February 14, 2025 • 18 mins
On the night of April 9, 2001, a loud argument could be heard coming from the Fisher family home in Scottsdale, Arizona between Robert Fisher and his wife, Mary Fisher. The next morning at around 8:42 AM, an explosion could be heard coming from the home which then erupted into flames. Upon investigation, the bodies found in the home were that of 37-year-old Mary Fisher, and the Fisher children, Brittney (10) and Robert, Jr. (Bobby, 12). The children's' throats had been slashed, and Mary suffered a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Robert Fisher was nowhere to be found. He had become the number one suspect. Police launched a search for Robert that has spanned 25 years, but so far, Robert remains missing.
Sources:FBI Press Release (2002) CNN (2016) The Arizona Republic (2004)The Arizona Republic (2001) Arizona Central (2021)The Arizona Republic (2002) KDVR (2014)Documentary- Finding Robert Fisher Documentary- Where is Robert Fisher?
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dark-deeds--6216218/support.
Sources:FBI Press Release (2002) CNN (2016) The Arizona Republic (2004)The Arizona Republic (2001) Arizona Central (2021)The Arizona Republic (2002) KDVR (2014)Documentary- Finding Robert Fisher Documentary- Where is Robert Fisher?
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dark-deeds--6216218/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello listeners, and welcome back to another episode of Dark
(00:02):
Deed's podcast. Today, I'm telling the story of a family
annihilator who has managed to elude capture for almost twenty
five years. This is the case of the Fisher family murders.
(00:33):
Robert William Fisher was born on April thirteenth, nineteen sixty one,
in Brooklyn, New York, to parents William Fisher and jan Howell.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
He had two other siblings.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
His parents of worse when he was fifteen years old
in nineteen seventy six, and he and his siblings went
to live in Arizona with their father. The children attended
Sahoro High School in Tucson, Arizona.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Many people that knew the children said that their.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Parents divorce had turbulent, long lasting effects on them, but
the child that took at the hardest was Robert. A
friend from Robert's high school stated that he was very
bitter about the divorce because Jane, his mother, had left
the family. Not much is really written about his mother
from what I can tell, but it kind of sounds
like she no longer was a part of the family
and had no interest in her children.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Robert enlisted in the.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Navy and attempted to be a part of the Navy Seals,
but he was unsuccessful at this attempt. Robert married Mary
Cooper in nineteen eighty seven. The couple had two children together,
Robert William Fisher Junior, who was lovingly known as Bobby,
and Brittany Fisher. Robert was an avid outdoorsman and liked
to hunt and fish. He worked as a firefighter in
California for a while, but he had to retire due
(01:42):
to a back country He was also a weed sprayer
for a company in the late eighties. I'm assuming before
he was a firefighter. He then moved his family back
to Arizona and started a career in the medical field.
He was a surgical catheter technician and a respiratory therapist.
The Fisher family was described as a good little family.
Both parents were strong in their face and raised the
(02:04):
children the same way, but Robert was described as being
control freak and cruel toward his family. He and his
wife often argued a lot about money and sex. Mary
at one point took a job that she explained was
kind of a security fund, which to me sounds as
if she was planning to leave Robert.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
At some point and she kind of.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Needed to get the finances and get her life in
order before doing so. Robert at one point turned a
garden hose on Mary after she spoke out of turn.
He was also embarrassed by his son Bobby, because Bobby
didn't really enjoy hunting and fishing and the outdoor things
that his father enjoyed. So I'm not sure if it
(02:43):
was a manliness thing or you know, he didn't think
his little boy was mainly enough, but he was often
embarrassed with his son because his son didn't like the
outdoor activities that he did. He tried to teach his
children how to swim by throwing them off of a boat.
