Robert loses control and spirals into a violent decline.
Missing in Arizona contains graphic depictions of violence and may not be suitable for all listeners. This episode also discusses suicide. You can reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at nine to eight eight. His final days and hours that April are murky. He'd been suffering from pain for a long time and drugging himself to dull it. There was a brief golden moment in the early nineties after his daughter was born, but an uneasy piece gave way to spiraling volatility. He was used to that. He came from a broken home, a child of divorce. In the end, he was alone. Someone thought they saw him at a bar, but that sighting is unconfirmed. We don't know what happened in his final hours as they wound down, though he made a choice burn out, don't fade away, exit in a flash. No one heard the gunshot. I used to live in a building in Seattle called the Okay Hotel. It was a famous music venue until two thousand and one, when an earthquake damaged it. Later it was converted into affordable apartments and artists studios. When I moved to Seattle, I made so little money I qualified to live there. My ex and I signed a lease, then broke up, but stayed for a bit. The day after we broke up, my brain was a cauldron of depression, anxiety, and cabin fever. Outside lay a perfect summer day, sunny, low seventies, A breeze blew in off Puget Sound. I decided to walk across the city to Kurt Cobain's house. This is where he died by suicide in April nineteen ninety four. As a kid, even now I related relate to Cobain. He wasn't my generation, but what does it matter. I love his music. I loved the idea of him more a loner with mental health issues, dedicated to art who stood up for the downtrodden, troubled but gentle, empathetic kind, the nineties icon who said I feel your pain and meant it, and we felt his. When someone like that made they make everyone like them feel less alone. Living in Seattle, I'd often pass bits of Nirvana history, the bar Cobain might have visited right before he died, Linda's tavern, the motel where he used to shoot up heroin, the Marco Polo. I didn't even have to leave my building to see a bit of his history. The Okay Hotel is where Nirvana premiered smells like teen Spirit in April nineteen ninety one. Twenty years later, when I moved in, the stage was gone, but I figured out where it stood in what became my building's trash room. This bit of music history was where I dumped my garbage. Honestly, I think Kurt would approve. My ex moved out. I made friends and went to concerts and games and art shows and clubs. Back home alone, I'd take out the trash down an elevator to this little room where a stage once stood, where an artist once stood, I'd pause. We can never hold the anarchy of change, that permanent impermanence, in anything but a brief abeyance. With all our might. The best we can do is slow it down, watch it approach frame by frame. Often we can't even do that. It speeds toward us, a towering tsunami of shadows that will consume us, a menacing specter that never lets us forget who's in control. Sometimes it's unpredictably benevolent. Often it's not. It can demonstrate bipolarity in the extreme rewarding us with riches material and immaterial, and torturing us at the same time. That's how a little boy from Aberdeen, Washington grows into a global icon, all the world his stage, while simultaneously dealing with addiction and depression and dying at the end of a needle and a gun. That's how a little boy in Arizona grows into a man of more modest success a wife, two kids, a house, a job at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix, while simultaneously fighting his demons. The story of Kurt Cobain is one of a man who's pain never stamped out his humanity. The story of Robert Fisher is one of a man who's pain crystallized into a brutal act of violence. One self immolated, one immolated others. What separates you, I hope, from both of them is how you handle change. Isn't this what divides our society? How we handle change. Those of us who have seen the glory wanta martin reverse. Those of us who never reached it want to push forward. One side looks in a mirror and seeks to restore an unrestorable stasis. The other punches a hole in that mirror and claws forward through glass. We play an interminable game of tug of war, forcing change, reacting to it. This is the fault line of our times. At this pivot point in history, the forces of progress and the forces of reaction are engaged in a ferocious battle. Islam speaks of two jihads. You likely know one of them an external war, not the other an internal war. A siren calls out to your demons. Ask yourself, who's in