On April 2, 2024, a young man walking with a friend entered Warnimont Park, a rocky and wooded area along Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shoreline.
The park was not a place where many people gathered. During the walk, they found a human leg near the water. It lay about 30 feet up the bluff, far from where it could have arrived by accident.
The discovery brought Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office lead detective JoAnn Donner to the park. Her initial assignment was to examine what had been found and determine what investigators were dealing with.
At first, a boating accident or another unexplained event remained possible. The location and condition of the leg soon ruled those possibilities out. Donner concluded that the remains had been placed there and that a homicide had occurred.
The victim was identified only as an African-American woman. No weapon was present. There was no known suspect, no complete body, and no immediate explanation for how the remains had reached the bluff.
Donner had to establish the victim’s identity before investigators could reconstruct her final movements.
That same day, Milwaukee police patrol officer Nora Burlo went to an apartment for a welfare check. Friends had not heard from the resident, 19-year-old college student Sade Robinson.
Burlo and the officers knocked at the door and began checking the situation. Robinson’s friends had known that she was excited about a date planned for the evening before.
The timing of her disappearance, together with the discovery at the park, raised an immediate concern that the two events were connected.
Burlo contacted Donner and described the missing woman. Donner believed the unidentified remains could belong to Robinson. The possibility was not yet confirmed, but it gave the investigation a specific direction.
Investigators learned that Robinson’s car had been found behind an abandoned building about three miles from her apartment. The vehicle had been burned so severely that much of its interior was destroyed.
The fire investigator detected a strong petroleum-distillate odor on the passenger side. That finding indicated that the fire was probably deliberately set. Heat had damaged potential fingerprints and DNA, but the vehicle still contained important evidence.
Robinson’s purse was found beneath the driver’s seat, making a robbery explanation less likely. Her clothing was in the trunk: her pants, underwear, jacket, and shoes. The jeans had been turned inside out, with the underwear still attached, showing that someone else had removed them.
The driver’s seat provided another significant clue. Donner recorded its position and compared it with an identical vehicle at a dealership. A deputy who was about Robinson’s height could not comfortably reach the pedals from that position.
A taller detective fit it more naturally. Donner concluded that the last person to drive the vehicle was at least six feet tall, meaning Robinson had not been the final driver.
Robinson’s Last Known Hours
On April 3, investigators contacted Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough. She immediately asked Robinson’s 16-year-old sister, Adrianna, to leave school and come home.
The family still hoped that Robinson was alive and that the remains belonged to someone else. Investigators asked Adrianna to share the historical location data from Robinson’s Life360 application.
The application showed that Robinson’s phone had stopped transmitting at 4:35 a.m. in Warnimont Park. The location was unusual for her.
DNA testing had not yet confirmed the victim’s identity, so detectives began reconstructing Robinson’s movements from the hours before she vanished.
Robinson had spent Easter Sunday, March 31, with Adrianna. The sisters worked together that morning as servers at a country club. After their shift, they went to their grandparents’ home for Easter dinner. Robinson later drove Adrianna home.
Their goodbye included the usual expression of love, but Adrianna remembered a hesitation that felt different from other evenings.
The next morning, April 1, Robinson spoke with her mother by FaceTime. She appeared cheerful and did not mention that she had plans for a date later that day. Building security cameras recorded her leaving her apartment at 9 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, she arrived for work at Pizza Shuttle.
Robinson had recently met Maxwell Anderson. After leaving the restaurant at 5 p.m., she exchanged messages with him about where they would meet. Their messages showed that they selected the Twisted Fisherman.
Investigators later obtained security footage from the restaurant. The recording showed the pair together, but Donner noticed that Anderson spoke often with the bartender and gave little attention to Robinson. Their interaction appeared limited for much of the visit.
Robinson and Anderson left the Twisted Fisherman at about 6:30 p.m. Life360 data showed that they traveled to Duke’s On Water, a nearby bar. Security footage there recorded them arriving together and joining another couple for a game of beer pong.
Robinson appeared to be enjoying herself during that part of the evening. She was walking normally when they left at about 9 p.m., and the footage did not show that she was impaired.
