A teen went on a first date and never returned. An app and security video helped find her killer. | Forensic Files

[music] >> This is a once-in-a-lifetime case. All I did was I pieced things together.
I got the call from my inspector. He didn't have a lot of information. So, it was more or less like go down
there and figure out what we have. You don't often see body parts being discovered.
So, this is odd. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely odd. Do you have any idea what you're getting
yourself into? Not at that point. Like it could be a boating accident. I don't know. You know, I at that point
I did not know. When I get there, I make my way down to the beach and I stop cold.
It was probably about 30 ft up the bluff. There was just no way for that to get there
by accident. And that's when I knew we had a homicide. You don't know who this victim is. She
was definitely an African-American female. Don't know who she is. I don't know obviously who any suspect is.
I know nothing. I I had nothing. I needed to know what happened to her. What brought you here? We came just to
do a welfare check. My name is Nora Donigan and I was a patrol officer. Who lives here? Shaday Robinson.
Her friends hadn't heard from her. Ms. Robinson, Milwaukee police, please answer the door. We're going to come in
otherwise. Okay, I don't hear anything. So, they seen her on Monday morning at 9:00 and 10:00.
Shaday was very excited about a date that she was going to be having. Nobody's seen her since the date.
Right away, alarm bells were going off for me. We needed to figure out who this date
was. You can't stop thinking about this. No. There was just something odd about everything. Maybe the timing of them.
Missing person, body part found. I had a weird feeling. I reached out to the sheriff's
department. Detective Donner from the Milwaukee Sheriff's Department. I just said, you know, I've got this
girl who's missing, and I'm curious, do you think that this could be related? She said she thinks that that's going to
be her girl. I got chills. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Along the Wisconsin shoreline of Lake
Michigan, sits a rocky, wooded area called Warnimont Park. It's not somewhere that you find a lot
of people. On April 2nd, 2024, a young man, out for a walk with a friend, made that gruesome find.
As they're walking, that black See that light right there? >> Yeah. Lead Detective Joe Donner of the
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says she knew she had a homicide, but nothing else.
You have a leg. Where's the rest of her? At that point, I didn't know. So, you have human remains,
no weapon, no suspect. Where do we go from here? That That was the question I asked myself most of that
night. But, with the help of Milwaukee Police Detective Nora Donagan, Donner had a
suspicion who her victim might be. Shade Robinson, a 19-year-old college student. On the evening of April 1st,
2024, she had plans to go on a date, but had not been seen since. Donner soon learned that Shade's car had
been found behind an abandoned building 3 miles from Shade's apartment, set on fire. This is Shade's vehicle. This is
pretty much completely destroyed. It is. It definitely negated any type of DNA, fingerprints, anything like that.
Though the car was heavily damaged, it still revealed a great deal to the fire investigator. The passenger side smelled
heavily of a petroleum distillate. So, what did that tell them? That it was more than likely an arson.
And though the car's interior was destroyed, investigators were able to recover something crucial.
So, underneath the driver seat, Shade's purse was tucked under there. To me, it definitely eliminates a
robbery, right? And when investigators opened the trunk of Shade's car, they made a distressing
discovery. We found her pants, her underwear, her jacket, and her shoes. This is the clothes she was wearing that
night. And the jeans, it was apparent that somebody else had taken them off. They were turned inside out, and the
underwear were still attached to them. So, yeah, it was definitely a red flag. Another red flag was something Detective
Donner and her team noticed about the driver's seat. Something that suggested someone else had driven Shade's car. We
take note of the seat positioning cuz that'll give height indicators. I was able to determine about how far
back that seat was. I then went to a dealership and found an identical model. With the driver's seat in the same
position as the one in Shade's vehicle, Detective Donner grabbed a deputy who was about Shade's height. And when she
sat in the car, she couldn't touch the pedals. Um, so, her arms were straight out. And she's like, "There's no way I
can't drive like this without perching on the very edge of the seat." Donner also had a taller detective sit
in the vehicle. And based on her experiment, Donner says the last person to drive Shade's car had to be at least
6 ft tall. [music] There's no way Shade >> was the last person in that driver seat.
>> No. No. The day after finding the remains on the beach, investigators contacted Shanae's
mother, Sheena Scarborough. I I'll never forget that day. Like what's going on? Sheena immediately sent for Shanae's
16-year-old sister, Adriana, to come home early from school. We drove over to my mom's house and they
were all very obviously upset. But Shanae's family hoped that this was a mistake and [music] Shanae would be
found alive and well. The officer asked Adriana to share Shanae's cell phone location from her
Life360 app. What is Life360? Unlike Find My iPhone that gives you where your phone is right now, Life360 gives you
historical data. And it uses GPS, so it tends to be far more precise than the cell records. And
I pulled up the location. I saw that her phone had died at 4:35 a.m. at Memorial Park.
And when I saw that, it was like that was a very unusual place for her to be. And when I said that, the detective, his
face like dropped. And he was [music] like he just like yeah, he shut down kind of.
I I knew >> [laughter] >> something wasn't right. Somebody had hurt my baby. Is your video, Shanae?
