April 10th 2001: Robert Fisher, dead or alive?

For 20 years Robert Fisher has been a name on the FBI's most wanted list since he went missing on this day 20 years ago. At 8.45 am on April 10th 2001, 911 operators began receiving calls about a house fire in Scottsdale, Arizona. Callers informed the operators to the fact that there had also been an explosion, an explosion large enough that it was felt from over a mile away and that the fire was of an enormous size. The home was that of The Fisher family, Robert and his wife Mary who lived with their daughter Brittney (12) and son Bobby (10). Rescue services rushed to the scene and it was evident to them from the moment they arrived that it was a fast burning fire, almost always a sign of arson and quite unlike the usual slow burns that would be typical of a house fire. Fire officers could hear repetitive bangs and popping noises as they approached. Warned of the earlier explosion, they had to edge on the side of caution and allow the fire to engulf the home as it was too unsafe to enter the building. The smell of burning flesh filled the air but all they could do was contain the fire enough to stop it from spreading to other homes on the road. 

Robert Fisher had moved to Arizona with his father and two sisters after his parents divorce, Robert was just starting high school at the time. The divorce had a long lasting effect on Robert and as a devout member of the local Baptist Church he took the sacrament of marriage very seriously, believing that divorce was not an option. So when he married Mary in 1987, the Robert was determined to make sure that the marriage was successful., he claimed he would never make his children go through what he went through as the child of divorce. Robert joined the US Navy and attempted to join the SEALs but his application was unsuccessful. He went on to work as a fire fighter instead. He injured his back while at work and after this he received surgery on his back and trained as a surgical technician, where he worked at The Mayo Clinic. The Fishers were by all accounts a picture perfect family. Their two children were performing well academically, both Robert and Mary were loving parents and the family were well liked within their community. 

However behind closed doors hid the truth about the rocky marriage of The Fisher family. Mary and Robert had been seeing Pastor Gregg Cantelmo from their church for marriage counseling in order to try and mend their marriage. While Mary was away at a women's retreat in December 2000, Robert had gone to a massage parlour and contracted an infection when he slept with a prostitute. Robert who had in the months prior began to withdraw from their church had decided to renew his faith in an effort to save his marriage, even claiming that he could not live without his family. During their separation, which only last a few days, Robert reported to friends that he went out into the woods and contemplated suicide. Mary, who decided not to act in haste, allowed him back into the home and they would try their best to work it out. 

Jan Fisher, Robert's mother, has said that during her own marriage she was the type of wife who did not stand up for herself and was a "yes-sir" kind of wife. She also states that from the early stages of Robert and Mary's marriage, she feared the their marriage was doomed to be the same as her own and end in divorce. Mary's mother has claimed that Robert did not socialise much and he didn't like getting too close to people. Others also claimed that Fisher was controlling, he would argue with Mary over sex and money allegedly. Robert would control the family finances and even continued working as a fire fighter, delaying the surgery on his back until the family had enough money to survive and pay off debts. Friends of Mary's say Robert was not happy about the fact she continued to work as a mother and was displeased by the fact she would refer to her own money as a safety net. Hunting partners of Fisher claim that he could be aggressive. On one occasion during a fishing trip, Robert swam across a lake with a knife held between his teeth in an attempt to threaten another fisher across the lake and another story they told of Robert was of a time he killed an elk and used the blood of the elk to paint his face. 

On the night before the fire The Fishers had an argument at around 10 pm. According to neighbours it was not unusual to hear the couple arguing although they also claim it was almost always Mary who done most of the screaming. They claim being able to hear her screaming to Robert that he was a waster and she could do better, even threatening divorce. 

Shortly after the row between Mary and Robert on the 9th of April Robert left the family home and was captured on CCTV withdrawing $280 from an ATM at 10:42 pm.  In 2001, many ATM facilities had a maximum withdraw amount set, $280 was the maximum amount that Robert could withdraw in one go. Mary's truck can be seen over his shoulder in the photo.

On the morning of April 10th as fire fighters stood in the rubble that was the Fisher home they assumed that all the members of the family had perished in the fire. They waited until it was safe to extract the charred remains of the family. A woman and two children were found in the smouldering remains of the home. Police were on scene and were already confident that a full investigation would need to be carried out on the scene due to the nature of the fire. There was no sign of Robert Fisher or the family dog Blue and Mary's Toyota 4Runner truck was also missing. 

