(typing and scribbling)
(ambient chord)
(phone ringing)
- [Voiceover] 911 emergency.
- [Voiceover] 74th
Street and Oak,
there's just an explosion
off of Holly and a fire.
- [Voiceover] And a fire.
- [Voiceover] You bet. Big fire.
- [Voiceover] Can you see it?
- [Voiceover] Big fire.
You bet I can see it.
Some house just exploded
and ignited on fire.
- [Voiceover] Okay.
Big fire explosion.
Okay, I'm gonna go ahead
and send the paramedics.
If you see anything else,
give me a call, okay?
- [Voiceover] You bet. Bye.
- [Voiceover] Thank you.
Bye-bye.
(phone ringing)
- [Voiceover] Fire
and big explosion.
- [Voiceover] Hello, Judy.
- [Voiceover] Hi, I got a
fire and a big explosion.
- [Voiceover] What's
the, uh, location?
- [Voiceover] There's still
a general area of 7400 Oak,
74th Street and Oak.
- [Voiceover] 74th and Oak.
Okay.
Alright, we're on the way.
- [Voiceover] 911 emergency.
- [Voiceover] Yes,
I just heard like
an explosion or something.
- [Voiceover] Okay,
around 74th and Oak?
- [Voiceover] Yes.
- [Voiceover] Okay, we do
have the Fire Department--
- [Voiceover] 2240, right
behind 2240 North 74th Way.
- [Voiceover] Okay,
what's going on there?
- [Voiceover] It's a big fire.
It's a really big fire.
It just like blew up.
- [Voiceover] Okay,
what's on fire?
- [Voiceover] The whole house.
- [Voiceover] The whole house?
- [Voiceover] The whole house
is burning up.
(dial tone ringing)
- [Voiceover] Hello?
- [Voiceover] Hi,
I'm calling about the
fire on 74th--
- [Voiceover] Yes!
Is somebody on the way?
- [Voiceover] Okay, we have
the whole world on the way.
I'm just calling to make
sure you guys are okay.
- [Voiceover] Make sure
they come in on Holly.
They get lost every damn
time there's a fire.
They've gotta come in on Holly.
- [Voiceover] Okay, thank you.
- [Voiceover] Is this
around 74th and Oak,
where there's a fire?
- [Voiceover] Yes it is.
There are people in there
in this whole house exploding.
- [Voiceover] Okay, we do have
police and fire on the way.
Were there people
inside the house?
- [Voiceover] Yes there are.
They're probably dead.
And the guy's house next door's
gonna catch on fire, too.
- [Voiceover] Okay, I'm
telling the officers right now
that people are
inside the house.
Do you know how
many people, sir?
- [Voiceover] I don't
know how many people.
(siren blaring)
- I remember the day
that it happened.
8:45 in the morning,
April 10th, 2001
there was an explosion
that was heard for miles.
And then a fire followed.
(dark ambient music)
- If you had a TV, and
you were in the habit of
watching local news
in the morning,
it was one of those
kind of things that
everybody sat back
and watched together.
Whole community
watched this live on TV
that terrible overcast morning.
- [Voiceover] The flames
just jumped out of the home
just before nine
o'clock this morning.
Here's what it looked
like from NewsHawk Five.
Soon after it started,
the house burned to
the ground in minutes.
Firefighters say
they heard explosions
even after they got here.
Police tell us they
heard popping sounds
on their way here or when
they got to the scene.
And there may have
been explosives
and ammunition inside the home.
But they can't confirm that
or how the fire started.
- We just heard this
tremendous explosion.
And the cat, well,
the cats went up about
five feet in the air.
It just shook the whole house.
And I ran out the front.
And I friend ran out the back.
And I saw smoke coming up.
- It was defensive immediately.
I mean, we got on scene and,
there was no, you could not
have gone into the house
to fight the fire
because it was the whole,
except for the garage
area, the whole other part
was just fully
engulfed in flames.
- The first firefighter
that pulled up on the scene,
he said he knew right away
there were people inside.
He said that smell, the
smell of burning bodies,
you don't quickly forget that.
- Homes burn.
They don't just blow up.
And this thing was so fully
engulfed from the get-go.
As the firefighters and
the emergency responders
were just getting into
the smoldering ash,
there just seemed to be
sort of a palpable sense
that there was gonna
be more to this story,
and of course, there was.
- Police found the bodies
of a woman and two children
in a Scottsdale home this
morning after a fire.
It happened in South
Scottsdale near
Scottsdale Road and McDowell.
John Brodsky has spent
the day at the scene,
and John, do investigators
have any idea
what specifically happened here?
- Cary, they really don't have
too many answers this evening.
They do know that
there are three people.
There were three
people in the home.
The found them
dead this morning.
And they're trying
to find the husband,
who also lived in the home.
Robert and Mary Fisher
are the parents.
12-year-old Brittany and
10-year-old Bobby, the kids.
Robert and one of
the family's vehicles
are still missing.
Loved ones and police still
have a lot of questions
after this fire.
They don't know how it started.
They don't know where
Robert Fisher is,
or if the father even had
any idea what happened.
They tell us that he
works at Mayo Hospital.
Police say he left there
about five o'clock last night.
(camera clicking)
(dark eerie music)
- What I remember
most is Johnny and I
walking to the backyard
of the Fisher residence.
(dark eerie music)
And going, and the
walls were blown out,
so we were able to see over
the walls of each bedroom
and seeing the
children lying in bed.
(camera clicking)
And Mary, of course, we
didn't know it was Mary
at that time.
(dark eerie music)
Realizing that we've
got a problem here.
And Johnny and I just kind
of looked at each other
and says, "We've
got a triple here."
(dark eerie music)
In an incident like that,
somebody's gonna make a move.
If a house explodes,
somebody's gonna wake up,
somebody might step and maybe be
a couple of feet
away from the bed.
But these people look like
they were comfortable in bed.
If it was a slow burning fire
where smoke might've
knocked them out,
but this wasn't a
slow burning fire.
- We were over it in our
helicopter that morning.
And it wasn't just
a normal fire.
It was a conflagration.
The whole house was going up.
And of course later we find out
that there were
accelerants used.
(camera clicks)
(dark eerie music)
(camera clicks)
(camera clicks)
- The accelerants were used
down the hallway.
A candle was deliberately put
in the middle of the hallway
to ignite the gas that
had been broken off
from the furnace.
- [Voiceover] Flames
destroyed the home
quickly yesterday morning.
Robert Fisher and
the family's SUV
were nowhere to be found.
Their pastor says he was
at church Monday night
for a hunting safety course.
- We have absolutely
no reason to believe
that there was any issues
taking place in that family.
They have been solid,
pillar members of
our church for years.
- [Voiceover] On the ground,
ATF agents carrying guns
out of the home
of man police say
was an avid hunter.
They're also looking through
evidence at the fire scene.
Husband and father Robert Fisher
has been missing
for more than a day.
- I will say that we have done
everything that we
possibly can at this point.
We have detectives still out.
They've been out all night,
following up leads to where
they believe he might be.
(dark eerie music)
- We know that they
were involved in a fight
at around 10pm that night.
At 10:42, Robert Fisher
is seen taking $280
out of an ATM.
Directly south of his house,
less than half a mile
a way, the nearest ATM.
And he's never seen again.
- Once again, I
wanna stress that
he's not a suspect
at this point,
but he's certainly a
vital piece to this puzzle
and what happened here.
- In a case like that,
most times your
information is gonna be,
we just wanna find Robert,
make sure he's okay.
And that's why I went the Mayo
where he supposedly worked.
And then of course he
never showed up for work.
So we realized that
he's outstanding.
Of course the
information went out
that he was outstanding.
- [Voiceover] Robert
Fisher, he is six-feet tall
and weighs 190 pounds,
and is 40 years old.
