Here’s the timeline of the Robert Fisher manhunt over the years.
• 10 p.m. April 9, 2001
A neighbor overhears Robert Fisher and his wife, Mary, having a loud argument at about 10 p.m. in their Scottsdale house.
• 10:45 p.m. April 9, 2001
Robert Fisher withdraws $280 — the maximum amount allowable — from an ATM at 10:45 p.m. at 74th Street and McDowell Road in Scottsdale. The surveillance camera shows that Fisher appears to be alone in his wife's Toyota 4Runner.
• April 10, 2001
At 8:42 a.m., a blast rings through a south Scottsdale neighborhood, and flames engulf the Fishers' home. Firefighters discover the charred remains of Mary, Brittney, and Bobby Fisher inside. Their throats have been slit. Notably missing is Robert Fisher Sr., who is quickly labeled a person of interest.
• April 13, 2001
Police identify the 40-year-old Fisher as a murder suspect. A statewide bulletin is issued for his arrest. Police allege Fisher slit the throats of his wife and children and rigged a gas explosion at the home to cover up the crime. To date, he is the only suspect in the case.
• April 17, 2001
Nearly 1,300 people attend a memorial service for Mary, Brittney and Bobby Fisher at Scottsdale Baptist Church. Plainclothes police officers also attend, looking for Robert Fisher.
• April 20, 2001
A camper spots the family's Toyota 4Runner in the forest east of Payson in the Tonto National Forest. The only sign of Fisher is his black, Oakland Raiders baseball cap. The family dog, Blue, is sheltering under the vehicle.
• April 20-22, 2001
A manhunt ensues in the forest near Young, Arizona. Authorities look for traces of Fisher in limestone caves. Snow and thick fog moves in and hampers the search. Asked to evaluate the odds of Fisher being alive or dead, then-Gila County Deputy R.H. Wade pretends to toss a coin and slap it on his wrist. "We just don't know what else to do," he said.
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Authorities speculate Fisher could have hitched a ride out or gotten help leaving the area. Or he may have walked into the woods and killed himself.
Scottsdale SWAT team members return to command base after searching for Robert Fisher all day in the woods near Young, Ariz., on April 21, 2001. Fisher was not found.
DAVE CRUZ/THE REPUBLIC
• April 23, 2001
The futile search for Fisher is called off. Authorities are frustrated and disappointed. "We really thought we were close," said then-Gila County Sheriff John Armer.
• June 25, 2001
The Gila County Sheriff's Office announces they believe Fisher may have been dead for more than two months and have plans for another search. The search is postponed, however, first because authorities say key personnel are unavailable and then because of potential liability issues.
• August 2001
America's Most Wanted, the popular TV crime show, turns the spotlight on the Fisher case. Scottsdale police say the show generates 52 calls. None of the tips pan out. One call originates from a pizzeria in Chester, Virginia, where the caller says he is Fisher.
• November 2001
Fisher’s in-laws, William and Virginia Cooper, file a wrongful-death lawsuit against him to make sure he won't have access to his money or any money and assets his wife left behind. Fisher never returns to try and liquidate assets.
• June 2002
Fisher is added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, boosting his profile and his notoriety.
• June 2003
A woman tells police she saw Fisher in front of where his Scottsdale house once stood. He had a shaved head, sunglasses and drove a white, older-model truck with a temporary license plate. Police track the suspect and discover he is not Fisher, but someone circling the block looking for junk to salvage.
• February 2004
Police take into custody a man with striking similarities to Fisher in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia. He has the same bone structure, short hair and a similar surgical scar on his lower back. He is missing a tooth in the same place where Fisher's gold tooth had been. A media frenzy ensues, but the fingerprints don't match. He is released.
• July 2006
Detective John Kirkham, the lead investigator in the Fisher case and a 16-year veteran of the Scottsdale Police Department, dies after suffering a stroke at age 47.
• May 2009
Police upload DNA samples from Fisher's parents, Janet Howell and William Frank Fisher, with plans to enter them in the system to compare against remains of missing and unidentified human remains.
• August 2011
The black baseball cap worn by Fisher the night he disappeared is re-examined for DNA evidence. As technology improves, investigators are looking to process some evidence again. They don't have a pure DNA sample from Fisher to match against human remains; they have extrapolated DNA from family members.
• October 2011
Filmmaker Charlie Minn releases the documentary, "Where is Robert Fisher," featuring interviews with Scottsdale police detectives, FBI and TV reporters who covered the case.
• 2012
The FBI alerts law enforcement in 2012 that Fisher may be living in the Payson area in Gila County.
• October 2014
Police in the Denver suburb of Commerce City raid a home after receiving a tip Fisher may have been hiding there. The tip turns out to be false.
• April 2016
FBI releases age-progression images of what Fisher may look like for the 15th anniversary of the killings.
• April 2021
Scottsdale Detective John Heinzelman is pictured with case files related to the Robert Fisher fugitive case in February 2021.
ANNE RYMAN/THE REPUBLIC
April 10 marks the 20th anniversary of the murders. Scottsdale police still receive two to three tips a week about Fisher, or about 100 possible sightings a year. Scottsdale Detective John Heinzelman works the Fisher case in partnership with FBI Special Agent Taylor Hannah. Hannah said she is most interested in hearing from people with direct knowledge of Fisher or from anyone who knows where he went after he disappeared.
Source: Arizona Republic archives, Anne Ryman
www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-investigations/2014/11/26/timeline-robert-fisher-case-scottsdale-home-fire-wife-children-found-throats-slit-2001/70088486/
