The Perch Garage Murders was a double murder which took place at the Perch Garage located on the A39 road near Wadebridge, Cornwall, UK on the evening of the 5 November 2003. Graham and Carol Fisher, owners of the garage, were brutally murdered, thought to be at around 7pm, as they sat down to eat dinner. Both were shot a number of times from close range with shotgun and afterwards bludgeoned to the head with a sledgehammer as they lay dying.
The murder scene was discovered the next morning by a bus driver who stopped at the garage and found the body of Mrs Fisher. The brutal nature of the crime in a quiet rural, isolated setting shocked both the local and wider community. Initially the police described the murders as "planned and personal", but the apparent lack of motive, absence of any fingerprints or forensic evidence.
Graham and Carol Fisher had owned and operated the Perch Garage together for around 20 years.[1] The garage was a petrol station, car repair and MoT centre located alongside the main A39 Atlantic Highway near Wadebridge and close to the Royal Cornwall Showground in an area know as Winnard's Perch.[2]
The couple, who had no children and had not seen their family for several years, appear to have lived a reclusive and solitary lifestyle. They were described by neighbours as "keeping themselves to themselves" and "very private people". They never invited anyone into the bungalow 'Fairfield Cottage' where they lived which was located to the rear of the garage.[3] They rarely left the site of their home and business for fear of break-ins.[4] Subsequent investigation found that the Fishers were a wealthy couple who owned 50 acres of nearby land, properties, and antiques and had business dealings with a variety of local people.[5]