Police renew focus on cold murder case in Hamptons, 30 years later

Nearly 30 years ago, the bodies of Billy Fischer and his friend, Nancy Hyer, were found in the trunk of her car in the Hamptons.

Fischer was shot 18 times. Hyer was stabbed twice.

State Police found freshly-spackled bullet holes and other evidence that Fischer’s father — William Peter Fischer — killed the two in early December at his Southampton home and then left Hyer’s car at the Southampton Elks Lodge, where their bodies were found Dec. 21, 1986.

Two months later, William Fischer disappeared, leaving two important clues. He mortgaged his house, and his car was found in a lot at Kennedy Airport on Feb. 25, 1987, the same day he was indicted on two counts of second-degree murder.

Police Tuesday said they are still looking for him.

“He had mortgaged his house to the hilt,” said Lt. Jose Febo of the bureau of criminal investigations for state police on Long Island. “We call that a credit bust out, where you take your viable U.S. credit, you cash out as much of it as possible into currency and then you take flight. With this money and with this ability to go anywhere in the world from JFK, it’s more than reasonable that we have to expand the scope of the investigation.”

Fisher would be 72 now. He could be dead, but in her guts. Hyer’s only sibling thinks he’s alive.

“He seemed like an arrogant guy and I think he’s probably back here existing, because nobody was looking for him,” said Debra McCabe, 49, of Oakdale.

Investigators had found fibers matching the victims in the vacuum cleaner and bullets in the walls. Luminol, a chemical that causes traces of blood to glow, was sprayed throughout the house and revealed blood had been cleaned off the walls.

“I just felt like it was cold so fast,” McCabe said. “They found all this evidence at the house . . . and they didn’t arrest him.

“I’m wondering how could 18 shots be fired and nobody heard it?”

Billy Fischer, 19, had gone to his father’s Southampton home on Dec. 10, looking for help with medical bills, police said. He had cystic fibrosis, and he asked his father money to help cover mounting medical bills, police said.

On Dec. 11, Billy Fischer called Hyer, 21, and asked her to pick him up from his father’s house.

McCabe and her mother, Joan Hyer, who lived with Nancy, never saw her again.

Before their bodies were found, McCabe said, she went with two friends to Fischer’s waterfront home to talk about the search. In hindsight, she said, Fischer’s first words sounded strange for a serious situation — he would have made coffee if he had known they were coming, McCabe recalled.

He said the last time he saw the victims, they drove off by turning left out of his driveway — that would have been into the water, McCabe said. When a helicopter flew overhead during the visit, Fischer looked angry when McCabe told him her mother had hired it to look for Nancy’s car, McCabe said.

She recalled that she didn’t question what now seems suspcious because she didn’t want to think her sister had been killed.

“Me and my sister were very, very close,” McCabe said. “We had the same friends. I just couldn’t imagine living without my sister. It took three years for me to be able to fucntion somewhat normally.”

State police released images of what Fischer may look like now. He is 5-foot-11, weighs between 185 and 200 pounds and has salt-and-pepper hair and blue eyes, authorities said.

Anyone with information on the case can call State Police at 631-756-3300.