That was the case with Danny Ray Horning, a state prison escapee in 1992 who dodged authorities for eight weeks by living off the land and stealing supplies. Dary Matera, a Scottsdale author who tried to market a book on the escapade, said Horning's first meal after the escape was an owl that he killed in a cave and ate raw.
Horning got by, Matera noted, even though "he had nothing to start with. It's not like Robert Fisher, who has credit cards, money, a car . . . "
Survivalists say the key elements are water and warmth. Fisher bought purification gear the day before he vanished, and there is plenty of water in the rim country. If dressed properly, he could sleep during the day and hunker down or exercise to stay warm at night.
Lundin said there are few edible plants in the high country this time of year, and a murder suspect is not likely to risk exposing himself by hunting game. ("It's one thing to live off the land," he noted. "It's another thing to live off the land while you're being hunted yourself.") Outdoor experts point out that Arizona's wilderness is pocked with civilization.
"He's got stores and everything else within a one-day walk," Tanner said, including summer cabins where he could break in and steal grub.
As for shelter, limestone caves snake through the rim country like holes in Swiss cheese. Ray Keeler of Glendale, vice president of the National Speliogical Society, said there are dozens of subterranean systems - many of which he has mapped.
"The chances are good that he was using the caves as shelter," Keeler said. "We have years of data on this area, but they (homicide investigators) haven't asked for it."
Keeler said he does not believe Fisher is an experienced spelunker, so he most likely would stay near a tunnel entrance. All of the area caves are extremely damp, with about 98 percent humidity and temperatures of around 50 degrees. Many provide refuge for bats and contain flowing water or sumps. While a man with good cold-weather gear might survive underground for days, Keeler said, caves make inhospitable hideouts.
"It's going to be cold and wet and miserable and ugly. But you're in a survivor mode."
If Fisher fled underground when the DPS helicopter began hovering overhead, he could have gotten lost or suffered hypothermia in the underground maze.
Matera, who recently wrote a book on deceased children contacting their parents from the afterlife, also said suicide is a possibility for a man faced with the darkness of caves, the loneliness of a forest, the ravages of his mind.
"I think Robert Fisher is being haunted," Matera added. " . . . That's what'd drive him to kill himself."
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