Speaker 1: Missing in Arizona contains graphic depictions of violence and may
Speaker 1: not be suitable for all listeners.
Speaker 2: It's morning again in America.
Speaker 1: April tenth, two thousand and one, eight forty one am, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Speaker 1: In one minute, this suburban ranch at the end of
Speaker 1: a cul de sac in the valley of the Sun
Speaker 1: will explode, But before it does, walk with me through
Speaker 1: the front door.
Speaker 3: In the shosh.
Speaker 1: It's dark, the air is stagnant. Morning light seeps through
Speaker 1: closed curtains. A pair of eyes stare at us from
Speaker 1: across a murky living room. The head of an elk
Speaker 1: mounted on a wall glide with me quietly down the hall,
Speaker 1: past the furnace stop. A candle flickers, illuminating three bedroom doors.
Speaker 1: In each room, a bed in each bed, a body.
Speaker 1: Mary Fisher thirty eight, Knee Fisher twelve, Bobby Fisher ten.
Speaker 1: It's morning in America, two thousand and one. These walls
Speaker 1: in two chaos that in a moment will spill out
Speaker 1: as fire and smoke and charred debris, a violent rupture,
Speaker 1: and the hunt will begin for Robert Fisher Boom from
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three. I'm John Walzac and this
Speaker 1: is Missing in Arizona, the story of a man who
Speaker 1: disappeared after allegedly killing his wife and kids, blowing up
Speaker 1: their suburban home, and escaping into the wilderness. Twenty three
Speaker 1: years later, I'm hunting Robert Fisher, and I need your help.
Speaker 1: In April two thousand and one, Robert Fisher pulled off
Speaker 1: one of the greatest escapes in American criminal history. After
Speaker 1: slitting the throats of his wife and children and shooting
Speaker 1: his wife in the head. Fisher rigged their house to explore,
Speaker 1: then sped away in his wife's suv. Police say nine
Speaker 1: days later, a man camping at a remote forest located
Speaker 1: the abandoned suv and Fisher's dog Blue near a series
Speaker 1: of caves. Since then nothing did Fisher die by suicide?
Speaker 1: Did someone help him flee? Perhaps he's alive today. Fisher's
Speaker 1: timing was impeccable. He vanished at precisely the right moment
Speaker 1: on the eve of nine to eleven, Facebook the iPhone
Speaker 1: ring cameras. He exited just as the Promethean tentacles of
Speaker 1: the modern surveillance state started to suffocate the world. His
Speaker 1: disappearance would be virtually impossible today. Early two thousand and
Speaker 1: one marked in many ways the beginning of the end
Speaker 1: of the mono mystery. Mysteries so dramatic and stupefying, perpetually unresolved,
Speaker 1: that they burrowed deep into our collective consciousness, unifying a
Speaker 1: house divided, if briefly in magnetic spectacle and society wide confusion,
Speaker 1: was the twilight of an era during which you could say,
Speaker 1: kill your family, flee, and not be caught on anything
Speaker 1: more than grainy ATM footage. Yet even then, the Fisher
Speaker 1: case never achieved the same fame as, say, the disappearance
Speaker 1: of DC interns Chandra Levy in May two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: or Andrea Yates drowning her five kids in a bathtub
Speaker 1: in June two thousand and one. Why maybe because men
Speaker 1: killing women or kids in a domestic setting is so
Speaker 1: common in America that, despite its barbarity, this case fails
Speaker 1: to shock. Or maybe because Fisher wasn't even the most
Speaker 1: famous fugitive who allegedly fled into a cave in two
Speaker 1: thousand and one after perpetuating a violent spectacle, And this
Speaker 1: case is spectacle. It's cinematic in many ways. It's a
Speaker 1: classic Western a mysterious figure commits a series of brutal murders, triggers,
Speaker 1: and explosion and flees into the rugged landscape pursued by
Speaker 1: law enforcement and twenty three years later and journalists with
Speaker 1: a masochistic pension for mind boggling mysteries to be upfront.
Speaker 1: I haven't found Fisher yet, but I have found a
Speaker 1: ton of new information, including new witnesses, new clues, and
Speaker 1: new persons of interest. This is a case with so
Speaker 1: many frustrating questions. The most critical is Robert Fisher alive today?
Speaker 1: The FBI says it doesn't have an official opinion. Yet,
Speaker 1: the bureau kept him on its ten most wanted list
Speaker 1: for nineteen years. Why do that if you think he's dead.
Speaker 1: If Fisher is alive, he's sixty three and extremely dangerous.
Speaker 1: A man who kills his wife and kids won't hesitate
Speaker 1: to kill again. Take a moment now to look at
Speaker 1: our show art. It features an age progressed image of
Speaker 1: what Fisher could look like today. I want you to
Speaker 1: scan the men you know, neighbors, coworkers, friends, your husband,
Speaker 1: your father who was not in your life prior to
Speaker 1: April two thousand and one. Later in the show, I'll
Speaker 1: share Fisher's voice, recreated using artificial intelligence. Listen closely. Does
Speaker 1: it sound like anyone you know? Let me speak now
Speaker 1: directly to Robert Fisher. Robert, if you're tuning in, and
Speaker 1: if you made it this far, you probably are, Listen closely.