control you? The demons? The story of Kurt Cobain is one of spiraling decline. The story of Robert Fisher is one of spiraling decline. The story of America I Fear is one of spiraling decline. Kurt died by suicide. Robert killed his wife and kids, burned down their house, and fled. In the end, who was in control Kurt or his demons? Robert or his demons? Is suicide or murder? A final exercise of control, of agency or the loss of it? Do you die by suicide or commit it? Who's in control now you or your demons? America's better angels or the demons of decline? From iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three, I'm John Walzac and This is Missing in Arizona, the story of a man who disappeared after allegedly killing his wife and kids, blowing up their bourbon home, and escaping into the wilderness. Twenty three years later, I'm hunting Robert Fisher, and I need your helping. The Fall of the House of Fisher begins in January nineteen eighty five in Barrego Springs, California, a tiny arid town between San Diego and the Salton Sea. After three years in the Navy, Robert gets a job here as a firefighter and emt. He and Mary get married in Arizona in November nineteen eighty four. She follows him back to California. The seed of their demise, the first flap of the butterflies Wings, arises only two months later January nineteen eighty five. Ronald Reagan has sworn in for a second term. Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper, and others record We Are the World. In Brego Springs, Mary Fisher, twenty two, settles into married life. The honeymoon phase begins. Robert is a hero in her eyes and his A lean twenty three year old with brownish blonde hair, and blue eyes a firefighter. The honeymoon phase ends. Robert got what he wanted Mary, and then a friend tells me the costume came off. Isolated in rural California, Robert tightens his grip. He owns Mary. She's his wife. He's in control. Control is everything for Robert. It's how he shows the world himself that he's a man. It's how he deals with the anarchy outside. He can't control the world, fine, he can control his wife. He can build a domestic castle in which he alone is king. Yet even the best constructed castle has weak points. In January nineteen eighty five, the anarchy breaks in. This is when Robert injures his back on the job, a seed of chaos that will destroy him. He responds to a car accident. Someone flipped their car and rolled down a hill. Robert climbs down and pulls the victim out of the wreckage. He carries them up to the road, and in the process, he blows out multiple discs in his back. This dramatically affects his future. He needs spinal surgery. He can no longer do the job he loves. He reaches a settlement with the fire department medical retirement or workers comp or something so here. He is twenty three back injury, chronic pain, limited job options. He and Mary decide to return to Arizona, first Phoenix, then Scottsdale. Robert attends community college in nineteen eighty seven. He starts a new career as a respiratory therapist. He still gets to be a hero, kind of just standing at a hospital instead of racing into fires. He and Mary move into twenty two to twenty three north seventy fourth place in Scottsdale in January nineteen eighty eight, Newcastle fresh start. That April, Mary gives birth to their first child, Brittany, and in September nineteen ninety their second, Bobby. The late eighties and early nineties speedby with only one notable incident. Robert shoots a dog May eleventh, nineteen eighty nine. This account is based on police reports, interviews with neighbors, and details from the Arizona Republic. Around three PM, as Robert leaves for work, he sees a stray pit bull. It's beefy seventy pounds of muscle and growling. Robert's dog, Ruger, a black lab, runs to it. The pit bull strikes. The dogs fight. Robert runs inside, grabs a pistol and shoots the pit bull, which staggers off, leaving a trail of blood. Police and animal control show up. Robert says he has no regrets. The pit bull was killing Ruger and it was an imminent danger not only to kids on the street, but also kids at a nearby school about to let out for the day. Police and media later used this incident to paint Robert as a dog shooting psycho. In June two thousand and one, after the murders, police say Robert orchestrated the dog fight so he could shoot the pit bull, but that's not accurate or fair. One neighbor sees the pit bull, pulls his kids inside and calls nine one one before the shooting. Another Paul is home at the time, asleep. The commotion wakes him up. He goes outside ask Bob, what the heck's going on here?
I mean it was self defense because that pitbull shreds his dog.
