August 14, 2024 • 50 mins
A house explodes. Police find three bodies. A father disappears.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Missing Arizona contains graphic depictions of violence and may not
be suitable for all listeners. April tenth, two thousand and one, am.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Exploded off of Hollie and a fire and a fire.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
You're good, big fire, get the big fire.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
You bet I can do it.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The house is exploded and ignited on fire.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Who hi are you telling about the fire?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
As nobody on the way.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Okay, we have the whole on the way.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
I'm just telling to make sure you're good.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
They come in on Hollie.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
They get lost every damn time with the fire.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
They's gonna come in on Hollie.
Speaker 6 (00:36):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's told a second.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It's so many folly seventy four goodness, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
There is still no fire equipment.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
He's okay, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
We're on our way.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
There's nothing you can do to make a little faster. Okay,
you're on our wing.
Speaker 7 (00:59):
Wasn't going on?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's a big fire, really calling me.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
It's just like blow up.
Speaker 8 (01:04):
Okay, one's on fire.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
The whole house, the whole hell, whole house is burning up.
Speaker 9 (01:09):
And I want to hear them.
Speaker 10 (01:12):
Going three w It isn't around seventy fourth and.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh yeah, and there it is whole house in quoting.
Speaker 11 (01:18):
Okay, we do have.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Police the fire on the way, where there are people
outside the house, Yes.
Speaker 12 (01:22):
There are no Probably did.
Speaker 11 (01:25):
We have one.
Speaker 8 (01:26):
Cordia web cars?
Speaker 6 (01:28):
I'll maybe one's done.
Speaker 12 (01:29):
He could not say how many.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Many of those.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
They're all this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
From iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three. I'm John Walsac, and
this is Missing in Arizona, the story of a man
who disappeared after allegedly killing his wife and kids, blowing
up their suburban home and escaping into the wilderness. Twenty
three years later, I'm hunting Robert Fisher and I need
your help. So we're turning for the first time onto
(02:04):
Robert Fisher's street, pulling up into the cul de Sac,
one hundred and eleven degrees out. You want to park
in front of the stone wall. It's always amazing the
simple items that survived catastrophe, the resilient relics, stubbornly dotting
desecrated landscapes, refusing to yield. At the end of North
seventy fourth place in Scottsdale, Arizona, there sits a little
(02:26):
stone wall. It's a gravestone beyond which three people died
it's a vital witness, but it cannot speak, and it's
an eternal marker of a suburban fabric. One man found
so suffocating he slashed and shot and burned his way out.
Long after the family who lived twenty feet away died,
long after most neighbors moved, Long after a new home
(02:48):
replaced the one that exploded, this little stone wall remains.
You see it in a home video from nineteen eighty nine.
Hey Babe, Hey, Robert Fisher stands in his driveway, barefoot,
cradling his one year old daughter, Brittany, as twilight takes
hold just over his right shoulder. The stone wall. You
(03:10):
see it too in crime scene photos from two thousand
and one. Blackened beams rise from charred, smoldering rubble as
investigators circle what remains of the Fisher house. Orange fire
hoses spaghetti across cul de Sac pavement under a gray
sky stamped with faded, fluffy white clouds. A silver pickup
truck sits burned and blistered under a half collapsed carport roof.
(03:32):
And there then, as now, the stone wall. This wall,
maybe two feet tall, is the line that separates the
Fishers from their next door neighbor. Around ten pm on
April ninth, two thousand and one, the neighbor hears Robert
and Mary fighting. Forty minutes later, Robert gets into Mary's
Toyota fore Runner and heads to a nearby ATM, where
(03:54):
a camera captures grainy, black and white footage of him
pulling out two hundred and eighty dollars, then driving away
poof gone forever. This is the final sighting of Robert,
the final sighting of Mary's suv until a camper finds
it ten days later, abandoned in a remote forest. At least,
that's what we've been told for twenty three years by
(04:16):
the police, media and FBI. The leading theory is that
Robert is grabbing cash and fleeing town, that he already
killed Mary and the kids. This is a critical detail.
It means he has a ten hour jump on the cops.
April ninth, ten forty two pm, Robert's at the ATM
April tenth, eight forty two am. His house explodes, a
(04:38):
ten hour gap. Except this timeline is wrong. I found
a new confirmed sighting. Real quick, let me take you
back to the nineteen nineties. Listen to this tiny but
important clip from a Fisher home video. Mary films Brittany
peddling a small bike down their cul.
Speaker 12 (04:56):
De Sac dip.
Speaker 13 (04:57):
You can turn around in that driveway.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That driveway two houses down by two thousand and one.
It belongs to a man who agreed to speak to
me on the condition I not use his real name.
Let's call him Peter. He works long hours in the
food service industry.
Speaker 14 (05:12):
Sometimes I'd leave to the three o'clock in.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The morning April tenth, two thousand and one.
Speaker 15 (05:18):
When I got up, he had one vehicle underneath to carport,
and he had her vehicle on the street.
Speaker 10 (05:24):
At about three thirty in the morning's when I left,
that vehicle was still on the street.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
His vehicle was pulled underneath to carport. Peter sees both
Robert's truck and Mary's suv at the Fisher house at
three thirty am, which means we can say definitively for
the first time that Robert returned home from the ATM
the previous night. This tightens the timeline by five hours
and takes me completely by surprise. When I agree to
(05:52):
meet Peter, I don't expect much maybe some anecdotes about
the Fishers. Instead, three thirty in the morning and both
vehicles was still in I asked him repeatedly, if he's sure.
Speaker 15 (06:03):
I do know that it was zero When I last this,
I'd pull out and look right at it and then
take off go to Ord.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But Peter, are you one hundred percent certain and hositive?
Peter has never been interviewed by the media or more importantly,
law enforcement, despite living only eighty feet from the Fishers.
He provides us two new clues. One a sighting of
both vehicles at the Fisherhouse at three thirty am on
April tenth, two thousand and one, and two how the
(06:31):
vehicles are parked.
Speaker 14 (06:32):
The truck was in the driveway.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
A SEV was on the street. This is abnormal. Peter
usually sees Mary's SUV in the driveway and Robert's truck
on the street.
Speaker 14 (06:42):
This day it was yapposite.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
A different neighbor, the one who heard Robert and Mary fighting,
tells police the same thing. Why does this tiny detail matter?
I'll tell you later. April tenth, two thousand and one,
a twenty year old Alicia Keys releases her debut single
Fallen at eight forty two two the Fisher House. Exwait,
hold up, I lied, I told you I found one
(07:05):
new witness, but I actually found two. I have another
one for you, and he tightens up the timeline even further.
His name is Bud Wolf. Unfortunately he died in twenty
twenty one, so instead I meet with his daughter, Jenna.
We're learning now that the very last person to ever
see Mary Fisher's SUV or any sign therefore, Robert Fisher,
(07:26):
was your dad.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Jenna often joins her dad as he makes repeated early
morning visits to the Fisher's cul de sac.
Speaker 9 (07:34):
I know this show was pretty dark.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
On April tenth, two thousand and one, Jenna is not
with her dad as he delivers newspapers.
Speaker 13 (07:41):
He would have picked him up and then drove to Scottsdale,
so I had to put him there between four and five.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Bud Wolf is in Scottsdale by four or five am.
But when exactly does he pass the Fisher House? What
does he see? And how do I even know this?
Last year I obtained a previously unreported memo written by
a Scotts Sale police officer. Here it is read by
a voice actor on four eleven oh one, the day
after the house explodes.
Speaker 16 (08:06):
At zero five zero five hours five oh five am.
While working traffic control at seventy fourth Place in Holly,
monitoring the northbound entrance to seventy fourth Place, I observed
a paper carrier approach my location. I contacted the paper
carrier Arizona Republic, who identified himself verbally as Bud Wolf.
Bud stated that he needed to deliver five newspapers on
(08:28):
seventy fourth Place north of Holly. Bud inquired if he
should simply walk in, as northbound seventy fourth Place was
taped off with yellow crime scene tape. I advised Bud
to go ahead and walk into the neighborhood. When Bud returned,
he stated that yesterday he accidentally delivered a newspaper to
the house that burned. He added that he delivered this
paper by mistake.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
At zero five thirty hours five thirty am.
Speaker 16 (08:52):
Bud stated that on four to ten oh one, at
zero five thirty, he noticed that the large pickup that
is now parked under the car port and burned was
parked in the driveway, but the rear of the vehicle
was sticking out blocking the sidewalk. Bud added that there
was another vehicle parked in front of the truck under
the carport. At that time, Bud described the other vehicle
(09:12):
as a white car possibly. Bud said that he wasn't
positive about the vehicle type. About two minutes after he
delivered the paper, he realized his mistake. Bud then went
back and retrieved the paper. Bud left the area. Bud
did not see any activity in the area on that morning.
After Bud left, I noticed that I forgot to get
Bud's state of birth. I called Bud's cell phone. I
spoke to Bud and got his birth date. During the conversation,
(09:35):
Bud volunteered that he now remembered that the vehicle that
he saw in front of the truck was not a car,
but a white suv. Bud was not sure what type
of suv it was. Bud added that it appeared to
be an older model. Bud said that the vehicle was
definitely not a van.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Signed by Officer Abernathy, Badge number seven zero four. Let's
pause for a minute and take stock of what we've learned.
One hbor who hears Robert and Mary arguing at ten
pm on April ninth, sees their vehicles parked abnormally. Mary's
fore Runner in the driveway Robert's truck in the street.
Two Peter, a different neighbor, sees the same thing when
(10:13):
he leaves for work at three thirty AM on April tenth.
Three Budwolf, a newspaper delivery man, sees Robert's truck and
what appears to be Mary's four runner at five thirty AM.
So for the first time in twenty three years, we've
narrowed down the case timeline significantly. Robert Fisher does not
immediately flee after visiting the ATM on April ninth. In fact,
(10:35):
he's still home seven hours later at five thirty AM.
On April tenth. The house explodes at eight forty two AM,
so Robert flees sometime between five thirty and eight forty two.
But we can narrow it down even further because Mary
Fisher is supposed to pick up a neighbor's son for
a school carpool at seven thirty. When she doesn't show up,
(10:57):
that neighbor looks out a window and sees Robert's truck,
but not Mary's forerunner. So with two new witnesses, we've
narrowed down when Robert flees to between five thirty and
seven thirty. What else can we deduce. Well, the sun
rises in Scottsdale on April tenth at six oh three am,
but civil twilight starts at five thirty seven, meaning there's
(11:18):
already a good bit of light in the sky. Robert
likely wants to leave quickly now to avoid neighbors and sunlight.
My best guess is that he flees shortly after Bud
Wolf sees both vehicles at the house at five thirty
Is it really creepy to think that that morning Robert
Fisher would have been home when your dad was slivering
the paper?
Speaker 14 (11:37):
Extremely creepy.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Extremely, There's no reason to doubt, Bud Wolf. He shares
his story with a police officer the day after the
Fisher house explodes, then dies, having never spoken to the media.
He has no reason to lie. Would you describe your
dad as a trustworthy person?
Speaker 9 (11:54):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What do you say he had a good memory? He
did at the time.
Speaker 12 (11:58):
Yes.
Speaker 17 (11:59):
Towards the end of light is when with the brain
cancer is memory started deteriorating.
Speaker 18 (12:03):
But during that period his memory was incredible.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Would there be any reason to doubt an account that
he gave the police.