Anderson entered Robinson’s car, and the application showed Robinson’s phone arriving at his home at about 9:30 p.m. Approximately three hours later, the phone left Anderson’s house.
The car traveled in the direction of Robinson’s apartment but passed the building instead of stopping. During the following hours, surveillance cameras recorded the vehicle moving through Milwaukee with fogged windows and no clear route.
At 2:53 a.m., Robinson’s phone reached Warnimont Park. Its battery later died there. Investigators obtained footage from a nearby building. The grainy recording showed a figure, possibly a man, dragging something toward the lake.
The figure disappeared from view at the shoreline. About 90 minutes later, the person returned carrying a large backpack.
The figure’s height, the backpack, the burned vehicle, and Anderson’s status as the last person known to have been with Robinson became central parts of the investigation.
The Investigation Narrows
Robinson had met Anderson three days before the date. She had entered a bar while looking for work and met Anderson, a 33-year-old bartender who stood six feet one inch tall. They exchanged telephone numbers, and he walked her to her car.
Anderson had worked in the service industry, owned a home on Milwaukee’s south side, and had briefly served in the Navy before receiving a general discharge.
His criminal record included operating a vehicle while intoxicated and disorderly conduct. It also included a history of violence involving members of his family.
In 2019, he had been accused of attacking a stranger who tried to intervene during an argument between Anderson and a girlfriend. He was arrested for battery but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
The record gave detectives reason to examine Anderson closely, but his presence with Robinson on the night of her disappearance did not by itself establish that he had killed her.
Donner sought direct links between Anderson, the burned vehicle, the lake, and the missing woman. Life360 showed that Robinson had driven to his house, providing a basis for a search warrant.
On April 4, Donner obtained permission to search Anderson’s home. Another team began following him because investigators preferred to enter the residence when he was away. The surveillance team soon saw him heading back.
Deputies and detectives took him into custody before he reached the house. Anderson appeared to shake during the arrest. He requested a lawyer and was not interrogated.
The search did not reveal a large bloodstain, a visible murder scene, or evidence of a cleanup. Investigators concluded that the dismemberment had not occurred inside the home.
They found about 51 knives in the kitchen, but none was identified as the weapon used against Robinson. The search produced no single item that directly tied Anderson to the disappearance.
Donner continued checking other possible suspects and missing-person records. She also considered that the leg at the park might belong to another woman.
At the same time, Robinson’s relatives and friends remained convinced that Anderson was connected to the case. They placed balloons and signs in his yard in Robinson’s favorite color, pink, increasing public attention around the house.
More remains were found in different parts of Milwaukee County. Investigators believed the remains came from the same victim and searched for additional evidence. Friends of Robinson’s family, Keke and Arlinda, joined the search.
Keke found a blanket belonging to Robinson in a wooded area. The following day, Arlinda found a human bone beside train tracks. Both locations had already been examined by investigators, causing frustration among volunteers and detectives.
A further lead came from Chloe Wright, who had dated Anderson for more than a year before they separated. Wright said Anderson had not physically abused her, but she described the relationship as verbally abusive and toxic.
She recalled that he had been secretive and had once promised to take her to a private location he called his “secret beach.” He had given her directions without naming it because he did not want her to bring other people there after a breakup.
Wright still remembered the route. When police asked her to guide them, she led them to Warnimont Park.
The location matched the area where Robinson’s phone had stopped and where the remains had been discovered. Wright’s account established that Anderson knew the park well and had treated it as a private place.
On April 12, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball announced that the severed leg had been preliminarily identified as belonging to Robinson. The same day, Anderson was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and arson.
He pleaded not guilty to every charge. Later DNA testing confirmed that the other recovered remains also belonged to Robinson.
Robinson’s family continued to search for the parts of her body that had not been found. Her head, which her mother referred to as her “crown,” remained missing.
Investigators had still not recovered a murder weapon or established the precise cause of death, but the case proceeded on evidence linking Anderson to Robinson, the vehicle, the park, and the disposal of the remains.
Trial, Conviction and Sentence
Anderson’s trial began in May 2025, more than a year after Robinson disappeared. Donner knew the prosecution’s case was circumstantial because investigators had never found a single piece of direct evidence showing the killing itself.