The pit bull menaced the neighborhood for weeks. Combing through Fisher family videos, I find this clip from April twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine, fifteen days before the shooting. Listen closely, like Robert, what does the pit bull look like? A little bit like a box of a little bit like a boxer, but thinner face dog. I'm scared to death of that dog, So I think we can safely say the pit bull was a credible threat. This is a great example of how a fact can be used to paint a misleading portrait. Which of the following is true man shoots pitbull to protect his dog and local children or unhinged maniac shoots dog. In December nineteen eighty nine, Hollywood releases a movie called Cha Devil forty eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Meryl Street plays Wait for It. Mary Fisher, a romance novelist who runs off with a guy named Bob. Roseanne Barr plays Bob's wife, Ruth. Ruth seeks revenge. Using gas as an accelerant, she blows up Bob's house in a massive explosion. I found this by accident while searching for an article on the pit bull shooting. I didn't understand at first why there were so many results for Mary Fisher and nineteen eighty nine. She Devil is about a woman who loses control and chooses to deal with it in a black comedy deranged way, I imagine, and it was cathartic for women to see violent retribution play out with the classic roles reversed. There's a bubbling anger out there, women beaten down literally and metaphorically, who just aren't gonna take it anymore. I once worked as an editor for Microsoft. I saw in real time which topics had max clickbait potential puppies, celebrities, sex, and wives killing their husbands. I put up something about a Pakistani woman who killed her husband and cooked him in a pot. She claimed he tried to molest their daughter. Headline wife cook's husband. My bosses were pissed, fair enough. Not a judgment call I would make today, but it did numbers anyway. The nineties the end of History, smash Mouth, Blockbuster, OJ, You've Got Mail. As the nineties progress, Robert Fisher's back pain worsens. In nineteen ninety nine, on the eve of Y two K, he sees a masseuse. At the time, the Phoenix Metro has a ton of massage parlors that are in fact front for prostitution. In April nineteen ninety nine, scott Steel police raid a parlor five minutes from the Fisher house. In November nineteen ninety nine, Masa police conduct a sting in which officers allow sex workers to touch their genitals. According to the Arizona Republic. In April two thousand, scott Steel police raid another parlor ten minutes from the Fisher House. It's unclear Robert knows he'll be offered sex. Nonetheless, in nineteen ninety nine, he and a masseuse have a sexual encounter at a hotel five minutes from the Fisher house. This is a pivotal moment in his demise. The House of Fisher falls faster now. We previously reported that Robert may have had an affair with a co worker in the mid nineties. Even if true, Mary never finds out about it. She does find out about this one though. In August nineteen ninety nine, Robert writes her a letter confessing. He expresses remorse and says he understands if she wants to separate. He tells her he's leaving for thirty days, retreating to a cabin.
In the woods.
He can that if she does want to break up, he's going to commit suicide. This is about fidelity, not sex. But sex has been problematic for the Fishers. Robert wants it every single day. Mary doesn't. I could see at eighteen, but at forty, her friend tells police, who wants to have sex every day? Robert just wants to prove that he can. Mary says. Mary doesn't enjoy it, quote dishes laundry. Sex. But it's not a big deal, she says, quote just ky jelly and five minutes. She wants to be a good wife. Sex is quote a small price to pay. Robert has always felt insecure and inadequate. He tells a friend he married up. He's trying to prove he's a man, but he can't please his wife. Sex with Robert is a five minute chore. Robert needs to prove he's a man, though, He takes supplements to boost his testosterone. According to his friend Jim Rodin.
Whether it was the creatine or whatever supplement, he goes, you know, just gives you that boost a testosterone to piss you law to push the bar up one more frickin' time. So he had that kind of whoah, tough guy that he loved, loved to foster in him.
Another friend, Ken tells police that Robert has a quote sexual problem a wandering eye. A third says Robert struggled with porn during his navy days. Temptation in nineteen ninety nine, if not earlier. Robert succumbs. He confesses that infidelity to Mary and takes time off work. He drives to a cabin on Hawley Lake, four hours away, and he waits for Mary to reach out to him. Instead, she ignores him. This is not going to plan. He's not in control. He calls her, asking her to come up to the lake. She consults his friend Ken, a pastor. Fearing for her safety, Ken advises her not to go. Mary stays in Scottsdale. Three days later, Robert comes home. He apologizes, He buys her a ring. He seems to feel genuine remorse, but he's also practical. He knows he's on the edge of divorce, so he seeks help from friends, from God.
He felt terrible. Jim Rodin felt dirty, felt condemned his childhood faith and the conscience that it developed. He knew that he was dirty and caught. He knew that it could cost him his marriage. He knew that it could severely damage his children.
