Travis Decker is dead, the Chelan County sheriff said in a news conference Thursday afternoon, officially putting an end to a nearly four-month hunt for the Army veteran accused of killing his three daughters near Leavenworth.

Highly anticipated lab results positively linked Decker’s DNA to human remains found less than a mile away from where his daughters – Olivia, 5; Evelyn, 8; and Paityn, 9 – were found dead in June, Sheriff Mike Morrison said outside of the Chelan County Courthouse in Wenatchee.

The news comes two days after federal prosecutors said in a court filing that they were advised by the U.S. Marshals Service that Decker was dead. Morrison had said Wednesday that the prosecutors’ declaration was a bit premature, given the test results had not come back.

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