Robert William Fisher
Encyclopedia
Robert William "Bobby" Fisher, Sr. (born April 13, 1961) is an American
fugitive
wanted for murder of his wife and their two children in Scottsdale, Arizona
on April 10, 2001. He was named by the FBI as the 475th fugitive to be placed
on the list of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
on June 29, 2002.
in Tucson
. Fisher's parents divorce
d in 1976, when he was 15. According to friends and relatives the divorce was extremely difficult, leaving long-lasting effects on Robert, who still talked about the split with co-workers at Mayo Clinic
Hospital. Fisher confided to one associate that his life could have been different if his mother had not left the family.
Fisher has worked as a surgical catheter technician, respiratory therapist and firefighter, and is an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and fisherman. Fisher was described as a cruel and distant control freak
of a father who was awkward with his children, but tried to hold on to an image as a devoted family man. His mother-in-law, Ginny Cooper, told investigators that "Fisher didn't socialize often with family because of a fear of getting too close to people and losing them."
Fisher's mother told investigators that she had been a "yes-sir" wife who didn't stand up to her husband. She added that she saw similar dynamics early in her son's marriage to Mary, and had talked to her daughter-in-law about her concerns. One close friend of Robert Fisher stated that his family resembled Fisher's childhood family.
In 1998, the Fishers went to their church's senior pastor for marital counseling
. Fisher told co-workers about a one-night affair
with a prostitute he met in a massage parlor. He fretted that his wife would find out that it was the cause of a urinary tract infection
that left him ill for several days in December 2000.
Fisher told a hunting mate that he was renewing his commitment to his faith and his marriage because he "could not live without his family", possibly hinting that he would consider suicide over divorce. According to psychologists, an intense fear of loss is not unusual for an individual traumatized by divorce while an adolescent.
In the weeks before her death, Mary Fisher told several friends she was going to divorce her husband. According to a neighbor of the Fisher family, the couple had a loud argument on April 9, at 10:30, approximately ten hours before the house blew up in an explosion.
in the back of the head and her children's throats were slashed from ear to ear in the hours before their home exploded.
Firefighters were immediately alerted due to a natural gas explosion
and fire in a Scottsdale house. The explosion ripped through the ranch-style house in the 2000 block of North 74th Place at 8:42 a.m. The blast appeared to be centered in the living room, and the subsequent fire burned the house into rubble. The initial explosion was strong enough to collapse the front brick wall and rattle the frames of neighboring houses for a half-mile (800 m) in all directions.
Rural/Metro Fire Department firefighters were on the scene within minutes and kept the 20 feet (6 m)-high blaze from spreading to neighboring houses. A series of smaller secondary explosions, believed to be either rifle ammunition or paint cans going up, forced firefighters to keep their distance. One firefighter suffered minor injuries to his leg when he lost his balance and fell near the burning house.
An alleged attempt to conceal evidence of the homicide had been tried by pulling out the gas line from the back of the home's furnace. The accumulating gas was later ignited by an ignition source, possibly the pilot light on the water heater. Burned bodies of a woman and two children were found lying in bed in the remains of the house. The victims were identified as Mary Fisher (aged 38), and her two children, Brittney Fisher (aged 12) and Robert "Bobby" William Fisher, Jr. (aged 10). Investigators have considered that Robert Fisher murdered his family because he felt threatened with his wife's intent to divorce.
officers were instructed in a statewide bulletin
to arrest him.
On April 20, the last physical evidence of Fisher's whereabouts surfaced, when police found his Toyota 4Runner
and dog "Blue" in Tonto National Forest
, a hundred miles north of Scottsdale.
On July 19, 2001, an Arizona Superior Court state arrest warrant was issued at Phoenix
, charging Fisher with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. Subsequently, Fisher was declared a fugitive, and a federal arrest warrant was issued by the United States District Court for the District of Arizona
, charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
On June 29, 2002, he was named by the FBI
as the 475th fugitive to be placed
on the Ten Most Wanted list
. He is also on the America's Most Wanted
"Dirty Dozen" list of that show's most notorious fugitives. The FBI offers a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his capture.
As of April 2003, FBI had received "hundreds and hundreds of leads". However, all sightings of Fisher have been inconclusive or false.