>> DNA tests hadn't yet determined if Sade Robinson matched the remains found along
Lake Michigan. In the meantime, investigators began tracing the last known hours of her life. Younger sister
Adriana saw Sade on Easter Sunday, the day before her date. We had worked together that morning. She
picked me up. Sade and Adriana worked as servers at a country club. She was one of the best workers they had. It was one
of Sade's two jobs on top of being a full-time student at a local technical college.
She wanted better for herself. She wanted better for me. The hard work was paying off with the
19-year-old able to rent an apartment and buy a car all on her own. Sade was set to graduate with an associate's
degree in criminal justice the following month. Adriana says Sade hoped to then enlist in the military.
And she was looking to join the Air Force, so she had been meeting with recruiters. That's how much she wanted
to do everything that she dreamed of doing. After working at the country club on
Sunday, March 31st, 2024, Adriana and Sade headed to their grandparents' house for Easter dinner.
It was a really, really good night. And then she took me home. Whenever she dropped me off, it was
always like a hesitation. We always be like, "Love you." And that night, I still remember it was
like a different kind of hesitation. The next morning, Sade FaceTimed her mom, Sheena.
She was glowing through the FaceTime. She just looked so beautiful. She was in a bubbly mood. She didn't
mention anything to me about going on a date that evening. Security cameras in Shade's building
captured her leaving her apartment at 9:00 a.m. that morning. >> [music] >> 15 minutes later, Shade arrived for her
shift at the restaurant Pizza Shuttle. Former owner, Mark Gold. Everybody loved her immediately and
that's that's kind of rare, I think, in a restaurant or any business. And she's a great worker. She comes in
on time, she smiles. Every time she would work with me, I'd say, "What's up, Shade?" And she'd go,
"The sky, Mark." She always said it and now I miss it. Shade left Pizza Shuttle at 5:00 p.m.
>> [music] >> and texted a man she'd recently met, Maxwell Anderson. They are [music] discussing where
they're going to meet up for their date. Shade's text messages show they chose the Twisted Fisherman.
Armed with that information, investigators then headed to the restaurant and obtained security camera
footage of Shade and her date together. Detective Joe Donner examined the footage for clues.
What's sort of standing out to you as you watch this video? Why is it important?
You know, it's [music] the demeanor. He does a lot of talking to the bartender, doesn't do a whole lot of talking to her
um or even like turning and looking at her. It's just it's seems a little unusual for a date.
There's not a lot of interaction. Around 6:30 p.m., Shade and Maxwell Anderson left the restaurant together.
With the help of Shade's Life360 app, the detectives knew just where the pair were headed. I'm so glad that that she
had that app. So, when you found out Shade had it on her phone, you must have thought goldmine.
>> Yeah. Score. Big time. According to her Life360 app, Shade then went to a nearby bar called Dukes on
Water. When investigators headed there, they found this security camera footage of Shadae and her date arriving together
at the bar. Again, Detective Donner took note of the pair's dynamic. So, they are playing beer pong with this
couple. And honestly, this is the only time that it looks like she's having fun. I noticed that she seemed to
be smiling and enjoying herself. Shadae and Maxwell Anderson left the bar together around 9:00 p.m.
She's walking fine. Um doesn't seem to be >> [music] >> impaired. I think it's interesting that
they're walking together, but not until the very end. >> [music] >> He kind of reaches out for her.
>> Right. That's the only like real physical contact other than briefly while they
were playing beer pong that I see them have. From there, Shadae's date got in the car
with her. The Life360 app shows Shadae arrived at Maxwell Anderson's house around 9:30.
3 hours later, the app shows Shadae's phone left his house. Shadae's car began traveling toward her apartment. But
instead of going home, the car drove past the building. Multiple surveillance cameras would go
on to capture Shadae's car with fogged up windows driving around for hours. Did there seem to be any kind of like
rhyme or reason to where this vehicle was going that night? No. I don't It seemed to be going all
over the place. Then, at 2:53 a.m., the Life360 app shows Shadae's phone arriving at Warremont Park, where the
battery on her phone would later die. When the investigators checked for security camera footage from a nearby
building, they made a chilling discovery. The grainy footage shows someone, possibly a man,
dragging something to the lake. This is the path that he took. And then he would go down right around here.
>> Yeah. And this is where he disappears off of camera. It drops off right there.
That's where we lose sight of him. Roughly 90 minutes after first going out of view, the shadowy figure walks away
from the lake, but now carrying something. The final time that it comes out, you do
see a large backpack on their back. Who do you believe that figure is? Maxwell Anderson.
Who was the last person Shade Robinson was seen with? [music] Maxwell Anderson. Who is this person? How do you know my
daughter? Had you ever heard the name Maxwell [music] Anderson? No. There are so many
questions, like how they knew each other, what his motives were. The night Shade Robinson disappeared was not the
first time she had met Maxwell Anderson. Three days earlier, Shade, seen here on
security camera footage, walked into a bar. The owner told 48 Hours that Shade was looking for a job. While there, she
met the bartender, 6-foot-1, 33-year-old Maxwell Anderson. They exchanged numbers, and Maxwell walked Shade to her
car. It seemed like he was trying to be a gentleman to this girl he was trying to
impress. What did you learn about Maxwell Anderson, his background? I learned that he had been in the service
industry for a while. He owned a home down on the south side of Milwaukee, was in the Navy for a
brief amount of time. Why did he leave the military? I I believe it was a general discharge.