What follows is a false spring Robert attends to hers religiously and participates weekly in immen's ministry. For the first time, Mary sees this stubborn man make an effort to change himself, not her or the world.
There was a season there where Mary was thankful and stunned at the quality of person she saw he could be, And for about a year the marriage began to thrive. Robert was even reading the scriptures to his kids. Somewhere in there, something changed. He started to drift again.
By October two thousand, six months before the murders, a switch flips. Everyone notices a shift in Robert's behavior. Holl's a coworker that he's in pain. His back is hurting again, making matters worse. In November nineteen ninety nine, he also injured his knee while playing football in a park. Robert quote Tor Stuff, a friend says October two thousand, Robert William Fisher, aged thirty nine, in pain. But nothing can control him, damn it, not even his health. He goes hunting. On the way he spots an elk on the side of the road. He gets out and shoots it. He guts it and tries to load it into the bed of his truck, but he can't. His pain is in control, not him. Mary confides to friends, including Mary Beth Rodin, that she's scared and so is Robert, because.
He was facing potential surgery for his back.
This terrifies Robert. He's worried surgery will paralyze him, and he knows a paralyzed life is a difficult life. His close friend, a neighbor, was paralyzed in a freak accident. One day, Robert sees this man fall out of a chair. He has to help the man's son lift him on up. He later says, quote, it was like deadlifting four hundred pounds. So what should Robert do? He's in pain, but he's petrified of surgery, of paralysis, career ending disability, total loss of control. He starts to withdraw from church, friends, the gym. In December two thousand, he stops working out. He's constantly popping pills, percocet, Perkidan, ballium. He seems to be addicted. Friends later question whether or not his pill habit affects his mental state. In the lead up to the murders, let me pause for a second and talk about pain. In twenty eighteen, I had two failed root canals that left me in pain for months, facial pain, nerve pain. I lost feeling in part of my tongue, It affected my speech. No doctor would help me. They all thought I wanted pills, which I didn't. I remember sitting at home watching daytime TV. Is there anything more depressing? So many pain commercials, all targeting people like me. Nothing instills a greater appreciation for a normal, boring life than an extended period of pain. Thankfully, I found an amazing dentist and a talented oral surgeon. I got better. But what about the people who don't, The people with unsolvable pain, Kurt Cobain and his stomach, Robert Fischer and his back. We can't just tell them to avoid drugs and suffer. Thankfully, we seem to be at the dawn of a new golden age of medicine, driven in part by AI. In January, a Boston company announced an experimental drug VX five four eight that appears highly effective in relieving certain types of acute pain. Scientists are also developing stem cell treatments and experimental nerve stimulation devices. It's alluring to consider the impact this kind of innovation might have on society. Maybe somewhere soon, a musician with stomach pain chooses to live a father with back pain doesn't spiral into murder. If you like this show, please download our first two seasons, Missing in Alaska and Missing on nine to eleven. For updates, visit neon thirty three dot com or follow me on Twitter at John Waalzac jo N wal Czak. Thanks for listening. December two thousand, Robert gets sick with what he says is either a urinary tract infection UTI or prostatitis. Police later speculate that he actually caught a sexually transmitted infection or STI, which would indicate he cheated on Mary again, which would likely lead her to divorce him. January two thousand and one. Mary complains to Robert that he's letting himself go. His muscle tone is down. Maybe this seems mean given his back pain, but not when you consider how he treats Mary, dictating how many slices of pizza she can have, locking her out of the house, forcing her to walk because he doesn't want a fat wife. In that context, I say to Mary, good for you. It's an example of Mary's standing up for herself. January twentieth. George W. Bush is inaugurated president. January twenty seventh. Robert pawns an expensive nine millimeter handgun for a lesser quality thirty eight. This is the thirty eight that'll disappear after the murders. Do me a favor if you own one. Check the serial number. We're looking for a snubnose five shot thirty eight serial number CEC four nine two four CEC four nine two four. February two thousand and one, Mary's friend who doesn't want to be named, visits and stays with the Fishers. She sees Robert popping pills and tells him he needs to schedule back surgery. He says he's scared that if he he does, he'll end up paralyzed. February fifteenth, Robert speaks to his dad for the final time. Late February or early March, Robert visits Don's Sports Shop in Scottsdale, a storewear Over the years, he's purchased rifles, ammo, and camping gear. It's unclear what he buys today, if anything. March two thousand and one, Robert and his friend Ashley's arsty, their spouses and their kids spend a weekend together at a cabin near Whispering Pines, ninety miles north of Scottsdale. Robert drinks bourbon, chews tobacco, and teaches Ashley's young son how to fish. He and Mary seem normal. However, not long after the trip, Ashley hears a rumor that Robert isn't coming home. Some nights sometime in March, Robert attends a parent teacher conference at Suppie Middle School with Miss Honey, Britney's social studies and math teacher. Mary doesn't attend.