Police first assumed that Robert Fisher must be in work, they went to The Mayo Clinic to inform him of the tragedy, Robert was not in work. They conducted a search looking for Robert and places he might be but had no luck in finding him. Police at this stage knew that the fire were suspicious but in an effort to keep things under control, they insisted that he was not a suspect and it was all routine. When the bodies of The Fisher family were examined it became more apparent that they were dealing with a homicide investigation. Mary Fisher had been shot in the back of the head execution style, Brittney and Bobby both had their throats slit from under their ears so deeply, they were almost decapitated. The popping noises that fire fighters heard on the scene were attributed to being secondary explosions from the large amount of ammunition that Robert kept in the home. The first main explosion was caused by a broken gas pipe where the leaked gas finally combusted due to a candle burning The bedrooms were doused in gasoline to ensure the fire took hold of the house quickly. Upon further examination of the fire, police were a little alarmed to find that Robert had no clothes in the house, they appeared to have been gone before the fire, in their mind, Robert was now a suspect in a triple homicide. 

The press did get wind of the fact that the police were treating the investigation as a homicide and once they began reporting on it, police felt that Robert would not return, They had hoped that if he was led to believe that police were treating the situation as an accident, Robert may return and act as if he knew nothing of the death of his family. Police began examining all the guns that were recovered from the home and would establish that none of the guns matched the bullet that was in Mary's skull, Robert must have taken it with him. 

On April 20th, 10 days after the murders, Mary's truck was found in Tonto Park, a densely wooded area. The car had been wiped clean with the exception of one fingerprint that was found on a coffee cup in between the two front seats. Blue the family dog was also found beside the car, alive, untied and unharmed. Sniffer dogs would be unable to pick up a scent and the trail of Robert Fisher went cold. 

Fisher's face was all over local news and sightings began to come pouring in. One sighting was of a man who looked like Fisher at a local diner with a woman, the woman went into the bathroom and the man kept his head down as if trying to stay undetected. A man matching his description was located in Canada, he matched Robert right down to his missing tooth and the scar on his back but unfortunately, his fingerprints did not match. Other sightings were based in South America where a couple snapped a picture of a man who looked like Robert in the background of one of their photos, at which point they were approached by the man who questioned why they were trying to photograph him before telling them "I've killed before and I'll kill again."

The FBI named Fisher as their most wanted fugitive and in the 20 years since his disappearance have released aged photos of what Fisher may look like today. They still offer a $100,000 reward for information leading to his capture. 

Theories and theories float around about Robert Fisher, did he have an accomplice? Was it a premeditated attack? Was he having an affair? Is he dead or alive? 

My thoughts lie as follows: 

• Robert Fisher did not plan the murder of his family. He managed the families finances and there has been no evidence of missing money that he might have stashed away for such a time when he was on the run. I think a premeditated attack would have involved him skimming money every week or month into a hidden account and there's no financial evidence of this taking place. 
• He killed Mary after she threatened to divorce him. The affair that Robert had was only 4 months before the murders and the relationship was clearly still quite volatile in the aftermath of the betrayal. However, I do feel that Mary maybe did not give herself enough time to heal before taking Robert back into the family home and there was an underlying tension between the two. Her threatening divorce was a way of letting Robert know that she was still hurting. 
• Robert killed his two children when he realised that he had killed their mother and his memories of how difficult he found his parents divorce set a reality of what it may be like to grow up with a parent who killed the other parent and it finally dawned that his actions were worse than divorce.  
• He packed his clothes and withdrew money so I do not think he intended on committing suicide. 
• Robert had previously cheated on his wife but from reading, it was a one night stand and does not appear to have developed into a relationship. He was still dealing with the fallout from sleeping with the prostitute so, I do wonder, had he not of contracted an infection, would he have told his wife? Also imagining that this was his first time to cheat, would it have been without protection? Do mean just walk into a massage parlour and sleep with a prostitute as a one time thing without using a condom? I feel like there's more going on with Robert's extramarital affairs.  
• I do not think he survived in the wilderness for weeks or months. No matter how competent an outdoors man he is, I feel that if you're going to kill your family and go on the run, it would not be to live off hunting and gathering. 

Why did he set the fire? 

He worked as a fire man and as an intelligent man it's safe to assume that he was aware the bullet in Mary would not be destroyed in the flames. 

Are we all wrong and was he framed as other people say? 

Is there another explanation?