But the man Shaddai would go on a date with also had a criminal record that included operating a vehicle while
intoxicated, disorderly conduct, and more. It was a little disturbing. Like a history of violence towards his own
family. And in 2019, he'd also been accused of violence towards a total stranger.
According to this police report, Maxwell, seen in this video filmed by a bystander, beat a man who tried to
intervene during an argument Maxwell was having with a girlfriend. He was arrested for battery, but pleaded guilty
to a lesser charge. This guy's got a temper and he doesn't really seem to care who he takes that
temper out on. You're thinking about what could have happened with Shaddai. Yes.
But could he be responsible for Shaddai's disappearance? Detective Donner needed proof.
Just spending the evening with her Right. >> is not enough. >> Right. With the help of Shaddai's Life 360 app,
Donner knew Shaddai had driven to Maxwell's house on April [music] 1st. I wanted to I wanted to get into his
house. And we definitely had enough to do that. On April 4th, Donner got a search
warrant to enter Maxwell's home, and she sent another team to watch him. So, they begin [music] to follow him.
We prefer to not have the resident [music] in the house. It's just safer. Within minutes, the team realized
Maxwell was heading home, and they had to act fast. All right, let's take him into custody.
The deputy and the detective said that yeah, they definitely felt him shaking. Maxwell Anderson later asked for a
lawyer and was never interrogated. [music] But when investigators finally entered
the house, they were surprised. There was no big bloody crime scene. And no sign of a clean up either. It was
very apparent that >> [music] >> dismemberment didn't happen there. Investigators did find something of
interest. A lot of knives. A lot of knives. There were, I believe, like 51 found in the kitchen alone.
Anything that could have been used to dismember a body? I suppose uh none of those knives
[music] were were used. After searching the house, Detective Donner was still missing key elements,
like a weapon, crime scene, or even a single piece of direct evidence in Maxwell Anderson's home tying him to
Shade's disappearance. [music] It seemed like every hopeful you know, lead, I got disappointed each
time. Detective Donner started looking into other possible suspects. While Maxwell Anderson seemed like a
really good suspect, I wasn't going to focus on him. >> [music] >> And she even considered the possibility
that the remains on the beach belonged to someone else. What if this isn't her? So, I still
checked missing [music] databases. But Shade's loved ones were certain Donner was on the right track. They sent a
message covering Maxwell Anderson's yard with balloons and signs, all in Shade's
favorite color, pink. Increasing the pressure on the investigation was the shocking discovery
of more body parts across the county. More human remains believed to be those of the young woman. The remains seem to
be from the same victim. As law enforcement searched for more remains, so did volunteers, including Kiki and
Arlinda, family friends of Shade's. They were already searching. Why even get involved? I didn't see enough police out
here. We came by and the area was empty. But we were like, okay, let's go back and double check and see if we could
find anything else. While searching a wooded area, Kiki found a blanket that belonged to Shade. The next day, Arlinda
discovered a human bone next to train tracks. Both were found in areas investigators had already searched.
Could you understand why people might feel a little frustrated when they hear that? Absolutely.
Detective Donner was also frustrated. That's when this woman, Chloe Wright, stepped forward.
It was like heart-stopping. I mean, it's just like this can't be real. Chloe had dated Maxwell for more than a
year, and she was stunned to hear her ex-boyfriend was a suspect. This type of gruesome, graphic murder I
just didn't see from him. Chloe and Maxwell broke up a year earlier. She told us he was never
physically abusive, but he could be verbally abusive. And he made comments about like my body
weight often. Um me not being attractive. He wasn't a great boyfriend. This sounds toxic. It
was very toxic. Chloe describes Maxwell as a secretive person, but he did share one secret with her investigators were
very interested to learn. >> [laughter] >> I remember it was like winter when he
had brought it up, and he was like, "If we're still together come spring, I'm going to take you to this secret beach.
And then eventually he took me there. But Maxwell was so protective of his secret beach that when Chloe drove them
there, he would only give her step-by-step directions. He didn't want me to know the name in
case we broke up. He didn't want me bringing other people to his secret spot. But she remembered where it was.
The police were like, "Okay, you direct us." Repeating the directions Maxwell had always given her, Chloe led
investigators straight to his secret beach, Warnimont Park. Just having that [music] proof that he
knew about it and was familiar with it to a level that he referred to it as his secret beach. That that was pretty big.
What do we think happened here? This is where he dismembered her. When you think of that special place,
special to him, what comes to mind? Sade. Yeah. Think about Sade. On April 12th, 2024,
Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball made an announcement. The severed leg has been preliminarily identified as
belonging to Ms. Robinson. That same day, Maxwell Anderson was charged with first-degree intentional
homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and arson. He would plead not guilty to all charges.
DNA testing would later confirm the other remains were also Sade. On what should have been Sade's 20th
birthday, her family held a memorial for her. It would take a year before they would see the man accused of killing
Shade brought to trial. In May 2025, Maxwell Anderson's murder trial began. Detective Donner knew it
would be a tough fight with a circumstantial case. I really wanted that gotcha piece of direct evidence,
you know, and it never came. Use your common sense and search for the truth. Prosecutor Ian
Vance Curzan took the jury through the last minutes of Shade's life. She was murdered by Maxwell Anderson.