Speaker 12 (12:11):
Oh not at all.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Now let's turn to what Budwolf sees not just when
Bud sees Robert's truck parks behind what he first describes
as a quote white car, possibly and shortly thereafter as
a quote white suv. Mary's fore Runner is silver, not white.
Is it possible that Bud sees an entirely different vehicle
(12:33):
parked at the Fisher House. Yes, but that's extremely unlikely.
The most plausible explanation is that Bud's memory is good
but not perfect, that he recalls a silver suv spotted
during twilight as white. So here's the new case timeline.
Ten pm, a neighbor hears Robert and Mary arguing. The
neighbor sees their vehicles parked abnormally, Robert's truck in the driveway,
(12:57):
Mary's suv in the street. Forty two pm, Robert withdraws
two hundred and eighty dollars from a nearby atm three
thirty am, Peter, a different neighbor, also sees Robert's truck
in the driveway and Mary's fore Runner in the street.
Five thirty am Budwolf, the newspaper delivery man, sees Mary's
four Runner in the driveway, parked in front of Robert's truck,
(13:20):
which is now jutting out into the cul de sac.
Here's why this is important. It means that between three
thirty and five thirty, someone shuffles the vehicles Robert's truck
out of the driveway, Mary's suv into the driveway, Robert's
truck behind the suv. By the time the house explodes,
Robert's truck is under the car port and Mary's fore
(13:41):
runner is gone. Meaning after Budwolf leaves around five thirty,
someone shuffles the vehicles again, pulling out the truck, pulling
out the suv, putting the truck under the car port,
and driving away in the suv. What the heck is
going on here? To recap, between three thirty and seven
thirty am, we have a game of musical cars. Someone
(14:01):
pulls Robert's truck out of the driveway, marries suv into
the driveway, Robert's truck behind the suv, the truck out again,
the suv out, the truck back, and then drives away
in the suv. This is extremely bizarre, especially because Robert's
truck is allowed diesel and the cul de sac is small.
It's also a lot for a single person to pull
(14:22):
off by themselves. I'll get to that in a later
episode Stay tuned. So your family owned the land on
(14:52):
which the Fisher home was built originally, and how long
has that property been in your family.
Speaker 18 (14:58):
My father bought the property in twenty nine and he
moved there about nineteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
On that forty acres, what was farmed.
Speaker 18 (15:05):
Mostly cotton, sorghum, and some citrus.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Mike Wilmith now owns only two of the original forty acres,
but those two acres and his house are a extremely
valuable and b directly behind the Fisher property. On April tenth,
two thousand and one, Mike is in bed only one
hundred and fifty feet from the Fisher house.
Speaker 18 (15:26):
I was just beginning to come out of sleep. That's
sort of to my laid zone. And I heard the
explosion and I went, that sounded like an explosion.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And you didn't immediately hop out of bed. It sounds
like you stayed in bed for a minute.
Speaker 18 (15:37):
I stayed in bed for a few minutes until he
heard the helicopters and I'm like, Okay, now I gotta
go check what's going on.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I don't blame you, your Dralsey, Ye're waking up. It's
not how you want to start your morning news. Helicopters
circle overhead, broadcasting live watching at home. One woman immediately
recognizes the burning house. Jan Howell, Robert Fisher's mom. She
calls nine one. Here's the recreation of that call.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
Rural Metro Fire Department.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yes, this is missus Howell, my son, Robert Fisher's house.
I just saw blow up on television. I want to
make sure see what's happening there.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
It's okay, and this is your son's house.
Speaker 15 (16:17):
Yes, okay, just a minute, ma'am, Yes, okay, I'm going
to have somebody contact you.
Speaker 6 (16:22):
Was there anybody? Was your son out of town or
was he in town?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Do you know he's supposed to I just called the hospital.
He works at Mayo Hospital, Uh huh. And I called
him and they didn't hear from him. And then I
got his mother in law on the line and she
said a neighbor had called the church and said the
house exploded with gas. And okay, and on television I
saw his truck in the driveway.
Speaker 15 (16:43):
Okay, now we're not sure. You said the person who
owns this house his last name is Fisher. Yes, okay,
we're not showing that as being his house. No, okay,
never mind, all right. All I can do is how
many people were in the family or that lived in
the house.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
There's a boy ten years old, a girl thirteen years old,
the wife Mary, and my son who's forty.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
Okay, so there's four people that live in the house, yes,
and a dog.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
The explosion is violent, rattling houses for a half mile
in every direction, sending flames shooting twenty feet into the air.
The most direct witness is a man named Max Moody
working on a nearby rooftop. He's slammed by a deafening
boom as debris flies out and a column of black
smoke climbs into the sky. Flames flare from shattered windows.
(17:29):
The first cop to arrive is Scottsdale Police Officer Jay Hawkins.
As he pulls up, there's a series of smaller secondary explosions,
probably ammunition. Neighbors screamed that there are people in the house.
Firefighters speed to the scene, as through reporters, including Tom Zohner.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
So.
Speaker 14 (17:46):
I was working as a reporter at the Arizona Republic,
which is the statewide daily newspaper, and on the morning
of April tenth, two thousand and one, I walked out
of my house to go to my car to go
to work, and I saw a plume of smoke on
the horizon and it looked like a gigantic fire and
the smoke was black. Whatever it was was still engaged,
(18:06):
and so instead of going straight to work, I decided
to swing by the fire and I arrived to the
house of Robert Fisher, which was completely on fire. I
was the first reporter at the scene, and the fire
crews were already working the blaze.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
The scott Steel Police Department is here too. Detective TJ.
Duran arrives to a fire blasted Norman Rockwell painting nice
little house, nice little house, nice little house, and then
a pile of smoldering rubble.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
The damage was incredible. We were kind of like, what
the fuck caused the explosion?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Juranne guesses correctly, natural gas. He and other detectives, including
John Kirkham and Joe LaDuke, circle the house trying to
decipher this enigmatic molten mess.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
We went around the backyard, so the fire had started
and then it exploded. It blew out the back walls
of the house. Now you had a four feet high
brick wall where you could look in and John and
I were looking in and there were two bedrooms we
were able to look into, and we could see that
there were bodies on a bed, and John and I
(19:10):
looked at each other and we basically said, this is
definitely a homicide. We knew that the fire was burning
and the bodies looked small, so we knew they were kids.
Normal cases, somebody's going to wake up and move. They
were still lying there like they were sleeping. I've been
on investigations where a child died in the fire, and
when we found the child in the house, they were
(19:33):
in the fetal position. You tend to curl up because
of the heat. These bodies weren't like that.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
To Duran's dismay, news of the bodies leaks to the media.
Speaker 14 (19:42):
Soon it became apparent that it wasn't just a house
fire but a triple homicide.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Detectives fight to keep gory details private, and they're successful
for now, but they're already feeling intense pressure. This will
clearly be a high profile case, and their crime scene
is burning on live teev as someone leaks secrets and
family and friends of the victims descend on the cul
de Sac.
Speaker 7 (20:06):
Someone called me and said I think Mary's house blew up.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Mary's friend Kim Davidson.
Speaker 12 (20:12):
So, what do you mean?
Speaker 7 (20:12):
And they said, I just heard there's a house and
scuffs of the blew up. We think it's Mary's. So
I went to the house and there was police in
front of it. Her sister, mRNA was sitting in the
police cart and there was an ambulance there and the
house was in shambles. The next thing I knew, I
overheard the police officers say there's three bodies and their
two children. I just kind of went into shock.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
At SUPERI Middle School, principal Diane Wells calls an emergency
meeting of Britney Fisher's teachers, including Miss Honey, who we
heard from in episode one, and.
Speaker 13 (20:41):
Then the police come in and they're like, there's been
a fire. House has been on fire, and we're like, oh,
whose house? And then I realized she's not in class today.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Brittany is missing, her house is on fire, Rumors fly,
No one can focus the SUPERI gang. This hearty bunch
of teachers must remain calm.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Because the news was blowing up and we had to
be the turquoise team of the teachers. We had to
be strong That was the strongest I've ever had to
be as a teacher, as an educator, because these kids
are leaning on us to be strong and to make
this okay. So we all fall apart.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Meanwhile, everyone has the same question.
Speaker 13 (21:22):
One of my colleagues, Kate Evererly it said, wait, where's
Robert Fisher? And I'll never forget that moment. I will
never forget that moment because all I know is the
police looked at each other and she said, you need
to find him because I think he did it, and
that all I know. All I can remember is the
police is like, all right, well, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Bam, they were gone.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
This is on purpose. The Scottsdale Police Department wants to
minimize any discussion of Robert Fisher as a suspect. They
hope he'll return and claim to have been camping or
something when his family died, expecting their bodies critical evidence
to be destroyed. It's a controversial strategy. Most people immediately
suspect Robert the missing dad with military medical and firefighting experience,
(22:06):
but in defensive SPD, if Robert's not thinking rationally, which
is possible, this strategy could work. As the fire dies down,
there's so much confusion. Jim Rodin, a Fisher family friend.
Here's a false rumor that SPD found Robert's body, So
I go, oh.
Speaker 18 (22:22):
Man, my friend Robert's gone.
Speaker 19 (22:25):
Then it's the reports start coming in.
Speaker 16 (22:27):
No, he's not there.
Speaker 11 (22:29):
They found the bodies of Brittany and Bobby and Mary
and it looks like dirty pool. So then it's just like, oh,
my goodness, this just went from bad to very very
very bad. From an accident happened or a suicide to
a triple homicide.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
And where is he?
Speaker 19 (22:45):
That's probably the first time I go, oh, Robert, what
did you do?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Even as it starts to click mom dead, daughter dead,
son dead, dad missing, SPD declares that Robert is not
a suspect, though he is wanted for questioning. The next day,
Mary's father, Bill Cooper, a retired school principal who walks
with two canes, speaks to the media.
Speaker 12 (23:06):
Robert, we love you, whoever you are, Robert, please we understand,
we love you. Just come home, please, Robert and I
don't know what's going on. We don't know anything for sure,
but we'd like to hear from you, please.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Robert, Bill begs a newspaper reporter to quote, please please
keep writing good things about Robert. He's a good man.
Speaker 14 (23:33):
You want to know about my Robert. He was the
greatest dad, he was the greatest husband.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I miss him. I miss him terribly. I miss him
almost as much as I miss my daughter, because they
were one. Bill's grief hurts my soul reporting this case.
I think of it every time I see him in
old family videos, including this clip from nineteen eighty nine
with Robert and Brittany.
Speaker 20 (24:00):
Oh Brittany got cross file. They're like, Oh, Brittany's one
years old.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
On April fourteenth, two thousand and one, the Arizona Republic
leads with a story by Tom z Ohner headline family
in Blaze slashed shot quote. Mary Fisher was shot in
the back of the head and her children's throats were
slashed and the hours before their Scottsdale home exploded Tuesday,
scott Stale detectives including T. J. Duran and John Kirkham
(24:35):
are furious with his owner.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Somebody gave him information on the crime that shouldn't have
been in the newspapers. So at that point we realized, well,
the Republic's distributed throughout the whole state, there's no doubt
he's looking at newspapers, so we knew at that point
our theory that he'd come back is out the window.
