When William and Jan Fisher divorced in 1976, their fifteen-year-old son Robert was devastated. The split was far from amicable and young Robert struggled through his high school years. As he became an adult, he always believed his life would have been better if his parents had stayed together.

When Robert married his high school sweetheart, Mary Cooper, in 1987, he made her two promises: to always be faithful and to never divorce. The first promise he would break; the second he would keep in heinous fashion.

Mary and Robert Fisher 

Robert and Mary Fisher, ages thirty-nine and thirty-six, had been married for fourteen years and had two children, twelve-year-old daughter Brittney and ten-year-old son Bobby.

After a back injury forced Robert to quit working as a fireman, the family moved from California to Scottsdale, Arizona, part of metropolitan Phoenix, where he worked as a Surgical Technician at a Mayo Clinic.

The Fisher Family

At 8:42 a.m. on April 10, 2001, firemen were called to a fire at the Fisher home. Responders described it as the most intense they had ever encountered.

The force of the blast was so strong it ripped through the home’s roof, causing it to burst into flames. The frames of neighboring houses as far as half-a-mile distant were also rattled, but firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to the other houses.

The Fisher Home In Flames

Most of the house was destroyed before the inferno and several smaller secondary explosions believed to been caused by paint cans or rifle ammunition were suppressed.

The Remains Of The Fisher Home

In the remnants of their beds, the firemen found the bodies of Mary, Brittney, and Bobby Fisher.

Autopsies revealed a gruesome surprise; instead of perishing in the fire, all three victims had had their throats slashed and each had lacerated traumas to their necks. Mary had also been shot in the head.

Mary, Brittney, And Bobby Are Found Shot To Death

The fire from a gas explosion is usually not as intense as was the Fisher fire, and the investigation uncovered the sinister clues explaining the reason: a disconnected natural gas line, the residue of highly flammable liquid, and a candle holder sitting on a table.

As a former firefighter, Robert Fisher knew what materials to use to cause such a gargantuan blaze but in a delayed state. As a source of ignition, investigators believe he used the candle and a candle holder as a timing device. Once a sufficient amount of gas had built up, the candle triggered the explosion and ignited the fire.

Robert Fisher’s remains were not found in the fire. The fuse caused by the accumulating gas ignited by the candle is believed to have taken approximately ten hours, ample time for him to flee.

Investigators believe Fisher committed the arson in an attempt to cover up the murders, believing his family’s bodies would be burned beyond recognition. He may also have hoped that investigators would believe he too had perished.

The fire, however, had not hid his crimes.

The Former Fireman

Is Not Found

Robert and Mary’s marriage had been rocky for years. She had kicked him out of their home for several says in 1998 after learning of his affair with the massage therapist who was treating him for the back injury he had suffered as a fireman.

In December 2000, five months before the murders, Robert told coworkers of a one-night stand with a prostitute he had met at the massage parlor. Through the encounter, he contacted a urinary tract infection (UTI.)

Around the same time, Mary, already disillusioned with her marriage, confided to friends that she was considering leaving Robert.

An Unraveling Marriage

Neighbors heard Robert and Mary engaged in one of their many loud arguments at 10:00 on the evening of April 9, approximately ten hours before the fire. Investigators theorize it was related to Mary’s learning of the second infidelity and/or her telling of her intentions to leave him.

Mary and her children are believed to have been murdered within the next fifteen minutes.

Heard Arguing

Psychologists say an intense fear of loss is frequent among adults who were traumatized by a divorce in adolescence. For Robert Fisher, the prospect of reliving his troubled teen years all over again is believed the have been too much to bear.

Investigators surmise that several hours before the fire, Fisher slashed the throats of his wife and children because he did not want them, but primarily himself, to go through the trauma of a divorce.

After then setting the course of elements to ignite the fire, Robert Fisher, the former fireman, then fled.

Former Fireman Turned Fugitive

Fisher was seen on video withdrawing $280 from his account at a Scottsdale ATM machine at 10:43 p.m., approximately half-an-hour after he is believed to have murdered his family.

Mary’s Toyota4Runner is the vehicle in the background.

Seen On Video

Shortly After The Murders But Before The Fire Began

On April 20, ten days after the fire, Mary’s SUV was found by a hiker near the town of Young, one-hundred-thirty miles northeast of Scottsdale in the Tonto National Forest. The vehicle was clean and underneath pine trees; the few pine needles found atop indicated it had been left there within twenty-four hours of being discovered.

The Fisher family dog Blue was found beneath the car in an agitated state and clearly hungry. The Oakland Raiders cap Fisher was wearing in the ATM photo was inside the vehicle and human excrement was found near the passenger door.

The car was in the vicinity of a hunting where Fisher had recently gone camping with his friend Herb Greenbeck. He believes Fisher was scouting the area.

A set of footprints leading from the vehicle to the Fort Apache Indian Reservation less than a mile away did not lead to Fisher.