So we were on the ESL block English as a Second Language. We had multi lingual students, Spanish. I had a rocky student and during that parentidge conference I was talking to him and I was explaining her grades in my class and what we were doing. And then he said, why is she in these classes with these immigrants or these Mexicans? And I said, this is the English as a Second Language blob, why is she there. I don't want her. I want her moved, I want her way from those And I remember being very off put by that.
Miss Honey is later the second to last person to see and speak with Robert, hours before the murders March fifth, a fifteen year old gunman shoots and kills two classmates and injures eleven others plus two staffers at Santana High School in Sante, California. March tenth, one month until the murders, Bobby Junior participates in the Iwana Olympics, a Christian sporting event, with friends including Brock Anderson. Brock sends me a photo of him, Bobby, and eleven other boys standing in a group in red T shirts wearing medals. Some make funny faces, some look away. Bobby stares directly at the camera. March fourteenth, Robert Phil's prescriptions for perkindan an opioid painkiller, diazepam, an anxiety medication, Celebrex, an anti inflammatory drug, and cyclo benzaprene, a muscle relaxant. Sometime mid to late March, Mary's friend Kim Davidson stops by the Fisher House unannounced.
I was off work for some reason, so I decided to just go pop in and visit her. At first, I went by the Bible study that we would have been at had I not been working, and everyone said she didn't show up that day, which is very unusual because she was always there, and so I ran over to by her house see if she was sick or something. She answered the door and was almost nervous. She didn't invite me in, which was very unusual. She just kind of stood and bought the door. And then she said that she'd hurt her hand, and Robert wanted her to go to the emergency room to get a look tickn at it. I don't even know if he was home at the time. So I said, do you want me to drive you there, because you've got your hand, I'll drive. She says, no, no, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. And that was the last time I saw her.
Do you remember any other time that you stopped by her house that she did not invite you in? Never did you see her hand injury.
I vaguely remember it, but not really. I know she was holding her hand.
There's no way to tell for sure how Mary injured her hand, but it's hard to listen to Kim's account and not suspect it was during a fight with Robert, which would indicate a rapid deterioration in their relationship. No one I or the police interviewed, no matter how much they hated Robert reported seeing any sign of physical abuse on Mary or the kids. Ever, no weird cuts or bruises or anything. Mary was proud and private. She could have hidden it, but she confided other embarrassing things to family and friends, like Robert's fling with the masseuse. She never told anyone that he was physically violent standing in Mary's doorway. Kim knows something's wrong.
More than the hand. It was her demeanor. Now that I think back, it could have been fear that I was sensing from her. But I even went home after that and told my husband, I said, I don't know what's going on with Mary. I thought, well, maybe she's mad at me about something, just because of the way she reacted.
Sometime in mid to late March, Robert stops by Mary's office unannounced, which is out of the norm. According to Mary's boss and friend, Lori Greenbeck, It's part of a pattern Lourie notices leading up to the murders.
So he had to take some time off work because he had some kind of kidney infection or utah or something. And I could tell he was in trouble with Mary because he had bought a truck that she didn't know anything about. He just came to the office and wanted to show her this truck.
Later, Robert shows up again on foot.
So our office was right off a green belt between where we lived and where they lived, and so he had walked up with the kids to ride.
Home with Mary. And so that was just something he would never do.