That's done. As a matter of fact, when that printed,
(24:58):
John called me that morning, really early in said, have
you seen the fucking newspaper front page? And at that
time I used to have it delivered to me, and
I looked at it, and then I called him back
and said, who the fuck is talking?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
SPD is fighting to find Robert Fisher and Tom Zohner
just nuked their strategy.
Speaker 14 (25:17):
That came to a head and what amounted to a
yelling match in between myself and Detective Duran. He completely
uncorked on me. I yelled back at him, and that
was that. Years later we passed it up. I do
have a lot of respect for him. I think he
did as good a job as any police officer could
have done on this case, and he also understood why
(25:37):
we were twined for the information that we got. In
some ways, the mission of the police end of the
news is parallel. You want to find out what the
heck happened.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Zohner's article with details on the murders is a turning
point in the case.
Speaker 8 (25:50):
And now father and husband Robert Fisher is officially being
called a suspect.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
At Superi Middle School, Miss Honey, Britney's teacher and the
second to last person to see and speak with Robert
Fisher at the Honor Society event on April ninth, takes
a deep breath, and then it was.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
This moment of Oh my God, I shook his hand.
I shook his hand that night.
Speaker 16 (26:11):
It was me.
Speaker 9 (26:11):
I was the one.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
As the gravity and depravity of the situation sink in. Mary, Brittany,
and Bobby are cremated and laid to rest in a
private ceremony on Easter weekend. Then on April seventeenth, a
crowd of thirteen hundred gathers for a public memorial. Undercover
cops scan the crowd for any sign of Robert Fisher.
As speakers memorialized Brittany ten days before what would have
(26:36):
been her thirteenth birthday, we saw her as.
Speaker 17 (26:39):
A bright and shining star among her peers. Such a
beautiful young lady, so precious, so unique, so special. She
will be missed more than I can say. God must
be thrilled to have her right now in his choir
in heaven.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
I love you, Maria.
Speaker 17 (26:54):
I love you, Brittany, I love your Barney.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Bill Cooper speaks.
Speaker 10 (26:59):
Like God has a plan. He has a timing for
our lives. And you've heard today that this was not
something that was yanked from Mary and Brittany and Bobby.
God has a plan. We don't know what it is,
but I know someday we're going to know. But until then,
I just want you to know that we're going to
miss him so much. They were such a joy to
(27:22):
my life. But I still have my murder and we
will see them again in glory. Did I keep that
under seven minutes?
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Great?
Speaker 6 (27:34):
Bill.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
If you like this show, please download our first two seasons,
Missing in Alaska and Missing on nine to eleven. For updates,
visit me on thirty three dot com or follow me
on Twitter at John waalzac.
Speaker 12 (27:55):
J O n w A.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
L Czak. Thanks for listening. Thursday April nineteenth, two thousand
(28:18):
and one, nine days after the house explodes, as darkness falls,
a fifty year old man named Greg drives down a
bumpy road in Arizona's Tonto National Forest looking for a
place to camp. Greg is alone. He often is. He
wanders the country doing construction work he parks his van
at a primitive campsite and gets out. Slushy snow falls
(28:41):
gently from above, drifting down into an inky forest devoid
of light and sound. This spot is one hundred and
twenty miles northeast of Scottsdale, fifteen miles from the tiny
town of Young, and one thousand feet from the Ford
Apache Indian Reservation, on a steep climbed down from the
muggy on rem l l o n An escarpment, a
(29:03):
long steep slope, a strip of cliffs. Think of it
as a jagged raised scar stretching two hundred miles across
the state. This is where Greg finds himself cold, wandering
down a forest service road, hunting by flashlight for firewood,
when he spots a glint of silver in the woods.
Speaker 14 (29:21):
Closing your eyes, dot dot dot, here we go.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Tom Dolner, now a successful author, published a book last
year called rim To River, Looking into the Heart of Arizona,
in which he paints a vivid portrait of this remote spot.
Speaker 14 (29:34):
It's up in what Arizona's call the high country, at
five thousand feet above sea level, A lot of tall
pine trees, a lot of granite crags, a lot of
places to get lost.
Speaker 21 (29:43):
It's alpine, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Frank Kimbler is a geologist and former Arizona resident.
Speaker 21 (29:49):
There are creeks and there are lakes up there. It's
essentially the high country of Arizona. It's a full of
wild light. There's lots of beer. There's bear It's almost
like going to a miniature version of Yellowstone.
Speaker 22 (30:02):
It's hon rosa pine tree forest with Laura shrubs consisting
of Manzanita and Jennifer.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Brian Havey is a retired detective in Heila County, a
stunning expanse of wilderness dotted by towns with names like
six Shooter Canyon, Dripping Springs, and Whispering Pines, great.
Speaker 22 (30:20):
Hunting grounds, deer, elk, turkey, nonline, bear, bobcats, coyotes, the
whole nine yards.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
This is where Greg Our protagonist or the FBI will
later wonder antagonist finds a silver suv at night, alone
in a three million acre national forest. Greg knows Robert
Fisher is missing. He knows Fisher is likely driving a
silver suv. But he's tired, it's dark, he's cold, and
he's learned generally to mind his own business. He doesn't
(30:49):
know for sure if the suv is the suv, so
he makes a fire, has dinner, and falls asleep in
his van. The next morning, the suv is still there,
perching behind it. Greg pulls out binoculars and zooms in.
He sees a four an R. It is a Forerunner.
Then he sees movement a dog. This has to be
(31:10):
the Forerunner the dog. The dog starts to approach him,
but pauses halfway and turns around. Greg wonders is Robert
in the woods watching him? Is he dead in a ditch?
He doesn't wait to find out. He packs up and
drives forty minutes north to a gas station, where he
uses a payphone to call Jim and Bobby Jacka, an
elderly couple in Mesa. He tells them what he found
(31:33):
and asks them to call the police, and then he vanishes. Friday,
April twentieth, two thousand and one, ten am, the Jackas
call the Scottsdale Police Department. Detective Kirkham takes the call.
Detective Duran stands next to him. They look at each other.
A silver Forerunner and a dog abandoned in the woods.
(31:54):
It has to be Mary's suv and blue the Fisher
family pet right, but they need confirmation and they're two
and a half hours away by car.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
So we immediately called DPS.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
The Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
And said, hey, CA, you do me a favor.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Fly up over there by helicopter.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Within an hour, DPS calls and says, hey, this is
the truck we have in this is the plate, that's him,
that's the truck. Well, guess what happens. Who's listening to
the scanners the media, So that immediately hits the news.
Helicopters are up there, they're filming it, and we're like,
are you fucking kidding me? So within an hour or so,
(32:36):
John and I are on a Blackhawk and they fly
us to the rim. HeLa County and Coconino County are
already there.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Who was the first member of law enforcement on the scene.
Speaker 22 (32:47):
You're looking at him?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
HeLa County Detective Brian hay I.
Speaker 22 (32:50):
Had Deputy Colt White in my vehicle. Two of us
did a walk in through the trees and brush, using
them as cover.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Hayvey pause behind a tree and aims his rifle at
the suv. He sees movement. Is it Fisher? No, it's
blue the dog. But Fisher could be anywhere waiting to
snipe cops or blow them up. What if he rigged
the Forerunner to explode or scattered booby traps in the forest.
As Hevey makes a final approach, he startled to see
(33:20):
a car speed past him on a rough dirt road
directly to the suv. The good news backup is here.
The bad it's a less experienced cop with blatant disregard
for tactical safety.
Speaker 22 (33:32):
I remember having a discussion with officer why that idiot.
If he's there, we're going to have to rescue his
ass too.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Meanwhile, other members of law enforcement set up a command
post a quarter mile south on Young Highway Highway, it
should be noted is an overly generous moniker. Much of
the seventy four mile road is unpaved and sounds like this.
Scottsdale Detective T. J. Juran arrives by helicopter. Did they
(34:01):
land you on the highway?
Speaker 3 (34:03):
No, they landed us in a field surrounded by pine trees.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
As Duran lands, a swat team moves methodically through the
forest with scant cover. There's no sign of Fisher. The
leading theory is that he's armed extremely dangerous and hold
up in a nearby cave. As the sun sets and
the forest darkens, Police set up a perimeter, but don't
enter the cave. Instead, they call a plumber. Imagine you
(34:29):
spent your day unclogging toilets and now, voila, you're part
of a high stakes man hunt. The plumber snakes a
grainy drain camera down into the tight underground cave, perhaps
expecting a pair of eyes to peer back at him.
He sees nothing. At the command post, restless media beg
for updates, the Heela County Sheriff agrees to speak.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
They all gather around him with the cameras and they
shine lights in him, and his first words were turn
your lights off. And everybody was like, oh okay, And
they shut the lights.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Off, just in case anyone's watching from the woods.
Speaker 23 (35:04):
Even though the search has been called off for the night,
heavily armed swat team members kept a watchful eye for Robert.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Fischer the next day.
Speaker 23 (35:13):
More than one hundred men and women from DPS, Heale
County Sheriff's Department and Scottsdale Police swat team moved in
early this morning, hoping to pick up on Fisher's trail.
A special dog from the Americopa County Sheriff's Department used
to search for dead people, will also be joining the team.
Speaker 24 (35:29):
We're going to be checking the caves, but we don't
need to do those with the cadaver dog in the
eventity is in the hole and has expired. We don't
know that.
Speaker 23 (35:39):
The Healay County Sheriff's Department thinks Fisher may have been
here for at least a week before his car was found,
because it was clean without having been driven in the mud.
Speaker 24 (35:48):
We do know what was after this nose because these
vehicles clean. So we're working a period of time from
the thirteenth to the month until now.
Speaker 23 (35:56):
Meanwhile, on a roadblock cars coming and going into the
area where checks to make sure Fisher wasn't hiding out
A scary thought for some drivers.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
I wish I was armed.
Speaker 15 (36:06):
You know, it's concerning because this is I have a convertible.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
We put the top up because we don't want anybody
jumping in the car, and you know.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
That they've got homicide soft.
Speaker 22 (36:16):
Yeah, I read about it. Okay, Yeah, probably shouldn't.
Speaker 23 (36:19):
Want to don't want to pick up any hut hikeruiser
where strike to yatten.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Now, okay, lady, thank you.
Speaker 24 (36:28):
Okay. What we have done this morning, though, is we've
gone out checked all the areas a musing the snow
as a guide for us, looking for tracks, trying to
locate if the subject had walked out. We found no
new tracks.
Speaker 11 (36:41):
We did have a couple of reports.
Speaker 23 (36:46):
About a minle.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's not him, as cadaver dogs circle caves and bloodhound
(37:17):
sniff the forerunner. Patty Blackmore, a veterinarian in the mountain
town of Paysin, gets a call. At least one member
of the Fisher family is running around the woods, Robert
Fisher's dog, and the cops want Patty to nab him.
Patty's having a rough morning. She and her friend Samantha
Wright just euthanized a white malamute after a failed surgery
(37:37):
to remove a huge stomach tumor. The malamute's owners drop
off a dozen donuts to say thank you. Now, Patty
and Samantha hop in a car and drive into the
center of a massive manhunt.
Speaker 25 (37:49):
Oh my gosh, they're busy everywhere, and news people lining
the road and napping pictures, and it was very overwhelming.
Speaker 19 (37:57):
Yeah, and I think you had a ball cap on.
Speaker 8 (37:59):
I mean it was set morning.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
We were no makeup, barely out of our pajamas.