Investigators believed
Fisher was driving a
silver 2000 Toyota 4-Runner.
And what John and
I were hoping on
is that no information
about the murders
would go out.
What we were hoping for is that
he would come back and say,
"Oh my God, I saw
this on the news.
"What happened to my family?"
But information leaked
out about the murders.
Details about the murders.
- Our other top story
tonight within the past hour.
Police announced they are now
investing a fire in Scottsdale
as a triple homicide.
- This is a homicide.
And we have not labeled
a suspect at this point.
Mr. Fisher is still outstanding.
And as we have said
from the beginning,
he is a very vital part
of this investigation.
But we have not labeled
him as a suspect
nor have we requested an
arrest warrant be issued
for his arrest.
- Somebody there working.
It could've been anybody.
It wasn't our unit.
But we had solid guys
working that case.
(disturbing music)
- [Voiceover] Robert
Fisher has been missing
since the family's home
was rocked by an explosion
early Tuesday morning.
Police say Mary,
Brittany and Bobby Fisher
were all murdered.
- Hope that finally we
can get some answers
on why this could happen
to a family like that.
- [Voiceover] By all accounts,
family life was fine.
The Fisher's pastor
counseled the couple.
But he said he saw no red flags.
- We've talked about
how to be a good parent.
We've talked about how
to be a good spouse,
a good husband.
- Pastor Gregg Contelmo
now tries to help
the children of his church cope.
It's been hardest on them.
- Me and Brock really,
really miss Bobby.
- [Voiceover]
11-year-old Tyler Adair
spent the night at the
Fisher home last weekend.
- We'll be buds forever.
Bobby was taking a
hunter safety class.
And his dad was showing
off Bobby's talents to me
about his hunters,
and he was asking Bobby
all these questions like,
"What do you call the
front of an arrow?"
- [Voiceover] As the memorial
for the family grows,
so does speculation
as to what happened.
Friends say they don't
want to think the worst,
but as time goes on,
it gets harder not to.
- I can still remember
being at the scene and I saw
Mary Fisher's elderly father
walking up on his two canes.
Keeping his heart,
his good heart open to
his missing son-in-law.
- There's one thing that
came across very clearly,
was Brittany's
fantastic, strong faith.
And I've known
that all the time.
I've just known it
since she accepted Jesus
as her personal Savior.
She was such a
testimony for her Lord.
And she got that from
her mommy and her daddy.
Because she watched them live.
And Brittany was invited
and was inducted into
the National Junior
Honor Society
here at Supai on Monday night.
And her mother had another
meeting at church with Bobby.
And so Robert, my son-in-law,
who I love deeply,
was with her, nobody's
ever reported that.
He was here with her.
And I just, can I right
now just say this?
Robert, we love you,
wherever you are, Robert.
Please, we love you.
Just come home.
Please, Robert.
And I know what's going on.
We don't know anything for sure.
But we'd like to hear from you.
Please, Robert.
- The man missing after
his family's bodies
were found at a house
is now being called a
suspect in their deaths.
- Police agencies from
the around the state
have been notified
that Robert Fisher
is a murder suspect.
And they have been told
that if he is found,
to arrest him on sight.
- 'Cause that was
out of our control.
Somehow some information
got out to the media,
and it was reported that
he was a murder suspect.
Earlier than we were
wanting to do so.
He could've came back
in a couple of days.
And then said, "Hey, what
the hell happened here?
"I was up north camping."
- [Voiceover] TV
Five News learned how
the Fisher family died.
Wife Mary was shot in the head.
13-year-old Brittany
and 10-year-old Bobby
had their throats slashed.
Robert Fisher is
still missing tonight.
There are friends and relatives
who think he's been
kidnapped or framed.
They said he was a model citizen
and a faithful Christian
who was a very
active in his church.
But Doug Dirren of
the Scottsdale Police
Department says
all the evidence
points to Robert Fisher
as a suspect.
None of it suggests that
anyone else was involved.
(camera clicks)
- Everything points to
one man and one man only.
And that's Robert Fisher.
- It was a crime committed
in the dark of night,
but the aftermath
was so very public.
- This was a father
that shot his wife
in the back of the head,
and slit the throat
of his 10-year-old son
and 12-year-old daughter.
It's unimaginable
to most people.
- I believe the kids
went first and then Mary.
Mary was stronger, and she
would've put up a fight.
So he went and got
the kids first,
and this way, when
he goes with Mary,
if there's a struggle, he's
not gonna wake the kids.
(dark eerie music)
- [Voiceover] The presence
of accelerants in the home
points to a clear
attempt to burn evidence.
Theoretically, something
like gasoline was used
to make sure the house caught
fire and burned quickly.
Then a natural gas
line was uncoupled
to trigger an explosion.
- And he knew exactly
what he was gonna get.
And he tried to eliminate
as much of that crime scene
as he could.
(dark eerie music)
- He's biding time.
More time to leave the city.
To get rid of evidence,
yeah, of course he is.
He doesn't want to see
how they were murdered,
unfortunately put a
bullet in Mary's brain.
That's not gonna go anywhere.
- Now police believe Robert
Fisher is on the run tonight
and that he may be dangerous.
When they went through the
charred remains of the home,
they found a number of weapons.
But one they didn't
find was a .357 Magnum,
the gun that police said
Robert Fisher carried with him
at all times.
So they're considering
him armed and dangerous.
- That bullet that they found
in the back of her head,
was that linked to
any of the weapons
in the house that was--
- No, no.
Nope, none of the weapons
that we found in the house
were linked to that bullet.
It's a specific
caliber of bullet.
So, more than likely
took it with him.
- Literally, the whole
valley was watching.
There was that sort
of shared initial
introduction to this story,
that made sort of
everybody involved.
- There was a huge public
interest in this case.
Very rarely is there such
an appetite for a story
from the public that continues
year after year after year.
But this was one of them.
- It's one of the great
unanswered stories
in Arizona history.
What happened to that family?
Why did he do it?
Where is he?
We just don't know.
(dark ambient music)
(lullaby music)
- [Voiceover] Yeah,
Bobby, new toy, huh?
Oh, he's smiling.
Oh, it's so fun.
(lullaby music)
Bobby.
Bobby, where's your new toy?
- [Voiceover] It's there.
It's there.
There, Mom.
- [Voiceover] Mm.
(haunting lullaby music)
Look up at your dad.
There.
(eerie lullaby music)
(dark eerie music)
- [Voiceover] This is
by far the worst crime
that's every occurred
in Scottsdale.
(dark electronic music)
- Scottsdale is the
Beverly Hills of Phoenix.
A very calm community,
quiet community,
called many times
one of the safest
and most desirable
cities to live in.
(pulsating ambient music)
Crimes like this you don't
see happen here at all.
(pulsating ambient music)
This was an incident
that absolutely shocked
the community,
shocked Scottsdale.
(dark ambient music)
- Mary was our
friend and coworker.
Her children were our
children's friends.
We consider ourselves to
have been double blessed,
to have called her friend
and had the benefit of her
contributions at work.
- Mary was a good friend of mine
before Robert and Mary got
married when they were dating.
(dark ambient music)
Robert was in California, and
Mary was still in Arizona,
so I spent a lot
of time with her.
And I was pregnant with our
first child at that point
so she'd take me to
doctor's appointments
and things like that,
and she was a fun person.
When she had kids
she was very much
involved with her children.
She loved her kids,
and that became her number
one priority in life.
- From the interviews
and things that I did,
Mary was a very dedicated wife.
- A very loving person.
Very dedicated to the church.
And wanted her children to
have that same upbringing.
(eerie ambient music)
Happy birthday dear Brittany
Happy birthday to you
- Brittany, she was an
awesome little girl.