Being a chauvinistic Robert is king, and when you're king, you don't go to your wife. She comes to you. Obedient wife, obedient children.
He was very controlling of their whole family, not just Mary, but the kids. Like he wouldn't let Britney sell Girl Scout cookies, even though Mary was the Girl Scout cookie mom. But Britney was not allowed to sell Girl Scout Why you know, Oh, he just thought it looked like begging.
Late March, three weeks until the murders, Robert speaks for the final time with his younger sister Jean. He tells her he bought a new truck. He says his back pain is quote bearable. At work, Robert appears stressed and paranoid, quiet and serious, withdrawn He ruminates about how life would have been different if his parents didn't divorce when he was a kid. March twenty second, Robert calls a friend in San Diego to check on his wife, a teacher at Santana High School, where the shooting took place two weeks ago. It's one of two connections Robert has to the school. He has another friend who works there too, a baseball coach named Bob. One of Robert's friends knew the shooter. The other knew one of the kids killed. Robert tells a coworker that the shooter was bullied repeatedly quote you know how long can a kid go on being bullied like that? Inspired by the shooting, the band Pod will later release the number one song Youth of the Nation. Friday, March thirtieth, eleven days until the murders. Robert and Mary have the day off. They load Robert's quad an ATV into the back of his truck and head into the wilderness. Three people, Mary's dad, a friend, and a neighbor later tell police about the trip. The friend doesn't know where Robert and Mary go. The dad says they go into the desert. The neighbor says they go up in the mountains near young When Bobby gets home from school, Robert and Mary are still out. They spend the entire day together, and by Mary's account, they have a good time. This is important for two reasons. First, it shows that Robert and Mary are on at least somewhat good terms today, eleven days before the murders. Second, if they are near young, they're not far from where police later find Mary's SUV. Saturday, March thirty, first, ten days until the murders, Robert and Mary attend a wedding in Sedona, two hours north of Scottsdale. When I learn about this, alarm bells go off in a good way. The most recent photo I have of Robert is from December nineteen ninety nine. I don't have any of him taken after that. Neither do the police. If Robert and Mary attend a wedding, they're likely caught on film by a professional photographer only ten days before the murders. The problem is I know nothing except that they attend a friend's wedding in Sedona on March thirty first, two thousand and one. That's it, not a lot to work with. I spend months trying to figure out whose wedding no one knows. Then I hear back from one of Mary's friends who finally tells me the name of the bride and groom, Colleen called Kalb and Dave Strutt. I reach out to Dave and Colleen separately. They're no longer married. To my surprise, Dave calls back quickly. Yes, they did have photos of Robert and Mary at the wedding. He thinks they're in storage for months. We text. He goes to the storage unit. He can't find any photos of the wedding none. He doesn't know what happened to them. I hear back from Colleen indirectly through her sister, who tells me Colleen lost her wedding photos in some kind of storage mishap. The sister has a few photos, but none of the fishers. No one knows the name of the wedding photographer, and no one remembers the name of the venue. So, my beloved audience, I'm throwing you a hail Mary. Did you attend the wedding? Did you photograph it? If so, please contact us. At the wedding, Robert and Mary appear to get along. They seem fine when it ends. They drive to the town of Prescott, pr E Scott to visit Robert's mom, Jan They stay the night at someone's house, probably Jans Sunday, April first, first nine days until the murders. Before heading home to Scottsdale, Robert and Mary drive north from Prescott. To Mary's surprise, Robert makes an unexpected stop at a quote survivalist compound. This has never been reported until now. Mary later tells her friend Mary Beth Rodin about it.
I remember Mary coming over and saying, yeah, the wedding was awesome, but Robert had to go to this dumb survivalist place.
In the town of Paulden, population forty five hundred, thirty five minutes north of Prescott, the wrong direction from Scottsdale, adding at least an hour and ten minutes to the trip home.
He'd made the trip to go talk to these survivalist people in Paulden about something.
