Podcast investigates Arizona's most notorious fugitive, suspected of murdering his wife, kids

Jon Walczak is convinced that Arizona's most notorious fugitive is still alive.

Robert Fisher garnered national headlines on April 10, 2001, after authorities say he murdered his wife and children before rigging his Scottsdale home to explode. By the time firefighters, police officers and the media descended upon the scene, Fisher was nowhere to be found.

Police soon concluded that he had killed his wife, Mary, and two children, Brittney and Bobby, who all had slit throats. Mary also had a bullet in her head. Fisher quickly became the main suspect as police scrambled to find him.

His Toyota 4Runner and his dog were found 10 days later in a remote part of the Tonto National Forest east of Payson, but the manhunt that followed failed to locate Fisher or any definitive clues as to where he was headed.

Robert Fisher: You've heard the story of the murders. But not the whole story

While police have theories as to what may have prompted Fisher to murder his family and how he made his grand escape, none of their findings have led to locating and arresting a man who spent years on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Walczak hopes to change that, as an independent reporter who hosts a podcast series where he investigates unsolved mysteries.

Missing in Arizona podcast explores Scottsdale tragedy

His first podcast series, Missing in Alaska, investigated how two congressmen went missing after their plane vanished while flying over Alaska in 1972.

Fisher is now Walczak’s latest fixation and the featured subject of his latest series, Missing in Arizona , which is published weekly on Wednesdays from iHeartPodcasts.

“This is just a fascinating unsolved mystery,” Walczak told The Arizona Republic. “And something I say in the show is those kinds of mysteries don’t really exist anymore.”

He highlighted the contrast between what the world was like in April 2001 and today. Cellphones were neither ubiquitous nor were they equipped with powerful camera lenses. Doorbell cameras weren’t commonplace and Myspace didn’t launch until two years later.

If flying was a part of his exit strategy, Fisher wouldn’t have to go through TSA as the organization didn’t exist yet.

Walczak said he spent roughly the past two years poring over public records and news archives. He estimates he interviewed more than 100 people, which included a range of experts, law enforcement officials and people who knew Fisher as a loving husband and father who worked as a cardiovascular technician at Mayo Clinic.

And while the case was widely reported among media outlets, Walczak felt there was more to uncover.

“It was a national story on the eve of 9/11, and then it was wiped away by 9/11,” Walczak said. “And it was pre-social media. So I think that there’s an idea in Arizona that the Robert Fisher case has just been covered so extensively that everybody knows about it. And I would say very few people I’ve spoken to outside of Arizona are aware of it.”

He added that some Arizonans he spoke with — particularly those on the younger side — didn’t know who Robert Fisher was.

New evidence in the Robert Fisher case?

Walczak was somewhat limited with what new information he could share publicly — only two of the 16 planned episodes have published as of Thursday — but he pointed to a finding he highlighted in the series’ second episode.

A Scottsdale police report mentioned that a newspaper carrier for The Republic had asked an officer monitoring traffic if he could access the neighborhood to make his deliveries.

After the Fishers' house exploded at around 8 a.m. on April 10, the carrier realized he accidentally delivered the paper to the same house a few hours prior.

The carrier told the officer he recalled seeing a white SUV parked under the carport.

Walczak then brings up a second witness: a neighbor. Mary was supposed to come by to pick up the neighbor’s son as part of a school carpool at 7:30 a.m. When the neighbor checks the Fisher’s house, the 4Runner is gone.

Walczak notes that the 4Runner was silver — not white, as the carrier described — but it was entirely plausible that he saw a silver SUV in the twilight hours as being white.

Walczak deduced that Fisher likely left the house shortly after the newspaper was mistakenly delivered and only had a few hours of a head start rather than the 10-plus hour lead police had estimated.

While Walczak has several episodes in the pipeline already edited and produced, later episodes will likely be shaped by potential leads.

“I want people to look at every single man in their life who wasn’t in their life prior to April 2001,” Walczak said.

Walczak said he has put up $10,000 of his own money for any information that leads to Fisher’s discovery and arrest. Silent Witness has also chipped in $2,000 for a reward total of $12,000.

People can also submit information directly to Walczak at neon33.com , though tips must also be submitted to Silent Witness to be eligible for the reward.

Anyone with a tip can submit anonymously to Silent Witness at silentwitness.org or by calling 480-WITNESS (480-948-6377) or 480-TESTIGO (480-837-8446) for Spanish.

As for why he is so certain Fisher is still alive 23 years later , Walczak says he can’t reveal that information publicly or risk spoiling the podcast he invested two years of his life into.

That said, evidence of his conviction that Fisher breathes to this day can be heard in the opening minutes of the pilot episode where he addresses Fisher directly.

“Robert, if you’re tuning in — and if you made it this far, you probably are — listen closely,” Walczak said as synth music plays in the background. “I will not give up. I am not the police. I am not the FBI. I found things they missed. I can dedicate all my time to you. I will follow up on every lead today, tomorrow, in 10 years.”

Walczak’s address goes on to include that, should Fisher be dead despite the evidence suggesting otherwise , Walczak still wants to find his remains to provide those he left behind to pick up the pieces some form of closure.

“If Robert Fisher was alive he pulled off one of the greatest escapes in American criminal history,” Walczak said.

“And he’s certainly monitoring media. There’s no way he would be alive 23 years later, having evaded police and the FBI and the media, without keeping an eye on what’s being said about him in the case.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Podcast investigates Arizona's most notorious fugitive, suspected of murdering his wife, kids