(dark ambient music)
She really loved the Lord,
and she wasn't afraid
to tell people about
her relationship with Christ.
- Back to that bat today.
I'm going to SeaWorld
tomorrow, I'm going.
(dark ambient music)
- My youngest son, Brock,
and Bobby were good buddies.
And Brock invited Bobby
to come home with us
one Sunday afternoon
a couple of weeks ago.
And they played
in the afternoon,
and it came time to
get them back to church
for bell choir.
And I said, well,
boys, we're in luck,
we've got the convertible.
And Bobby was just so
excited, and he said,
"We've got to ride
with the top down."
And I said, are you guys sure?
As we're getting on
the freeway, I said,
are you sure, it's
gonna be really windy.
"Go, go, go, it's okay."
And I'm not kidding, the
whole way down the 101
until we exited on Thomas
those two had their
hands up in the air,
they were waving at people,
and they laughed the whole way.
- The last time we saw Bobby,
before they had
visited us in Cheyenne,
when we were living in Cheyenne,
and he tried to, him and his dad
tried to take one of our cats
and steal it to take
it home with them.
- Hey!
(baby yelping)
- [Robert's Sister] He
was a cute little kid.
(kids chattering)
- [Voiceover] Can't do it
without the tractor, Britt.
There you go.
Little wheelbarrow.
- [Voiceover] There's
no wheelbarrow.
(baby chatters)
Oh He holds the future
And life is worth livin'
Lives, and then one day
- You've heard a lot of things.
And you wanna say, "Well,
how's that Scottsdale Baptist
Church gonna get
along without them?
But you see, God has a plan.
He has a timing for our lives.
And you've heard today
that this was not
something that was yanked
from Mary and
Brittany and Bobby.
God has a plan.
We don't know what it is.
But I know some day
we're going to know.
(dark ambient music)
You wanna know about my Robert?
He was the greatest dad.
He was the greatest husband.
I miss him.
I miss him terribly.
I miss him almost as much
as I miss my daughter,
because they were one.
Robert was what I call the
good old-fashioned Dad.
There was structure.
He never beat his kid,
he never touched his
kids in that way.
And I can only tell
you that Robert
loved his kids, he loved
his Mary and he loved us.
And I'm glad I'm not her
bawling my eyes out for ya.
- He was kind of hoodwinked with
who Robert was, he's
marrying his daughter
and grandchildren
thinking, you know,
he's the perfect family man.
(dark ambient music)
- You have to listen
to your mommy,
number one, okay?
- Okay.
- Whatever she says.
Number two, gotta
brush your teeth, okay?
- Okay.
- Okay?
Number three, you gotta
take your vitamins, okay?
Okay, what else.
Number four, you gotta
say your prayers, okay?
(Brittany mumbles)
Okay.
- He couldn't believe
what occurred.
(dark ambient music)
But as time went on, he realized
that Robert did do this.
(eerie ambient music)
- A total, total
shock to the family
that this could even
possibly happen to them.
He wanted answers as well.
And unfortunately he passed away
before we could get 'em for him.
(eerie ambient music)
- At first glance, Robert
Fisher was a good husband,
an adoring father,
a church-going man,
a wonderful employee,
but when you look
a little bit further,
you see that none
of that is true.
- My impression of
the Fisher marriage
was something that
was good in public
and probably average
or bad in private.
(pulsating ambient music)
I think that when they went out,
they went out, they
put a good face on.
Everyone until the end said that
they had a happy marriage.
That everything seemed
to be going right.
(pulsating ambient music)
- He moved back in
the mid to late '80s
next door to my parents' house.
He definitely was a
different sort of man.
(pulsating eerie music)
He was a nurse,
he worked for the Mayo
Clinic in Scottsdale.
He was obviously a smart man,
and he knew what he was doing.
But he wasn't a quick man.
Talking to him was like
talking to a person
who was analyzing every
word that you said,
and thinking long
and hard about it.
He was the type of guy you
could see his gears working.
- He was a fireman in
California for a while.
He was in the Navy.
He was a cardiac technician,
a respiratory technician.
That was his, kind of where he
began developing
his career after.
He couldn't be a fireman
anymore from his injuries.
(camera clicks)
- He needed back surgery,
because he had injured
himself while working as a
firefighter in San Diego.
And he took years to plan
for that back surgery.
He was worried that
after the back surgery
he might to be able to work.
And so he got his
financial affairs in order,
he paid off one of their cars,
he planned on paying
off their house.
(camera clicks)
- He was a very
controlling person.
He was a very difficult
person to get along with.
To the point where his
wife was having difficulty
getting along with him.
Anything that was put on
the walls in the house
had to have his okay.
She couldn't decorate the house.
It was okay to put a deer head
up on the wall that he shot,
but not kid's
artwork or whatever.
- What you taking pictures of?
Turn that thing off.
You.
- [Voiceover] This is to show
our boy's two months old.
- So what? Leave him alone.
- [Voiceover] It's also
his first Thanksgiving.
- "Big deal," he says.
- [Voiceover] Robert.
- Let's get on with the food.
- [Voiceover] Will it
work with the window open?
Hey, Bobby.
- Oh!
- [Voiceover] That hurt him?
- Say hi. Hi, people.
Hi, people.
(mumbling)
Brittany's looking sharp today.
- [Voiceover] I see.
- Show 'em your dress.
Turn around.
Turn around again.
Smile.
Smile pretty.
Okay, now scream.
(fake screams)
(laughs)
- Aah! Stop!
- See, I know you could scream.
- [Voiceover] There's
Porcupine Dad.
(baby yelps)
- Okay, kill the camera.
- [Voiceover] Okay,
just a minute.
Can you say bye, Brittany?
- Bye!
- [Voiceover] Now
to find the button.
Don't, there's some
medicine on it.
(ominous music)
- One of the the things
that I was tasked with
during the investigation is to
go out and interview
anybody who had every known
or had contact
with Robert Fisher.
One of the troubling
things that I realized
right away from some of the
initial interviews we did
is he truly enjoyed hunting
but not as a sportsman.
He took it to the
next level to where
he seemed to enjoy killing.
- Friends started disassociating
themselves with him.
They wouldn't go
hunting with him anymore
because it got unsafe.
- There were a couple
of stories that were
really interesting.
They went hunting.
And they got an elk,
and they were gutting it.
And the guy turns
around and looks,
and Robert's smearing
the blood all over him.
- [Bobby] (mumbles) Yay!
(Brittany chanting)
- [Robert] Better dead than red.
Better dead than red.
(Bobby yelling)
Let's go get the commies.
(Brittany chattering)
- Okay, at ease.
At ease, recruits.
Cut. Cut!
(explosion booms)
- He seems like an angry guy
who is sort of controls
with tough guy antics,
even towards his
children, towards,
I guess it's his wife
running that camera.
And he'd tell 'em to cut,
then points something at her
like it's a gun.
It's again, easy to
armchair quarterback
something like that
and look at him,
imply sinister motives.
But there seems to
be sort of a sinister
underpinning to
that clip of video.
No doubt about it.
(dark ambient music)
- On the Monday
night Robert took
his daughter to her Junior
National Honor Society
induction ceremony
at the school.
Then Mary that night took
Bobby to his hunting class.
They came home that night,
and the neighbors
overheard an argument.
- There was a loud argument.
Then I believe that after
his wife and the children
went to bed, that he stayed up
and he made a decision
that he'd had enough.
- They're asleep,
and he literally
slices their throats
to where they're
almost beheaded.
(dark thumping music)
He cut her throat and then
put a bullet in her head.
I believe that's
the fuck you shot,
you're not going anywhere.
- [Charlie] By him
blowing up the house,
do you think he felt that
you guys would discover nothing?
- Hey, he could've
believed that.