When they get to the compound, Robert tells Mary to wait in the car. He's gone for an hour. She doesn't know what he's doing. When he returns, they drive back to Scottsdale. Who did Robert know in Paulden? What was he doing at a survivalist compound and why did he make Mary wait in the car for an hour? I don't know, but i'd like to time. The week before the murders, Brittany competes in a Pinewood Derby competition in which kids raise small wooden cars. At church, her car breaks down. She's eliminated. A pastor says she disabled her car on purpose because she didn't want to beat a younger kid. Teachers notice that Brittany's not herself. She seems depressed. She quits the track team separately. Robert and Bobby played basketball in a neighbor's driveway. Robert asks the neighbor what it feels like to kill someone. He seems upset. Robert visits another neighbor, his paralyzed friend. They watched the TV show Eco Challenge, which features a segment on water purification. Robert expresses interest in learning how to purify water. Wednesday, April fourth, six days until the murders, Robert unexpectedly shows up at church looking for Mary and the kids.
Mary got really like almost.
Scared once again. Kim Davidson.
She went to find her children, and she was very upset that he was there. So it was like something had happened and she didn't want to see him.
Kim isn't there, but her friend Donna is. Neither of them has ever seen this before. Mary fearful of Robert. For years, Robert liked how involved Mary was with their church. He liked knowing where she was and who she was with. It was easier to control her. A friend says, now he realizes that maybe Mary's too independent. She has her own job, her own social life. He tells a coworker he's worried Mary is quote spending a lot of time at church with a pastor. He feels quote that the pastor is too involved in the family's life. He doesn't name the pastor. It's extremely unlikely that Robert thinks Mary's having an affair. This is about control. Anyone with influence over his family, even a pastor, is a threat. Thursday, April fifth or Friday April sixth, Robert tells a coworker that he had the previous week off. He says he and Mary spent a day on his ATV somewhere in or near Roosevelt, a rugged area next to a huge lake, ninety minutes away between Scottsdale and Young Friday April sixth, four days until the murders. Seven to ten pm, Mary stops at a gas station fills up. Her fore runner pulls seventy five dollars from an atm. April sixth or seventh, Robert shops for attic insulation. He speaks to his mother for the final time. Brittany attends a sleepover. She allegedly says that when she dies, she wants to die in her sleep. Saturday, April seventh, three days until the murders, Robert tells a friend he's working overtime to pay off his new truck. The Fissures are in good financial shape. They're set to pay off their mortgage early. Mary's forerunner is paid off. They have savings. Robert heads to Checker Auto, a nearby store. I visit the building in twenty twenty three. After it was Checker, it turned into an O'Reilly auto parts store, and now it's empty. I'm pressing my face up against the glass and it's just filthy.
Thirty their leaves.
He's a duct tape, an old sign. Looks like it's been empty for a while. April seventh, two thousand and one, ten oh four am, Robert buys motor oil filters and a five gallon drain pan. He's caught on security footage. I try to obtain it. The police still haven't given it to me. I try to interview the cashier, but she died. In twenty fourteen. Her death made national news. Her four year old autistic son lived alone with her body for four days until help arrived. April seventh, two thousand and one, Robert changes the oil on his truck, his quad, and Mary's fore runner. That night, he and Mary go to a movie with Mary's sister and her husband. Robert and Mary are in quote very good spirits and appear to be getting along. They're home by ten pm Sunday, April eighth, two days until the murders. Ten thirty am, Robert, Mary and the kids attend church. Robert tells a friend that he's in quite a bit of pain. His back hurts. He says he's taking valley. The friend says that's not good. Robert responds, I'm controlling it. I'm keeping it under control. One PM, Mary's mom, Jinny Cooper, has lunch with Mary and the kids at Sweet Tomatoes, a soup and salad restaurant. Robert doesn't attend. Ginny says this is normal. Robert quote pretty much stays away from the family police ask why. She says Robert has a fear of getting close to people and losing them. Three p forty six pm, Mary signs a check at Costco. In the evening, she's back at church. The Sopranos episode's second opinion airs on HBO. It'll Win, Edie Falco and Emmy April ninth. The final day late April ninth or early April tenth, The murders April tenth. The house explodes, So what to make of all this? By April two thousand and one, Robert's behavior has been different for about