Robert's hunting partner, Sandy Gillespie, said the children were crying
(03:04):
and screaming, and when they were pulled back onto the boat,
Robert would say to them, now there.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
How is that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
He also only allowed the walls in their home to
be painted white and would only allow a small amount
of pictures to be hanged on them. Mary's mother would
often make her things such as quilts, and Robert Mayer
store them in a closet, not allowing her to display
them or place them on the walls. He also would
asked her, isn't it time you got rid of those things?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Which is weird.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
But it seems to me that Robert just didn't have
a sense of closeness with family. He didn't really have
that sentimental thing about him.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Because I just find that really.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Odd and rude that he had to ask his wife
to get rid of gifts from her mother, you know,
like she's only allowed keep them for a certain period
of time, and then he wanted her to get rid
of them.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's just very weird.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
He also didn't often socialize with family, mind to avoid
getting too close to people. His marriage was seemingly close
to how his parents' marriage was.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
His wife was being a yes, sir type of.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Woman to her husband, and his mother chan was like
that to his father. So he grew up kind of
witnessing that in a marriage, and then he incorporated that
into his own, which boggles me because obviously his parents
got a divorce, so their marriage didn't work, So you
would think that he would try to do everything in
his power to make his own work because of how
(04:31):
devastating that was to him as a child, he wouldn't
want his children to go through that. But it seems
as though he was doing the same things his father
was doing in their marriage. Robert's friends often noticed him
exhibitings some disturbing behavior on hunting trips and during other
outdoor activities. When he killed an elk, he began to
smirits blood on his face. He also snuck up behind
(04:51):
a picnicking family at one point that he did not know.
He just snuck up behind him, and he emptied just
gone into the air to scare them.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He orchestrated a dog attack so he could murder a
stray dog.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
He claimed this straight pitboll attacked his Labrador Retrievers, so
he shot it, but police maintained that he orchestrated the attack.
So either I would say he knew that his labrador
did not get along with other dogs, and so he
brought another dog around purposefully, or he did something to
kind of make this pibol want to attack, But they
(05:24):
do maintain that he orchestrated this just so he could
kill a dog. In nineteen ninety eight, Robert talked of
committing suicide due to the state his marriage was in.
He and Mary went to their pastor to receive marriage counseling.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Robert told his coworkers.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
About a one night stand he had with the prostitute
which left him ill for several days with the UTI
in two thousand and He was always worried that Mary
would find out. Apparently this was something that he did
several times. He cheated several times and got various infections
and STDs and things of that nature from what I've gathered,
and I'm not sure Mary ever found out from the
(05:59):
sound of it, didn't, but she was just very fed
up with him. In general, the couple were often heard
fighting by the neighborhood. People say they never heard Robert screaming,
but they heard Mary screaming that he was worthless, that
she could have done better than him, and they should
just get a divorce. Finally, Robert decided he wanted to
renew his commitment to his faith in his marriage because
(06:20):
he said he could.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Not live without his family.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
On April ninth, two thousand and one, neighbors heard aloud
or even at around ten pm coming from the Fisher home.
Around ten hours later, at eight forty two am, the
house exploded into flames. Half of the house collapsed and
the house was engulfed. This was not a simple explosion
caused by gasser electricity.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The explosion was.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Strong enough to rattle homes and half a mile radius
from the home. Neighbors were using garden hoses to keep
the flames down before fire crews arrived to try to
fight the twenty foot high blaze.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Neighbors and friends that thought no.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
One was home at first, or that if anyone was,
Robert was home due to his truck still being part
of the home. Mary never drove Robert's truck and he
never drove her Toyota Runner. After the fire was extinguished,
bodies were found in the home and were taken for identification.
It was determined that the bodies were thirty seven year
old and Mary Fisher and their children, Bobby, aged ten,
and Brittany Fisher, aged twelve. During investigation of the bodies,
(07:15):
it was determined that Brittany and Bobby's throats had been
slashed and Mary was shot in the back of the head.