Speaker 1: I will not give up. I'm not the police, I
Speaker 1: am not the FBI. I found things they missed. I
Speaker 1: can dedicate all my time to you. I will follow
Speaker 1: up on every lead today, tomorrow, in ten years. You
Speaker 1: like control, well, this is your final moment of control.
Speaker 1: These words are going out to millions of people, and
Speaker 1: it's not two thousand and one anymore. You're going to
Speaker 1: make mistakes or someone will turn you in. And if
Speaker 1: you are in fact dead, if I'm speaking to a ghost, fine,
Speaker 1: I still want to find you. I want to bring
Speaker 1: home your bones so that the people whose lives ruptured
Speaker 1: when Mary, Brittany and Bobby died can find the tiniest
Speaker 1: bit of peace. I sat with them, the people who
Speaker 1: loved your wife, your kids, even you. I looked them
Speaker 1: in the eyes. I listened as they told me how
Speaker 1: much this blew up their lives, their sense of security. Robert,
Speaker 1: this is now my full time job to find you. Monday,
Speaker 1: April ninth, two thousand and one, there's a major crisis
Speaker 1: in the South China Sea. Eight days ago, an American
Speaker 1: spy plane collided with a Chinese jet, then made an
Speaker 1: emergency landing on a nearby island. Its crew remains detained.
Speaker 4: We've got every diplomatic channel open. We're in discussions with
Speaker 4: the Chinese. Is now time for our troops to come
Speaker 4: home so that our relationship does not become damaged.
Speaker 1: Time magazine features an egg sizzling in a frying pan
Speaker 1: above the headline global warming, climbing temperatures, melting, glaciers, rising seas.
Speaker 1: The radiant egg yolke is cleverly earth itself. We're feeling
Speaker 1: the heat. Times says, why isn't Washington on the front
Speaker 1: page of the Arizona Republic in this order? A weather
Speaker 1: forecast sonny high seventy four, low forty nine, the words
Speaker 1: good morning, and a photo of Tony Soprano scowling in
Speaker 1: a bathrobe. An Italian American group wants the Sopranos canceled
Speaker 1: or boycotted. I think it's bad for America. A spokesman says,
Speaker 1: we're having children shooting each other in schools, and we
Speaker 1: have a program that's deifying and romanticizing shooting people in
Speaker 1: the head. This is America. April ninth, two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: The song Butterfly by crazy Town is number one on
Speaker 1: the radio. Spy Kids is the top movie. Aliyah is Alive.
Speaker 1: The Twin Towers are standing and in Scottsdale, Arizona, a
Speaker 1: well to do Phoenix suburb, the Fisher family is getting
Speaker 1: ready for the day. Dad Robert thirty nine, Mom Mary
Speaker 1: thirty eight, daughter Brittany twelve, son Bobby ten, seven thirty
Speaker 1: am Robert Fisher begins his shift at the Mayo Clinic
Speaker 1: Hospital in Phoenix. He's a medical technician who works in
Speaker 1: a cardiac cath lab, assisting doctors and nurses with invasive
Speaker 1: diagnostic procedures.
Speaker 5: They go in and they run catheter up into the
Speaker 5: heart and up into the blood vessels, sometimes near the brain,
Speaker 5: and they'll shoot different kinds of eyes and they'll look
Speaker 5: at it on this image to see as their thought.
Speaker 1: This is one of Fisher's coworkers. I agreed not to
Speaker 1: name him.
Speaker 5: The catheter is very big. It's about the size of
Speaker 5: your pin. So when they take it out, you have
Speaker 5: to hold pressure for a long long time for a
Speaker 5: plot to form.
Speaker 1: If you're on a gurney today in the cath lab,
Speaker 1: just know that this man's standing over you, six feet tall,
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety pounds, light brown hair, blue eyes,
Speaker 1: holding pressure on your wound will, according to police, murder
Speaker 1: his family in about twelve hours. As Robert Fisher starts work,
Speaker 1: his wife Mary takes the kids to school. Ten year
Speaker 1: old Bobby is a gentle goofball, quiet but funny. He
Speaker 1: loves video games and blanket forts and his razor scooter.
Speaker 1: He's a fourth grader at Pima Elementary School.
Speaker 6: He was a sweetheart.
Speaker 1: Beth Anderson is a Fisher family friend. Her son Brock
Speaker 1: is Bobby's age.
Speaker 6: At the time, we had a convertible and we were
Speaker 6: coming down the one oh one and they asked me,
Speaker 6: can we ride with the top down, like, don't put
Speaker 6: the top up? And I said, well, it's going to
Speaker 6: be really loud and noisy and windy, and then oh,
Speaker 6: we don't care. We don't care. So they're in the
Speaker 6: backseat and off we go. We're coming down the one
Speaker 6: oh one, and these two were just laughing hysterically, just
Speaker 6: belly laughing. Their arms were up in the air, they
Speaker 6: were waving to people, and I just remember looking in
Speaker 6: the rear view mirror, thinking the innocence of childhood.
