Robert Fisher is an American man who has been on the run from police since 2001. He allegedly murdered his family (wife Mary and their two children Bobby and Brittney) and then blew up their home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Robert was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list from 2001 until 2021 when he was removed for no longer meeting the criteria.
Robert William Fisher was born on April 13, 1961 in Brooklyn, NY. His father was William Fisher, and his mother was Jan Howell. Robert had two sisters.
Robert’s parents divorced when he was a teen and he was reported to have had a hard time with the separation. He lived with his father following the split. He and his sisters moved with their dad to live in Arizona. The children attended Sahuaro High School in Tucson. One of Robert’s friends from high school remembered him being ‘very bitter’ about his parents’ divorce.
Robert was said to have had exceptional hunting skills and was known for being an outdoorsman.
Robert married Mary Cooper in 1987. Mary was born in Chicago on October 3, 1962. The couple had two children, Brittney and Robert Jr (known as Bobby). Brittney was born on April 27, 1988 and Bobby was born on September 21, 1990.
Robert joined the US Navy for a period of time. He attempted to join the SEALs but was not successful., He then moved to a career as a fireman in California but he had to retire following a back injury. After this, he moved his family to Arizona and he moved into the medical field. He worked then as a surgical catheter technician and as a respiratory therapist. Robert was employed by the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale in 2001, at the time of the murders.
Friends have described Robert as cruel towards his family. He and Mary were said to have fought about sex and money. Mary got a job and she told friends that she did so, because she needed a ‘security fund.’ She also said she took the job because she needed to be able to buy clothes and toys for the kids.
“Robert was an ultra-control freak,” a Scottsdale police detective wrote in a summary of an interview with a family friend. “He said he would tell the kids what time to get up, what time to go to bed, what clothes to wear, what to eat.”
Robert also refused to ever take his family to Disneyland because that is where his parents had their last screaming fight before their divorce. Robert allegedly told friends that he believed his life would have been very different if his mother had not left the family.
Mary’s mother, Ginny Cooper, would later tell police that Robert “didn’t socialize often with family because of a fear of getting too close to people and losing them.”
AZ Central reported in 2002 on some alleged abuse by Robert towards his family:
- Robert allegedly turned a garden hose on Mary after she spoke up against him.
- Robert would not let Mary paint the walls in their home anything but white and he had to approve the photos that were displayed.
“Several times her mother had made special things, like quilts,” Mary’s friend, Kimberly Sue Davidson, told police. “She was not allowed to hang them up. She had to store them in the closet. And then he would continually tell her, isn’t it time you got rid of this stuff?”
Bobby did not like to hunt or fish and Robert was said to be embarrassed of this. He asked a friend ‘Will he grow out of it?”
Robert also decided to ‘teach’ his kids to swim by throwing them off a boat.
“They were crying, and Brittany was screaming, and he pulled them back in the boat and he said, ‘Now there, how’s that?’ ” his friend Sandy Gillespie told police.
At one point, Robert had a dog called Ruger that he adored. A friend said that he alternated between being cold and angry towards his family, but showed adoration towards the dog.
A friend said “He was talking about getting home to the kids and he just . . . there was no emotions; and then started talking about his dog, and I remember telling him, I said, ‘Robert,’ I said, ‘You sound like you’re talking about some girl.’ “
One of Robert’s close friends was Pastor Kenneth Hodgeson. According to AZ Central, Robert once played a joke on him.
He went to Kenneth’s home and pointed a pistol at his friend’s head.
“He let me see the bullet go in,” Kenneth said. “But he de-cocked it right at my head and then he goes ‘Isn’t that cool?’ “
Robert’s friends also saw him display some strange behavior on hunting trips. He killed an elk once and began smearing the blood on his face.
There was also an incident where Robert shot a stray dog. He said it was because the animal attacked his own dog but police said he set up the encounter so that he could purposely shoot the stray.
Robert and Mary’s marital issues were evident towards everyone. His Pastor friend Kenneth said though “Divorce was not an option.”
Kenneth counseled the couple after Robert had a one-night stand with a sex worker that he met in a massage parlor. Robert was worried that he had picked up a UTI after the encounter.