Before the blaze had started, the gas line from the
back of the home's furnace had been pulled, causing gas
to slowly leak. This would have given Robert enough time
to commit the murders and get away. He also lit
a candle near the furnace, and then the accumulating gas
would actually take time to reach the candle the flame
(07:37):
of the candle, so the gas would be puddling or
pulling onto the floor and it would be raising and raising,
and when it finally raised and hit that plane that
some explosion would occur. So this would have given plenty
of time. Since Robert was the only member of the
family not killed and was missing, he was named an
official person of interest on April fourteenth, two thousand and one.
(07:59):
The last of Robert before the explosion, was in Mary's
fore Runner, withdrawing two hundred and eighty dollars from an
ATM at around ten forty three pm. It was concluded
the murders occurred sometime between nine thirty pm and ten
to fifteen pm, then Robert left the scene and withdrew
the cash. On April twenty, aeth two thousand and one,
police located Mary's abandoned for runner, along with the family
(08:19):
dog hiding under it, in Tonto National Forest in Young Arizona.
This was one hundred miles from Scottsdale, where the murders occurred.
An Oakland Raiders hat was found inside the vehicle, which
was identical to the one Robert was seen wearing in
the ATM footage. They also found human excrement near the
door of the car. Police searched one of the dozen
caves near the area, which created a complex underground network
(08:41):
that extended for miles, but they didn't find any signs
of Robert. Several professional cavers have suggested that Robert used
these caves as hiding places before either committing suicide, dying
from low oxygen levels, or escaping. These caves have been
visited in the years since and there have been no
signs of Robert in them. Followed a set of footprints
that led into the Ford Apache Indian Reservation, which was
(09:04):
near where the Forerunner was located. They uncovered no signs
of Robert. Before the vehicle was found, a couple reported
seeing a man walking on young road that looked like Robert,
but they waited until after the vehicle was found to
report this, so they didn't report.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
The man walking when they saw him walking.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
They actually reported it after they had, I guess heard
about this case and heard that this vehicle had been located,
and of course that would have given Robert even more
time to get further A friend of the fisher as
Lorie Greenbeck, said that her husband went camping.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
With Robert in this area shortly before the murders.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
She now believes Robert was scouting the area and that's
why he went on that trip. On July nineteenth, the
state arrestaurant was issued in Phoenix, charging Robert with three
counts of murder. Robert was also placed on the FBI's
most Wanted list on June twenty ninth, two thousand and two.
In the years following the arson and murders, people in
Robert's old neighborhood reported seeing a man and resembling Robert
driving around the area. In February two thousand and four,
(10:04):
a man in Vancouver, Canada was arrested and he bore
striking resemblance to Robert. He even had the same missing
tooth and surgical scar on his back as Robert. Police
went all the way to Canada to get the fingerprints
of this man, hoping that he would be Robert and
they could finally catch him, but it turned out that
(10:25):
his fingerprints did not match Robert's. This man was held
by police for a week until the family member correctly
identified him. There was speculation that his fingerprints had been ordered,
but there was no scarring or evidence to suggest so.
In twenty twelve, the FBI alerted police that Robert maybe
living in the area where Mary's vehicle was found years earlier,
but there was no signs of him in the area again,
(10:46):
and out job of twenty fourteen, a tipples received that
Robert was living at a home in Commerce City, Colorado.
Police raided the home and arrested two occupants, but Robert
was not in the home or among the occupants arrested.
In April of two thousand and two, sixteen FBI officials
and Squatsil police released age progress photos of Robert during
a news conference on the fifteenth anniversary of the murders.
(11:08):
On November third, twenty twenty one, Robert was officially removed
from the FBI's Top ten Most Wanted lists. He was
replaced by Yulon Audinet ur Shaga Carrius. Because the extensive
publicity of Fisher's case received during its nearly twenty years
on the list has not resulted in a successful location
or capture, the case no longer fulfills that requirement, the
(11:29):
FBI said. Despite being removed from the list, Robert is
still a oneed fugitive to this day, there are many
theories as to what may have happened to Robert, considering
he had made comments in the past about taking his
own life. People theorized he may have taken his life
in the spot where Mary's vehicle was found and his
body was never found. Others believe he may have fled
(11:51):
and lived life under a different name and died after
years as a fugitive, but his body still was never found.