Speaker 1: Not long before the murders, some of Bobby's friends attend
Speaker 1: to sleep over at the Fisher House. The kids watched
Speaker 1: the nineteen ninety nine remake of The Haunting, starring Liam Neeson,
Speaker 1: Catherine Zada Jones and a Rotten Tomatoes score of seventeen percent.
Speaker 7: That terrible movie. Looking back on it now.
Speaker 1: Brock Anderson, it scared the crap out of me. The
Speaker 1: film's antagonist, Hugh Crane, is a womanizing bully who kills
Speaker 1: children and burns their bodies in his fireplace.
Speaker 7: I remember watching that and Robert was there. I remember
Speaker 7: him kind of interacting with us in like a playful
Speaker 7: way of like, oh, yeah, you guys are scared.
Speaker 1: Brock spends a lot of time at the Fisher House.
Speaker 7: I remember how dark the lighting was in that home.
Speaker 7: It always just felt like a cave. The main light
Speaker 7: would come from the kitchen, the living room, like it
Speaker 7: just curtains were always just kind of closed. It always
Speaker 7: just seemed kind of dark.
Speaker 1: Robert Fisher is a cheapskate who doesn't want to pay
Speaker 1: for air conditioning, even in blazing Arizona, so he keeps
Speaker 1: the curtains drawn. Twenty two to twenty three North seventy
Speaker 1: fourth Place is Robert's stifling castle, and in it he
Speaker 1: does whatever he wants. Mary be damned.
Speaker 7: Mary would always get really bothered by Robert chewing tobacco
Speaker 7: at the table when we'd be eating dinner.
Speaker 2: He was just always.
Speaker 1: Chewing winter green Copenhagen.
Speaker 7: He always had a cup or a coke can or something,
Speaker 7: and yeah, I remember she would just kind of give
Speaker 7: him that look or make a Snyder remark, and it
Speaker 7: was just kind of like, this is awkward.
Speaker 1: That sniping is a sign of a toxic dynamic, a
Speaker 1: husband always attempting to assert control, a wife willing to
Speaker 1: fight back. I wanted to spell immediately any image of
Speaker 1: Mary as some passive yes sir wallflower steamrolled by her
Speaker 1: domineering husband. Mary is strong, five foot four, one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty five pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes, a natural
Speaker 1: born leader with many friends and a jovial streak of sarcasm.
Speaker 1: Her life centers on Jesus and her kids. Yes, she
Speaker 1: believes a wife should be submissive to a degree, but
Speaker 1: it's also her choice when to fight and when to
Speaker 1: just roll her eyes, not because she's weak, but because
Speaker 1: she's wise. You see this dynamic obnoxious Robert exasperated Mary
Speaker 1: on home videos, later rescued from a fire safe in
Speaker 1: the charred rubble of their house. In one clip from
Speaker 1: April nineteen eighty nine, Robert lays in bed, propped on pillows,
Speaker 1: holding the camera with one hand and with the other,
Speaker 1: his black lab Ruger, sits at the foot of the bed.
Speaker 8: Rue.
Speaker 3: You see your happy birthday to Brittany.
Speaker 1: It's Brittany's first birthday.
Speaker 8: Can you sing boy from your heart like you really meant?
Speaker 1: Robert pants the camera to Mary holding baby Brittany. Mary
Speaker 1: looks annoyed and quickly exits. Robert gets up and wanders
Speaker 1: around Brett.
Speaker 8: Brett mayor.
Speaker 9: Ma're here.
Speaker 10: I don't see it here they're here?
Speaker 8: Oh well, looky.
Speaker 3: Here go get a roof.
Speaker 1: Mary sitting on a toilet seat in the bathroom, combing
Speaker 1: Britney's hair.
Speaker 10: Say what what do you say?
Speaker 4: Mar?
Speaker 3: This is the.
Speaker 7: Oh, this is Brittany's day, Ruger, get out of the day.
Speaker 1: Five years into their marriage, Mary is not afraid to
Speaker 1: bark at Robert, and Robert isn't afraid to be a
Speaker 1: smart ass in response. In fact, after Ruger exits the camera,
Speaker 1: still aimed at Mary's face, Robert plays the harmonica again,
Speaker 1: as if to purposely annoy her. The video then jumps
Speaker 1: to a scene of Robert and Brittany in a kiddie
Speaker 1: pool in the backyard. What two This clip shows something important.
Speaker 1: Robert clearly loves his kids. Yes, he's strict, but he
Speaker 1: cares deeply for Brittany and Bobby. If not, Mary, let
Speaker 1: me pause and get something out of the way. You're
Speaker 1: going to hear me occasionally say kind things about Robert Fisher.