Speaker 19 (38:03):
Yeah, I had my pajamas on.
Speaker 17 (38:07):
I don't remember.
Speaker 25 (38:08):
Now, just another day, we go do a surgery, get
called in to capture some dog.
Speaker 5 (38:13):
That's yeah, yeah, allegedly worded his family.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
No, just like another day, Patty reports to headquarters.
Speaker 25 (38:20):
They're all these guys and they've got all their gear on,
you know, their bulletproof vests. And I said, I was
here to pick up the dog, and they said, well,
did you bring your stun gun. I said no, I
had no idea that they had not caught the dog.
And so we ended up loading up in a suv myself,
my girlfriend, the donuts, a leash, and I think there
(38:43):
were probably four or five guys, and we drove out
into the forest and when we got there, they were
actually loading Robert Frisher's car onto a flatbed, and the
dog was just acting confused, walking in circles, and I
just said, don't take the vehicle away, because if you do,
the dog doesn't have any reason to stay here. So
I had them all stay in their vehicle. I approached
(39:05):
the dog with a donut and a leash, and the
helicopter was going above, and they were all filming all
of this.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
The forest is silent save for a panting dog, a
distant helicopter, and the wind. There's a heavy scent.
Speaker 19 (39:19):
Of pine that was kind of cold and wet and dewey.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Patty doesn't pay much attention to the forerunner.
Speaker 25 (39:25):
It was mostly figuring out how am I going to
catch this dog on live television without.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Looking like an house.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
It's the truth.
Speaker 25 (39:35):
I threw him a piece of doughnut and he ate it.
I threw him another one and got a little closer
and he ate it. And then I finally stuck my
hand through the leash like a slip leash, gave him
the piece of donut, and then I was.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Able to catch the dog.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Now all Patty can think is what if Fisher shoots me?
Speaker 25 (39:52):
Is in the sniper me out of some tree was creepy,
which is not that crazy.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
To think, right, And you were the one everybody was
in the.
Speaker 25 (39:59):
Sv Yeah, and they sent me in the middle of
the forest, you know, with the dogs dog me the dog.
Don't it in a leash against the world?
Speaker 12 (40:08):
Right?
Speaker 24 (40:10):
Seriously?
Speaker 18 (40:12):
Oh man, have you ever seen the video of yourself.
Speaker 25 (40:16):
I don't think I ever have.
Speaker 12 (40:17):
Do you have it?
Speaker 19 (40:19):
Yes, that's it. That photo, that's it. Yeah, Oh my gosh.
So this is me and Patty's down trinking Blue.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Blue, a two year old Australian cattle dog, is hungry, thirsty,
and agitated.
Speaker 25 (40:31):
When I caught him, he had porkpine quills off throughout
his face, so I went ahead and sedated him, and
then went ahead and carried him out. We ended up
taking him back to the clinic where I removed all
the porcupine quills, and then brought him home to my
house and kept him with me. After that, there were
multiple multiple people that wanted to adopt him, but the
(40:53):
family didn't want the dog to be a big spectacle,
so we didn't, of course talk to any of them.
And I think at one point I even had a
sign on my door because people were following me, following
me everywhere, calling about the dog, wanting the dog, And
so I ended up adopting Blue and handed up living
with us for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Patty and her family moved to Missouri in twenty eleven.
They nicknamed Blue Duck because he makes a funny honking
noise with his mouth. Blue spends his final years roaming
a farm, happy and free. He dies in twenty fourteen.
Patty and Samantha have vivid memories of their surreal experience
in the forest. Until two years ago. Samantha also had
(41:36):
physical mementos, some of the porcupine quills pulled from blue snout.
She wanted to make Patty a memory box.
Speaker 19 (41:42):
I kept putting it off, and then our house burned
down two years ago, and so we lost it all
that morning, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
go run errands, get stuff done.
Speaker 8 (41:51):
I grabbed little Ella's face, our chocolate lab and said, sweetheart,
I'll be right back. I left in about twelve ten.
Phone call from Sergeant Hansen and he says, your house
was on fire. When they got there was fully inflamed.
Somebody had heard our dog Ella barking. She was outside
on the deck and they thought she was in a room,
(42:13):
and he thought if he threw a rock through the
window he could get the dog out, but she wasn't.
She was on the other side of the deck. Anyway,
back drafted and killed her pretty quick. We lost our
kitty too.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Remember that little stone wall in Scottsdale. The relics that
survived catastrophe well.
Speaker 8 (42:33):
In the room that burned the hottest, I found two things,
my great grandmother's rosary and the gold crucifix that had
belonged to her. I mean, we're talking black chart everywhere,
we're looking for the remains of my cat, and these
are the two things that I find in that room,
totally untouched. In one bedroom, I had an old cabinet
(42:53):
had all my notebooks from Phoenix Seminary. I'd gone to seminary.
They were wet, but all those notebooks survived. Every Bible
in the house was charred on the outside, but fine
on the inside.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Samantha leans on God, but it all just hurts.
Speaker 19 (43:08):
You have brain trauma. I couldn't remember anything. First week
after the fire.
Speaker 8 (43:13):
I would be an ARII and I'd see a dog
toy and I'd just start weeping, and people were like,
they don't know what to do with you.
Speaker 19 (43:19):
I felt like our kids were just pointing us into
the right direction.
Speaker 8 (43:24):
Tim and I both lost about fifteen pounds that first
month because we couldn't even eat.
Speaker 19 (43:29):
It was so stressful.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Samantha's fire makes her think of the Fisher fire, or
trauma of the trauma visited upon Mary's parents.
Speaker 19 (43:37):
I would think, as a parent, why didn't I see
this coming? Could I have done something? I even think
about losing Ella and Esther in the fire, and there's.
Speaker 8 (43:45):
A lot of guilt, you know, if you would have
been there that morning, you were so selfish and you
had to leave and go run errands instead.
Speaker 19 (43:51):
And they're just my animals. They're not even my children.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
So I can't fathom just the devastation that the parents
felt and losing their.
Speaker 19 (44:00):
Daughter and grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Sometime before Patty leaves Arizona, Mary's parents stop by to
visit Blue.
Speaker 25 (44:06):
Because he was a piece of their family. You know,
he knew kids, and it was still part of that story,
the only living part of that story that they knew
for sure.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Brit Brittany, Benny Jean, Brittany, Benny Jean, Hey bye bye
bye bye bye bye bye bye, Glad Gunny, Where I hear.
Speaker 20 (44:31):
Baby bye bye?
Speaker 13 (44:32):
B Janie.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Saturday, April twenty first, two thousand and one. As the
search for Robert Fisher continues, attention turns to another cave.
The Scottsdale SWAT team, trained to operate in cities, not
the wilderness, is out of its element. They ask Heulet
County Detective Brian Havey to help guide them via radio.
Speaker 22 (44:55):
I was on a little knoll maybe two hundred yards
from the entrance to the cave, behind some good rocks
as cover. There was sleeting hail and snow coming down.
They would go like twenty feet and all shot up
behind a tree, and every time they come out from one,
they'd say where are you at? So I'd stand up
and go right here? Which way do we go?
Speaker 18 (45:17):
Now?
Speaker 22 (45:18):
That direction? And it took for them to cover that
two hundred yards I want to say, forty five minutes.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
So they get to the cave entrance and they drop
flash banks.
Speaker 22 (45:29):
Flash banks, smoke grenades the whole nine yards. I don't
know if they were trying to scare Robert Fisher out
of the cave or any bears or lions or tigers
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Meanwhile, the weather is rapidly deteriorating.
Speaker 22 (45:44):
The storm came in. We had rain, sleet and some hail,
and it became quite miserable. As you know, that red
dirt up there turns into mud real quick though. Everybody
was tramping around and that stuff.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Visibility drops to ten feet.
Speaker 22 (45:59):
Sometimes we get what we call tide crystals, looks like
tide soap, and it's just little fluffy snowballs that come down.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
At four PM, the SWAT team retreats from the cave.
At seven the search is temporarily suspended. Only four units
remain overnight Sunday, April twenty second, Monday three.
Speaker 23 (46:18):
Of the search for murder suspect Robert Fisher is quite
a different picture. Snow covered the entire area, and there
are a lot less officers right now.
Speaker 24 (46:26):
We're down to about a third. We've probably got twenty
five people. I don't have an exact count, but yes,
we are down because of what's happened in the weather change.
Speaker 23 (46:35):
But the thick blanket of fresh snow also can be
a benefit for searchers because it's easier to spot new tracks.
Speaker 24 (46:41):
When you have the no snow, you need more searchers
to cover the ground.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Officers dart from one false lead to the next, including
a nearby lean to no sign of Fisher, buzzards in
the sky, no sign of Fisher, sightings everywhere, none confirmed
to be Fisher. Monday April twenty third, headline Fisher search fruitless,
murder suspect vanishes in wilds It's been an exhausting weekend
(47:06):
for cops and the media. The Arizona Republic has been
stellar in its reporting, though it does make some mistakes,
saying at one point, for example, that Robert Fisher is
definitely cornered in a cave. The Republic also never realizes
that its own employee, Bud Wolf, is a critical witness,
the last person to see Mary's Forerunner before it's located
(47:26):
nine days later in the forest. Today, the search ends
only seventy hours after it began. Heela County Sheriff John
Armer tells the Pace and Round Up that law enforcement
spent four thousand, five hundred man hours scouring a one
point five mile radius around the Forerunner searching for Fisher.
As far as we're concerned, he says, the probability of
(47:48):
him being in that area is so low we're not
looking anymore. Back in Scottsdale, it.
Speaker 9 (47:56):
Was a home where a mother and her children were murdered.
It was also a home purposely set on fire, police say,
to destroy the bodies and to cover up the triple homicide.
But as of this morning, the home was torn down
by a demolition crew, hauled away and.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Then you see it the little stone wall, this resilient
relic watching as an orange bulldozer karts off rubble from
the house burned and the lives shattered only twenty feet away.
Speaker 9 (48:27):
While the investigation continues, questions continue to mount. Did Robert
Fisher really murder his family?
Speaker 23 (48:34):
And if so, why?
Speaker 9 (48:36):
But the big question police say remains, is Robert Fisher
still out here somewhere.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Next time, I'm missing in Arizona. So we found Mary
Fisher's forerunner. It's still on the road, still in Arizona,
and we're about a half mile away from its current address.
You can reach us by phone at one eight three
to three new tips. That's one three six three nine
eight four seven seven, by email at tips at iHeartMedia
(49:05):
dot com, tips at iHeartMedia dot com, online at neon
thirty three dot com, or on Twitter at John Wallzac,
j O, n W A. L. Czak. Paul Dekan is
our executive producer, Chris Brown is our supervising producer. Hannah
Rose Snyder is our producer. Paul Gemperlin is our researcher,
(49:26):
Ben Bowen is a consulting producer. And I'm your host
and executive producer, John Wallzac recreations. Voice by Paul Decktt,
Holly Frye and Joe McCormick. Additional production support provided by
Max Williams. Special thanks to Zach Fradella. Cover art by
Pam Peacock, Neon thirty three logo designed by Derek Rudy.