Others theorized he may have hitchhiked somewhere and had help
from an accomplice.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Police think he could have fled to Mexico.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Since this occurred before the nine to eleven attacks, security
at the border was.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Not as tight and tough at the time.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
He could be living in some small town getting paid
in cash for his job so his location is undetectable,
or he could even be blending in within a large city.
He has a very plain appearance, so if you look
at him, he just looks like your average guy.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
He could be anyone. Really, there's nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Noticeable about him that's like, okay, you know, if you
see a guy on the street, that's definitely him. So
he definitely could be blending in anywhere. In two thousand
and nine, so backtrack a little bit. He while I
(12:52):
should say not him, or it could be him, there
was a hostile encounter that occurred between a man and
taurists and Guatemala, and this man really resembled Fisher, but
apparently it wasn't him, or at least it wasn't investigated
good enough to be him. But apparently these tourists were
there taking photos and this man told them he did
(13:15):
not want his photo taken without permission, and he got
very up in arms about it, very mad about it,
and of course the police were called and things of
that nature, so it got really bad. And I mean
it would make sense if you know you're wanted fugitive,
why you would not.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Want your picture taken.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
And of course if you go on Reddit and there's
a whole rabbit hole thing on Reddit that you're going
to get down, people on there do believe that this
could have been him as well, because I mean, like
I just stated, wanted fugitive and you get very up
in arms about, you know, having your picture taken. And
I know a lot of people don't want their picture
taken by random strangers. They don't know, but this guy
really super resembled Robert. Apparently, Robert's family believes that if
(14:00):
he is still alive, he committed the crimes.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
They say, if he's dead, someone.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
May have been after his family and killed him later
somewhere else. They do not believe he premeditated his crime,
and they think he just.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Snapped one day.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
But police believe he definitely premeditated it, and he had
been planning it for a while. And I don't typically
put my opinions on here. I throw in, you know,
here and there, but I believe that he premeditated it.
It just sounds to me like this was something he
was thinking about for a long time, because he has
been able to get away with it for this long.
I don't think it was a spur of the moment thing,
(14:34):
because this takes a lot of planning and a lot
of work to run from the police if you're still
alive for twenty five years. So, speaking of the Reddit
rabbit hole I went down. I looked through some threads
on Reddit, and there was an article that I actually
did not locate until I went on Reddit.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
But apparently.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
They air in America's Most Wanted episode about the killings
and then someone called the police claiming to be Robert Fisher.
So no one has released how long you talked or
whether investigators know where the.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Call came from.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But federal documents showed that the call came from a
pizza parlor in Chester, Virginia on August eighteenth of two
thousand and one, so this would be one week after
that TV show on Fugitives aired a story on Robert Fisher.
So the police said that the call was the first
call like that, but it wasn't the only piece of
(15:42):
evidence that allowed the FBI to join the hunt six
months after the killings. So this was the first time
that I actually had found this article about someone making
a phone call claiming.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
To be Robert.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
And then there are other speculations on here you can
read forever, but people say that they swear they've met him.
There was a guy they called New York John, very
skinny guy, living in a sober living and this would
have been this occurred in San Diego, California, where this
(16:20):
person had saw this man they called New York John,
and they said that this was probably in two thousand
and five, and he was staying in a place called
Cash Street sober Living. And if you remember, Robert was
familiar with San Diego. There's people that say they've seen
him in Washington and literally just every I mean, there's
(16:48):
a lot on here.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I personally believe.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
That he did not commit suicide because to me, he
just seems very very arrogant, very nurse sissistic. I don't
think that he truly wanted to kill himself. I think
he is sitting back somewhere kind of enjoying his new life,
and I just think that that's what he did. I
(17:15):
think he unfortunately successfully erasist family got them out of
the way, and now he's just living. Robert Fisher still
remains missing. A retired detective discusses that if he is alive,
he may be found by the simple fact of if
he makes a mistake. And as I stated earlier, I
personally believe he's still alive and living within society. He's
(17:36):
a relatively average looking person, so he could go anywhere unnoticed.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
And that's typically what happens.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
If you've noticed these cases where someone's on the run
for a very long time, they slip up, they make
the tiniest mistake, and then they're finally caught. And I
hope that's what happens to him, all right everyone. That
concludes this episode. Thanks for listening on until next time.