Speaker 1: Don't mistake that for anything other than what it is,
Speaker 1: an accurate portrayal of a complex man. It doesn't serve
Speaker 1: anyone to paint Robert as a demonic cartoon. If we
Speaker 1: want to understand the crimes, if we want to understand Robert,
Speaker 1: if we want to find Robert, we have to resist
Speaker 1: the urge to soothe ourselves with an infantilized portrait of evil.
Speaker 1: April ninth, two thousand and one, around eight am, Mary
Speaker 1: arrives at her part time clerical job at a small
Speaker 1: medical supply company. Her boss, Lori Greenbeck, is also her friend.
Speaker 11: She was a very kind person, but she's very sassy.
Speaker 11: She was about five four, long, blonde hair, always had
Speaker 11: it curled, always styled. She's always wearing a button up blouse,
Speaker 11: tucked in shirt.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: She was always neat, always put together.
Speaker 1: And what about Robert jans.
Speaker 11: T shirt, slouching, dragging his feet, Yeah, he didn't care.
Speaker 1: Lunchtime on this sunny day, Robert Eet's outside with three
Speaker 1: co workers. He's quiet and distant with them, but alone,
Speaker 1: something's not right. At one point, he gets up and
Speaker 1: walks away. Sometime between two and three pm, Mary Fisher
Speaker 1: gets ready to leave work.
Speaker 2: She had a Reci's candy bar. They have two little
Speaker 2: cups in them. When she was just standing right in
Speaker 2: front of my desk, she opens this reseason. She puts
Speaker 2: one on my desk and then she took the other
Speaker 2: one and she was like, see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Three twenty two pm, Mary signs a check at Kmart
Speaker 1: for eighteen dollars and eighteen cents. Sometime between three point
Speaker 1: thirty and three fifty pm, Robert sits on a floor
Speaker 1: at the hospital. He tells the doctor that his daughter, Brittany,
Speaker 1: is being inducted tonight into the National Junior Honor Society,
Speaker 1: and he's taking her to the ceremony. Three fifty one pm,
Speaker 1: Robert clocks out. This is strange. If he waits until
Speaker 1: three point fifty three, he'll get paid for a full hour.
Speaker 1: Today is the first time one coworker has ever seen
Speaker 1: him clock out early like this. What's the rush? Britney's
Speaker 1: Honor Society event isn't for three hours. Robert heads to
Speaker 1: the locker room. He changes out of scrubs and into
Speaker 1: street clothes. Here's the recreation of what a coworker later
Speaker 1: tells police.
Speaker 9: He had on a cutoff T shirt. I think it
Speaker 9: was a blue cutoff shirt from a fire department or something, okay,
Speaker 9: And he had a black Oakland Raiders hat and shades.
Speaker 9: Small sunglasses.
Speaker 8: Small sunglasses, yeah.
Speaker 9: Like I don't know if there are Oakley Okay?
Speaker 8: What kind of pants was he wearing?
Speaker 9: Blue jeans?
Speaker 1: The coworker and Robert exit the hospital around four pm.
Speaker 1: We're driving in the main entrance, can see the hospital,
Speaker 1: and so we are looking for the east side of
Speaker 1: the southern parking lot. This is where Robert gets into
Speaker 1: his Silver two thousand and one, dodge Ram three point
Speaker 1: fifty seven pm by now Mary's home from Kmart, she
Speaker 1: emails a group of friends about an upcoming women's retreat.
Speaker 1: The Fishers haven't had a computer for very long. Email
Speaker 1: is still a novelty between four pm and six forty
Speaker 1: five PM. Robert's whereabouts during this period are unconfirmed. He
Speaker 1: departs the hospital at four pm and his home at
Speaker 1: the latest by about six forty five. His house is
Speaker 1: nineteen miles south, a twenty to thirty minute drive, passing
Speaker 1: Scottsdale's most famous tourist attraction, Talies in West Frank Lloyd
Speaker 1: Writ's winter home. Wright built it after an ax wielding
Speaker 1: servant murdered seven people, including Wright's mistress and her kids,
Speaker 1: at Talius in East in Wisconsin in nineteen fourteen, before
Speaker 1: dousing the house in gasoline, burning it down, swallowing hydrochloric acid,
Speaker 1: and starving to death in jail seven weeks later. On
Speaker 1: April ninth, nineteen fifty nine, exactly forty two years before
Speaker 1: the Fisher's final day, Wright died in Phoenix after his
Speaker 1: third and final wife died in nineteen eighty five at
Speaker 1: a hospital in which Robert Fisher would soon work. Wright's
Speaker 1: remains were exzoomed, cremated, and relocated from Wisconsin to Scottsdale.
Speaker 1: April ninth, two thousand and one, about five pm, Mary
Speaker 1: Fisher speaks by phone with her sister Myrna Murna doesn't
Speaker 1: notice anything unusual. Between six and seven pm, Mary speaks
Speaker 1: by phone with her friend Mary Beth Rodin. Mary Beth
Speaker 1: doesn't notice anything unusual either. Six p fifty four pm
Speaker 1: sunset seven pm. Robert and Brittany are at Supei Middle School.