In February 2004, an individual with a striking physical resemblance to Robert Fisher was arrested in Vancouver
, British Columbia
by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
. Fingerprints eventually confirmed that the man was not Fisher. He was held by Canadian police for approximately one week until a family member correctly identified him.
Fisher is considered armed and extremely dangerous and has ties to Florida
and New Mexico
. He has been speculated to have committed suicide
or started a new life under an assumed identity. Fisher has been described as a loner and is thought to live alone in an isolated area.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
fugitive
Fugitive
A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...
wanted for murder of his wife and their two children in Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
on April 10, 2001. He was named by the FBI as the 475th fugitive to be placed
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 2000s
-FBI Headlines in the 2000s:The 2000s started out badly for the FBI's much needed attempts to upgrade technology. First, the Trilogy project went far over the $380 million budget, and behind its three-year schedule. Then, Virtual Case File, or VCF, planned for completion in 2003, was officially...
on the list of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...
on June 29, 2002.
Early life
Fisher was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1961 to William Fisher, a banker, and Jan Howell. Fisher has two sisters and he attended Sahuaro High SchoolSahuaro High School
Sahuaro High School is a public high school located in Tucson, Arizona, part of the Tucson Unified School District. It is located on the far east side of the city at 545 North Camino Seco, just north of Vicksburg Street between Broadway and Speedway Boulevards. The school mascot is the Cougar, and...
in Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
. Fisher's parents divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d in 1976, when he was 15. According to friends and relatives the divorce was extremely difficult, leaving long-lasting effects on Robert, who still talked about the split with co-workers at Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
Hospital. Fisher confided to one associate that his life could have been different if his mother had not left the family.
Family life
Robert Fisher, a Navy veteran, married Mary Cooper in 1987.Fisher has worked as a surgical catheter technician, respiratory therapist and firefighter, and is an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and fisherman. Fisher was described as a cruel and distant control freak
Control freak
In psychology-related slang, control freak is a derogatory term for a person who attempts to dictate how everything around them is done — "a control freak. Scared to let us have differences"...
of a father who was awkward with his children, but tried to hold on to an image as a devoted family man. His mother-in-law, Ginny Cooper, told investigators that "Fisher didn't socialize often with family because of a fear of getting too close to people and losing them."
Fisher's mother told investigators that she had been a "yes-sir" wife who didn't stand up to her husband. She added that she saw similar dynamics early in her son's marriage to Mary, and had talked to her daughter-in-law about her concerns. One close friend of Robert Fisher stated that his family resembled Fisher's childhood family.
Marital troubles
Fisher had been an active member of the Scottsdale Baptist Church's men's ministry, but unlike Mary, he had begun to withdraw from his church's activities a few months prior to the murders.In 1998, the Fishers went to their church's senior pastor for marital counseling
Relationship counseling
Relationship counseling is the process of counseling the parties of a relationship in an effort to recognize and to better manage or reconcile troublesome differences and repeating patterns of distress...
. Fisher told co-workers about a one-night affair
Infidelity
In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...
with a prostitute he met in a massage parlor. He fretted that his wife would find out that it was the cause of a urinary tract infection
Urinary tract infection
A urinary tract infection is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract. Symptoms include frequent feeling and/or need to urinate, pain during urination, and cloudy urine. The main causal agent is Escherichia coli...
that left him ill for several days in December 2000.
Fisher told a hunting mate that he was renewing his commitment to his faith and his marriage because he "could not live without his family", possibly hinting that he would consider suicide over divorce. According to psychologists, an intense fear of loss is not unusual for an individual traumatized by divorce while an adolescent.
In the weeks before her death, Mary Fisher told several friends she was going to divorce her husband. According to a neighbor of the Fisher family, the couple had a loud argument on April 9, at 10:30, approximately ten hours before the house blew up in an explosion.
Triple murder and arson
On the morning of April 10, 2001, Mary Fisher was shotBallistic trauma
The term ballistic trauma refers to a form of physical trauma sustained from the discharge of arms or munitions. The most common forms of ballistic trauma stem from firearms used in armed conflicts, civilian sporting and recreational pursuits, and criminal activity.-Destructive effects:The degree...
in the back of the head and her children's throats were slashed from ear to ear in the hours before their home exploded.