six months. He's in pain, popping pills, needs surgery, but is terrified it'll pair. After cheating on Mary, he works hard to be a better man until about October two thousand. Then he starts to withdraw from church, friends, the gym. He seems stressed and paranoid. In December two thousand, he gets sick with what he claims is a UTI, but it might actually be an STI. Rumors fly that Robert had an affair and that Mary wants a divorce. In mid to late March, Kim Davidson drops by the Fisher House. Mary answers the door, her hand is injured. She acts weird. Kim offers to drive her to get help. Mary says no. On March thirtieth, eleven days before the murders, Robert and Mary spend the day on Robert's ATV. They seem fine. On March thirty, first, they attend a wedding. Again, they seem fine, but something changes. By April fourth, Robert shows up at church looking for Mary and the kids. Mary appears afraid of him. Britney appears depressed. She quits to tract him. She allegedly says that when she dies, she wants to die in her sleep. Robert asks the neighbor what it feels like to kill someone. On April seventh, fifty hours before the murders, Robert and Mary go to the movies. They seem fine. The next morning they go to church. Robert says he's in a lot of pain. Mary and the kids have lunch with Mary's mom, soup salad. They seem fine. They have thirty six hours to live. The bipolarity of this final week is dizzying normal, abnormal, stasis, change, control, chaos, Mary afraid of Robert, and Mary going to the movies with him smiling. The biggest question of this case, other than where's Robert Fisher? Is why? What led to the murders? I think we can answer that. Nineteen eighty five the seed Robert's back injury control, Robert starts to lose it. Nineteen ninety nine, the fuel infidelity alt Robert tries to adjust. Two thousand and one the spark delete the murders? What is the spark? What triggers Robert or his demons to detonate the House of Fisher. I have a theory based on a new fact, which I'll share with you next week. Before you go, let me tell you a story about loss of control and trauma and what comes next. Twenty thirteen was the worst year of my life and also one of the best. That January I started to spiral. I sank into severe depression and anxiety, and for the first time, started having panic attacks. There are certain pains you can't understand unless you experience them. Ten minutes felt like ten years eternal torture. My only relief was sleep. For the first and only time I was suicidal. I wanted to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. Thankfully I didn't. By early March, I gave up my apartment in Seattle, flew home, stayed with my aunt and grandma. My life shrank down to a single room, slowly, though I clawed it back. That August, I moved to Louise, where I met my current partner, who I'm still with eleven years later. In New Orleans, I started archival research that later formed the backbone of season one of this show. Missing in Alaska twenty thirteen was the year I dissolved and reconstituted. This episode is about change and trauma and control. When you're suffering, nothing hurts more than to feel like you're alone. Nothing hurts more than to feel like things will never get better. So I want to share my story with you. You don't have to go the way of Kurt Cobain or Robert Fisher. I can't promise things will get better, but I can promise it's possible, and at the least I can promise you you're not alone. A phone number won't solve everything, I know, but it's a first step. You can reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by phone or text at nine eight eight or online at nine eight eight lifeline dot org. If you're struggling, please seek help. You're listening to this show today because things did get better for someone who suffered intensely. Things can get better for you too. You're not alone Next time, I'm missing in Arizona.
As of today, there's thirty possible matches to him within one hundred miles of where he disappeared.
You can reach us by phone at one eight three three new tips that's one eight three three six three nine eight four seven seven, by email at tips at iHeartMedia dot com, tips at iHeartMedia dot com, online at Neon thirty three dot com, or on Twitter at John Wallzac, j O, n Wa l Czak. Paul Deckan is our executive producer. Chris Brown is our supervising producer. Hannah Rose Snyder is our producer. Paul Gemberline is our researcher. Ben Bolan is a consulting producer, and I'm your host and executive producer John Wallzac Special thanks to Mike Hicks. Additional production support provided by Ben Hackett. Cover art by Pam Peacock, Neon thirty three, logo design Derek Rudy. Our intro song is Utopia by Ruby Cube. Please download the first two seasons of our show, Missing in Alaska and Missing on nine to eleven, and if you're so inclined, give us a five star rating. Missing in Arizona is a co production of iHeartRadio and Neon thirty three.