Speaker 1: Britney is set to be inducted into the National Junior
Speaker 1: Honor Society.
Speaker 8: The honor society was not just about getting a's and b's.
Speaker 8: It was also about how do you represent your community.
Speaker 1: Let me now introduce you to four teachers I lovingly
Speaker 1: call the Supeie Gang. Karen Ka Eberley, Britney's language arts teacher.
Speaker 1: Kim Spate, Britney's science teacher and basketball coach.
Speaker 12: I'm Ronda Featherston.
Speaker 1: Ronda helps run the National Junior Honor Society, and finally,
Speaker 1: the last member of the Supei Gang, Britney's social studies
Speaker 1: and math teacher, requested anonymity. Like many people, she believes
Speaker 1: Robert Fisher is alive and is concerned for her safety.
Speaker 1: Let's call her miss Honey in honor of the teacher
Speaker 1: in Matilda. None of these four women, three of whom
Speaker 1: were at the honor Society event, have ever been interviewed
Speaker 1: by media, and Ronda was never interviewed by law enforcement either.
Speaker 1: When I start reaching out to the supe I gang,
Speaker 1: they're initially and understandably suspicious. Who is this scoundrel? Is
Speaker 1: this a scam? They convene remotely and determine that yes,
Speaker 1: I am indeed legit. All of this is endearing to
Speaker 1: me and a bit strange. Like Brittany Fisher, I was
Speaker 1: born in nineteen eighty eight, and like Brittany, I was
Speaker 1: a seventh grader in April two thousand and one. In
Speaker 1: a way, it feels like reaching out to my old
Speaker 1: teachers decades later, trying to solve a mystery. Supei even
Speaker 1: resembles my middle school in North Carolina.
Speaker 8: It was Pink Frink, Split Green Doors.
Speaker 1: The ceremony takes place in the cafeteria on one side,
Speaker 1: a stage on the other, tables with cake and punch.
Speaker 1: John Baird, who co runs j with Ronda Featherston gave.
Speaker 12: A little introduction and we stood for the national anthem.
Speaker 12: The students were on stage and we had the chairs
Speaker 12: on the floor for parents.
Speaker 1: And guests, including Robert Fisher.
Speaker 3: He wasn't dressed up like I would have expected him
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 1: Miss Honey, Brittany's teacher and Honor Society sponsor, is likely
Speaker 1: the second to last person to see and speak with
Speaker 1: Robert Fisher before the murders.
Speaker 3: He was casual, but not grengy, but just casual. And
Speaker 3: I remember when I shook his hand that night to
Speaker 3: congratulate him, because Brittany was with me. I was like, congratulations,
Speaker 3: you must be so proud of her. There was no response.
Speaker 3: I got no response.
Speaker 1: Besides, this lines up with what Miss Honey told police
Speaker 1: in two thousand and one. She recalled telling Robert Fisher,
Speaker 1: you must be so proud of her. Robert shrugged his
Speaker 1: shoulders and said it's to be expected.
Speaker 3: It was almost like it was inconvenience to be at
Speaker 3: this ceremony, like, ugh, I guess we're going to do this.
Speaker 1: Earlier, Robert told a coworker that he doesn't live in
Speaker 1: a great school district. So Britney's Honor society induction might
Speaker 1: not be a big deal. Robert is there, but not there.
Speaker 1: Kay Eberly tells police quote he did not seem proud
Speaker 1: of Brittany.
Speaker 8: I remember shaking Robert Fisher's hand and getting a weird
Speaker 8: vibration from that, and I remember saying, you must be
Speaker 8: very proud of Brittany, and his response was I wouldn't
Speaker 8: expect anything less. And it was not in a happy voice.
Speaker 8: It was more of a yeah, this is what she
Speaker 8: needs to do.
Speaker 1: Robert asks Kay how long the event will last. She
Speaker 1: tells him about forty five minutes. Then he pulls his
Speaker 1: chair away from the other parents, teachers, and students. Now
Speaker 1: it's just him, Brittany, and miss Honey.
Speaker 3: Ended up in this really uncomfortable situation with Brittany and
Speaker 3: then her dad and then me and then over to
Speaker 3: this idea was that that was kind of strange. That's
Speaker 3: why I didn't leave her. I wasn't going to leave her,
Speaker 3: you know. I could have gone in sad with my
Speaker 3: colleagues because other people had families, you know. And then
Speaker 3: the teachers were seated somewhere else by tried to stay
Speaker 3: as much as I could.
Speaker 1: Brittany is quiet and smart and funny. She loves Jesus
Speaker 1: and has kind of a country western vibe. She keeps
Speaker 1: the photo of the family dog, blue tapes in her locker.
Speaker 1: She speaks to and stands up for kids with special needs.
Speaker 1: She has a slight lisp, but her dad refuses speech therapy,
Speaker 1: not for his kids. To visualize how old Brittany would
Speaker 1: be today, look to Lizzo. Brittany and Lizzo were born
Speaker 1: on the same day, April twenty seventh, nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Or look to Emma Stone, who, like Brittany, was born
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty eight and grew up in Scottsdale, only
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes from the Fishers. It's unlikely Stone knew Brittany,
Speaker 1: but to be safe, I did reach out to her reps.
