- Abi Fisher disappeared one night just after her daughter’s christening. Her husband Matthew Fisher raised the alarm, posting on Facebook asking if anyone had seen his wife
- Police launched an investigation into Abi’s disappearance, initially treating Matthew Fisher as a concerned husband
- But investigators soon uncovered the truth: Matthew Fisher had brutally murdered Abi. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison
Abi and Matthew Fisher were staying with Abi’s parents for the weekend.
It was their six-month-old daughter Sydney’s christening.
‘We were all fine, laughing and joking,’ Abi’s mum, Andrea, later told The Sun.
Abi and Matthew, both 29, first got together in high school.
They’d been married for six years and had been trying for a child for even longer.
Abi eventually started IVF treatment, and after three rounds, she fell pregnant.
It had been a trying process, but the couple were smitten with their baby girl.
But their hopes of a happy family life were soon shattered.
Five days after Sydney’s christening, Matthew reported Abi, a much-loved school teacher, missing.
They’d gone to sleep shortly before midnight on July 8, he said, but when he woke up, his wife was gone.
Matthew posted to Facebook, calling for help – Has anyone seen Abi? If you have can you please let me know or get her to give me a ring.
Police began to search the area surrounding the couple’s home.
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Matthew’s Facebook post went viral, and hundreds of local community members – including Abi’s friends, family and the parents of her school students – also joined the search.
As the investigation progressed, the police noticed a few flaws in Matthew’s account of Abi’s disappearance.
For starters, Matthew told the police he hadn’t noticed Abi was missing until he woke up on July 9.
But CCTV footage showed Matthew leaving the house at 4am, and not returning until 9.30am.
And his phone revealed he’d driven hundreds of kilometres from their home.
The search history on Abi’s phone also raised suspicion.
In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Abi had googled things such as What to do if your husband hates you and Free marriage guidance counselling.
Police quickly began to suspect her husband wasn’t telling them all he knew.
‘We suspected that Matthew had seriously harmed Abi, but there was a potential that she was still alive somewhere,’ an officer later told ITV.
The police gave him a chance to confess, but Matthew insisted that ‘he wasn’t involved, didn’t know where she was, and didn’t know if she’d come to harm’, the officer said.
‘He was then taken to the police station to be processed.’
On July 10, the day after she was reported missing, shockingly, the police discovered Abi’s body in the undergrowth next to a freeway rest stop, about 20 kilometres from the couple’s house.
Matthew’s fingerprints were found on gaffer tape next to Abi’s lifeless body.
This, along with the false information Matthew had provided to the police, was sufficient evidence for the police to arrest Matthew Fisher on suspicion of murder.
Abi’s parents were in a state of complete shock.
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They initially didn’t believe that Matthew, who they’d treated like a son for 13 years, could have been the killer.
‘We just thought they always arrest the closest person because they will know more about what is happening,’ Andrea told The Sun.
As reality sank in, however, Andrea and her husband, Mick, realised there had been warning signs. Abi had recently told her mother that Matthew was having trouble controlling his temper.
‘She wouldn’t just throw everything up in the air and walk out without trying everything first.’
‘Abi had said to us that he was having a few schoolboy tantrums,’ Andrea said, ‘and we just put it down to tiredness with them having a new baby.’
Abi had taught many children from broken homes, and Andrea knew this was something she wanted to protect Sydney from.
‘She would try to sort things out,’ Abi’s mum said.
‘She wouldn’t just throw everything up in the air and walk out without trying everything first.’
After his arrest, in an interview with the court psychiatrist, Matthew Fisher said that he’d ‘lost it’ with Abi after she’d told him she was unhappy and considering moving back in with her parents.
Once Abi’s brother identified the body, Matthew was formally charged with her murder.
At Leeds Crown Court in September 2022, Matthew Fisher pleaded guilty to Abi’s murder.
He said he put his hand over Abi’s mouth to try and smother her, and when that didn’t work, he used a T-shirt.
After killing Abi, he wrapped her in bin bags and blankets and secured them with gaffer tape, then drove for several hours until he found a place to dump the body.
He’d left baby Sydney, who was sick with Covid-19, at home alone.
When Abi’s body was found, she was covered in such severe bruising she was almost unrecognisable to her relatives.
Abi’s family felt that Matthew didn’t offer a full account of how – or why – he killed his wife.
‘We want as many people as possible to know that these things can come out of nowhere,’ Andrea said.
That November, Matthew Fisher, 30, was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 15 years.
At the sentencing, Tom Bayliss KC said, ‘You murdered your wife, the woman you loved. You left your little daughter without any parent to care for her.’
In a statement, her heartbroken family said, Heaven may have gained an angel but we have lost you and that for us seems like the most unjust act… We love you so much.
Since their son-in-law’s sentencing, Andrea and Mick have committed to sharing Abi’s story so that it might alert other families to the potential warning signs of an abusive relationship.
‘We want as many people as possible to know that these things can come out of nowhere,’ Andrea said.
They’re also now raising Sydney, and honouring Abi’s memory.
‘Everything we do is to try and make sure she grows up like her mummy,’ Andrea said, ‘because we were really proud of her mummy.’
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