Her body was dismembered by Maxwell Anderson in a vicious and gruesome manner. And then Maxwell Anderson attempted to
make her disappear from this world. The prosecutor showed the jury this grainy footage of Anderson's home
[music] captured on his neighbor's security camera. It's hard to see, but investigators say it shows Maxwell and
Shade in silhouette arriving at his house and turning on the light of his second floor living room. Then through
the upstairs window, moving shadows can be seen. Investigators had poured over the footage hoping to find proof of
Anderson murdering Shade. Do we have any idea what's happening now? I don't. But Detective Donner did
notice something that happened hours later. I'm only seeing one person leaving. Um
and I know that that one person that is leaving is the same height as the fence and the
gate. Which is pretty tall. >> It's 6-ft. 6-ft. Investigators suspect Maxwell had already killed Shade by that
time. But Max had nothing to do with these crimes. Maxwell Anderson's defense attorney, Anthony Cotton, told the jury
that Anderson, being the last known person with Shade, proved nothing. We don't dispute any of that timeline that
they went out together and went back to Max's house, but that doesn't mean he killed her. And he dismissed the footage
collected by the prosecution. All of this video, all the hundreds of hours of video, you can see the car,
but you can't ever conclude that he is the one who is driving this vehicle. It's a pure speculation.
Cotton highlighted what he called the serious holes in the state's case, mainly the lack of motive and the
unknown cause of death. There is absolutely no reason for Max to commit a crime like this.
Why would he ever do something like that? Cotton pointed out that authorities can't even say how Shade died because
some of her remains have not been recovered. CBS 58 reporter Adam Rife says the defense's case seemed to be
effective with courtroom watchers. There was talk as this trial wore on that not all the evidence is there. If it was
Maxwell Anderson, how did he do it and where is that murder weapon? But what would the jury think?
Did any of you think, "Oh, this is a slam dunk"? We spoke to four of the jurors, Becca,
Marilyn, Nikki, and Mel, who says she was unimpressed with the footage of Shade's car that the
prosecution presented. I was like, "Where the hell is this going? Why are they showing us this?
Who's driving? We don't know." Like there's no definitive proof. But there was one video that did make an
impression. This footage of a man leaving the scene of Shade's burning vehicle. You can hear a bystander calling out.
Marilyn, the jury forewoman, says the footage reminded her of the mystery person on the beach.
You know, that is the same silhouette that we saw walking the streets of Milwaukee.
The man then gets on a city bus and you can see his face crystal clear. It was Maxwell Anderson.
What does he have with him? He has that large backpack still. The backpack, pants, and shoes Anderson
is wearing on the bus were never recovered. His gray jacket was eventually found in his neighbor's
garbage can. When the jacket was tested, it had Shade's DNA inside the hood and on the zipper pull.
Now, could it be maybe explained away? Sure. I mean, she did go to his house. Why would you throw it in a trash can
two houses away from your home? Exactly. State calls Chloe Wright. Chloe Wright, who chose to testify off
camera, spoke about her ex-boyfriend and his secret beach. He looked at her like
I'm going to kill you right now. Don't you say a word. You all noticed that. >> She knows that. She played a very vital
role, I think, in But jurors would soon learn about a safe found in Shade's apartment. Inside, marijuana and what
appeared to be methamphetamine pills. Although the pills were never sent to the state crime lab for conclusive
testing, the defense seemed to suggest more should have been done to see if Shade's murder was really connected to
those drugs. I felt that it was irrelevant to the case because there was never ever any
evidence that pointed to her as being a substance abuser. They're just trying to
distract us. So, it never crossed your mind once that maybe this was a drug deal gone wrong or whatever. Never. No.
>> Never. Investigators had tested Shade's remains. Did they find any drugs in her system?
No. Caffeine was the only thing found. Jurors say it was actually one of the last pieces of evidence that they saw
that made the biggest impact. Photos found on Maxwell Anderson's phone that he had taken and deleted.
The photos are of Shade at his home. She is face down. Her arm is over her face.
You see the hand of a white male grasping what would be her right breast. Do you believe Shade was deceased or
alive in those pictures? Do you know? I do not know. My my assumption is that she was
deceased. To see the way he treated her like like an object, it was really disturbing.
I mean, I personally felt like I had lived the last few hours of Shade's life with her
and you were walking kind of her footsteps throughout the night and to see her end up like that was
disgusting, humiliating, just horrible. We went all back into the jury room and there was a lot of quiet,
a lot of hugs, and just everybody was just kind of sick. That did it. That did it.
The state has no more witnesses. The state rests. Okay. And then Maxwell Anderson's defense
rested without calling a single witness. Is it still your decision not to testify?
Yes, that is my decision. The jurors headed to deliberate, but they didn't deliberate for long. After
breaking for the night, the jury had a verdict in less than an hour. We want to come in here and we want to
make a statement with how fast we make this decision. We the jury find the defendant Maxwell
Anderson guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, guilty of mutilating a corpse,
guilty of arson of property other than a building. Guilty [music] of Sade Robinson's murder.
As to count four, But two months later, Maxwell Anderson decided to tell his story.