Speaker 1: They haven't gotten back to me yet. Brittany was only
Speaker 1: four months older than me. Calling through Fisher home videos,
Speaker 1: I found this clip. Brittany, wearing a pink and white
Speaker 1: Poga dott dress, gets off a school bus and runs
Speaker 1: to Mary. Mary pushes Bobby in a stroller.
Speaker 8: Slack and hamps from the bus stop.
Speaker 1: The date suddenly comes into focus. September eighth, nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1: My fifth birthday. While interviewing people who knew Brittany, I
Speaker 1: came to see myself as a physical embodiment of their loss.
Speaker 1: I'm thirty five, Brittany would be thirty five, thirty six
Speaker 1: actually by the time this errs. In the home videos,
Speaker 1: there are so many delicate moments of Brittany and Bobby
Speaker 1: the banal beauty of childhood. There are also clips that,
Speaker 1: in retrospect seem kind of eerie. In one, Brittany dances
Speaker 1: in the front yard as her dad films ring.
Speaker 2: Well the Roney the road.
Speaker 1: Ashes ashes, we all fall down. Then you hear Robert
Speaker 1: Fisher in front of a house that, according to police,
Speaker 1: he will one day burn down.
Speaker 8: Ah.
Speaker 1: In another, Mary asked Brittany that a water gun and
Speaker 1: here's one more. Robert sits on the floor cross legged
Speaker 1: with Brittany, Bobby, a toy contraption, and a water balloon.
Speaker 5: Hit boom.
Speaker 1: These home videos make me sad and remind me that, yes,
Speaker 1: this is a fascinating case. It's okay to admit that.
Speaker 1: But these people are real. We're real. If you like
Speaker 1: this show, please download our first two seasons, Missing in
Speaker 1: Alaska and Missing on nine to eleven for updates, visit
Speaker 1: meon thirty three dot com or follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at John waalzac J and w al Czak. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: April ninth, two thousand and one, seven something PM sup
Speaker 1: by Middle School Robert Fisher makes miss Honey feel uneasy.
Speaker 1: What a jerk here tonight and what should be a
Speaker 1: beaming moment of pride for his daughter, this sweet twelve
Speaker 1: year old girl, Robert says, essentially, meh, honor society, so
Speaker 1: what whatever?
Speaker 3: And that was partially why I sat there with her.
Speaker 3: I wanted her to feel that she had the support,
Speaker 3: you know, as an educator and just as a person.
Speaker 3: Liked that she wasn't alone. I felt like, you have
Speaker 3: a creepy dad, So I'm going to sit with you.
Speaker 3: I mean that. I don't mean to put it that way,
Speaker 3: but that was my thinking. You know, I'll see with
Speaker 3: you since you're alone.
Speaker 1: Here, Brittany seems to more and tired.
Speaker 3: She could sense something was going on with dad. Normally
Speaker 3: parents would be like, oh my gosh, I'm so proud
Speaker 3: of you, congratulations. And I think she sensed it because
Speaker 3: she wasn't her like excited, smiley self that I knew.
Speaker 3: I mean, she was smiling, but it was something was
Speaker 3: missing that night.
Speaker 1: Britney's hair is damp. She must have showered right before
Speaker 1: the ceremony. Miss Honey shakes Robert's hand, makes small talk,
Speaker 1: then steals Brittany away for a moment, and I.
Speaker 3: Remember telling her, I am really proud of you. I
Speaker 3: really really proud of you, you know, And even then,
Speaker 3: just because I could feel that he was not giving
Speaker 3: her that what a father would, and so I tried
Speaker 3: to tell her what a great job she's doing and that,
Speaker 3: you know, to keep it up.
Speaker 1: Kay Eberly also notices that Britney seems kind of down.
Speaker 1: Her handshake is quote very wimpy, which is out of character.
Speaker 10: I just got the weirdest feeling that something was not
Speaker 10: right with either one of them, with Brittany and with
Speaker 10: her dad, and I dismissed it as being they had
Speaker 10: a quarrel. I thought maybe she was upset because her
Speaker 10: mother wasn't there.
Speaker 1: It is abnormal that Mary isn't here. Instead, she and
Speaker 1: Bobby are two miles away at a hunting safety course
Speaker 1: at Scottsdale Baptist Church. It's unclear why Mary takes her
Speaker 1: son to a hunting class. Masculine, while Robert takes his
Speaker 1: daughter to a school event feminine. At least that's how
Speaker 1: Robert would see it. Around seven thirty PM, as the
Speaker 1: ceremony concludes, students light celebratory candles, then step off the stage.
Speaker 1: Teachers ask parents to wait five minutes so they can
Speaker 1: sign diplomas. Meanwhile, they say please enjoy the cake and juice.
Speaker 1: Brittany goes for a glass of punch. Robert doesn't join her.
Speaker 1: He doesn't even wait for her to get her diploma.
