CHILDHOOD sweethearts Abi and Matthew Fisher were overjoyed when their miracle IVF baby Sydney was born.
But just six months after cradling their much-loved daughter for the first time, Abi was dead – brutally murdered by her husband Matthew.
Matthew, from Castleford, West Yorkshire lied to police and Abi’s trusting family to cover his tracks – claiming she had left their home in the middle of the night – and even made an emotional Facebook post, pleading for help to find her.
In fact, Matthew had killed Abi before wrapping her lifeless body in bin-liners, duct tape and blankets. He then left their baby daughter home alone and drove across Yorkshire to dump her body.
Abi’s heartbroken parents Andrea and Mick Richardson are now bringing up her toddler daughter Syd and, as part of the new documentary Social Media Murders, are sharing their story in the hope that it might encourage other people to spot warning signs that they may be in danger.
Tearful Andrea told The Sun: “We want as many people as possible to know that these things can come out of nowhere.
“All Abi had said to us was that he was having a few schoolboy tantrums and we just put it down to tiredness with them having a new baby.
“Everybody gets a bit snappy when they are tired and Syd was up every few hours for a feed.
“When you don’t suspect anybody of anything – he had never hit her or anything like that – you don’t think that something so horrific can happen.”
Teacher Abi, 29, and Matthew first fell for each other in the last year of high school but they split before rekindling their romance at college.
Matthew moved in with Abi and her parents for five years until they found a home of their own in Castleford.
Desperate to have a big family, they were devastated when they couldn’t conceive and underwent three rounds of IVF before falling pregnant with Sydney.
Andrea recalls: “They both wanted a baby – people think it was just Abi but it was both of them. They started trying before they got married.
“They both wanted a big family, they wanted two or three of their own kids and then they wanted to foster like we had started doing. Abi also thought it would be nice to adopt from abroad. And they were both amazing with Syd when she was born.”
Abi joyfully posted pictures of her little family online, from her and Matthew taking Syd to her first swimming lesson, to happy portraits of Syd’s christening just the weekend before Abi’s murder.
But while they looked like the picture-perfect family – even to Abi’s parents – behind the scenes the cracks were showing.
As well as telling her parents about Matthew’s tantrums, Abi had also confided in her best friend Emma that Matthew had secretly racked up credit card debts.
And police later found she had made internet searches about “free marriage guidance counselling”and “what to do if your husband hates you”.
“I think she must have been worried,” says Andrea. “When the police told us that, we had no idea. Obviously Abi thought there was a problem but she was a strong girl and she would’ve tried everything before she gave in.
“She did not want Syd coming from a broken home. She was a teacher and in her career she had seen a lot of children from broken homes and she didn’t want that, so she wanted her marriage to work.
“So I am not surprised that if she thought there was a problem that she was looking for marriage guidance counselling. She would try to sort things out, she wouldn’t just throw everything up in the air and walk out without trying everything first.
When you don’t suspect anybody of anything – he had never hit her or anything like that – you don’t think that something so horrific can happen
Andrea Richardson
“We hadn’t seen any signs at all. The weekend before she disappeared they had been here for the weekend, cooking for Syd’s christening. All four of us had been out shopping and getting everything ready and we were all fine, laughing and joking.”
So when Matthew called them in July 2022 to say Abi was missing they didn’t for one second think he was responsible.
Instead they thought maybe their daughter was struggling with postnatal depression – but even then they knew she would never have left little Syd.
“We were in bewilderment,” says Andrea. “Just where the hell is she? I could not let myself think that anything bad had happened to her. I could not let my mind go there because I think I would have gone insane.”
But soon Matthew’s lies started to unravel. He told police the ring doorbell was broken – but it was working fine.
Then CCTV showed Matthew’s car had left the Castleford area around 4.30am on the morning after she went missing, which didn’t fit with information that he had given police.
Matthew was arrested and charged with Abi’s murder – but Andrea and Mick still did not believe he could have harmed their daughter.
“Even when the police arrested Matthew we just thought they always arrest the closest person because they will know more about what is happening,” says Andrea. “We didn’t believe it.”
Mick adds: “When the police said they were going to charge him, they said that if they arrest him for the murder they can get more funds and more police on the ground looking for Abi. We took that as they were trying to look after us.”
Thanks to the posts from family and friends on social media, Abi’s disappearance went viral, with hundreds of people joining the search for the popular teacher.
But soon the family got the devastating news they had been dreading – police had found Abi’s body dumped off the roadside in Barnsley.
Matthew had left their six-month-old daughter, who had Covid at the time, home alone while he drove for hours to dump her mother’s body.
Andrea says: “All I can remember is the police came saying, ‘I’m really sorry to tell you but we’ve found a body’. And I still didn’t believe it was Abi.
“The officer said, ‘We’ve looked at the photographs and we’ve identified it as your daughter Abi.’ And then I just heard this almighty noise. And it was me. I was screaming.”
Abi’s brother went to identify her bruised body and their family were distraught to discover that her head had had to be shaved during the post-mortem examination.
Andrea says: “We saw her at the funeral home and they had put dark make-up on her.
“I looked at this person laying on the table and I said that is not my daughter. Neither of us thought it was her. But they took us back in and they were really kind and I sat holding this hand and I suddenly looked down and realised it was Abi’s hand. Imagine recognising your daughter from her hand?
“We asked them to take that make up off and put pale makeup on, more like she would’ve worn.
“They had said they had put it on that dark to cover the bruises but I said I would rather see the bruises than her look like a stranger.”
I looked at this person laying on the table and I said that is not my daughter. Neither of us thought it was her.
Andrea Richardson
“We wanted to bury her in the outfit that she wore for the christening the week before,” says Mick. “But we couldn’t because she had to be covered from her wrist to her ankles to her neck.
“So we got her some silk pyjamas with long sleeves, and they put a turban on her head and a scarf around her neck to cover the marks and the stuff from the post mortem as well.”
Matthew pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for life, with a minimum of 15 years, at Leeds Crown Court in November 2022.
During the police investigation Fisher told a psychiatrist he “lost it” after his wife told him she was “not happy and was going to move back in with her parents,” the court heard.
He claimed he put his hand over his wife’s mouth to try and smother her and, when that did not work, he smothered her with a T-shirt. But that did not account for all of Mrs Fisher’s injuries, the court was told.
The family say Matthew has never given them a proper explanation as to exactly how or why he killed Abi and they believe their baby daughter Syd deserves to know the truth when she is older.
Andrea says: “It is like he wasn’t the person we knew. All I want from him is a letter to his daughter saying what he did to her mum and why.
“He has said he has no objection to us having Syd and he knows we will look after properly. Well of course he knows that because we looked after him for five years and treated him like a son for 13.”
The couple are still grieving for their daughter, while trying to bring up granddaughter Syd.
“At one point I was angry with Abi,” says Andrea. “And it’s very difficult to be angry with your dead daughter. I was arguing with her in my mind saying, ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell us? You know we could’ve helped you. We helped you with everything. We would’ve helped you with that’.
“Syd is amazing. She’s really tall, she’s got a headful of blonde curls, and a mouthful of chat. Everything we do now is for Syd, she is our future. Everything we do is to try and make sure she grows up like her mummy because we were really proud of her mummy. I think she will be like her. But how do you tell a child that her dad killed her mum?”
Social Media Murders: The Murder of Abi Fisher is available to stream on ITVX
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