Mr. Anderson, what would you like to say? Look at the birthday girl hooking on her
birthday. Look at her. Go ahead, baby girl. This is the most [music] heinous crime
this court will see. It doesn't get more serious than this. Sade Robinson's family was determined to
see that Maxwell [music] Anderson would never be free again. They spoke directly to the judge at his
sentencing. 17-year-old Adriana. When Maxwell Anderson murdered my sister, he redefined my definition of
misfortune. He made it so where I cannot meet any person without the fear that they're
going to harm or kill me. Because all my sister did was meet someone, and as a result he ended her
life. He tried to erase her existence and her value. Now I no longer have the opportunity to
try and give her everything she gave me. >> [laughter] >> Shade's father, Carlos Robinson, told
the court what justice would be for him. To lose your child in this manner is unthinkable.
What he has done is inconceivable. He deserves the punishment that he gave to my daughter.
Everything that he did should be done to him. To me, that's justice. >> [snorts]
>> Sheena, wearing [music] Shade's favorite color, pink on her eyelids, wanted answers from her daughter's killer. You
disrespectfully [music] spread my daughter across Milwaukee like a piece of trash. How dare you?
And she made a heartbreaking plea. I'm going to respectfully request that you confess
where my daughter's crown is. Shade's crown, her head, which has still never been found.
You've already done the worst. You can at least give us that much. But if Shade's family was hoping for
answers, they were disappointed. Mr. Anderson, what would you like to say? Maxwell Anderson finally chose to speak.
I would like to start by saying that from the bottom of my heart, my deepest and most sincere condolences go out to
Shade's family, as well as everyone else affected by this tragedy. That being said, your honor, I did not
commit these crimes. I hope and pray that further investigations not only prove my innocence,
but find and deliver true justice. So, you would think that he would tell us the things we wanted to know, and
[music] finally feel some remorse after sitting in jail for these months. And then he didn't. Anything else you
wish to say? No, ma'am. Judge Laura Crevello read a statement Anderson made to an investigator after
his conviction. He regretted he did not walk Ms. Robinson to her vehicle when she left
his apartment, and he believed it was at that point she was abducted by an unknown assailant. Quote, either from
the alley or from my backyard, unquote. When asked how he accounted for his presence in the area where Ms.
Robinson's vehicle was set on fire, Mr. Anderson said that he was set up. You're
hearing this stuff and you're like, no. Nope. What do you think happened that night?
I believe that they went back to his house. I think he may have wanted to take things further than she was comfortable
with, and that maybe she rejected him. And his rather well-documented temper came out.
And Donner suspects [music] Anderson would have killed again. I think this was his first time killing.
I could be wrong, but that's my opinion. I do firmly believe though that it probably wouldn't be his last if he
hadn't been caught. Given what he did to her body. >> [music] >> Chloe wonders if she could have been one
of his targets. A year after they broke up, she says, Maxwell sent her a message on Instagram.
And it was, ignore time is over. Five hours later, Maxwell Anderson met Sade Robinson when she applied for that
job. That's got to give you the chills. >> It's eerie. Before sentencing Anderson, Judge
Crivello took a moment to share her own thoughts about the loss of Sade Robinson.
She was a girl that I would hope all young ladies strive to be. Hey guys. She was loved in the community
by almost everyone that touched her. We love you, Sade, forever. You stole a truly shining light. It's
what it sounds like. And then she gave the man who stole that light the maximum.
You shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life. I am ordering that you will not be
eligible for extended supervision. Life without the possibility of parole. Thank you guys for supporting us.
Outside the courthouse, Sade's loved ones thanked the city of Milwaukee for keeping her memory alive. I do
appreciate the city of Milwaukee cuz they have shown my daughter a lot of love. A mural of Sade sits beneath her beloved
Pizza Shuttle. Sheena has launched a program in Sade's honor to help crime victims, and she has partnered with a
Wisconsin state representative to create a task force to examine and prevent the
disproportionately high levels of violence against black women and girls. In May of 2024,
Adriana, dressed in a pink cap and gown, accepted Sade's degree at what should have been her big sister's graduation.
Seeing her live her life as such a hard worker who never let anything stop her, I knew that she would want me to do that
after I lost her. That she would want me to keep living. And so I'm going to remember her by
following in her footsteps and fill the hole that she left, although I know I can never live up to near her shoes.