“They did not have a happy marriage,” said Wade Rencsok, a former neighbor. “They screamed constantly. Everybody heard it. You could hear it in the house next door, and you never really heard him scream, which is kind of weird. I mean he had a way about him, but you never heard him scream. You always heard his wife screaming. Things like, ‘You’re worthless. I could have done better than you. We should get a divorce.'”
Robert had previously told friends that he had thought of taking his own life due to the state of his marriage.
In the months prior to April 2001, Robert began to withdraw from church activities.
He told a hunting friend that he “could not live without his family”, possibly hinting that he would consider suicide over divorce.
In the weeks before the murder, Mary had started telling friends that she was planning to divorce Robert.
On the night of Monday, April 9, 2001 , neighbors reported that they heard a loud argument happening inside the Fisher home. This was said to be at around 10pm.
At 10.43pm, Robert was spotted on a camera at an ATM. He withdrew $280. Mary’s Toyota 4Runner vehicle can also be seen in the footage.
Police have since said that the murders likely happened between 9.30pm and 10.15pm, so Robert’s family were dead by this point.
At 8.42am on Tuesday April 10, 2001, the Fisher house exploded. The blast was strong enough to collapse a brick wall. Houses in a one-half mile radius had their frames rattled.
Neighbors rushed out with garden hoses to try to extinguish the flames. Firefighters then arrived. The flames reached a height of 20 feet/6 metres and they worked to keep it from spreading to other properties.
Firefighters were unable to get too close to the home as secondary explosions kept occurring. It is believed these were caused by either rifle ammunition or paint cans.
Investigators discovered that the gas line from the house’s furnace had been pulled. The gas was then ignited by a candle that it is assumed Robert had lit. This would have taken hours and gave him time to flee the scene. It is believed he had a 10 hour head start on law enforcement after the explosion and murders.
The burned bodies of Mary, Brittney and Bobby were found lying in bed. Mary was 38, Brittney was 12 and Bobby was 10. Autopsies were conducted and it was discovered that Mary had been shot in the back of the head. Brittney and Bobby had their throats slashed from ear to ear. The family dog, Blue, was not found on the property.
Police theorized that Robert’s motive for the murders was that Mary planned to leave him and that he did not want his children to endure divorce like had as a child.
Police found a safe inside the Fisher home that had survived the fire. These are photos of what was found inside.
The first photo shows an empty revolver case – the gun is thought to be the murder weapon.
Robert was named as an official person of interest on April 14, 2001. He is the only person who has ever been named as such in the case.
It was thought that Robert had fled in Mary’s Toyota – he was seen on CCTV with the vehicle at the ATM and it was not found at the home.
On April 20, 2001, the car was found in the Tonto National Forest, near Young, Arizona. This is around 100 miles north of Scottsdale.
Blue, the family dog, was found near the vehicle. The dog was said to be hungry and agitated and had taken shelter under the car.
In previous footage from the ATM, Robert was seen wearing an Oakland Raiders hat and an identical one was found inside the car.
Human faeces was found in a pile near the passenger door of the car.
The area where the car was discovered is known for having dozens of caves in the vicinity. Police have been said to have searched the area surrounding the car, but only searched one of the caves.
Olivia to discuss caves – Robert was familiar with caves, hard to access etc.
People who are familiar with the caves have theorized that Robert hid in one of them before either escaping or dying. He possibly hid in a cave and left once police activity had reduced. Or maybe he died from low oxygen levels and his remains have never been found. The third theory is that he took his life in one of the caves. No sign of Robert has been found in any of the caves since he disappeared.
There were footprints from the Toyota that lead to the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. According to the ‘Missing in Arizona’ podcast, the footprints did not match the size of Robert’s feet. Either way, police never searched the reservation.
Before the car was found, a couple saw a man who looked like Robert walking along a nearby road. The woman apparently told her husband ‘That looks like Robert Fisher.’ They couple did not report the sighting until after the vehicle was found.
A friend of the Fisher family, Lori Greenback, told police that her husband and Robert had previously gone camping in the area where the car ended up being found. Lori said that her husband now believed that Robert was scouting the area in preparation of his crime/dumping the car and he was very familiar with the terrain.
On July 19, 2001, a warrant was issued for Robert. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson.