Firefighters were immediately alerted due to a natural gas explosion
Gas explosion
A gas explosion is an explosion resulting from a gas leak in the presence of an ignition source. The principal explosive gases are natural gas, methane, propane and butane, because they are widely used for heating purposes. However, many other gases like hydrogen, are combustible and have caused...
and fire in a Scottsdale house. The explosion ripped through the ranch-style house in the 2000 block of North 74th Place at 8:42 a.m. The blast appeared to be centered in the living room, and the subsequent fire burned the house into rubble. The initial explosion was strong enough to collapse the front brick wall and rattle the frames of neighboring houses for a half-mile (800 m) in all directions.
Rural/Metro Fire Department firefighters were on the scene within minutes and kept the 20 feet (6 m)-high blaze from spreading to neighboring houses. A series of smaller secondary explosions, believed to be either rifle ammunition or paint cans going up, forced firefighters to keep their distance. One firefighter suffered minor injuries to his leg when he lost his balance and fell near the burning house.
An alleged attempt to conceal evidence of the homicide had been tried by pulling out the gas line from the back of the home's furnace. The accumulating gas was later ignited by an ignition source, possibly the pilot light on the water heater. Burned bodies of a woman and two children were found lying in bed in the remains of the house. The victims were identified as Mary Fisher (aged 38), and her two children, Brittney Fisher (aged 12) and Robert "Bobby" William Fisher, Jr. (aged 10). Investigators have considered that Robert Fisher murdered his family because he felt threatened with his wife's intent to divorce.
Investigation
On April 14, Robert William Fisher, who disappeared at the time of murders, was named as an official (and to date only) suspect of the case on April 14, 2001 when Arizona Department of Public SafetyArizona Department of Public Safety
Arizona Department of Public Safety is a law enforcement agency with its usual focus being protection of all Arizona highways. The current Director is Robert C. Halliday, a previously retired DPS commander, who began his 5-year term in February 2010...
officers were instructed in a statewide bulletin
Bulletin
Bulletin can refer to:Periodicals * The Bulletin, a now defunct Australian magazine* The Bulletin , an alternative weekly published in Montgomery County, Texas, United States...
to arrest him.
On April 20, the last physical evidence of Fisher's whereabouts surfaced, when police found his Toyota 4Runner
Toyota 4Runner
The Toyota 4Runner is a mid-size SUV manufactured by Toyota and sold throughout the world from 1984 to the present. In Japan it was known as the Toyota Hilux Surf...
and dog "Blue" in Tonto National Forest
Tonto National Forest
The Tonto National Forest, encompassing 2,873,200 acres , is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and is the fifth largest national forest in the United States. The Tonto National Forest has diverse scenery, with elevations ranging from 1,400 feet in the Sonoran Desert to 7,400 feet...
, a hundred miles north of Scottsdale.
On July 19, 2001, an Arizona Superior Court state arrest warrant was issued at Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, charging Fisher with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. Subsequently, Fisher was declared a fugitive, and a federal arrest warrant was issued by the United States District Court for the District of Arizona
United States District Court for the District of Arizona
The United States District Court for the District of Arizona is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Arizona. Court is held in the cities of Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, Yuma, and Prescott. The district was created on June 20, 1910, by 36 Stat. 557...
, charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
On June 29, 2002, he was named by the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
as the 475th fugitive to be placed
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 2000s
-FBI Headlines in the 2000s:The 2000s started out badly for the FBI's much needed attempts to upgrade technology. First, the Trilogy project went far over the $380 million budget, and behind its three-year schedule. Then, Virtual Case File, or VCF, planned for completion in 2003, was officially...
on the Ten Most Wanted list
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...
. He is also on the America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
"Dirty Dozen" list of that show's most notorious fugitives. The FBI offers a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his capture.
As of April 2003, FBI had received "hundreds and hundreds of leads". However, all sightings of Fisher have been inconclusive or false.
In February 2004, an individual with a striking physical resemblance to Robert Fisher was arrested in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
. Fingerprints eventually confirmed that the man was not Fisher. He was held by Canadian police for approximately one week until a family member correctly identified him.
Fisher is considered armed and extremely dangerous and has ties to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. He has been speculated to have committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
or started a new life under an assumed identity. Fisher has been described as a loner and is thought to live alone in an isolated area.