St
Hello listeners, and welcome back to another episode of Dark
(00:02):
Deed's podcast. Today, I'm telling the story of a family
annihilator who has managed to elude capture for almost twenty
five years. This is the case of the Fisher family murders.
(00:33):
Robert William Fisher was born on April thirteenth, nineteen sixty one,
in Brooklyn, New York, to parents William Fisher and jan Howell.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
He had two other siblings.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
His parents of worse when he was fifteen years old
in nineteen seventy six, and he and his siblings went
to live in Arizona with their father. The children attended
Sahoro High School in Tucson, Arizona.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Many people that knew the children said that their.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Parents divorce had turbulent, long lasting effects on them, but
the child that took at the hardest was Robert. A
friend from Robert's high school stated that he was very
bitter about the divorce because Jane, his mother, had left
the family. Not much is really written about his mother
from what I can tell, but it kind of sounds
like she no longer was a part of the family
and had no interest in her children.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Robert enlisted in the.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Navy and attempted to be a part of the Navy Seals,
but he was unsuccessful at this attempt. Robert married Mary
Cooper in nineteen eighty seven. The couple had two children together,
Robert William Fisher Junior, who was lovingly known as Bobby,
and Brittany Fisher. Robert was an avid outdoorsman and liked
to hunt and fish. He worked as a firefighter in
California for a while, but he had to retire due
(01:42):
to a back country He was also a weed sprayer
for a company in the late eighties. I'm assuming before
he was a firefighter. He then moved his family back
to Arizona and started a career in the medical field.
He was a surgical catheter technician and a respiratory therapist.
The Fisher family was described as a good little family.
Both parents were strong in their face and raised the
(02:04):
children the same way, but Robert was described as being
control freak and cruel toward his family. He and his
wife often argued a lot about money and sex. Mary
at one point took a job that she explained was
kind of a security fund, which to me sounds as
if she was planning to leave Robert.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
At some point and she kind of.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Needed to get the finances and get her life in
order before doing so. Robert at one point turned a
garden hose on Mary after she spoke out of turn.
He was also embarrassed by his son Bobby, because Bobby
didn't really enjoy hunting and fishing and the outdoor things
that his father enjoyed. So I'm not sure if it
(02:43):
was a manliness thing or you know, he didn't think
his little boy was mainly enough, but he was often
embarrassed with his son because his son didn't like the
outdoor activities that he did. He tried to teach his
children how to swim by throwing them off of a boat.
Robert's hunting partner, Sandy Gillespie, said the children were crying
(03:04):
and screaming, and when they were pulled back onto the boat,
Robert would say to them, now there.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
How is that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
He also only allowed the walls in their home to
be painted white and would only allow a small amount
of pictures to be hanged on them. Mary's mother would
often make her things such as quilts, and Robert Mayer
store them in a closet, not allowing her to display
them or place them on the walls. He also would
asked her, isn't it time you got rid of those things?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Which is weird.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
But it seems to me that Robert just didn't have
a sense of closeness with family. He didn't really have
that sentimental thing about him.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Because I just find that really.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Odd and rude that he had to ask his wife
to get rid of gifts from her mother, you know,
like she's only allowed keep them for a certain period
of time, and then he wanted her to get rid
of them.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's just very weird.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
He also didn't often socialize with family, mind to avoid
getting too close to people. His marriage was seemingly close
to how his parents' marriage was.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
His wife was being a yes, sir type of.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Woman to her husband, and his mother chan was like
that to his father. So he grew up kind of
witnessing that in a marriage, and then he incorporated that
into his own, which boggles me because obviously his parents
got a divorce, so their marriage didn't work, So you
would think that he would try to do everything in
his power to make his own work because of how
(04:31):
devastating that was to him as a child, he wouldn't
want his children to go through that. But it seems
as though he was doing the same things his father
was doing in their marriage. Robert's friends often noticed him
exhibitings some disturbing behavior on hunting trips and during other
outdoor activities. When he killed an elk, he began to
smirits blood on his face. He also snuck up behind
(04:51):
a picnicking family at one point that he did not know.