Our intro song is Utopia by Ruby Cube. Please download
(49:47):
the first two seasons of our show, Missing in Alaska
and Missing on nine to eleven, and if you're so inclined,
give us a five star rating. Missing in Arizona is
a co production of iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three
Missing Arizona contains graphic depictions of violence and may not
be suitable for all listeners. April tenth, two thousand and one, am.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Exploded off of Hollie and a fire and a fire.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
You're good, big fire, get the big fire.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
You bet I can do it.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The house is exploded and ignited on fire.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Who hi are you telling about the fire?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
As nobody on the way.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Okay, we have the whole on the way.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
I'm just telling to make sure you're good.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
They come in on Hollie.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
They get lost every damn time with the fire.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
They's gonna come in on Hollie.
Speaker 6 (00:36):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's told a second.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It's so many folly seventy four goodness, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
There is still no fire equipment.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
He's okay, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
We're on our way.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
There's nothing you can do to make a little faster. Okay,
you're on our wing.
Speaker 7 (00:59):
Wasn't going on?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's a big fire, really calling me.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
It's just like blow up.
Speaker 8 (01:04):
Okay, one's on fire.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
The whole house, the whole hell, whole house is burning up.
Speaker 9 (01:09):
And I want to hear them.
Speaker 10 (01:12):
Going three w It isn't around seventy fourth and.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh yeah, and there it is whole house in quoting.
Speaker 11 (01:18):
Okay, we do have.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Police the fire on the way, where there are people
outside the house, Yes.
Speaker 12 (01:22):
There are no Probably did.
Speaker 11 (01:25):
We have one.
Speaker 8 (01:26):
Cordia web cars?
Speaker 6 (01:28):
I'll maybe one's done.
Speaker 12 (01:29):
He could not say how many.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Many of those.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
They're all this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
From iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three. I'm John Walsac, and
this is Missing in Arizona, the story of a man
who disappeared after allegedly killing his wife and kids, blowing
up their suburban home and escaping into the wilderness. Twenty
three years later, I'm hunting Robert Fisher and I need
your help. So we're turning for the first time onto
(02:04):
Robert Fisher's street, pulling up into the cul de Sac,
one hundred and eleven degrees out. You want to park
in front of the stone wall. It's always amazing the
simple items that survived catastrophe, the resilient relics, stubbornly dotting
desecrated landscapes, refusing to yield. At the end of North
seventy fourth place in Scottsdale, Arizona, there sits a little
(02:26):
stone wall. It's a gravestone beyond which three people died
it's a vital witness, but it cannot speak, and it's
an eternal marker of a suburban fabric. One man found
so suffocating he slashed and shot and burned his way out.
Long after the family who lived twenty feet away died,
long after most neighbors moved, Long after a new home
(02:48):
replaced the one that exploded, this little stone wall remains.
You see it in a home video from nineteen eighty nine.
Hey Babe, Hey, Robert Fisher stands in his driveway, barefoot,
cradling his one year old daughter, Brittany, as twilight takes
hold just over his right shoulder. The stone wall. You
(03:10):
see it too in crime scene photos from two thousand
and one. Blackened beams rise from charred, smoldering rubble as
investigators circle what remains of the Fisher house. Orange fire
hoses spaghetti across cul de Sac pavement under a gray
sky stamped with faded, fluffy white clouds. A silver pickup
truck sits burned and blistered under a half collapsed carport roof.
(03:32):
And there then, as now, the stone wall. This wall,
maybe two feet tall, is the line that separates the
Fishers from their next door neighbor. Around ten pm on
April ninth, two thousand and one, the neighbor hears Robert
and Mary fighting. Forty minutes later, Robert gets into Mary's
Toyota fore Runner and heads to a nearby ATM, where
(03:54):
a camera captures grainy, black and white footage of him
pulling out two hundred and eighty dollars, then driving away
poof gone forever. This is the final sighting of Robert,
the final sighting of Mary's suv until a camper finds
it ten days later, abandoned in a remote forest. At least,
that's what we've been told for twenty three years by
(04:16):
the police, media and FBI. The leading theory is that
Robert is grabbing cash and fleeing town, that he already
killed Mary and the kids. This is a critical detail.
It means he has a ten hour jump on the cops.
April ninth, ten forty two pm, Robert's at the ATM
April tenth, eight forty two am. His house explodes, a
(04:38):
ten hour gap. Except this timeline is wrong. I found
a new confirmed sighting. Real quick, let me take you
back to the nineteen nineties. Listen to this tiny but
important clip from a Fisher home video. Mary films Brittany
peddling a small bike down their cul.
Speaker 12 (04:56):
De Sac dip.
Speaker 13 (04:57):
You can turn around in that driveway.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That driveway two houses down by two thousand and one.
It belongs to a man who agreed to speak to
me on the condition I not use his real name.
Let's call him Peter. He works long hours in the
food service industry.
Speaker 14 (05:12):
Sometimes I'd leave to the three o'clock in.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The morning April tenth, two thousand and one.
Speaker 15 (05:18):
When I got up, he had one vehicle underneath to carport,
and he had her vehicle on the street.
Speaker 10 (05:24):
At about three thirty in the morning's when I left,
that vehicle was still on the street.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
His vehicle was pulled underneath to carport. Peter sees both
Robert's truck and Mary's suv at the Fisher house at
three thirty am, which means we can say definitively for
the first time that Robert returned home from the ATM
the previous night. This tightens the timeline by five hours
and takes me completely by surprise. When I agree to
(05:52):
meet Peter, I don't expect much maybe some anecdotes about
the Fishers. Instead, three thirty in the morning and both
vehicles was still in I asked him repeatedly, if he's sure.
Speaker 15 (06:03):
I do know that it was zero When I last this,
I'd pull out and look right at it and then
take off go to Ord.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But Peter, are you one hundred percent certain and hositive?
Peter has never been interviewed by the media or more importantly,
law enforcement, despite living only eighty feet from the Fishers.
He provides us two new clues. One a sighting of
both vehicles at the Fisherhouse at three thirty am on
April tenth, two thousand and one, and two how the
(06:31):
vehicles are parked.
Speaker 14 (06:32):
The truck was in the driveway.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
A SEV was on the street. This is abnormal. Peter
usually sees Mary's SUV in the driveway and Robert's truck
on the street.
Speaker 14 (06:42):
This day it was yapposite.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
A different neighbor, the one who heard Robert and Mary fighting,
tells police the same thing. Why does this tiny detail matter?
I'll tell you later. April tenth, two thousand and one,
a twenty year old Alicia Keys releases her debut single
Fallen at eight forty two two the Fisher House. Exwait,
hold up, I lied, I told you I found one
(07:05):
new witness, but I actually found two. I have another
one for you, and he tightens up the timeline even further.
His name is Bud Wolf. Unfortunately he died in twenty
twenty one, so instead I meet with his daughter, Jenna.
We're learning now that the very last person to ever
see Mary Fisher's SUV or any sign therefore, Robert Fisher,
(07:26):
was your dad.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Jenna often joins her dad as he makes repeated early
morning visits to the Fisher's cul de sac.
Speaker 9 (07:34):
I know this show was pretty dark.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
On April tenth, two thousand and one, Jenna is not
with her dad as he delivers newspapers.
Speaker 13 (07:41):
He would have picked him up and then drove to Scottsdale,
so I had to put him there between four and five.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Bud Wolf is in Scottsdale by four or five am.
But when exactly does he pass the Fisher House? What
does he see? And how do I even know this?
Last year I obtained a previously unreported memo written by
a Scotts Sale police officer. Here it is read by
a voice actor on four eleven oh one, the day
after the house explodes.
Speaker 16 (08:06):
At zero five zero five hours five oh five am.
While working traffic control at seventy fourth Place in Holly,
monitoring the northbound entrance to seventy fourth Place, I observed
a paper carrier approach my location. I contacted the paper
carrier Arizona Republic, who identified himself verbally as Bud Wolf.
Bud stated that he needed to deliver five newspapers on
(08:28):
seventy fourth Place north of Holly. Bud inquired if he
should simply walk in, as northbound seventy fourth Place was
taped off with yellow crime scene tape. I advised Bud
to go ahead and walk into the neighborhood. When Bud returned,
he stated that yesterday he accidentally delivered a newspaper to
the house that burned. He added that he delivered this
paper by mistake.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
At zero five thirty hours five thirty am.
Speaker 16 (08:52):
Bud stated that on four to ten oh one, at
zero five thirty, he noticed that the large pickup that
is now parked under the car port and burned was
parked in the driveway, but the rear of the vehicle
was sticking out blocking the sidewalk. Bud added that there
was another vehicle parked in front of the truck under
the carport. At that time, Bud described the other vehicle
(09:12):
as a white car possibly. Bud said that he wasn't
positive about the vehicle type. About two minutes after he
delivered the paper, he realized his mistake. Bud then went
back and retrieved the paper. Bud left the area. Bud
did not see any activity in the area on that morning.
After Bud left, I noticed that I forgot to get
Bud's state of birth. I called Bud's cell phone. I
spoke to Bud and got his birth date. During the conversation,
(09:35):
Bud volunteered that he now remembered that the vehicle that
he saw in front of the truck was not a car,
but a white suv. Bud was not sure what type
of suv it was. Bud added that it appeared to
be an older model. Bud said that the vehicle was
definitely not a van.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Signed by Officer Abernathy, Badge number seven zero four. Let's
pause for a minute and take stock of what we've learned.
One hbor who hears Robert and Mary arguing at ten
pm on April ninth, sees their vehicles parked abnormally. Mary's
fore Runner in the driveway Robert's truck in the street.
Two Peter, a different neighbor, sees the same thing when
(10:13):
he leaves for work at three thirty AM on April tenth.
Three Budwolf, a newspaper delivery man, sees Robert's truck and
what appears to be Mary's four runner at five thirty AM.
So for the first time in twenty three years, we've
narrowed down the case timeline significantly. Robert Fisher does not
immediately flee after visiting the ATM on April ninth. In fact,
(10:35):
he's still home seven hours later at five thirty AM.
On April tenth. The house explodes at eight forty two AM,
so Robert flees sometime between five thirty and eight forty two.
But we can narrow it down even further because Mary
Fisher is supposed to pick up a neighbor's son for
a school carpool at seven thirty. When she doesn't show up,
(10:57):
that neighbor looks out a window and sees Robert's truck,
but not Mary's forerunner. So with two new witnesses, we've
narrowed down when Robert flees to between five thirty and
seven thirty. What else can we deduce. Well, the sun
rises in Scottsdale on April tenth at six oh three am,
but civil twilight starts at five thirty seven, meaning there's
(11:18):
already a good bit of light in the sky. Robert
likely wants to leave quickly now to avoid neighbors and sunlight.
My best guess is that he flees shortly after Bud
Wolf sees both vehicles at the house at five thirty
Is it really creepy to think that that morning Robert
Fisher would have been home when your dad was slivering
the paper?
Speaker 14 (11:37):
Extremely creepy.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Extremely, There's no reason to doubt, Bud Wolf. He shares
his story with a police officer the day after the
Fisher house explodes, then dies, having never spoken to the media.
He has no reason to lie. Would you describe your
dad as a trustworthy person?
Speaker 9 (11:54):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What do you say he had a good memory? He
did at the time.
Speaker 12 (11:58):
Yes.
Speaker 17 (11:59):
Towards the end of light is when with the brain
cancer is memory started deteriorating.
Speaker 18 (12:03):
But during that period his memory was incredible.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Would there be any reason to doubt an account that
he gave the police.