Mhm, don't know about that. I do. In Warnimont Park, the site where this tragic investigation began, Sade's
family and friends unveiled a memorial bench. It's in the area Detective Donner has
searched dozens of times in the hopes of fulfilling Sade's loved one's [music] deepest wish of laying all of Sade to
rest. Do you think we'll ever find Sade's crown? I think so, when the lake is ready to
give her back. >> [music] [music] >> Welcome to Post Mortem. I'm 48 Hours correspondent [music] Natalie Morales,
filling in for Anne Marie Green, who is on the other side of the mic to talk about her latest report on the murder of
19-year-old Sade Robinson. Thanks for joining me, Anne Marie. Thanks, Natalie. I'm looking forward to talking about
this. Now, this all started when the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to a vehicle that was set on fire in April of
2024. Turns out that car belonged to Sade, but nobody could get a hold of her. Well,
that same day, a A part from an unidentified female washed up on a remote beach on the Wisconsin shoreline
of Lake Michigan. And Ann Marie Sha Day's friends also hadn't heard from her since she went on
a date the night before, right? Yeah, and in fact, it was one of her coworkers at Pizza Shuttle that really raised the
alarm. She was concerned that Sha Day hadn't showed up for work. She's such a good employee. She would never just not
show up. She just couldn't let it go and she was the one who contacted police. Well, good for her for for following
through with that. And you you also talk about in this hour as we see how much security footage played a part in in
helping, you know, police put the pieces of this puzzle together. Absolutely. I mean, I think we all know that there's a
lot of, you know, surveillance cameras that are around, the security cameras, ring cameras. We know that we're on
camera a lot. But in this case, it wasn't just sort of the places that you would expect, like the lobby of her
apartment building, but that remote area of the park, Warnimont Park, was just it
was remarkable that they even had video from there. And Sha Day in particular left kind of digital breadcrumbs pretty
much everywhere, and that is part of what led to police honing in on Maxwell Anderson so quickly.
There are eyes in the sky everywhere as we can see throughout this hour. We're going to talk about it all, but first I
want to remind our listeners and our viewers, if you haven't listened or watched this episode yet, please go
ahead and do that right now. Go check it out and come on back and join our conversation. So, Ann Marie, at first,
while watching the episode, I thought that this was going to be one of those dating app horror stories. Turns out
though that Sha Day actually met Maxwell Anderson in person before their date. Right. I mean, this is the old-fashioned
way, right? Um she was looking for yet another job. She already had two jobs and she was looking for a third one at
the bar. Uh she meets him there. He's working there and so yeah, why not think it's okay to go out on a date? This is a
young woman who has everything going for her. She's unbelievably driven. She wants to enter the Air Force. She's
finishing up uh her education. She's going places and this one person, you know, ruined everything. Such a tragic
turn. She had everything and was seemed to be doing everything right. The first person we meet in this episode, she's so
fascinating, is the detective, Joe Donner. And you know, I wasn't quite sure what to make of her fashion sense.
I mean, it she's incredible. It's she's like something out of another era almost. And and that is deliberate. That
is by design. Um she is just one of those people that's really into 1940s and 1950s
fashion and the aesthetic of the time. She actually owns a vintage clothing store and she does these like online
social media sales where she, you know, where she'll show like the latest haul that she's gotten and people all over
the world tune in to buy stuff from her. Um she does these, I guess, pin-up contests. We're not talking burlesque
stuff, right? We're talking about people who dress like in the era. Her pin-up name is Misdemeanor. How appropriate is
that, Natalie? Um and so yeah, she's got this whole fascinating other side to her, but boy, is she a damn good
investigator. >> She sure is and when she gets down to business, she really gets down to
business, as we see. Now, it was Detective Donner who took you to that remote beach, showed you around. Uh what
was it like? The beach is an interesting spot. It's quite desolate. Though there's a road leading down there,
there's a big fence. You can't drive down there. You have to know the pathway to take to get down there. And certainly
people come down there to walk their dogs or maybe just to get away, but you would have to really know that that spot
is there to venture down there. I wouldn't go down there and I wouldn't go down there alone. She also took you to
the place where they have Shaddai's burned vehicle. Yeah, so seeing the car, I mean it was almost a little emotional
because it is absolutely charred. But even though Maxwell Anderson tried to get rid of every stitch of evidence, he
fails to get rid of some really crucial evidence, three pieces of crucial evidence. Where the driver seat is
situated, that doesn't change. So they know that, you know, Shaddai probably wasn't driving that car. But then her
purse is found basically intact. I mean it's singed, but it's found underneath the car seat and the clothes she was
wearing that night, those are in the trunk of the car. And finding that car really helped to speed up this
investigation as well. Yeah, that was what was so fascinating. I never thought about that clue of measuring the seat
distance and that being a a big clue into the height of the individual who last drove the car, which would turn out
to be really important in helping solve this case. And I should say that the other officer, right, uh Donnigan, who
was the one who was called to do a check on her apartment, she was crucial. She said to us that that day she was getting
ready for work and like the news was on the background and she kind of heard about a body part being found, you know,
and then she gets this call to go to the apartment and like immediately she has this gut reaction. She went on a date.
She's not here now. I heard about this this news report about a body part and she was also really significant in
speeding up the investigation because if it had not moved forward as quickly as it did, Uh Donna really feels like
there's a good possibility that a lot of that really crucial video would have been lost. Let's also talk though about
Shade's younger sister Adriana. I mean, her ability to offer up data on Shade via Life360, the app. I mean, it proved
to be invaluable, right? Yeah, exactly. Um Detective Donahue calls Adriana the quiet backbone of the family.