He just snuck up behind him, and he emptied just
gone into the air to scare them.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He orchestrated a dog attack so he could murder a
stray dog.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
He claimed this straight pitboll attacked his Labrador Retrievers, so
he shot it, but police maintained that he orchestrated the attack.
So either I would say he knew that his labrador
did not get along with other dogs, and so he
brought another dog around purposefully, or he did something to
kind of make this pibol want to attack, But they
(05:24):
do maintain that he orchestrated this just so he could
kill a dog. In nineteen ninety eight, Robert talked of
committing suicide due to the state his marriage was in.
He and Mary went to their pastor to receive marriage counseling.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Robert told his coworkers.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
About a one night stand he had with the prostitute
which left him ill for several days with the UTI
in two thousand and He was always worried that Mary
would find out. Apparently this was something that he did
several times. He cheated several times and got various infections
and STDs and things of that nature from what I've gathered,
and I'm not sure Mary ever found out from the
(05:59):
sound of it, didn't, but she was just very fed
up with him. In general, the couple were often heard
fighting by the neighborhood. People say they never heard Robert screaming,
but they heard Mary screaming that he was worthless, that
she could have done better than him, and they should
just get a divorce. Finally, Robert decided he wanted to
renew his commitment to his faith in his marriage because
(06:20):
he said he could.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Not live without his family.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
On April ninth, two thousand and one, neighbors heard aloud
or even at around ten pm coming from the Fisher home.
Around ten hours later, at eight forty two am, the
house exploded into flames. Half of the house collapsed and
the house was engulfed. This was not a simple explosion
caused by gasser electricity.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The explosion was.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Strong enough to rattle homes and half a mile radius
from the home. Neighbors were using garden hoses to keep
the flames down before fire crews arrived to try to
fight the twenty foot high blaze.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Neighbors and friends that thought no.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
One was home at first, or that if anyone was,
Robert was home due to his truck still being part
of the home. Mary never drove Robert's truck and he
never drove her Toyota Runner. After the fire was extinguished,
bodies were found in the home and were taken for identification.
It was determined that the bodies were thirty seven year
old and Mary Fisher and their children, Bobby, aged ten,
and Brittany Fisher, aged twelve. During investigation of the bodies,
(07:15):
it was determined that Brittany and Bobby's throats had been
slashed and Mary was shot in the back of the head.
Before the blaze had started, the gas line from the
back of the home's furnace had been pulled, causing gas
to slowly leak. This would have given Robert enough time
to commit the murders and get away. He also lit
a candle near the furnace, and then the accumulating gas
would actually take time to reach the candle the flame
(07:37):
of the candle, so the gas would be puddling or
pulling onto the floor and it would be raising and raising,
and when it finally raised and hit that plane that
some explosion would occur. So this would have given plenty
of time. Since Robert was the only member of the
family not killed and was missing, he was named an
official person of interest on April fourteenth, two thousand and one.