Speaker 1: He seems to be in a rush. Around seven thirty
Speaker 1: five PM, Robert and Brittany depart sup By Middle School.
Speaker 1: They drive two point three miles north, either directly in
Speaker 1: front of or very close to their church. They don't
Speaker 1: stop to see Mary and Bobby. Instead, they go to
Speaker 1: a nearby store. I'm at popular outdoor outfitters, or at
Speaker 1: least what used to be popular outdoor outfitters, is now
Speaker 1: an abandoned, vacant building. At some point, also in the
Speaker 1: last twenty years, it was an Errands. They have a
Speaker 1: we've moved sign in the window, and I'm pressing my
Speaker 1: face against the glass and looking inside. This is the
Speaker 1: last place that anyone saw Robert Fisher alive. It was
Speaker 1: an eighteen year old store clerk named Ian, and the
Speaker 1: evening of April ninth, two thousand and one, Robert and
Speaker 1: Britney Fisher came here to this exact spot directly after
Speaker 1: the National Junior Honor Society event at Super Middle School.
Speaker 1: Now they were here for fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: and at seven to fifty five PM, Robert pays eighty
Speaker 1: nine forty eight for five items. A pump Pure microfilter,
Speaker 1: which is used by backpackers and hikers to filter water,
Speaker 1: a sixty four ounce water bottle, proof matches, and two
Speaker 1: packets of water purification tablets. He and Brittany leave this
Speaker 1: store this exact spot and presumably goes straight home. The
Speaker 1: eighteen year old cashier, Ian, who we've tried to talk
Speaker 1: to and I don't think he wants to speak to
Speaker 1: us because we've sent a letter and emailed and called Ian,
Speaker 1: is the last person to see Robert Fisher alive. Ian
Speaker 1: tells police that Robert and Brittany are in the store
Speaker 1: for about thirty minutes, but if they leave Sup by
Speaker 1: around seven thirty five, drive to the store and check
Speaker 1: out at seven fifty five. This can't be accurate. It's likelier.
Speaker 1: They're here for about fifteen minutes. At one point, Ian
Speaker 1: looks up to see Robert and Brittany staring at him,
Speaker 1: which makes him uncomfortable. Robert tells Ian he needs advice
Speaker 1: on water purification, saying he's going to draw water from
Speaker 1: a cattle hole and he's worried about viruses. Ian gets
Speaker 1: the impression that Robert is planning on camping for quite
Speaker 1: a long time and that he's leaving town for a while.
Speaker 1: Seven to fifty five pm. Robert swipes his credit card.
Speaker 1: He and Brittany exit the store. It's unclear if they
Speaker 1: stop anywhere else, but if they do, Robert doesn't use
Speaker 1: his credit card. At some point they return home eight
Speaker 1: thirty to nine pm. This is when the kids normally
Speaker 1: go to bed. Robert and Brittany are likely home by now,
Speaker 1: but Mary and Bobby are still at church studying how
Speaker 1: to properly handle guns. Nine thirty pm the hunting class ends.
Speaker 1: Beth Anderson, a Fisher family friend, is also at church tonight,
Speaker 1: teaching a course on financial responsibility. Beth and Mary speak briefly.
Speaker 6: I said, okay, we'll see you tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: For a women's Bible group, and.
Speaker 6: She said, okay, so that's the last thing I said
Speaker 6: to her.
Speaker 1: Beth is likely the final person to see Mary and
Speaker 1: Bobby Fisher alive. She waves as they drive away in
Speaker 1: Mary's silver Toyota for Runner.
Speaker 10: Okay.
Speaker 8: So.
Speaker 1: Driving from the Fisher's home to their church, Scottsdale Baptist,
Speaker 1: it's about a point six mile or three minute four
Speaker 1: minute drive nine thirty to ten pm. This is when
Speaker 1: Mary and Robert normally go to bed around nine forty pm.
Speaker 1: Mary and Bobby get home from the hunting class around
Speaker 1: ten pm. A neighbor tells police that while taking out
Speaker 1: the trash, she hears a heated argument between Robert and Mary.
Speaker 1: Around ten thirty eight pm, Robert leaves the house. So
Speaker 1: we're driving leaving right now from the cul de Sac.
Speaker 1: It's a really pretty neighborhood, a lot of mid century ranches,
Speaker 1: the kind that working class stiffs could afford in the
Speaker 1: fifties or sixties, or even two thousand and one, but
Speaker 1: not today. These modest homes are now worth about seven
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars. Summer twenty twenty three. I'm on the
Speaker 1: ground now in Arizona for four months with our producer Chris.
Speaker 1: We rent a small house in Phoenix. We're lucky to
Speaker 1: have any shelter. It is literally the worst summer ever,
Speaker 1: the hottest summer in any major American city in recorded history.