Absolutely.
He could've believed that
everything would've
been disintegrated.
(dark ambient music)
We got a photograph
of Robert Fisher
at a bank actually down,
just a mile down the
street extracting money.
(dark ambient music)
- [Charlie] We don't know
if that was before he did it
or after, correct?
- Well, no, we don't.
But we have information
on timelines of arguments
that were heard by neighbors.
So we're figuring
he's extracting money.
And he's probably
taking off because
her vehicle's in the background.
And her vehicle's
not at the house
when we're there that morning.
So he's probably,
(fingers snap), he's gone.
(dark ambient music)
- He took his dog,
which his sister told police
he loved more than his family,
went to an ATM and got
few hundred dollars.
- A curious amount
to withdraw, um--
- [Charlie] Beause he
had more in there, right?
- Yeah.
- He had lots of assets.
IRAs, he had money
market accounts,
he had Bobby and
Brittany's savings.
But you gotta
remember back then,
it gave you a max of,
and some accounts are
still that way with,
you can only take out
x amount of dollars
in a 24-hour period.
He took out the max
amount of money,
and then that was it.
He never came back
and tried to liquidate
any more of his assets.
- I think he was planning it.
I always thought
he had planned it.
Did he plan it for that night?
Who knows?
- There's very little
evidence of premeditation.
There's no evidence that
he was stockpiling funds
prior to this.
There's no evidence
of a secret account.
He had changed the
oil in his own vehicle
the day of the homicide.
And then fled in his wife's.
That, to me, is a puzzle.
- He had actually a
good 10-hour jump on us.
There's information that he
was driving back and forth
on the Mogollon Rim,
which is north of Payson,
Northeast Arizona area.
This woman calls me and
says her and her husband
are up there on the Young Road.
It's a forest road.
They're driving south and
the woman is the passenger.
And they see a
gentleman walking out.
And she looks right at him
as he walks by their car.
Right away, they believe that
looks like Robert Fisher.
Unfortunately they
called us after the fact.
Which happens a lot.
People always get
this in their mind,
"Well, no, that can't be him.
"No, that can't be him."
I've spoken to a
tow truck driver
that probably pulled
him out of a ditch.
- We don't know who
that guys was who helped
pull him out.
So that's one of the
things that we're trying to
track down, too,
is who that guy was
that helped pull him out.
For all we know, he could've
helped, gave him a ride.
If you leave Phoenix and
you wanna go to Payson,
there's only one way to go.
So you're driving up Highway 87.
You hit Rye, which is a
small little tiny town
before you get to Payson.
- There was a bartender
at the Rye diner.
She said a couple
came into the bar.
A gentleman walked in.
A woman that came in with him
immediately went
to the restroom.
He came up and ordered a drink.
Once he orders this drink,
he steps away from the bar
and stands by, what's
a, there's a fireplace
across from the bar.
She says this man stood
and kept his face hidden
from everybody in the bar.
The woman came out
of the restroom,
and it seemed like they
were kind of arguing.
What was real interesting is,
I believe it was the next night,
we get a call from
somebody that lives in Rye.
Their doorbell is ringing.
It's a female that says
her boyfriend just,
they had an argument,
and he just dumped her.
And she needed to
call for a cab.
So they let her in.
Her description kinda
matched the Rye diner woman.
And see, and that's where
all this information came out
with Fisher having an affair.
- At one point in
their relationship,
we heard that he had an affair.
He confided in his church.
They told him that he needed
to confide in his wife.
They separated for a while.
They reconciled.
- About a year prior
to the murders,
he had gone to a masseuse
and allegedly contracted
a urinary tract disease
from the masseuse.
As their relationship
started going on,
she found out that he might
be having another affair.
Now how that affair she found
out, I'm not exactly sure.
But it almost appeared
to us like he was kinda
throwing it in her face.
- There's information
that he had told Mary,
"I had an affair."
- One of the things
that investigators
originally believed
was that there was a girlfriend
and that this woman was someone
who helped him get away.
They were never able
to confirm that.
Nobody in the workplace
was ever able to confirm
that there was some
sort of a workplace
romance going on.
- No one has any idea
who this person might be.
And then we go back to,
when we analyze who
Robert Fisher was.
Cocky, arrogant, conceited,
liked to talk about himself.
It's a very good likelihood that
maybe he just concocted it.
- I know that my
brother was unfaithful
one time in their marriage.
He had a back injury, and
he went to have a massage
and he fell into temptation.
Mary was gone at the time.
She came back, and my
brother confessed it to her.
And that's when they started
going through counseling.
The rumors that he was
unfaithful in other ways,
they're just rumors as
far as I'm concerned.
Their marriage suffered
greatly after that.
And I don't know if Mary ever
forgave my brother after that.
- As the years went by,
him and his wife fought.
And they fought a lot.
Now, to his credit,
he never really ever
raised his voice
or screamed at his wife.
It was always his wife doing
the screaming and yelling.
Calling him worthless, saying
she could've done better.
Now this happened
almost on a daily basis
for over a decade.
When him and his wife
would have an epic or just
a gigantic blowout, he'd
disappear for a week or two
or take a long weekend off
work and just go camping.
And he'd go out there
alone a lot of times.
He'd just take his dog.
- [Voiceover] Hello.
- [Robert] See you, Mom.
Be back Sunday morning.
- [Voiceover] Okay.
- [Robert] Here you go.
- [Brittany] Love you, Mom.
- [Voiceover] Love you, Mom.
I love you, Britt.
Hold my hand.
We'll take a picture
of Daddy drive away?
- [Brittany] Yeah.
- [Voiceover] Okay.
- The truck's gonna
be at Horse Pasture.
I'm gonna be fishing at the
Salt River arm of the lake.
- [Brittany] Oh.
- [Voiceover] Oh.
- [Brittany] Okay.
- [Voiceover] Okay.
- [Brittany] Bye, Dad.
- [Voiceover] Bye-bye.
- [Brittany] Love
Daddy (mumbles).
Bye!
- Mary was a very
good-hearted person.
But Mary wouldn't also
put up with a lot either.
We got information
that she was outspoken.
- Mary Fisher was complaining
to Robert's mother
by phone that he was sort
of this tough love husband,
and it was hard to please him,
and everything
had to be his way.
His mother told her
that it was the same way
when she was married
to Robert's father.
And it's just something
that you gotta deal with,
and you gotta be firm with him.
(dark ambient music)
- I think Mary finally
said, "Hey, enough!
We're done!"
And I don't think he
could deal with it.
- His general attitude
changed a lot over the years.
I mean he was a very
proud, sort of arrogant,
very confident person.
Years later in
their relationship,
when you'd see him on the street
or talk to him next door,
he was tired.
I mean, there was definitely
something different about him,
like he had a heavy
weight on his shoulder.
(eerie ambient music)
- When my parents divorced,
I was in sixth grade, my
brother was in high school,
and my older sister was out
of the house in college.
And yes, it affected all of us.
- With open hearts
He just delights in,
you should bring your
little children to Him,
and that you, his parents,
should come to Him
as little children.
We bring them in order
that He might bless them.
I think the primary way
is through mom and dad,
and through that, God plans
to bless your children.
Thus, to dedicate your children,
it seems proper that
you should choose then,
first of all, to dedicate
yourselves as well.
"As for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord."
(eerie ambient music)
- When his parents
divorced when he was young,
he went and grew
up with his father.
His father remarried a woman
who was very hard on him.
(eerie ambient music)
So in his eyes, he would
never do that to his kids.
And maybe it was,
rather than get divorced
and have his kids
raised by somebody else,
if his wife remarried,
he wanted to start all over.
- [Voiceover] Let's get a
shot of Dad in that suit.
- [Robert] Okay, Bobby.