(07:59):
The last of Robert before the explosion, was in Mary's
fore Runner, withdrawing two hundred and eighty dollars from an
ATM at around ten forty three pm. It was concluded
the murders occurred sometime between nine thirty pm and ten
to fifteen pm, then Robert left the scene and withdrew
the cash. On April twenty, aeth two thousand and one,
police located Mary's abandoned for runner, along with the family
(08:19):
dog hiding under it, in Tonto National Forest in Young Arizona.
This was one hundred miles from Scottsdale, where the murders occurred.
An Oakland Raiders hat was found inside the vehicle, which
was identical to the one Robert was seen wearing in
the ATM footage. They also found human excrement near the
door of the car. Police searched one of the dozen
caves near the area, which created a complex underground network
(08:41):
that extended for miles, but they didn't find any signs
of Robert. Several professional cavers have suggested that Robert used
these caves as hiding places before either committing suicide, dying
from low oxygen levels, or escaping. These caves have been
visited in the years since and there have been no
signs of Robert in them. Followed a set of footprints
that led into the Ford Apache Indian Reservation, which was
(09:04):
near where the Forerunner was located. They uncovered no signs
of Robert. Before the vehicle was found, a couple reported
seeing a man walking on young road that looked like Robert,
but they waited until after the vehicle was found to
report this, so they didn't report.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
The man walking when they saw him walking.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
They actually reported it after they had, I guess heard
about this case and heard that this vehicle had been located,
and of course that would have given Robert even more
time to get further A friend of the fisher as
Lorie Greenbeck, said that her husband went camping.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
With Robert in this area shortly before the murders.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
She now believes Robert was scouting the area and that's
why he went on that trip. On July nineteenth, the
state arrestaurant was issued in Phoenix, charging Robert with three
counts of murder. Robert was also placed on the FBI's
most Wanted list on June twenty ninth, two thousand and two.
In the years following the arson and murders, people in
Robert's old neighborhood reported seeing a man and resembling Robert
driving around the area. In February two thousand and four,
(10:04):
a man in Vancouver, Canada was arrested and he bore
striking resemblance to Robert. He even had the same missing
tooth and surgical scar on his back as Robert. Police
went all the way to Canada to get the fingerprints
of this man, hoping that he would be Robert and
they could finally catch him, but it turned out that
(10:25):
his fingerprints did not match Robert's. This man was held
by police for a week until the family member correctly
identified him. There was speculation that his fingerprints had been ordered,
but there was no scarring or evidence to suggest so.
In twenty twelve, the FBI alerted police that Robert maybe
living in the area where Mary's vehicle was found years earlier,
but there was no signs of him in the area again,
(10:46):
and out job of twenty fourteen, a tipples received that
Robert was living at a home in Commerce City, Colorado.
Police raided the home and arrested two occupants, but Robert
was not in the home or among the occupants arrested.
In April of two thousand and two, sixteen FBI officials
and Squatsil police released age progress photos of Robert during
a news conference on the fifteenth anniversary of the murders.
(11:08):
On November third, twenty twenty one, Robert was officially removed
from the FBI's Top ten Most Wanted lists. He was
replaced by Yulon Audinet ur Shaga Carrius. Because the extensive
publicity of Fisher's case received during its nearly twenty years
on the list has not resulted in a successful location
or capture, the case no longer fulfills that requirement, the
(11:29):
FBI said. Despite being removed from the list, Robert is
still a oneed fugitive to this day, there are many
theories as to what may have happened to Robert, considering
he had made comments in the past about taking his
own life. People theorized he may have taken his life
in the spot where Mary's vehicle was found and his
body was never found. Others believe he may have fled
(11:51):
and lived life under a different name and died after
years as a fugitive, but his body still was never found.
Others theorized he may have hitchhiked somewhere and had help
from an accomplice.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Police think he could have fled to Mexico.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Since this occurred before the nine to eleven attacks, security
at the border was.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Not as tight and tough at the time.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
He could be living in some small town getting paid
in cash for his job so his location is undetectable,
or he could even be blending in within a large city.