And I don't know how Adriana was able to keep a level head in the middle of all of this chaos. I've never
ever ever met an adult, much less a teenager, with the type of presence that this young girl has. I'm glad it came
through in the hour. She's remarkable. And she was able to provide the information about the Life360 app. She
could show them um where Shade had gone. She could show them that she had been at
Maxwell Anderson's house at around 9:30. She could show, according to the Life360
app, that at 2:53 the phone arrived at Warner Manor Park. All of these things were crucial. That Life360 app, that was
something the minute my kids got their driver's license, I put it on their phones because it goes beyond the find
my feature. You can actually track if they're going and driving above the speed limit. It gives you an alert, so
it's an incredible tool. Yeah, I had never heard of the app before. I have since put it on my phone. Um because it
really is um remarkable the amount of detail. It helped investigators literally kind of
like walk the path that Shade did um to figure this whole thing out. Well, this brings us to the man who was then
charged with Shade Robinson's murder, Maxwell Anderson. Tell us about him. So, this guy is, you know, as you can
imagine, an interesting character. He's 33 years old. Shadi was a teenager. She's 19. We spoke to his ex-girlfriend
Chloe, and Chloe also was very young when they started dating. >> Perhaps praying on their vulnerability.
>> Exactly. Even before he met Shadi, he had a criminal record, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, disorderly
conduct, and you saw in the hour that he was arrested for battery of against a bystander who tried to intervene. He was
apparently having an argument with one of his girlfriends, and he ended up pleading guilty to a lesser charge for
that. What was really fascinating, and and kind of alarming in my opinion, was when detectives did search his
apartment, they found he had a large collection of knives in his apartment, which, I mean, that really raised my
eyebrow. Yeah, 51 knives in the kitchen alone. Um, I like to cook. I have a lot of
knives, but I certainly don't have a collection like that. No, I know. And you know, I'm I'm pretty sure
investigators were hopeful that amongst those knives they would find something that maybe it played a role in this
case, and that that simply wasn't the case. Chloe says that he sort of fancied himself a handyman, but he was always
starting projects that he would never finish. But there were two projects she said that he did finish in the time that
she knew him, and they were both secret compartments. And she sort of described how you would like touch something, and
then a compartment would pop out. Um, we we didn't know what he was hiding in those
compartments. The other curious tidbit, investigators found tons of women's clothing
in his house. Random items, um, you know, shirts, pants, not necessarily like all intimate
items. Um, Chloe wonders if some of the clothes might be hers. They also found the ID of a woman.
They did track the woman down. She's alive and well. Um, a couple of other interesting things about that house. The
house is actually sort of split. He owns the house, but he lived on the second floor and then there was a tenant on the
first floor. Apparently, the tenant complained a lot about the noise. Uh, Anderson Maxwell
Anderson had um, dogs. He would complain about the dogs making too much noise upstairs. The tenant was home the night
Sade went over there and never heard a thing. Did investigators have a theory as to how Sade Robinson could have been
killed without making any sort of noise? Strangulation perhaps? It's a silent death. Yeah, I was going to say that
could have been, you know, a way someone could have been killed without making a
lot of noise and and certainly without a lot of blood, which is also something else that they didn't find. Um, you
know, he goes on the date with her April 1st. He's arrested by April 4th. On April 12th, 2024, the Sheriff's
Office announced that the remains found on that remote beach were identified as belonging to Sade Robinson. And on that
same day, Maxwell Anderson was formally charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and
arson. He would plead not guilty to all the charges. Now, one of the worries for
Detective Joe Donner was that there wasn't any direct evidence linking Maxwell Anderson to the case, but it
didn't seem, Anne Marie, that the jury really needed that so much, right? No, it was really the last piece of evidence
that sealed his fate. We spoke to a number of jurors, but one juror, Becca, talked about seeing those photos that
Maxwell Anderson had taken on his phone and then deleted. They are photos of Shade. You can see his hand on her. He's
touching, you know, intimate areas of her body. And that basically did it for these jurors. I want to read a little
bit of what Becca had to say about this. She said, "I mean, I personally felt like I had lived the last few hours of
Shade's life with her. And to see her end up like that was disgusting, humiliating, just horrible." Yeah, and
to think that to not know if she was dead or alive when those photos were taken. They seem staged, almost like a
trophy. But then he deletes them. I mean, that tells you a lot if you're a juror, right? It was perhaps the most
powerful piece of evidence that the jurors saw. Right? That along with, you know, we did see the footage of the man
on the beach >> Yeah. with the backpack. Yeah. >> Also, then you saw the surveillance
footage of the man leaving the burnt car, and then you see clearly Maxwell Anderson's face when he hops onto a city
bus. I mean, thank goodness that security footage was very crisp and clear. You could clearly see his face.
>> Oh, absolutely. Well, and then it turns out the defense didn't call any witnesses. So, the jury didn't take very
long to deliberate. Anderson was found guilty of intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and arson.
Although, he continues to maintain his innocence. At his sentencing, Shade's mother, father, and sister, they weren't
having any of that. Mhm. No, um they were very outspoken. Shade's mother is, you know,
really she's been dealing with a lot of stuff even before the disappearance and the murder of her daughter. Um she's
been dealing with sort of health stuff. And so, it it really took a lot out of her. And she has kept the fight going.
But it wasn't just the family members that spoke. Maxwell Anderson's father also spoke. Um he was crying.
He said Shade's family, he thought about them every single day. He said that he loved his son, and that he hoped for a
path for his son uh that would allow his son to become a positive influence in some way.
There was also members of the community that sent in letters because like the whole city was moved by this murder. And
there was one particular letter from an anonymous person that even the jurors said had a significant impact on them.