Speaker 12 (12:11):
Oh not at all.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Now let's turn to what Budwolf sees not just when
Bud sees Robert's truck parks behind what he first describes
as a quote white car, possibly and shortly thereafter as
a quote white suv. Mary's fore Runner is silver, not white.
Is it possible that Bud sees an entirely different vehicle
(12:33):
parked at the Fisher House. Yes, but that's extremely unlikely.
The most plausible explanation is that Bud's memory is good
but not perfect, that he recalls a silver suv spotted
during twilight as white. So here's the new case timeline.
Ten pm, a neighbor hears Robert and Mary arguing. The
neighbor sees their vehicles parked abnormally, Robert's truck in the driveway,
(12:57):
Mary's suv in the street. Forty two pm, Robert withdraws
two hundred and eighty dollars from a nearby atm three
thirty am, Peter, a different neighbor, also sees Robert's truck
in the driveway and Mary's fore Runner in the street.
Five thirty am Budwolf, the newspaper delivery man, sees Mary's
four Runner in the driveway, parked in front of Robert's truck,
(13:20):
which is now jutting out into the cul de sac.
Here's why this is important. It means that between three
thirty and five thirty, someone shuffles the vehicles Robert's truck
out of the driveway, Mary's suv into the driveway, Robert's
truck behind the suv. By the time the house explodes,
Robert's truck is under the car port and Mary's fore
(13:41):
runner is gone. Meaning after Budwolf leaves around five thirty,
someone shuffles the vehicles again, pulling out the truck, pulling
out the suv, putting the truck under the car port,
and driving away in the suv. What the heck is
going on here? To recap, between three thirty and seven
thirty am, we have a game of musical cars. Someone
(14:01):
pulls Robert's truck out of the driveway, marries suv into
the driveway, Robert's truck behind the suv, the truck out again,
the suv out, the truck back, and then drives away
in the suv. This is extremely bizarre, especially because Robert's
truck is allowed diesel and the cul de sac is small.
It's also a lot for a single person to pull
(14:22):
off by themselves. I'll get to that in a later
episode Stay tuned. So your family owned the land on
(14:52):
which the Fisher home was built originally, and how long
has that property been in your family.
Speaker 18 (14:58):
My father bought the property in twenty nine and he
moved there about nineteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
On that forty acres, what was farmed.
Speaker 18 (15:05):
Mostly cotton, sorghum, and some citrus.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Mike Wilmith now owns only two of the original forty acres,
but those two acres and his house are a extremely
valuable and b directly behind the Fisher property. On April tenth,
two thousand and one, Mike is in bed only one
hundred and fifty feet from the Fisher house.
Speaker 18 (15:26):
I was just beginning to come out of sleep. That's
sort of to my laid zone. And I heard the
explosion and I went, that sounded like an explosion.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And you didn't immediately hop out of bed. It sounds
like you stayed in bed for a minute.
Speaker 18 (15:37):
I stayed in bed for a few minutes until he
heard the helicopters and I'm like, Okay, now I gotta
go check what's going on.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I don't blame you, your Dralsey, Ye're waking up. It's
not how you want to start your morning news. Helicopters
circle overhead, broadcasting live watching at home. One woman immediately
recognizes the burning house. Jan Howell, Robert Fisher's mom. She
calls nine one. Here's the recreation of that call.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
Rural Metro Fire Department.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yes, this is missus Howell, my son, Robert Fisher's house.
I just saw blow up on television. I want to
make sure see what's happening there.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
It's okay, and this is your son's house.
Speaker 15 (16:17):
Yes, okay, just a minute, ma'am, Yes, okay, I'm going
to have somebody contact you.
Speaker 6 (16:22):
Was there anybody? Was your son out of town or
was he in town?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Do you know he's supposed to I just called the hospital.
He works at Mayo Hospital, Uh huh. And I called
him and they didn't hear from him. And then I
got his mother in law on the line and she
said a neighbor had called the church and said the
house exploded with gas. And okay, and on television I
saw his truck in the driveway.
Speaker 15 (16:43):
Okay, now we're not sure. You said the person who
owns this house his last name is Fisher. Yes, okay,
we're not showing that as being his house. No, okay,
never mind, all right. All I can do is how
many people were in the family or that lived in
the house.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
There's a boy ten years old, a girl thirteen years old,
the wife Mary, and my son who's forty.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
Okay, so there's four people that live in the house, yes,
and a dog.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
The explosion is violent, rattling houses for a half mile
in every direction, sending flames shooting twenty feet into the air.
The most direct witness is a man named Max Moody
working on a nearby rooftop. He's slammed by a deafening
boom as debris flies out and a column of black
smoke climbs into the sky. Flames flare from shattered windows.
(17:29):
The first cop to arrive is Scottsdale Police Officer Jay Hawkins.
As he pulls up, there's a series of smaller secondary explosions,
probably ammunition. Neighbors screamed that there are people in the house.
Firefighters speed to the scene, as through reporters, including Tom Zohner.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
So.
Speaker 14 (17:46):
I was working as a reporter at the Arizona Republic,
which is the statewide daily newspaper, and on the morning
of April tenth, two thousand and one, I walked out
of my house to go to my car to go
to work, and I saw a plume of smoke on
the horizon and it looked like a gigantic fire and
the smoke was black. Whatever it was was still engaged,
(18:06):
and so instead of going straight to work, I decided
to swing by the fire and I arrived to the
house of Robert Fisher, which was completely on fire. I
was the first reporter at the scene, and the fire
crews were already working the blaze.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
The scott Steel Police Department is here too. Detective TJ.
Duran arrives to a fire blasted Norman Rockwell painting nice
little house, nice little house, nice little house, and then
a pile of smoldering rubble.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
The damage was incredible. We were kind of like, what
the fuck caused the explosion?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Juranne guesses correctly, natural gas. He and other detectives, including
John Kirkham and Joe LaDuke, circle the house trying to
decipher this enigmatic molten mess.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
We went around the backyard, so the fire had started
and then it exploded. It blew out the back walls
of the house. Now you had a four feet high
brick wall where you could look in and John and
I were looking in and there were two bedrooms we
were able to look into, and we could see that
there were bodies on a bed, and John and I
(19:10):
looked at each other and we basically said, this is
definitely a homicide. We knew that the fire was burning
and the bodies looked small, so we knew they were kids.
Normal cases, somebody's going to wake up and move. They
were still lying there like they were sleeping. I've been
on investigations where a child died in the fire, and
when we found the child in the house, they were
(19:33):
in the fetal position. You tend to curl up because
of the heat. These bodies weren't like that.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
To Duran's dismay, news of the bodies leaks to the media.
Speaker 14 (19:42):
Soon it became apparent that it wasn't just a house
fire but a triple homicide.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Detectives fight to keep gory details private, and they're successful
for now, but they're already feeling intense pressure. This will
clearly be a high profile case, and their crime scene
is burning on live teev as someone leaks secrets and
family and friends of the victims descend on the cul
de Sac.
Speaker 7 (20:06):
Someone called me and said I think Mary's house blew up.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Mary's friend Kim Davidson.
Speaker 12 (20:12):
So, what do you mean?
Speaker 7 (20:12):
And they said, I just heard there's a house and
scuffs of the blew up. We think it's Mary's. So
I went to the house and there was police in
front of it. Her sister, mRNA was sitting in the
police cart and there was an ambulance there and the
house was in shambles. The next thing I knew, I
overheard the police officers say there's three bodies and their
two children. I just kind of went into shock.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
At SUPERI Middle School, principal Diane Wells calls an emergency
meeting of Britney Fisher's teachers, including Miss Honey, who we
heard from in episode one, and.
Speaker 13 (20:41):
Then the police come in and they're like, there's been
a fire. House has been on fire, and we're like, oh,
whose house? And then I realized she's not in class today.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Brittany is missing, her house is on fire, Rumors fly,
No one can focus the SUPERI gang. This hearty bunch
of teachers must remain calm.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Because the news was blowing up and we had to
be the turquoise team of the teachers. We had to
be strong That was the strongest I've ever had to
be as a teacher, as an educator, because these kids
are leaning on us to be strong and to make
this okay. So we all fall apart.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Meanwhile, everyone has the same question.
Speaker 13 (21:22):
One of my colleagues, Kate Evererly it said, wait, where's
Robert Fisher? And I'll never forget that moment. I will
never forget that moment because all I know is the
police looked at each other and she said, you need
to find him because I think he did it, and
that all I know. All I can remember is the
police is like, all right, well, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Bam, they were gone.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
This is on purpose. The Scottsdale Police Department wants to
minimize any discussion of Robert Fisher as a suspect. They
hope he'll return and claim to have been camping or
something when his family died, expecting their bodies critical evidence
to be destroyed. It's a controversial strategy. Most people immediately
suspect Robert the missing dad with military medical and firefighting experience,
(22:06):
but in defensive SPD, if Robert's not thinking rationally, which
is possible, this strategy could work. As the fire dies down,
there's so much confusion. Jim Rodin, a Fisher family friend.
Here's a false rumor that SPD found Robert's body, So
I go, oh.
Speaker 18 (22:22):
Man, my friend Robert's gone.
Speaker 19 (22:25):
Then it's the reports start coming in.
Speaker 16 (22:27):
No, he's not there.
Speaker 11 (22:29):
They found the bodies of Brittany and Bobby and Mary
and it looks like dirty pool. So then it's just like, oh,
my goodness, this just went from bad to very very
very bad. From an accident happened or a suicide to
a triple homicide.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
And where is he?
Speaker 19 (22:45):
That's probably the first time I go, oh, Robert, what
did you do?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Even as it starts to click mom dead, daughter dead,
son dead, dad missing, SPD declares that Robert is not
a suspect, though he is wanted for questioning. The next day,
Mary's father, Bill Cooper, a retired school principal who walks
with two canes, speaks to the media.
Speaker 12 (23:06):
Robert, we love you, whoever you are, Robert, please we understand,
we love you. Just come home, please, Robert and I
don't know what's going on. We don't know anything for sure,
but we'd like to hear from you, please.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Robert, Bill begs a newspaper reporter to quote, please please
keep writing good things about Robert. He's a good man.
Speaker 14 (23:33):
You want to know about my Robert. He was the
greatest dad, he was the greatest husband.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I miss him. I miss him terribly. I miss him
almost as much as I miss my daughter, because they
were one. Bill's grief hurts my soul reporting this case.
I think of it every time I see him in
old family videos, including this clip from nineteen eighty nine
with Robert and Brittany.
Speaker 20 (24:00):
Oh Brittany got cross file. They're like, Oh, Brittany's one
years old.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
On April fourteenth, two thousand and one, the Arizona Republic
leads with a story by Tom z Ohner headline family
in Blaze slashed shot quote. Mary Fisher was shot in
the back of the head and her children's throats were
slashed and the hours before their Scottsdale home exploded Tuesday,
scott Stale detectives including T. J. Duran and John Kirkham
(24:35):
are furious with his owner.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Somebody gave him information on the crime that shouldn't have
been in the newspapers. So at that point we realized, well,
the Republic's distributed throughout the whole state, there's no doubt
he's looking at newspapers, so we knew at that point
our theory that he'd come back is out the window.
That's done. As a matter of fact, when that printed,
(24:58):
John called me that morning, really early in said, have
you seen the fucking newspaper front page? And at that
time I used to have it delivered to me, and
I looked at it, and then I called him back
and said, who the fuck is talking?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
SPD is fighting to find Robert Fisher and Tom Zohner
just nuked their strategy.