(whistling)
I put a suit on
today for you, boy.
- [Voiceover] Look at Dad.
- [Robert] The next
time I'll put a suit
is at your high
school graduation.
Do you hear me all
you people out there?
- Divorce affects everybody
in all situations.
Whether or not you
can blame a murder on
a parent's divorce, I
don't think that's fair.
It did affect my
brother differently
than it affected me.
He always took marriage
very seriously.
If I was dating the
wrong type of person,
he would let me
know it, and say,
"Why are you dating
that person if
"it's not a person you
didn't intend on marrying?"
The divorce hurt me because
my parents were no
longer together.
And I did think twice about
getting married because of it.
(camera clicks)
But I would've
never thought that
divorce isn't an option
like my brother thought.
- [Robert] What'd Bobby
do today, Brittany?
- Big church.
- [Robert] Why was
he in big church?
(Brittany mumbles)
- Dedication.
(Britanny mumbles)
- [Robert] Dedication, good.
That's for that
squirt right there.
That little booger right there.
(eerie ambient music)
(rhythmic sinister music)
- There was a guy that
was camping up in the
Northern Arizona,
near Young, Arizona.
He had said that he
observed a car door open
that matched Fisher's vehicle.
He went up to a gas station
up in Heber, Arizona,
called somebody that
he knows down in Mesa,
who relayed that to
the Police Department.
Our investigators
then utilized DPS
and a Ranger helicopter
did a fly over.
(rhythmic sinister music)
- [Voiceover] We believe
it was sitting there
for two or three days.
It could've been
sitting there for five.
(rhythmic sinister music)
- [Charlie] Do you think
Robert Fisher was trying to
frame his wife by taking
her car after the murders?
- No.
Him taking Mary's car,
it's a way of we can't
identify the bodies,
so is it Mary in there or
is it Robert, you know?
So that now that takes
a couple of more hours
to confirm who's that
other person in the fire.
Also, it might've been
easier to get around
in her vehicle than his vehicle.
- Robert Fisher had
a large diesel truck.
If you're going camping
and probably trying to
get away from everyone
in a remote part of
Northern Arizona, it's
probably a better idea
to take the 4-Runner,
even if her 4-Runner
was two-wheel drive.
- So now we have fugitive,
committed a crime,
and where's he gonna go?
He's gonna go to the
areas he knows the best.
He knew he hunted that area,
he knew it like the
back of his hand.
(rhythmic sinister music)
- When they spotted
his car ten days later
in Young, Arizona, hopped in
the car and went up there.
There was no motels because
everybody was up there.
It was almost like
a giant campout.
(rhythmic sinister music)
- You've got fairly
thick vegetation.
A lot of caves.
And if the person knows
what they're doing,
it's just fairly easy to hide.
So it's not gonna be easy.
- You had just hundreds of
detectives and law enforcement
from all over the state.
And essentially for three days,
they staked out that area.
And they combed over it.
(rhythmic sinister music)
- [Voiceover] We do have a
search warrant for that vehicle.
There's no problem with--
- [Voiceover] You know
that they've got a
homicide suspect here.
- [Voiceover] Yeah,
I heard about it.
- Okay, yeah.
Probably shouldn't
wanna, you don't wanna
pick up any hitchhikers or,
where you been's cutting wood?
- [Voiceover] Yeah.
- [Voiceover] Okay.
Alright, do you have an ID?
Where you headed
through to here?
- I'm going back down to Payson.
- [Voiceover] Okay, alright.
Thank you.
- Where his car was found,
there were three caves
within just a short distance.
And they thought that he
was in one of the caves.
It was actually called Cave 41.
And so they brought
in spelunkers,
they brought in cadaver dogs,
and they brought in cameras
to try and search this cave.
And they had SWAT team
members crawling in.
They knew Robert
Fisher was military.
He was trained, he
had numerous weapons.
So it was a slow,
painstaking search.
So you the operator of this?
- [Voiceover] Yes, ma'am.
- [Tammy] Can you explain
to me just real briefly
how it works, sir?
- It's got a computer
monitor in here.
And this is the camera here.
It'll light up, and
it'll give us a picture
on the inside.
- [Tammy] Is it like a
black and white picture?
- Yes, ma'am.
- [Tammy] And you can
see it through anything?
Through water?
- Water, anything.
It's kinda hard to
see through water,
but it does a real nice job.
- This camera's designed
to go into sewers
and take pictures.
They sent that into the
cave where we thought
Robert Fisher may be.
And it determined that
there was nobody in there.
We, of course, confirmed that by
physically going into the cave.
- He could've easily been
in another cave nearby
that was not searched.
I hiked around
and personally saw
at least six different
caves within a short walk
from this existing cave.
Aside from that, they told
me there were at least
30 caves within a
quarter mile of the cave
the police searched.
In the caves I think
it's definitely possible
that he could have, if he
wanted to commit suicide,
could have done that
successfully without anyone
really knowing about it.
You don't have to go
very far in that cave
before you realize
that any kind of sound,
such as a gunshot, if he were
to kill himself down there,
you're not gonna hear
that above ground.
- The conditions were horrible.
It was raining, it was snowing.
That was eventually why they
had to call off the search.
(eerie ambient music)
- He's not there.
None of his guns are up there.
No knife that he used
to kill his kids.
The car, when we found it,
was clean as a whistle.
- We didn't find
anything in the car.
(camera clicking)
Our crime scene specialist
went through that car.
(camera clicking)
The only thing that we
could find was DNA on a hat
and one fingerprint
off of a coffee cup.
That was Robert
Fisher's fingerprint.
Not that that links
him to a murder,
but it puts him in that car.
- There was human feces near
the door of the 4-Runner.
Maybe a final sort of,
take that, sort of a statement
to his previous life.
That he went to the
bathroom right by her car.
(eerie ambient music)
- TJ talks about this
witness, this lady that saw
a guy that looked
like Robert Fisher
walking up the road
with a backpack.
I don't necessarily
think that that occurred.
Because I believe the
dog would've followed.
- Why didn't he take
the dog with him?
He left the dog by the car.
That dog was not
tied up to the car.
But the dog made a bed
underneath the car.
- If a dog is trained
and you tell him to stay,
he will stay.
But dogs also tend to
run if you take 'em out
in the forest or
out in an open area.
They tend to explore.
And that dog may very
well have been out
chasing a squirrel or something
when he decided to leave.
Because I believe that if
he was going to walk away,
he could've easily
just tied the dog up.
And so it wouldn't follow him.
But the dog was loose.
The other issue with the dog is,
why would he bring the
dog in the first place?
There's been thought
that perhaps the dog
could be useful to
him to alert him
in case anyone was approaching.
However, when you think that,
I think the dog would
be more of a detriment
in that regard.
The dog could bark at
any number of things.
And the dog could just as easily
cause his detection as
help him avoid detection.
I think he brought the dog,
because I loved the dog
more than his family.
- I think he led us right
where he wanted to lead us.
To a dead end near
Payson with his dog there
and his Raiders
cap in the truck,
to make us think he went
out in the wilderness
and shot himself, but
we never found the body.
- Very likely he
committed suicide.
He hung around probably
expecting the police to
show up at any moment.
They didn't, and he
finally was ready to go.
- We tend to always
find the body.
- [Charlie] Maybe
animals got to him
or maybe the wolves?
- Even then you'll find a skull.
Something will remain.
You usually find it.
My feeling is, second vehicle,
or a way to get out of there.
Or to hike somewhere to hit
a road and hitchhike out.
(eerie ambient music)
(dark ambient music)
- Whee!
- [Robert] Hey, young boy.
- Hey, young Bobby. Whee!
Whee!
- [Mary] Oh my God.
Santa brought you a good
surprise, huh, Britt?
- Yeah.