Mary’s Car Is Located

The area terrain where the car was found was surrounded by dozens of caves, some of which formed an underground network. Local spelunkers criticized the police for thoroughly searching only one of the caves, positing that the survivalist Fisher could have hidden there, before either escaping, killing himself, or succumbing to low oxygen levels.

Did Fisher Hide In the Tonto Terrain?

The police, however, believe Fisher left his wife’s SUV in the forest in an effort to divert them. The vehicle was found approximately a-quarter-mile off a heavily trafficked service road near several facilities where he could have used a phone or hitched a ride.

Several days earlier, a couple saw a man resembling Fisher walking along a nearby road, but they did not report the sighting until after the vehicle was found.

A Composite Of The Man Seen In The Area

On June 29, 2002, Robert Fisher was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.

Authorities thought they had nabbed their man one-and-a-half years later, in February 2004.

Fisher Is Elevated To The Top Ten List

An individual described as a “dead ringer” to Fisher was arrested in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In addition to physically resembling Fisher, the man had a missing tooth where Fisher had a gold bicuspid and had, like Fisher, a surgical scar on his back. The man, however, was confirmed not to be the fugitive after his fingerprints, while strikingly similar, were determined not a match.

In October 2014, police raided a house in Commerce City, Colorado, after receiving a tip that Fisher was hiding there. They found two people wanted on drug and weapons charges, but failed to reel in their prize catch of Robert Fisher.

False Sightings

Fisher was featured several times on America’s Most Wanted. Over its original twenty-five season run the show helped in the capture of nearly 1,200 fugitives. AMW host John Walsh called Fisher his personal most wanted fugitive. Upon AMW’s ending in 2012, Walsh said his biggest disappointment was not finding Fisher.

In 2016, Fisher was profiled on Walsh’s new show The Hunt on CNN. The FBI said they received several new tips relating to the fugitive as a result of the broadcast. They have not commented on the nature of the tips but the information, so far, has not led to Fisher’s apprehension.

Not even the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List produced Fisher’s capture. He was removed from the list on November 3, 2021, after nearly two decades.

Robert Fisher may no longer be one of the Ten Most Wanted, but is still very much wanted.

Profiled On AMW

In the twenty-three years since the murder of his family, there has not been a confirmed sighting of Robert Fisher, leading many to now believe he committed suicide in the vast Arizona mountains.

Psychologists generally agree Fisher exhibited suicidal tendencies and he had told friends he had gone into the woods and contemplated suicide after Mary had kicked him out of their home. He was, however, also a loner and an outdoorsman, two attributes useful for someone needing to drop off the radar.

The Still Burning Question

In 2016 the FBI and Scottsdale police released new computer-aged images of Robert Fisher.

The FBI describes the fugitive as “arrogant. He’s cocky. He’s a know-it-all . . . and a loner.”

Age And Altered Likenesses Of Robert Fisher

More Renderings

In recent years, authorities have sought the medical community’s aid in locating Fisher. When last seen, he was often walking with his chest out due to back pain.

If Fisher is still alive, the back problems have likely continued to plague him and he would probably need treatment from a medical doctor and/or chiropractor or massage therapist.

Enlisting The Medical Community

To Find Fisher 

Robert William Fisher is wanted on three counts of murder occurring on April 10, 2001. When last seen he was six feet tall and weighed one-hundred-ninety pounds. He was physically fit but suffered from chronic back pain which often caused him to walk with an exaggerated erect posture with his chest pushed out. He had a gold crown on his upper left first bicuspid.

Fisher was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting. He chewed tobacco heavily, his favorite brand being Copenhagen.

In addition to having been a firefighter, Fisher had also worked as a respiratory therapist, surgical catheter technician, and weed sprayer.

Robert Fisher would today be sixty-two-year-old. He is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous; he is proficient in the use of weapons and may be in possession of several of them, including a high-powered rifle. Authorities warn that if you believe you have seen him, do not approach him.

The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Robert Fisher or his remains. If you believe you have any such information, please call the FBI’s Phoenix Filed Office at (623) 466-1999.

 

Still Fishing For The Killer

 

Robert Fisher spared one member of his family; the pet pooch, Blue.  The two-year-old Queensland Terrier lived another twelve years after being found abandoned under the murdered Mary’s car in the Tonto National Forest.

Blue Fisher

In May 1989, twelve years before murdering his family, Robert Fisher had shot and wounded a stray pit bull with a nine millimeter pistol. He claimed he did so because it attacked his Labrador retriever, Ruger.

Fisher was not cited for the incident.

Fisher Being Questioned

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16221710/mary_jean-fisher#

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16221764/brittney_jean_fisher#

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16221793/robert_william_fisher#

SOURCES:

• ABC News
• America’s Most Wanted
• AZ Central
• FBI
• Fox News
• Phoenix New Times
• The Hunt
• Murderpedia
• Unsolved Mysteries