Robert William Fisher (born April 13, 1961) is an American fugitive wanted for allegedly killing his family and destroying the house in which they lived via an intentional methane gas explosion in Scottsdale, Arizona, on April 10, 2001.
Fisher served in the United States Navy and later worked as a firefighter and in the medical field. He married Mary Cooper in 1987, and they had two children, Bobby and Brittney. The Fishers had a difficult family life. Fisher was described as displaying cruel and controlling conduct towards his family, and on many occasions was reported to have exhibited disturbing and violent behavior. He was unfaithful to his wife at least once. His own parents had divorced when Fisher was 15, and this was believed to have played a role in the difficulties that he later experienced.
On April 10, 2001, the family's home exploded. Inside, Fisher's wife and two children were found dead. Their throats had been slit and Mary had been shot in the back of her head. Fisher, along with Mary's car, was absent. Police named him as their only suspect in the killings. On April 20, Mary's car was discovered in a forest near Young, Arizona. Fisher's ultimate fate is unknown. On June 29, 2002, he was named by the FBI as the 475th fugitive to be placed on its Ten Most Wanted list. On November 3, 2021, Fisher was removed from the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives List. Despite his removal from the Top Ten List, Fisher remains a wanted fugitive.
Early life
Robert William Fisher was born on April 13, 1961, in Brooklyn, New York City. His father was William Fisher, a banker, and his mother was Jan Howell. They had three children: Robert and two daughters. The parents divorced in 1976, when Robert was 15; after this, he and his sisters went to live with their father in Arizona. All three attended Sahuaro High School in Tucson, Arizona. According to friends and relatives, the divorce was turbulent and had long-lasting effects on him. A friend from high school stated Robert was "very bitter" about it. Fisher reportedly spoke of his parents' separation with co-workers at Mayo Clinic Hospital close to the time of the murders, and once confided to an associate that his life would have been different had Jan not left the family.
Adult life
Fisher enlisted in the United States Navy and attempted to become part of the SEALs, but was not successful. Fisher worked as a firefighter in California but was forced to retire after a back injury. He then moved his family to Arizona and embarked on a career in the medical field. He worked as a surgical catheter technician, and respiratory therapist. Fisher worked as a weed sprayer for a time in the late 1980s. A man who employed him recalled that he was a quiet man and suffered from serious back pain but was a good employee. Fisher was a surgical technician at a Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale at the time of the murders.
Fisher married Mary Cooper in 1987. The couple had two children: a daughter Brittney and a son Bobby. He was described as a cruel and distant control freak toward his family. He and his wife fought about sex and money, with Mary taking a job that she told friends was a "security fund." Fisher once turned a garden hose on Mary after he perceived her to have spoken out of turn. Fisher was embarrassed that Bobby did not like to hunt or fish, and once tried to teach him and Brittney how to swim by throwing them off a boat. Hunting partner Sandy Gillespie said, "They were crying, and Brittney was screaming, and he pulled them back in the boat and he said, 'Now there, how's that?'" Fisher would not allow the walls in the house to be painted anything other than white, and only a small number of pictures were allowed on the wall. "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?" Fisher nonetheless tried to hold on to an image as a devoted family man. Fisher's mother Jan told investigators that she had been a "yes-sir" wife who did not stand up to Fisher's father. She added that she saw similar dynamics early in Fisher's marriage to Mary and that she had spoken to her about her concerns. A close friend of his stated that his family bore a striking resemblance to that of his childhood. In 1998, the Fishers went to the senior pastor for marital counseling. Fisher told coworkers about a one-night affair with a prostitute he met in a massage parlor. He fretted that Mary would find out that it was the cause of a urinary tract infection that left him ill for several days in December 2000. Police theorized that the murders took place between 9:30pm and 10:15pm. At 10:43pm, Fisher was spotted on an ATM camera, where he withdrew $280. Mary's Toyota 4Runner was in the background.
Mary Fisher was shot in the back of the head and had her throat cut. Brittney and Bobby's throats were cut, but they did not display signs of having been shot. Before firefighters arrived, neighbors used garden hoses to try to keep the flames under control. The family dog Blue was found outside the car. Professional cavers have visited these caves many times in the years since the murders, but no sign of Fisher has ever emerged. Police followed a set of footprints that led onto the reservation, but uncovered no sign of Fisher. However, all reported sightings of Fisher have been either inconclusive or false.
In April 2016, FBI officials and Scottsdale police displayed new age-enhanced photos of Fisher during a news conference on the fifteenth anniversary of the murders.
On November 3, 2021, Fisher was removed from the FBI Top 10 Most Wanted List. He was replaced by Yulan Adonay Archaga Carias, the alleged leader of MS-13 in Honduras, and the 526th addition to the Top Ten 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," the FBI said. In that case, he may have died after years as a fugitive without his remains being identified.