- Brittany, one more
thing that goes over here,
hooks onto here, it's a
carriage where four people,
you and three of your
friends can sit on and swing,
but it's not put together yet.
- After everything's
been said in the media
for the last 10 plus years,
and how the media
has told the story,
it's completely understandable
how people react
and how my brother's name is
known to be a monster now.
But the marriage I saw was
just like any other marriage.
Good times, bad times.
All of us have negative
things in our lives.
And all those negative things
can be exaggerated into untruths
and made into truth by
people repeating 'em
so many times.
Like my brother
being an avid hunter.
They have pictures
of him out there with
stuff on his face
and in his camos.
And a lot of hunters do
that when they're hunting,
and they've made
that picture into
Robert being warped.
- Santa woke me up
last night and he goes,
"Hey!
"Hey, Bob, come on
out here and help me
put the slide on."
So I had to come out here.
He says that it's his reindeer
are parked in the backyard.
And I had to stinkin' put
the slide on with him.
He was running behind
'cause he had other
kids (mumbles).
- Huh? Huh?
- [Mary] Say more push.
- I'm hoping there's
another story out there that
the FBI just hasn't
concentrated on yet,
and that there might be
another answer to this.
He was presumed
guilty from three days
after this tragedy.
No other situations had
been looked at since then.
I'm hoping that it's not Robert.
- [Charlie] What are the chances
that Fisher didn't do this?
(dark eerie music)
My mind as an investigator,
my first response to that is,
why is he hiding then?
Why did he take off?
Why did he take all
of his clothing?
When he took most of
his stuff from the house
and took off and ran.
- The only way I can explain
Robert and Mary's marriage is
based on what I
knew and what I saw.
Not by rumors, not by
what the media has said.
I know that my brother was
a very controlling person.
He was controlling
in everything he did
because he was
compassionate about
things that he believed in.
He was very compassionate
with all parts of his life.
(eerie ambient music)
(Robert mumbling)
(ambient music)
- [Charlie] Do you
think he's alive?
- I don't know if
he's alive or not,
but if he is, I hope he calls me
'cause I'd like to meet
him at a bar some night.
And I've said this
before, I'll buy the beer.
- The Scottsdale
Police and the FBI
have been operating under
the theory all these years,
that what Robert Fisher did
was he abandoned Mary's
sport utility vehicle
there in the Tonto National
Forest and then got out,
either by his own means
or through the means of a friend
who has yet to be discovered.
I don't agree that
that is what happened.
To disappear one's self,
to take on a false identity,
either in this country
or in a foreign nation,
takes money, it takes planning.
- He's not gonna take $280 out
to go off to an area in
the woods and kill himself.
Logical explanation is,
is somebody gave him a ride,
or he had some sort of
transportation out of the area.
- You need to know
how to get a false
Social Security number,
you need a method of
disguising one's self.
There's just a lot
of bases to cover.
I don't think Robert Fisher
was able to cover those bases.
His attempts to
cover up the homicide
were quickly discovered.
I'm convinced that he
was following the news
very closely, he was
going into Payson,
reading newspaper headlines,
listening to the radio.
I think he perceived
that his end was near.
(pulsating dark music)
My feeling is that
he disappeared into
Canyon Creek or the
Hellsgate Wilderness area
to a peaceful spot and
there took his own life.
(dark ambient music)
- He's not the kind
of guy to go out there
and kill himself.
He's cocky, he's arrogant,
he's all about himself.
He took off with a
determination of getting away
and starting off a new life.
(dark ambient music)
- There weren't any
clothes of his found
in the burned-out house.
So, for someone to take all
their clothes out suggests
there's not a suicide
mission afoot.
(dark ambient music)
- Is there a chance then and now
that he is out there in
the forest near Payson
dead or alive, and
investigators didn't find him,
since it's impossible to
comb such a large area?
- Well, it's definitely
possible that he's still
living in that area.
I mean, he, the
investigation showed that he
claimed to wanna
be, live on his own
and be a survivalist
and live off the land.
- A great majority of the
interviews that we did
with people who
are close to him,
they described him as a
excellent outdoorsman.
What they were referring
to is someone who could
survive on very
little resources.
They can live off the land,
and he would challenge
himself to do that.
He always would strive to
see how far he can push it.
(pulsating ambient music)
- There's been a lot made of him
being able to survive.
He was an avid
hunter, fisherman.
That he could survive
out in the wilderness.
My sense is that
that would wear thin.
It's one thing to
go out on a weekend
or a week at a time.
It's been 10 years.
- There are people
that live up there
that know that countryside.
I truly believe by now,
somebody would've
came forward and said,
"Look, I got a house
here in the country.
"Once a month I'm
getting food stolen."
- He was not a terribly
accomplished outdoorsman.
This is some of the
mythology of Robert Fisher
that I think got blown
out of proportion.
- He's a talker.
And--
(camera clicks)
He's probably telling people
what a great outdoorsman he was.
But at the same time,
he wasn't like an expert
outdoorsman where he can survive
and live off the
fat of the land.
I seriously doubt that.
- Another piece of
mythology around this case
is that the woods in the
Tonto National Forest
were thoroughly searched for
any sign of Robert Fisher.
And the fact is
that they weren't.
This was the
Scottsdale SWAT team.
And these guys are trained
for urban situations,
for barricaded
suspects inside homes.
They're not trained to
do wilderness searches.
And so only, approximately
a square mile
around Robert
Fisher's wife's truck
was actually searched.
A human body in the
wilderness is quickly
taken apart by animals.
There are plenty of
coyotes up there.
I think that the only
trace of Robert Fisher
that we may ever
see would be the
rusting remains of
his handgun, sadly.
- Since 2001 there's
probably close to at least
10,000 leads that have come in.
(dark eerie music)
- [Charlie] Out of
those 10,000 leads,
how many would you consider
to be strong leads?
- 10 to 20.
(dark eerie music)
- [Charlie] And how many
leads do you get today?
- Four to five a day sometimes,
of people calling in.
(dark eerie music)
This case has generated
a life of its own.
He has a very average look.
He doesn't stand out in a crowd.
He blends in very well.
And that's what's made
this case so challenging.
We put the information out,
and we appreciate
all the calls we get.
People know about this guy.
And we know they do,
'cause they're calling us
every time they see him.
But a lot of these
people that are getting
called in on are very
good look-alikes.
- Fisher is, you know,
his look is average.
In all honesty.
But there is another
aspect of him,
that he has very sharp features
on his nose, his brows.
He has a unique walk.
(dark ambient music)
- He had back surgery
on his lower back,
and he has a bad back,
and it's very sore.
And he walks with a
very erect posture,
chest sticking out,
kinda like how you walk
if you had a sore back.
He's got a gold tooth in his
upper left bicuspid tooth.
Now he may still have that
gold tooth or he may not.
(eerie ambient music)
Tourists were in
Guatemala at a market,
and they were taking
photos of the market
and captured an individual
in the background.
Well, the individual
didn't like the idea that
he was in the background
in some of the pictures
and approached the tourists.
- Take.
"You taking my photograph?
"Give me your camera."
(eerie ambient music)
I think he made some remark
about committing crime.
- [Charlie] Yeah, "I've killed
before and I'll kill again."
- Exactly.
So, to me, it's interesting.
- It looks similar to him.
And we went out and
attempted to identify
who that individual was.
There are times when
we are able to find
the person people call in on.
And other times there's
just not enough information,
and that's what
happened in Guatemala.
So that's kinda still
sittin' out there.
So we're kinda
watching that area.
We have a number
of sightings that
in the United States as well.
In Grand Isle, Louisiana,
before the hurricane
hit down there,
we were getting sightings
of him down there.
We've had a number
of people call
that didn't know each
other called in on.