Speaker 14 (25:17):
That came to a head and what amounted to a
yelling match in between myself and Detective Duran. He completely
uncorked on me. I yelled back at him, and that
was that. Years later we passed it up. I do
have a lot of respect for him. I think he
did as good a job as any police officer could
have done on this case, and he also understood why
(25:37):
we were twined for the information that we got. In
some ways, the mission of the police end of the
news is parallel. You want to find out what the
heck happened.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Zohner's article with details on the murders is a turning
point in the case.
Speaker 8 (25:50):
And now father and husband Robert Fisher is officially being
called a suspect.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
At Superi Middle School, Miss Honey, Britney's teacher and the
second to last person to see and speak with Robert
Fisher at the Honor Society event on April ninth, takes
a deep breath, and then it was.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
This moment of Oh my God, I shook his hand.
I shook his hand that night.
Speaker 16 (26:11):
It was me.
Speaker 9 (26:11):
I was the one.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
As the gravity and depravity of the situation sink in. Mary, Brittany,
and Bobby are cremated and laid to rest in a
private ceremony on Easter weekend. Then on April seventeenth, a
crowd of thirteen hundred gathers for a public memorial. Undercover
cops scan the crowd for any sign of Robert Fisher.
As speakers memorialized Brittany ten days before what would have
(26:36):
been her thirteenth birthday, we saw her as.
Speaker 17 (26:39):
A bright and shining star among her peers. Such a
beautiful young lady, so precious, so unique, so special. She
will be missed more than I can say. God must
be thrilled to have her right now in his choir
in heaven.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
I love you, Maria.
Speaker 17 (26:54):
I love you, Brittany, I love your Barney.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Bill Cooper speaks.
Speaker 10 (26:59):
Like God has a plan. He has a timing for
our lives. And you've heard today that this was not
something that was yanked from Mary and Brittany and Bobby.
God has a plan. We don't know what it is,
but I know someday we're going to know. But until then,
I just want you to know that we're going to
miss him so much. They were such a joy to
(27:22):
my life. But I still have my murder and we
will see them again in glory. Did I keep that
under seven minutes?
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Great?
Speaker 6 (27:34):
Bill.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
If you like this show, please download our first two seasons,
Missing in Alaska and Missing on nine to eleven. For updates,
visit me on thirty three dot com or follow me
on Twitter at John waalzac.
Speaker 12 (27:55):
J O n w A.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
L Czak. Thanks for listening. Thursday April nineteenth, two thousand
(28:18):
and one, nine days after the house explodes, as darkness falls,
a fifty year old man named Greg drives down a
bumpy road in Arizona's Tonto National Forest looking for a
place to camp. Greg is alone. He often is. He
wanders the country doing construction work he parks his van
at a primitive campsite and gets out. Slushy snow falls
(28:41):
gently from above, drifting down into an inky forest devoid
of light and sound. This spot is one hundred and
twenty miles northeast of Scottsdale, fifteen miles from the tiny
town of Young, and one thousand feet from the Ford
Apache Indian Reservation, on a steep climbed down from the
muggy on rem l l o n An escarpment, a
(29:03):
long steep slope, a strip of cliffs. Think of it
as a jagged raised scar stretching two hundred miles across
the state. This is where Greg finds himself cold, wandering
down a forest service road, hunting by flashlight for firewood,
when he spots a glint of silver in the woods.
Speaker 14 (29:21):
Closing your eyes, dot dot dot, here we go.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Tom Dolner, now a successful author, published a book last
year called rim To River, Looking into the Heart of Arizona,
in which he paints a vivid portrait of this remote spot.
Speaker 14 (29:34):
It's up in what Arizona's call the high country, at
five thousand feet above sea level, A lot of tall
pine trees, a lot of granite crags, a lot of
places to get lost.
Speaker 21 (29:43):
It's alpine, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Frank Kimbler is a geologist and former Arizona resident.
Speaker 21 (29:49):
There are creeks and there are lakes up there. It's
essentially the high country of Arizona. It's a full of
wild light. There's lots of beer. There's bear It's almost
like going to a miniature version of Yellowstone.
Speaker 22 (30:02):
It's hon rosa pine tree forest with Laura shrubs consisting
of Manzanita and Jennifer.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Brian Havey is a retired detective in Heila County, a
stunning expanse of wilderness dotted by towns with names like
six Shooter Canyon, Dripping Springs, and Whispering Pines, great.
Speaker 22 (30:20):
Hunting grounds, deer, elk, turkey, nonline, bear, bobcats, coyotes, the
whole nine yards.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
This is where Greg Our protagonist or the FBI will
later wonder antagonist finds a silver suv at night, alone
in a three million acre national forest. Greg knows Robert
Fisher is missing. He knows Fisher is likely driving a
silver suv. But he's tired, it's dark, he's cold, and
he's learned generally to mind his own business. He doesn't
(30:49):
know for sure if the suv is the suv, so
he makes a fire, has dinner, and falls asleep in
his van. The next morning, the suv is still there,
perching behind it. Greg pulls out binoculars and zooms in.
He sees a four an R. It is a Forerunner.
Then he sees movement a dog. This has to be
(31:10):
the Forerunner the dog. The dog starts to approach him,
but pauses halfway and turns around. Greg wonders is Robert
in the woods watching him? Is he dead in a ditch?
He doesn't wait to find out. He packs up and
drives forty minutes north to a gas station, where he
uses a payphone to call Jim and Bobby Jacka, an
elderly couple in Mesa. He tells them what he found
(31:33):
and asks them to call the police, and then he vanishes. Friday,
April twentieth, two thousand and one, ten am, the Jackas
call the Scottsdale Police Department. Detective Kirkham takes the call.
Detective Duran stands next to him. They look at each other.
A silver Forerunner and a dog abandoned in the woods.
(31:54):
It has to be Mary's suv and blue the Fisher
family pet right, but they need confirmation and they're two
and a half hours away by car.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
So we immediately called DPS.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
The Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
And said, hey, CA, you do me a favor.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Fly up over there by helicopter.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Within an hour, DPS calls and says, hey, this is
the truck we have in this is the plate, that's him,
that's the truck. Well, guess what happens. Who's listening to
the scanners the media, So that immediately hits the news.
Helicopters are up there, they're filming it, and we're like,
are you fucking kidding me? So within an hour or so,
(32:36):
John and I are on a Blackhawk and they fly
us to the rim. HeLa County and Coconino County are
already there.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Who was the first member of law enforcement on the scene.
Speaker 22 (32:47):
You're looking at him?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
HeLa County Detective Brian hay I.
Speaker 22 (32:50):
Had Deputy Colt White in my vehicle. Two of us
did a walk in through the trees and brush, using
them as cover.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Hayvey pause behind a tree and aims his rifle at
the suv. He sees movement. Is it Fisher? No, it's
blue the dog. But Fisher could be anywhere waiting to
snipe cops or blow them up. What if he rigged
the Forerunner to explode or scattered booby traps in the forest.
As Hevey makes a final approach, he startled to see
(33:20):
a car speed past him on a rough dirt road
directly to the suv. The good news backup is here.
The bad it's a less experienced cop with blatant disregard
for tactical safety.
Speaker 22 (33:32):
I remember having a discussion with officer why that idiot.
If he's there, we're going to have to rescue his
ass too.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Meanwhile, other members of law enforcement set up a command
post a quarter mile south on Young Highway Highway, it
should be noted is an overly generous moniker. Much of
the seventy four mile road is unpaved and sounds like this.
Scottsdale Detective T. J. Juran arrives by helicopter. Did they
(34:01):
land you on the highway?
Speaker 3 (34:03):
No, they landed us in a field surrounded by pine trees.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
As Duran lands, a swat team moves methodically through the
forest with scant cover. There's no sign of Fisher. The
leading theory is that he's armed extremely dangerous and hold
up in a nearby cave. As the sun sets and
the forest darkens, Police set up a perimeter, but don't
enter the cave. Instead, they call a plumber. Imagine you
(34:29):
spent your day unclogging toilets and now, voila, you're part
of a high stakes man hunt. The plumber snakes a
grainy drain camera down into the tight underground cave, perhaps
expecting a pair of eyes to peer back at him.
He sees nothing. At the command post, restless media beg
for updates, the Heela County Sheriff agrees to speak.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
They all gather around him with the cameras and they
shine lights in him, and his first words were turn
your lights off. And everybody was like, oh okay, And
they shut the lights.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Off, just in case anyone's watching from the woods.
Speaker 23 (35:04):
Even though the search has been called off for the night,
heavily armed swat team members kept a watchful eye for Robert.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Fischer the next day.
Speaker 23 (35:13):
More than one hundred men and women from DPS, Heale
County Sheriff's Department and Scottsdale Police swat team moved in
early this morning, hoping to pick up on Fisher's trail.
A special dog from the Americopa County Sheriff's Department used
to search for dead people, will also be joining the team.
Speaker 24 (35:29):
We're going to be checking the caves, but we don't
need to do those with the cadaver dog in the
eventity is in the hole and has expired. We don't
know that.
Speaker 23 (35:39):
The Healay County Sheriff's Department thinks Fisher may have been
here for at least a week before his car was found,
because it was clean without having been driven in the mud.
Speaker 24 (35:48):
We do know what was after this nose because these
vehicles clean. So we're working a period of time from
the thirteenth to the month until now.
Speaker 23 (35:56):
Meanwhile, on a roadblock cars coming and going into the
area where checks to make sure Fisher wasn't hiding out
A scary thought for some drivers.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
I wish I was armed.
Speaker 15 (36:06):
You know, it's concerning because this is I have a convertible.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
We put the top up because we don't want anybody
jumping in the car, and you know.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
That they've got homicide soft.
Speaker 22 (36:16):
Yeah, I read about it. Okay, Yeah, probably shouldn't.
Speaker 23 (36:19):
Want to don't want to pick up any hut hikeruiser
where strike to yatten.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Now, okay, lady, thank you.
Speaker 24 (36:28):
Okay. What we have done this morning, though, is we've
gone out checked all the areas a musing the snow
as a guide for us, looking for tracks, trying to
locate if the subject had walked out. We found no
new tracks.
Speaker 11 (36:41):
We did have a couple of reports.
Speaker 23 (36:46):
About a minle.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's not him, as cadaver dogs circle caves and bloodhound
(37:17):
sniff the forerunner. Patty Blackmore, a veterinarian in the mountain
town of Paysin, gets a call. At least one member
of the Fisher family is running around the woods, Robert
Fisher's dog, and the cops want Patty to nab him.
Patty's having a rough morning. She and her friend Samantha
Wright just euthanized a white malamute after a failed surgery
(37:37):
to remove a huge stomach tumor. The malamute's owners drop
off a dozen donuts to say thank you. Now, Patty
and Samantha hop in a car and drive into the
center of a massive manhunt.
Speaker 25 (37:49):
Oh my gosh, they're busy everywhere, and news people lining
the road and napping pictures, and it was very overwhelming.
Speaker 19 (37:57):
Yeah, and I think you had a ball cap on.
Speaker 8 (37:59):
I mean it was set morning.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
We were no makeup, barely out of our pajamas.
Speaker 19 (38:03):
Yeah, I had my pajamas on.
