. He needed to put an end to It.

Nick said it was Wednesday when officers from the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, Ada County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Service all showed up to his work to verify that he was the man identified — and he was not, in fact, Decker.

About four hours later, Nick said, the news changed to “just kidding, it was the wrong guy.”

The Marshals Service said in a press release that it had located “the man multiple witnesses saw at the Sawtooth National Forest who was believed to be Travis Decker,” and stopped searching for Decker in the area.

“On one hand, it was hilarious because you just don’t expect that in your daily life,” Nick said. “On the other hand, there’s a manhunt for a guy that’s suspected of killing three children, and if he’s really out there, the people looking for him need to be looking for him, and now I’m a red herring and I’m drawing resources away from the goal.”

Nick said there are no hard feelings toward the people who called authorities misidentifying him as Decker.

“I would say that to the person who called in, good job,” he said. “There’s an active manhunt for a suspected killer in the news, and authorities are asking if you see this guy, please call us, and that’s what the person did. So that’s very good.“

Nick said he was just glad no one felt the need to be a “vigilante and take matters into their own hands.”

“When you’re outdoors, especially way out in the middle of nowhere, it’s very common for people to be armed for self-protection or otherwise just recreational shooting. There are guns out there,” Nick said. “I’m very thankful that I wasn’t looking down the barrel of a gun, possibly getting in a gunfight for my own safety in the middle of nowhere.”

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