When we were out
looking for the person,
but we have not been able
to find who that guy was.
(dark ambient music)
The caller basically
called the tip line
a week after it
was aired and said,
"Hey, this is Robert Fisher.
"I'm glad I killed the
bitch, you'll never find me,"
and hung up.
Investigation
there was negative.
They tried and they
printed the phone,
interviewed witnesses, and
we weren't able to determine
if that was actually him or not.
- [Charlie] Do you think
Robert made that call?
- I don't.
Why would he give us an edge
and lead us to where
he might possibly be
where the phone call came from?
So I can't see him doing that.
(dark eerie music)
- We worked a lot
of stories together.
I had a lot of respect
for him as a detective.
He really became
tied into his cases.
It was very emotional for him.
I know he would take it home.
Just like sometimes we take
it home as journalists.
- What really plagued
him was the fact that
we couldn't find him.
And he thought about
it day and night
where could Robert Fisher be,
where could he have gone?
Often I would get
a call from him at
11 o'clock at
night with an idea,
and my phone would ring,
"Hey, I just thought of this.
"We gotta talk about
this tomorrow."
It couldn't wait 'til tomorrow,
we needed to talk
about it right now,
and then we'd spend the
next two hours on the phone.
- He could not wait 'til
the day we found him.
And he could sit down
and look at him across the table
and interview him
and try and determine
just what happened.
- All he wanted to
do was sit in a room
and look at Robert Fisher.
And ask him one question, why?
- He never said
if, he said when.
And he really thought
Fisher would talk to him.
Because John was
convinced as well,
more that he was so narcissistic
that he would like
to tell his story.
(eerie ambient music)
(camera clicks)
- He had evidence that
led him to believe
Robert Fisher was living
south of the border.
To me, that seems the
most plausible thing.
One of the things that
struck me about Fisher
after kinda studying his
life and his lifestyle,
he didn't strike me
as a particularly
technologically savvy guy.
He left the birth
certificate behind.
He hated debt, he
always paid cash.
And so if you think about,
what are one of the
places you could go
where you could pay
cash for everything,
pretty much disappear?
The rules don't really apply
or they're not well-enforced.
And I think he's in a
touristy area of Mexico.
That's my personal opinion.
(camera clicks)
- They've had him
down in Mexico,
other Latin American
countries, Brazil,
(camera clicks)
at one point there was a doctor
who used to work with Robert
who thought he saw him in Brazil
and just caught a
glimpse of the guy
as he was sitting in his
car in the car next to him
and that car took off, and
thought he had seen him.
But that's again,
it's a common look.
And we didn't even enough
to go on that lead.
That occurs almost
daily on this case.
(dark eerie music)
- He had been missing, the
case had gone a little cold,
and somebody had
reported him up in Canada
up in a little area
called White Rock.
- It was someone who
looked like Fisher.
Someone saw the wanted poster.
They called it in to the
Canadian authorities.
- And I remember
when they thought
that they had found
Fisher in Canada.
John Kirkham called me,
it was late at night,
and he said, "Tammy, this is it.
"We think we got him,
we think we got him."
- We started out going though
the roller-coaster again of
what we would do
if it is Robert,
how we would help him
through the jail situation.
The same thought processes
go through your head
every time there's something
else on the news about it.
- Well, I was living in
Seattle, not too far and I said,
well, I'm not doing
anything, I could go up.
See if it's really him,
I'm kinda curious
how this works out.
So I went up to Canada.
They basically pretended
to book me in the jail,
so that they could get me
and Bob into the same room.
So that I could look
at him face-to-face,
and hear him talk, see him walk
and hopefully identify this guy.
And so what they did was,
by pretending to book me,
there was a hallway, he came
walking out of that hall.
When he came out, he
walked down the hall,
he's standing with his lawyer.
And he's standing
with his girlfriend.
He looked up, and
he scanned the room
like anybody does when they
walk into a strange place.
Well, when he looked at
me and I heard his voice,
I knew it was him.
And he stopped.
And he did that little
look around the room,
and he scanned, and
he came back to me,
and he just sort of got this
instant look on his face like,
"What the hell are
you doing here?"
And I was looking at
him going, oh my God.
And inside just, that's
him, that's my old neighbor.
I see this guy recognized me.
I know he recognized me.
He stared at me for
a good 30 seconds
before his lawyer
had to interrupt him
and get his attention off of me.
They took me out after
I gave him the signal
and said, well, what do you
think, what do you think?
I'm like, that's
him, that's him!
Don't let him go.
I got in my car,
I went back home.
I called my parents, and I said,
yup, they got him.
(eerie ambient music)
- He had a similar scar in
his back that Fisher has.
He had a missing left
bicuspid tooth that
Fisher had a gold tooth there,
but maybe it was gone.
- He has the same tooth gap.
He has the same exact build.
He has the same body language.
He had the same mannerisms.
He had the exact same voice.
That was Bob Fisher.
- So we knew there were a
lot of different traits.
His nose, his facial features
were very similar to Robert.
But his fingerprints
didn't match.
- Well, we found
out a few days later
they had let him go.
Saw it in the news like the
next day or the day after.
- I saw his picture.
And that was not Robert Fisher.
He did have the same
scar in the lower back,
which is a common surgery.
- I didn't believe
that it was my brother
from the get-go because,
what would he be
doing in Canada?
My brother doesn't
like to travel.
I couldn't come up
with a reason why
or how he got to Canada.
- He did his research.
He was a nurse.
I think he knew how to get away
with changing his fingerprints.
(dark eerie music)
- To this day, Wade swears that
those fingerprints were altered.
Do you buy that?
- I don't know.
That's a pretty
out-there theory.
And not being there, not
having looked him in the face,
I don't know if I buy that.
But you know, it's
one person's theory,
and there is a lot of
theories on this case.
- [Charlie] Can
fingerprints be altered?
- Sure.
Fingerprints can be altered.
We've heard of that happening.
Is it easy, no.
But has it happened, yeah.
(dark eerie music)
- Fingerprints don't lie.
I mean, people cannot
alter their fingerprints.
And if they do
try to alter them,
they leave behind
traces and evidence
that show that they
have altered them.
I think that's so
CIA-ish and think that,
I just, that's so
far-fetched in my mind that
it doesn't occur.
- This individual
was fingerprinted,
was identified in Canada
as having a criminal history.
They knew who he was.
And he was absolutely
was not Robert Fisher.
- They brought his mother in,
and his mother
identified him, saying,
"This is my son."
It was not Robert Fisher.
(dark ambient music)
- He may try and
change his appearance.
But the characteristics and
the things that he likes to do
will not change.
He likes to chew tobacco.
He likes to fish,
he likes to hunt.
And he's a control freak.
If he's involved in a
relationship with somebody,
someone may have a friend.
Their friend's got a new
boyfriend or a husband
that they never met,
he doesn't like to come out.
He's very recluse.
But he's a total control freak.
Those are the things
we wanna look at now.
Because the photos we
have out there now,
that's what he looked like then.
It's 10 years later,
he's gonna look older.
He may not be as physically fit.
(dark ambient music)
That's why we wanna look at the
characteristics of
what he's doing.
I stress to people,
if you see someone
and you really think it's him,
call your local police
department right away.
- Whether it's him or not,
we need to get called.
'Cause the more leads we get,
the better chance we
have of catching him.
- [Charlie] The public's gonna
solve this case, correct?
- Yeah.
Yes.
- There's gonna be some
woman sitting with him,
and she's gonna see this film.
She's gonna see
America's Most Wanted.
She's probably looked
at it and thought,
"Boy, he looks like Harry.
"Nah, it can't be Harry,
he's too good to my kids."
Well, he was good to
his original kids.
- Robert Fisher was
a good-looking man,
he was educated, he had
a military background.