Speaker 17 (38:07):
I don't remember.
Speaker 25 (38:08):
Now, just another day, we go do a surgery, get
called in to capture some dog.
Speaker 5 (38:13):
That's yeah, yeah, allegedly worded his family.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
No, just like another day, Patty reports to headquarters.
Speaker 25 (38:20):
They're all these guys and they've got all their gear on,
you know, their bulletproof vests. And I said, I was
here to pick up the dog, and they said, well,
did you bring your stun gun. I said no, I
had no idea that they had not caught the dog.
And so we ended up loading up in a suv myself,
my girlfriend, the donuts, a leash, and I think there
(38:43):
were probably four or five guys, and we drove out
into the forest and when we got there, they were
actually loading Robert Frisher's car onto a flatbed, and the
dog was just acting confused, walking in circles, and I
just said, don't take the vehicle away, because if you do,
the dog doesn't have any reason to stay here. So
I had them all stay in their vehicle. I approached
(39:05):
the dog with a donut and a leash, and the
helicopter was going above, and they were all filming all
of this.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
The forest is silent save for a panting dog, a
distant helicopter, and the wind. There's a heavy scent.
Speaker 19 (39:19):
Of pine that was kind of cold and wet and dewey.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Patty doesn't pay much attention to the forerunner.
Speaker 25 (39:25):
It was mostly figuring out how am I going to
catch this dog on live television without.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Looking like an house.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
It's the truth.
Speaker 25 (39:35):
I threw him a piece of doughnut and he ate it.
I threw him another one and got a little closer
and he ate it. And then I finally stuck my
hand through the leash like a slip leash, gave him
the piece of donut, and then I was.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Able to catch the dog.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Now all Patty can think is what if Fisher shoots me?
Speaker 25 (39:52):
Is in the sniper me out of some tree was creepy,
which is not that crazy.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
To think, right, And you were the one everybody was
in the.
Speaker 25 (39:59):
Sv Yeah, and they sent me in the middle of
the forest, you know, with the dogs dog me the dog.
Don't it in a leash against the world?
Speaker 12 (40:08):
Right?
Speaker 24 (40:10):
Seriously?
Speaker 18 (40:12):
Oh man, have you ever seen the video of yourself.
Speaker 25 (40:16):
I don't think I ever have.
Speaker 12 (40:17):
Do you have it?
Speaker 19 (40:19):
Yes, that's it. That photo, that's it. Yeah, Oh my gosh.
So this is me and Patty's down trinking Blue.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Blue, a two year old Australian cattle dog, is hungry, thirsty,
and agitated.
Speaker 25 (40:31):
When I caught him, he had porkpine quills off throughout
his face, so I went ahead and sedated him, and
then went ahead and carried him out. We ended up
taking him back to the clinic where I removed all
the porcupine quills, and then brought him home to my
house and kept him with me. After that, there were
multiple multiple people that wanted to adopt him, but the
(40:53):
family didn't want the dog to be a big spectacle,
so we didn't, of course talk to any of them.
And I think at one point I even had a
sign on my door because people were following me, following
me everywhere, calling about the dog, wanting the dog, And
so I ended up adopting Blue and handed up living
with us for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Patty and her family moved to Missouri in twenty eleven.
They nicknamed Blue Duck because he makes a funny honking
noise with his mouth. Blue spends his final years roaming
a farm, happy and free. He dies in twenty fourteen.
Patty and Samantha have vivid memories of their surreal experience
in the forest. Until two years ago. Samantha also had
(41:36):
physical mementos, some of the porcupine quills pulled from blue snout.
She wanted to make Patty a memory box.
Speaker 19 (41:42):
I kept putting it off, and then our house burned
down two years ago, and so we lost it all
that morning, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
go run errands, get stuff done.
Speaker 8 (41:51):
I grabbed little Ella's face, our chocolate lab and said, sweetheart,
I'll be right back. I left in about twelve ten.
Phone call from Sergeant Hansen and he says, your house
was on fire. When they got there was fully inflamed.
Somebody had heard our dog Ella barking. She was outside
on the deck and they thought she was in a room,
(42:13):
and he thought if he threw a rock through the
window he could get the dog out, but she wasn't.
She was on the other side of the deck. Anyway,
back drafted and killed her pretty quick. We lost our
kitty too.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Remember that little stone wall in Scottsdale. The relics that
survived catastrophe well.
Speaker 8 (42:33):
In the room that burned the hottest, I found two things,
my great grandmother's rosary and the gold crucifix that had
belonged to her. I mean, we're talking black chart everywhere,
we're looking for the remains of my cat, and these
are the two things that I find in that room,
totally untouched. In one bedroom, I had an old cabinet
(42:53):
had all my notebooks from Phoenix Seminary. I'd gone to seminary.
They were wet, but all those notebooks survived. Every Bible
in the house was charred on the outside, but fine
on the inside.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Samantha leans on God, but it all just hurts.
Speaker 19 (43:08):
You have brain trauma. I couldn't remember anything. First week
after the fire.
Speaker 8 (43:13):
I would be an ARII and I'd see a dog
toy and I'd just start weeping, and people were like,
they don't know what to do with you.
Speaker 19 (43:19):
I felt like our kids were just pointing us into
the right direction.
Speaker 8 (43:24):
Tim and I both lost about fifteen pounds that first
month because we couldn't even eat.
Speaker 19 (43:29):
It was so stressful.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Samantha's fire makes her think of the Fisher fire, or
trauma of the trauma visited upon Mary's parents.
Speaker 19 (43:37):
I would think, as a parent, why didn't I see
this coming? Could I have done something? I even think
about losing Ella and Esther in the fire, and there's.
Speaker 8 (43:45):
A lot of guilt, you know, if you would have
been there that morning, you were so selfish and you
had to leave and go run errands instead.
Speaker 19 (43:51):
And they're just my animals. They're not even my children.
Speaker 8 (43:55):
So I can't fathom just the devastation that the parents
felt and losing their.
Speaker 19 (44:00):
Daughter and grandchildren.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Sometime before Patty leaves Arizona, Mary's parents stop by to
visit Blue.
Speaker 25 (44:06):
Because he was a piece of their family. You know,
he knew kids, and it was still part of that story,
the only living part of that story that they knew
for sure.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Brit Brittany, Benny Jean, Brittany, Benny Jean, Hey bye bye
bye bye bye bye bye bye, Glad Gunny, Where I hear.
Speaker 20 (44:31):
Baby bye bye?
Speaker 13 (44:32):
B Janie.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Saturday, April twenty first, two thousand and one. As the
search for Robert Fisher continues, attention turns to another cave.
The Scottsdale SWAT team, trained to operate in cities, not
the wilderness, is out of its element. They ask Heulet
County Detective Brian Havey to help guide them via radio.
Speaker 22 (44:55):
I was on a little knoll maybe two hundred yards
from the entrance to the cave, behind some good rocks
as cover. There was sleeting hail and snow coming down.
They would go like twenty feet and all shot up
behind a tree, and every time they come out from one,
they'd say where are you at? So I'd stand up
and go right here? Which way do we go?
Speaker 18 (45:17):
Now?
Speaker 22 (45:18):
That direction? And it took for them to cover that
two hundred yards I want to say, forty five minutes.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
So they get to the cave entrance and they drop
flash banks.
Speaker 22 (45:29):
Flash banks, smoke grenades the whole nine yards. I don't
know if they were trying to scare Robert Fisher out
of the cave or any bears or lions or tigers
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Meanwhile, the weather is rapidly deteriorating.
Speaker 22 (45:44):
The storm came in. We had rain, sleet and some hail,
and it became quite miserable. As you know, that red
dirt up there turns into mud real quick though. Everybody
was tramping around and that stuff.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Visibility drops to ten feet.
Speaker 22 (45:59):
Sometimes we get what we call tide crystals, looks like
tide soap, and it's just little fluffy snowballs that come down.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
At four PM, the SWAT team retreats from the cave.
At seven the search is temporarily suspended. Only four units
remain overnight Sunday, April twenty second, Monday three.
Speaker 23 (46:18):
Of the search for murder suspect Robert Fisher is quite
a different picture. Snow covered the entire area, and there
are a lot less officers right now.
Speaker 24 (46:26):
We're down to about a third. We've probably got twenty
five people. I don't have an exact count, but yes,
we are down because of what's happened in the weather change.
Speaker 23 (46:35):
But the thick blanket of fresh snow also can be
a benefit for searchers because it's easier to spot new tracks.
Speaker 24 (46:41):
When you have the no snow, you need more searchers
to cover the ground.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Officers dart from one false lead to the next, including
a nearby lean to no sign of Fisher, buzzards in
the sky, no sign of Fisher, sightings everywhere, none confirmed
to be Fisher. Monday April twenty third, headline Fisher search fruitless,
murder suspect vanishes in wilds It's been an exhausting weekend
(47:06):
for cops and the media. The Arizona Republic has been
stellar in its reporting, though it does make some mistakes,
saying at one point, for example, that Robert Fisher is
definitely cornered in a cave. The Republic also never realizes
that its own employee, Bud Wolf, is a critical witness,
the last person to see Mary's Forerunner before it's located
(47:26):
nine days later in the forest. Today, the search ends
only seventy hours after it began. Heela County Sheriff John
Armer tells the Pace and Round Up that law enforcement
spent four thousand, five hundred man hours scouring a one
point five mile radius around the Forerunner searching for Fisher.
As far as we're concerned, he says, the probability of
(47:48):
him being in that area is so low we're not
looking anymore. Back in Scottsdale, it.
Speaker 9 (47:56):
Was a home where a mother and her children were murdered.
It was also a home purposely set on fire, police say,
to destroy the bodies and to cover up the triple homicide.
But as of this morning, the home was torn down
by a demolition crew, hauled away and.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Then you see it the little stone wall, this resilient
relic watching as an orange bulldozer karts off rubble from
the house burned and the lives shattered only twenty feet away.
Speaker 9 (48:27):
While the investigation continues, questions continue to mount. Did Robert
Fisher really murder his family?
Speaker 23 (48:34):
And if so, why?
Speaker 9 (48:36):
But the big question police say remains, is Robert Fisher
still out here somewhere.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Next time, I'm missing in Arizona. So we found Mary
Fisher's forerunner. It's still on the road, still in Arizona,
and we're about a half mile away from its current address.
You can reach us by phone at one eight three
to three new tips. That's one three six three nine
eight four seven seven, by email at tips at iHeartMedia
(49:05):
dot com, tips at iHeartMedia dot com, online at neon
thirty three dot com, or on Twitter at John Wallzac,
j O, n W A. L. Czak. Paul Dekan is
our executive producer, Chris Brown is our supervising producer. Hannah
Rose Snyder is our producer. Paul Gemperlin is our researcher,
(49:26):
Ben Bowen is a consulting producer. And I'm your host
and executive producer, John Wallzac recreations. Voice by Paul Decktt,
Holly Frye and Joe McCormick. Additional production support provided by
Max Williams. Special thanks to Zach Fradella. Cover art by
Pam Peacock, Neon thirty three logo designed by Derek Rudy.
Our intro song is Utopia by Ruby Cube. Please download
(49:47):
the first two seasons of our show, Missing in Alaska
and Missing on nine to eleven, and if you're so inclined,
give us a five star rating. Missing in Arizona is
a co production of iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three
Host
Jon Walczak
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