And I just got I'm going to read some portions of this cuz I think it really captures the way the entire city of
Milwaukee felt about Shade. Shade Robinson was not a torso. She was not evidence. She was a full living radiant
human being. She had dreams, plans, and a future she was building with pride. She had people who loved her and that
still love her more than words can hold. And she had a right to live, to breathe,
to laugh, to grow old. That right was stolen and it continues. But here's what you couldn't take. You
could not mutilate her soul. You could not silence the scream of justice. You could not prevent an entire
community from rising up in Shade's name. So beautiful and so moving. I love that the judge read that letter. It's
not surprising because I really felt like she became the daughter of the entire city.
People either saw something in her that they felt was also in them or in, you know, a young woman that they know,
whether it's a daughter or a friend. Um and they really rallied around this family, which I thought was significant,
Natalie, because the reality of it is is that there often are times when young black women are victims of crime and
they don't get the same level of attention, right? And I just want to read a statistic out. This is Columbia
University study. In Wisconsin, black women are 20 times more likely to be murdered than white women. It's the
worst statistic in the country. The other thing is that Milwaukee is home to Jeffrey Dahmer.
And when you think of of Dahmer's crimes, there's a sickening feeling that comes with it. And this reminded
Milwaukee of that sickening feeling. Um and just as a kind of a side note, when we um traveled there to do some of
our interviews, we stayed in this really nice old hotel. It was built sort of in
the I think it's in like 1920s, 1930s, but I kind of like cracked a little joke with the guy at the front desk and asked
him if there were any ghosts. And then I struck up a conversation with someone in
the elevator and I mentioned that I was inquiring about ghosts and he said, "Well, you know you know what happened
on the fifth floor?" And it turns out the hotel we stayed in was the hotel that Jeffrey Dahmer killed
one of his victims in. But I got to tell you, I slept with the lights on. I would have, too. Yeah, and that person
>> I'm surprised you slept at all. Yeah, I know. Back to Shade, as we know her remains,
they were spread all over the county. We learned from some friends that they even
found a blanket that had belonged to Shade, as well as they found what they believed was a a human bone in an area
that investigators had already searched. Um you talked to Shade's sister, Adriana, as well about the ongoing
search for Shade's remains. I wanted to play a little piece of that. Does it bother you that, you know, parts
of your sister are still missing? Yeah, it definitely does. I have this necklace and another one which is a star
that I wear every day that has some of her ashes in it. So, it's like a part of her is with me,
but knowing that a part of her isn't with anyone, that it's floating around somewhere decomposed
is like she hasn't been allowed to to to stop fighting. Like her battle's not over. Like she's never going to be able
to rest in some sense. Heartbreakingly, you know, as we saw in the sentencing, um, Sade's mother asked Maxwell Anderson
to confess where her daughter's crown was and we're talking about her head, of course.
Um, he though maintained his innocence, but we do hope that Sade's family will will get an answer someday and I know
that's that search is ongoing. Yeah, this is the kind of continued heartbreak for everyone who cares about Sade that
all of her has not been found. Before we go though, let's end on something that is so hopeful and positive and
uplifting, I think, and that is that Sade's legacy is her younger sister Adriana. Adriana, as we mentioned, such
a a bright light in this world. Well, she accepted Sade's graduation diploma, um, for her associate's degree, but she
also has some big news, right? >> Yeah, so Adriana is in the top 5% of high school kids in Wisconsin. She's
been accepted to Harvard. She has a 99% scholarship. She doesn't know what she's
going to do, where she's going to go, but when I say I've never met anyone like this, um, I wish her all the luck
in the world. I She I don't think she needs it. I expect great things from Adriana, and I cannot wait to watch her
continue to strive and rise and accomplish and be all the things that we all know she can be, but also that her
sister knew she could be. Well, that is a hopeful way to end this. And thank you
again for your incredible reporting, Anne Marie, on this one. Appreciate it. >> Always great talking to you, Natalie.
And if you liked this episode, please rate or review on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.

Watch "Sade Robinson and The Secret Beach " and then catch up with 48 Hours correspondents Natalie Morales and Anne-Marie Green on "Post Mortem" as they discuss the murder of a 19-year-old whose partial remains were discovered on a remote beach and scattered throughout Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

00:00 Sade Robinson and The Secret Beach 41:36 Watch the Post Mortem podcast

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Sade Robinson's murder investigation leads to Maxwell Anderson's conviction after disturbing evidence surfaces about their date night.

Key points

The Search for Shade Robinson. Detectives look into the last known hours of Shade Robinson, a missing college student.
A Gruesome Discovery. A young man finds human remains along the Wisconsin shoreline, leading to a homicide investigation.
Maxwell Anderson's Secret Beach. Chloe Wright reveals Maxwell's secret beach, leading investigators to a crucial location.
Charges Filed Against Maxwell Anderson. Maxwell Anderson is charged with homicide and mutilation after remains are identified as Shade's.
Gruesome Evidence Presented. Prosecutor Ian Vance Curzan details the horrific murder of Shade Robinson, emphasizing the brutality of her death.
Defense's Weak Case. Maxwell Anderson's attorney argues the lack of evidence and motive in the case against him.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There was just something odd about everything.

2:40WatchMar 22, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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