So has he taken up with
somebody else in a
new relationship?
Sure, it's possible.
I think Robert Fisher is living
somewhere in the country.
He's living in a small
community laying low,
trying not to slip up.
But I think eventually
he will slip up.
Everybody makes a mistake.
- All these guys are the same.
Wherever these
guys commit crimes,
they take off, but they
get to an environment
that doesn't work for them.
And most guys that get caught,
get caught in the same
type of environment.
- This person needs to
answer for his crimes.
He can't be living a
life and enjoying life
when his daughter and his son
and his wife aren't anymore.
- Mama.
- [Mary] Just walking
home from the bus stop.
(eerie music)
- [Voiceover] If Robert
ever contacted his family,
would you, your
sister and/or your mom
immediately contact the police?
- Yeah, I've thought
about that a lot.
And in our different places
we've lived since the tragedy,
I have always made sure that
Bob called while the FBI guy,
his number is on my cell
phone everywhere I go,
and on my home phone number
so I can just hit a button.
- What's that?
What's that, Mom?
(eerie music)
What's that, Mama?
- [Mary] What is what, Bobby?
- No, you're bad, let go of me.
- [Mary] Do you like
going picking up sister
at the bus stop?
Huh?
- I've thought about
how I'd greet my brother
if he showed up at our door.
I've looked for
him on the streets
no matter where we've lived.
I know I would greet
him and hug him.
And I'd probably bawl him out.
But then I would
do the right thing
and contact the police
as soon as I could.
And I know my mom and my sister
would absolutely
do the same thing.
- [Mary] Where are you going?
- Cubbies!
- Cubbies.
- Bobby's going in Cubbies
and me join in Sparks.
- [Mary] You're going to Sparks?
And where are you going, Bobby?
- Cubbies.
- [Mary] You're
gonna be a Cubbie?
- Mm-hmm.
- [Mary] No way.
- Yes.
- [Mary] Yes?
How about your Cubbies motto?
- Jesus likes me.
- [Mary] Jesus likes me, good.
Do you know what your motto is?
- A friends of Christ?
- [Mary] Close, my
friend for Christ.
- My friend for Christ.
- [Mary] Good job.
(harmonica music)
(dog howls)
(harmonica music)
(dog howls)
(kids laughing)
(harmonica music)
(dog howling)
(harmonica music)
- As a child, you
expect your father
to protect you
from the boogieman.
You don't expect your
father to be the boogieman.
And that's what real
sick about this.
(eerie ambient music)
Who knows what he's doing?
Who knows if he's out
there making money,
or he's out there having a beer.
He doesn't deserve that.
- I didn't have family
then when it happened.
But I do now.
And the crime becomes even
more despicable and unthinkable
now that I've got
kids of my own.
To think that somebody could
do that to their family.
- Parts of me, because
I love my brother,
hopes he's alive.
But then other
parts, if he's alive,
that means he did this crime.
So I hope he has passed away.
(eerie ambient music)
Because I love my brother,
and I'm hoping
there's another story
that solves this.
If there's anybody out
there that knows anything,
whether or not they were
involved with my brother or not,
there's a lot of people hurting.
And a lot of people
who need answers.
So if you know my brother,
if he's alive and you know him,
please call one of us or
call the police and turn him in.
- You want resolution.
And we've got nothing.
The end of the story
seemed to begin
at the end of the
road up in Payson.
(dark eerie music)
- What I do is I'm
actually empathing
each one of the people.
So what I'm doing is I'm
first tuning into Robert.
The first thing I saw looked
like a beach community.
In my head, I was trying to
figure out the geography,
I think it's the Bahamas.
I didn't know till after
that he has a
connection to Florida.
So I definitely feel it's
in that part of the world.
A small community,
a beach town.
I did see the beach,
I lived, feel he lives
on or near the beach.
It didn't feel like a
heavy touristy area.
I think he would be
recognized that way.
I did see a house,
and I don't know
if it's where he lives, works.
I saw what looked like
a residential structure
that was two-story,
had a couple of stairs
leading up to it.
It's wood rather than stucco.
And it's painted in
either like a gray
or a pale blue-gray color.
And I saw a wrap-around porch.
Then I saw him in a kitchen
with a woman who, I don't
know if her name is Terry,
I heard the name Terry.
And her hair is about
shoulder-length,
maybe a little bit longer.
It has natural wave,
and she's a brunette.
And I saw a three to
five-year-old son,
so he may have another
child with this person.
Around November, I was
seeing three big black guys
that looked like bouncers.
I don't know if he's in some
sort of business with them,
but I felt like there was this,
with them there was a struggle.
It felt like it went on
November, December and January.
And then I felt shortly after,
he takes off from this woman
and that area.
Within a couple of months,
he hooks up with a woman.
This is in 2012, I
know, way out there.
She has straight dark hair.
Black hair or dark brown hair.
It's about this length.
And he's with her
for about two months.
And then at the end
of next year, I felt
he was apprehended.
I saw him in a
courtroom in December,
and then I feel him
extradited back to Arizona
in January of 2013.
So he will get caught.
- [Charlie] Do you believe
he's gonna get caught?
- Absolutely. Absolutely.
(dark eerie music)
- After all the research and
the interviews conducted,
it's my belief that
Robert Fisher is alive.
For three main reasons.
The first one being
that he took out $280
from his bank account.
That certainly
doesn't sound like
someone who's about
to kill himself.
The second reason is that
he packed his clothes.
And the final reason being,
that inside that car
found at the forest,
his wife's SUV, it was spotless.
That leads me to believe
that he had an accomplice.
And whoever he was with that
was helping him get away
certainly didn't wanna
be guilty of anything,
so that person's
fingerprints were cleaned.
Whoever that was, Fisher's
friend, accomplice,
whatever, a
mistress, girlfriend,
whatever the case may be,
the fact that the car
was found that spotless
leads me to believe
that he had some help.
If Robert Fisher
did kill himself,
I believe it was
an afterthought.
He had a change of heart.
He got his wits
together and said,
"Oh my God, I can't
believe I did this.
"I'm never gonna be able
to get away with it."
(dark eerie music)
This case has been looked at
by some of the most
diligent investigators.
The Scottsdale Police
Department, the FBI,
and everything you heard them
is the most they can reveal.
They can't tell the
public everything.
And I get that.
Unfortunately, most of the
leads that they've gotten
have not been strong
as you've heard.
The Canada lead was the
strongest one they had.
And that was in 2004.
So it's my hope that,
tonight someone watching
will step forward
and have the courage to
supply law enforcement
with the necessary information.
So we can finally
answer the question,
where is Robert Fisher?
(dark ambient music)
- This is a case that
is absolutely chilling.
And the person at the
center of this case
remains a mystery.
We don't know really
who Robert Fisher was.
He hid the secret life
that he had from
nearly everyone.
(eerie ambient music)
And so you have this
tremendous mystery,
where the center of
that mystery is gone.
Where is he?
We don't know.
(eerie ambient music)
It's part of the
reason why this case,
I think lingers in the
imagination of Arizona.
(lullaby music)
- [Mary] Look up at your toy.
There.
- [Brittany] Up!
(mumbles)
(lullaby music)
(baby cooes)
(lullaby music)
(rhythmic sinister music)
(upbeat rock music)
Where we roam no one knows
Killed his wife and kids
So the story goes
And he burned down their home
Ever since that day
he's been on the run
Far beyond
The city lights
We can't forget
The dreadful sound
Robert Fisher, how
do you sleep at night
Is he dead or alive
Living off the land,
but can he survive
Had he said of this life
Will we ever know
where Robert Fisher hides
Far beyond
The city lights
We can't forget
The awful sight
Behind the mask,
beyond the walls
Did we ever know
Robert Fisher