He has a very plain appearance, so if you look
at him, he just looks like your average guy.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
He could be anyone. Really, there's nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Noticeable about him that's like, okay, you know, if you
see a guy on the street, that's definitely him. So
he definitely could be blending in anywhere. In two thousand
and nine, so backtrack a little bit. He while I
(12:52):
should say not him, or it could be him, there
was a hostile encounter that occurred between a man and
taurists and Guatemala, and this man really resembled Fisher, but
apparently it wasn't him, or at least it wasn't investigated
good enough to be him. But apparently these tourists were
there taking photos and this man told them he did
(13:15):
not want his photo taken without permission, and he got
very up in arms about it, very mad about it,
and of course the police were called and things of
that nature, so it got really bad. And I mean
it would make sense if you know you're wanted fugitive,
why you would not.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Want your picture taken.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
And of course if you go on Reddit and there's
a whole rabbit hole thing on Reddit that you're going
to get down, people on there do believe that this
could have been him as well, because I mean, like
I just stated, wanted fugitive and you get very up
in arms about, you know, having your picture taken. And
I know a lot of people don't want their picture
taken by random strangers. They don't know, but this guy
really super resembled Robert. Apparently, Robert's family believes that if
(14:00):
he is still alive, he committed the crimes.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
They say, if he's dead, someone.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
May have been after his family and killed him later
somewhere else. They do not believe he premeditated his crime,
and they think he just.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Snapped one day.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
But police believe he definitely premeditated it, and he had
been planning it for a while. And I don't typically
put my opinions on here. I throw in, you know,
here and there, but I believe that he premeditated it.
It just sounds to me like this was something he
was thinking about for a long time, because he has
been able to get away with it for this long.
I don't think it was a spur of the moment thing,
(14:34):
because this takes a lot of planning and a lot
of work to run from the police if you're still
alive for twenty five years. So, speaking of the Reddit
rabbit hole I went down. I looked through some threads
on Reddit, and there was an article that I actually
did not locate until I went on Reddit.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
But apparently.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
They air in America's Most Wanted episode about the killings
and then someone called the police claiming to be Robert Fisher.
So no one has released how long you talked or
whether investigators know where the.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Call came from.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But federal documents showed that the call came from a
pizza parlor in Chester, Virginia on August eighteenth of two
thousand and one, so this would be one week after
that TV show on Fugitives aired a story on Robert Fisher.
So the police said that the call was the first
call like that, but it wasn't the only piece of
(15:42):
evidence that allowed the FBI to join the hunt six
months after the killings. So this was the first time
that I actually had found this article about someone making
a phone call claiming.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
To be Robert.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
And then there are other speculations on here you can
read forever, but people say that they swear they've met him.
There was a guy they called New York John, very
skinny guy, living in a sober living and this would
have been this occurred in San Diego, California, where this
(16:20):
person had saw this man they called New York John,
and they said that this was probably in two thousand
and five, and he was staying in a place called
Cash Street sober Living. And if you remember, Robert was
familiar with San Diego. There's people that say they've seen
him in Washington and literally just every I mean, there's
(16:48):
a lot on here.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I personally believe.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
That he did not commit suicide because to me, he
just seems very very arrogant, very nurse sissistic. I don't
think that he truly wanted to kill himself. I think
he is sitting back somewhere kind of enjoying his new life,
and I just think that that's what he did. I
(17:15):
think he unfortunately successfully erasist family got them out of
the way, and now he's just living. Robert Fisher still
remains missing. A retired detective discusses that if he is alive,
he may be found by the simple fact of if
he makes a mistake. And as I stated earlier, I
personally believe he's still alive and living within society. He's
(17:36):
a relatively average looking person, so he could go anywhere unnoticed.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
And that's typically what happens.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
If you've noticed these cases where someone's on the run
for a very long time, they slip up, they make
the tiniest mistake, and then they're finally caught. And I
hope that's what happens to him, all right everyone. That
concludes this episode. Thanks for listening on until next time.
St
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