Speaker 1: But as the meme goes, the coolest summer of the
Speaker 1: rest of our lives. Nearly one thousand people live downtown
Speaker 1: in a sprawling homeless encampment called the Zone. Phoenix hits
Speaker 1: at least one hundred and ten degrees fahrenheit for thirty
Speaker 1: one days in a row, shattering records. Decals and stickers
Speaker 1: jokingly feature a skeleton resting on a cactus. At least
Speaker 1: it's a dry heat. They say that dry heat helped
Speaker 1: kill four hundred and twenty five people in Maricopa County
Speaker 1: last year. Meanwhile, the Colorado River, the source of water
Speaker 1: for forty million people, is running dry. It's in this boiling, scalding,
Speaker 1: dry heat that Chris and I venture out to retrace
Speaker 1: Robert Fisher's final known steps. So we're at the intersection
Speaker 1: of mcdowellan seventy fourth. There is a Chase Bank here
Speaker 1: used to be a bank. One April ninth, two thousand
Speaker 1: and one ten forty two oh seven pm, Forty minutes
Speaker 1: after a neighbor hears Robert and Mary fighting. Robert is
Speaker 1: standing here at this ATM zero point six miles from
Speaker 1: his house. A security camera captures the final confirmed sighting
Speaker 1: of Robert. In grainy black and white footage, we see
Speaker 1: him wearing a long sleeved shirt with an RC COLA logo,
Speaker 1: tucked into cargo style pants, and in Oakland Raiders ball cap.
Speaker 1: He appears to be wearing boots. In the background, we
Speaker 1: see Mary Fisher's Forerunner, which is bizarre. Robert and Mary
Speaker 1: rarely drive each other's vehicles. If ever, Robert pulls out
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty dollars the daily max ten forty
Speaker 1: three fifty four. Robert walks away from the ATM ten
Speaker 1: forty four three. Robert reaches the Forerunner. He seems to
Speaker 1: pause ten forty four twenty one. Robert gets into the
Speaker 1: fore Runner. He drives away. This is April ninth, two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, a normal day, school work and honor
Speaker 1: society ceremony, a hunting class, marital strife, a trip to
Speaker 1: an ATM. A normal day. The ATM footage is the
Speaker 1: final clue. The final time anyone sees Robert Fisher. The
Speaker 1: final time anyone sees Mary Fisher's forerunner, Untila Camper, finds
Speaker 1: it abandoned ten days later in a remote forest. I
Speaker 1: wish to God we had more witnesses, but sadly we don't.
Speaker 1: Next time on Missing an Arizona Except this is false.
Speaker 1: The timeline repeated by law enforcement in the media for
Speaker 1: twenty three years is incorrect. The timeline in which Robert
Speaker 1: Fisher possibly has a ten hour lead on police before
Speaker 1: his house explodes is not accurate. When I investigate these
Speaker 1: high profile stories, there's inevitably a point when I ask myself,
Speaker 1: why why am I doing this? This case has been
Speaker 1: investigated and reported repeatedly. What's the point. Well, this is why,
Speaker 1: because there are always new facts to find, and I
Speaker 1: found them. No, I haven't located Robert Fisher yet. For
Speaker 1: that I need your help. But I have found a
Speaker 1: ton of new information, including a new witness and a
Speaker 1: post atm sighting a new timeline. As we conclude, let
Speaker 1: me leave you with this from a home video dated
Speaker 1: February eighteenth, nineteen ninety four, Britney Fisher and her classmates
Speaker 1: stand on a stage in front of proud parents. Next
Speaker 1: time I'm missing in Arizona.
Speaker 9: What's going on?
Speaker 5: It's a big fire.
Speaker 8: Was generally big fires just like blew up?
Speaker 9: Okay, what's on fire?
Speaker 1: The whole house?
Speaker 8: Hello, whole house is burning up.
Speaker 1: You can reach us by phone at one eight three
Speaker 1: three new tips that's one eight three three six three
Speaker 1: nine eight four seven seven, by email at tips at
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com, t I p s at iHeartMedia dot com,
Speaker 1: online at me on thirty three dot com, or on
Speaker 1: Twitter at John Waalzac j O n W A L
Speaker 1: c Z A K. Paul Ducan is our execus producer,
Speaker 1: Chris Brown is our supervising producer. Hannah Rose Snyder is
Speaker 1: our producer. Paul Gemperlin is our researcher. Ben Bollen is
Speaker 1: a consulting producer, and I'm your host and executive producer
Speaker 1: John Walzac. Special thanks to Matt Baugard and the Scottsdale
Speaker 1: Police Department, and a shout out to Max Schwartz, the
Speaker 1: first person to discover an Easter egg I hid in
Speaker 1: season two, Missing on nine to eleven Recreations, voiced by
Speaker 1: Max Williams and Paul Deckin. Cover art by Pam Peacock.
Speaker 1: Neon thirty three logo designed by Derek Rudy. Our intro
Speaker 1: song is Utopia by Ruby Cube. Please download the first
Speaker 1: two seasons of our show, Missing in Alaska and Missing
Speaker 1: on nine to eleven, and if you're so inclined, give
Speaker 1: us a five star rating. Missing in Arizona is a
Speaker 1: co production of iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three