Prosecutor Ian Vance-Curzan presented the jury with the timeline of Robinson’s final hours and argued that Anderson had killed her, dismembered her body, and tried to make her disappear.
The prosecution showed footage from a neighbor’s security camera. It appeared to show Robinson and Anderson arriving at his home and a light turning on in the second-floor living room. Moving shadows could be seen through the upstairs window.
Hours later, one person left the property. Investigators noted that the departing figure appeared to match the height of a tall fence and gate, which measured about six feet.
The defense did not dispute that Robinson and Anderson had gone out together and returned to his house. Attorney Anthony Cotton argued that the timeline did not prove Anderson had killed her.
He challenged the surveillance footage and emphasized that the state had not established a motive, the cause of death, or the location of the murder weapon.
One recording had a stronger effect on jurors than the footage of the car. It showed a man leaving the area of the burning vehicle. The man boarded a city bus, where his face became clearly visible. Jurors identified him as Anderson.
He carried a large backpack, and the pants and shoes he wore were never recovered. His gray jacket was later found in a neighbor’s garbage can. Testing found Robinson’s DNA inside the hood and on the zipper pull.
Wright testified off-camera about Anderson and Warnimont Park. Jurors also heard about photographs recovered from Anderson’s phone after he had deleted them.
The images showed Robinson at his home, face down with one arm over her face and a white man’s hand on her right breast. The images did not establish whether Robinson was alive when they were taken, but their contents affected the jurors.
The defense referred to marijuana and pills found in a safe at Robinson’s apartment and suggested that investigators should have examined whether drugs were connected to her death.
The pills were not conclusively tested. Robinson’s remains showed no drugs in her system; caffeine was the only substance found. Anderson’s defense called no witnesses, and Anderson chose not to testify.
The jury began deliberating after the close of the evidence. After breaking for the night, the jurors reached a verdict in less than an hour. They found Anderson guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson.
The conviction established his responsibility for Robinson’s murder despite the absence of a recovered weapon and the incomplete recovery of her remains.
Two months later, at sentencing, Robinson’s relatives addressed the court. Adrianna said the killing changed her understanding of personal safety and left her afraid that people she met might harm her.
Robinson’s father, Carlos, described the loss of his daughter as unthinkable and said Anderson deserved the punishment imposed for what he had done. Sheena demanded that Anderson reveal where Robinson’s head was located.
Anderson denied committing the crimes and expressed condolences to Robinson’s family.
A statement he had given to an investigator and read by Judge Laura Crivello said he believed Robinson had been abducted by an unknown attacker after leaving his apartment. He also claimed he had been set up in connection with the burned car.
Judge Crivello sentenced Anderson to life in prison without eligibility for extended supervision. Robinson’s family and supporters left the courthouse after hearing the sentence. The punishment ensured that Anderson would not be released from prison.
A Life Remembered
Sade Robinson was born into a close family and was remembered as a determined young woman who worked steadily toward an independent future. She held two jobs while attending a local technical college full time.
At the country club, she was regarded as one of the best workers. At Pizza Shuttle, she was known for arriving on time, smiling, and greeting the former owner, Mark Gold, with the same playful answer whenever he asked how she was: “The sky, Mark.”
Her work allowed her to rent an apartment and buy a car by herself. She was scheduled to receive an associate’s degree in criminal justice in May 2024 and had been meeting with military recruiters because she hoped to join the Air Force.
Her family said she wanted to improve her own life and create better opportunities for Adrianna.
In May 2024, Adrianna accepted Robinson’s degree at the graduation ceremony her sister should have attended.
She wore a pink cap and gown, carrying forward the memory of a woman whose plans had been interrupted before she could complete them. Robinson’s family and friends later unveiled a memorial bench at Warnimont Park, where the investigation had begun.
A mural honoring Robinson was placed beneath Pizza Shuttle. Her mother started a program for crime victims and partnered with a Wisconsin state representative on a task force examining violence against Black women and girls.
The work was intended to preserve Robinson’s name while addressing the danger that had taken her life.
Robinson’s family continued hoping that the missing parts of her body, especially her head, would be recovered so that she could be laid to rest in full. At the park, Detective Donner searched the area many times.
