Founder & Principal Investigator
Kathy Decker
The detective who never stopped looking.
- Retired Homicide Detective — King County Major Crimes
- 34 years in law enforcement
- 2× Detective of the Year
- Court-recognized tracking expert
34
Years with the King County Sheriff's Office
2×
Detective of the Year — 2004 and 2018
300+
Search & rescue volunteers directed and trained
15
Years court-recognized as a tracking expert (2004–2019)
The background
Thirty-four years of the work most people only watch on television.
Kathy Decker joined the King County Sheriff's Office in 1985 and spent most of the next three decades in Major Crimes. She was twice named the department's Detective of the Year and received the Commander's Award when she retired in 2020 — in an announcement where the Sheriff's Office called her “an outright legend”. Her specialty is narrow and unusual: finding what is hidden outdoors.
Outdoor crime scenes, buried body recovery, forensic tracking, and large-scale evidence searches are their own discipline. She ran the searches on the Green River case, commanded some of the largest evidence searches in Washington state history, and Washington courts recognized her as an expert witness in tracking evidence for fifteen years.
When she retired, the unresolved cases didn't retire with her. She founded IRIS in October 2024 so that families, attorneys, and agencies could reach the kind of investigative team that normally exists only inside a major crimes unit.
“What is not looked for will not be found.”
The standard she holds every case to.
Where she works
Disciplines she leads at IRIS
Core expertise
- Major & cold case homicide investigation
- Outdoor & wilderness crime scenes
- Discovery & recovery of human remains
- Forensic tracking & sign cutting
- Large-scale search operations & command
- Expert court testimony (tracking evidence)
Elsewhere
Service history
Career
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2024 – present
Founder & Principal Investigator, IRIS LLC
Cold cases, outdoor crime scenes, buried body recovery, and forensic tracking. Case consulting for the King County Prosecutor's Office.
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2015 – 2020
Detective, Major Crimes Unit — KCSO
Detective of the Year 2018. Commander's Award 2020.
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2006 – 2011
Search & Rescue Coordinator — KCSO
Directed and trained 300+ volunteers. Operations Chief for large-scale human remains searches. Built the SAR CSI Team supporting Major Crimes.
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1993 – 2006
Detective, Major Crimes Unit — KCSO
Detective of the Year 2004. Led residence and property search operations on the Green River investigation.
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1991 – 1993
Detective, Special Assault Unit — KCSO
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1985 – 1991
Master Police Officer / Patrol — KCSO
Instruction
- Outdoor Crime Scene & Buried Body Recovery — Lewis County ME & Sheriff
- Evidence & Criminal Investigation — Bellevue College
- National Crime Scene & SAR conferences
- SAR–law enforcement integration programs across WA, ID, MT
- K9 Tracker / CSI courses — 2005–2018
Deployments
- Japan — missing hiker, 2009
- Peru — missing person, 2003
- Mayfield, KY — tornado response, 2022
- Del Rio, TX — humanitarian deployment, 2022
- 1st Special Response Group — 2002–2008
- Multi-county remains searches, WA — 2011–2018
Professional tracker / sign cutter with Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services, 1998–2021 and 2023–present.
Teaching & on camera
Watch her at work.
Long-form sessions on tracking and search strategy, and the conference circuit where she teaches the same methods to other investigators.
41:06 Tracking Suspects and the Science of Geographic Profiling
STS True Crime Talk · Part 1, with Douglas MacGregor
Kathy and IRIS geographic profiler Douglas MacGregor on how spatial analysis and field tracking work together to narrow a search.
1:06:04 Sign Cutting: How A Detective Tracked a Killer's Every Move in the Woods
STS True Crime Talk · Part 2
Kathy walks through how tracking evidence is read, documented, and defended — the discipline behind her court-recognized expert testimony.
On the conference circuit
With Erik Estrada · law-enforcement conference
IRIS exhibits and teaches at industry events across the country — the same tracking and cold case methods covered in these sessions.
Training & eventsThe record
Cases you've already heard of.
Each of these was worked during her career with the King County Sheriff's Office — and each drew national coverage. Every card below links to independent reporting.
Covered by
Solved after three decades
Sarah Yarborough
Head detective
A 1991 homicide with DNA that never matched. Kathy drove the re-evaluation of that evidence for years, then the forensic genetic genealogy work that finally narrowed it to two brothers. Patrick Nicholas was identified in 2019 and convicted in 2023.
ABC News — opens in a new tabConviction, 2013
Nicole “Nikki” Pietz
Investigation & forensic tracking
Partnered with the lead detective on the 2006 murder of Nicole Pietz and provided the forensic visual tracking examination. Her husband was convicted of second-degree murder.
ABC News — opens in a new tabRemains recovered
The Knotek Case
Oversaw the evidence search
Sent to Raymond, Washington at the Pacific County Sheriff's request. Spent several weeks on the property directing the search for human remains — which were recovered, along with the evidence that linked them.
The Seattle Times — opens in a new tab48 counts of aggravated murder
Green River / Gary Ridgway
Evidence search command
Oversaw the evidence search at Ridgway's residence, and coordinated searches for victims' remains for years afterward — part of one of the longest serial murder investigations in U.S. history.
CNN — opens in a new tabConfidential Case Review
Tell us what happened. We'll tell you what's possible.
Your inquiry is confidential and carries no obligation. We take on complex cases that need more than a records search.
- Read by an investigator Your note goes to the team that would work the case — not a call center.
- Completely confidential We don't share, sell, or discuss your inquiry with anyone.