He was declared to be a fugitive and was also charged by the US District Court for the District of Arizona with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
In June 2002, Robert was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. He was the 475th criminal to be placed on the list.
The FBI have offered a reward of up to $100k for information in the case.
By April 2003, two years after he likely murdered his family, the FBI had received ‘hundreds and hundreds of leads.’ There has never been a confirmed sighting of Robert – all reported sightings are said to have been false or inconclusive.
Sightings of Robert have come in from all over the world. People in his old neighbourhood have reported seeing someone who resembled him driving in the area.
A man who looked very similar to Robert was arrested in Vancouver, Canada in 2004. This sighting is discussed at length in the ‘Missing in Arizona’ podcast. A man became suspicious of his ex-wife’s new partner, who looked like Robert. This man was missing a tooth in the same location as Robert and he also had a scar in the same position on his back. The man was held by the RCMP for a week before it was determined that his fingerprints were not a match to Robert. There was speculation that the man had somehow altered his fingerprints, but police said there was no scarring to suggest this was the case.
The Missing in Arizona podcast also discusses a sighting of Robert in Australia. An American family were on vacation when they were certain they saw Robert. They called police and the man was tracked down and determined to not be the fugitive.
In October 2014, police raided a house in Commerce City, Colorado after they got a tip that Robert was hiding there. Two people in the house were arrested, but there was no sign of Robert.
In 2016, the FBI released age progressed photos of Robert. This marked the 15th anniversary of the murders of his family.
In November 2021, Robert was removed from the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. He was replaced by Yulan Adonay Archaga Carias, the alleged leader of MS-13 in Honduras.
Robert is/was still wanted and the FBI made a statement about why he was removed from the list:
“Because the extensive publicity Fisher’s case received during its nearly 20 years on the list has not resulted in his successful location and/or capture, the case no longer fulfills that requirement.”
If you’re wondering about the criteria to be added to the list:
The FBI chooses fugitives based on two main factors: The person must be dangerous or have a record of serious crimes, and the FBI must believe nationwide publicity will help find the suspect.
Scottsdale police Detective John Heinzelman, the lead detective currently assigned to the case, spoke at the time about being told that Robert was being removed from the list.
“I said, ‘OK, that’s fine by me.’ It doesn’t really change anything I’m doing,” Detective Heinzelman said.
The detective said in 2021 that he was still getting two to three tips a week, or about 100 leads a year.
“We’re still looking for him, no different than before,” he said.
“We don’t know exactly what happened,” said FBI Special Agent Taylor Hannah. “And I think their families, both Robert and Mary’s, deserve that information at this time.”
There are three main theories about what happened to Fisher:
He is living somewhere under an assumed identity.
He killed himself, and his body has not been found.
He was on the run for weeks or years but has since died, and his remains have not been found or identified.
“He could be living in a small town, where he gets paid cash and he works as a handyman,” said Detective John Heinzelman. “Or he could be in a big city and blend in.”
“Maybe this is the best we have, knowing he did it, and never finding him again,” said Detective Heintzelman.
The murders and Robert’s disappearance took place before 9/11, and border control was more lax at that time. He may have been able to flee the country more easily.
Jon Walczak, host of the Missing in Arizona podcast has this opinion. “After two years of researching this, I very strongly think that Robert Fisher is alive and I’m working this hard because I want to find him. I think that Robert Fisher planned this out. I think that he left the SUV in the forest as a diversion and that somebody drove him out of there and he escaped.”
So, Robert is still missing. He really could be anywhere.
FBI agent Bob Caldwell has said that he is “arrogant. He’s cocky. He’s a know-it-all…and a loner.”
Robert was known to chew tobacco and favors the Copenhagen brand. His look has been described as average, but he sometimes walks in an odd, erect manner with his chest out due to a back problem stemming from the injury that he suffered as a firefighter, and is an avid hunter and fisherman.
Robert is considered armed and extremely dangerous and has ties to Florida and New Mexico.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.azfamily.com/2024/08/10/podcast-uncovers-altered-timeline-witnesses-robert-fisher-case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_William_Fisher
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16221710/mary_jean-fisher
CLIPS USED IN THE PODCAST EPISODE