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At first glance, when you come to this area in Oklahoma, it is very beautiful. It's serene, but we have missing people
that are never found. There are homicides that are never solved. There's lots of dark secrets that live here.
My name is Dakota Black. I'm a tracker and detective with the Pawatami County Sheriff's Office
and I was brought into the missing person's case for Michaela Mi and as soon as we arrived on scene we
started tracking the area and trying to locate her. We had multiple deputies and detectives
in the woods looking for her. We were searching every place that we could potentially think of to try to
locate Michaela. >> There's something strange. >> She might be in there. She might be. She
may not be alive. >> I was not looking for an individual that was breathing. I was looking for my
daughter's body. And I don't know why. >> Sometimes it's hard to not take cases personal. They tug at your heartstrings.
And this one was one of those. What was it about this woman that fueled you this way?
>> Just who she was? >> My sister Michaela is the strongest person I know. Has the biggest heart. Is
the most caring. Wants to take care of everyone and put everyone before herself.
>> I love you. >> I love you most. >> I love you more. >> Her main goal in life was to be around
children, to help children, especially ones in need. Everybody that knew Michaela had nothing but love for her.
We had a huge response from our community. Everybody really wanted her family. >> We just went out there looking for her.
Didn't sleep for days. Didn't eat for days. It was raining, cold. We were just out there for days.
>> Was there a part of you that say, you know, there's a chance we may not find her?
>> Yes. It seemed day after day the chances were getting more slim of finding her alive.
>> I just knew that she was gone. >> I can't imagine how scared she was. It's just sad.
Sad that it ended the way it did. It didn't have to end this way. I was driven and I was not going to go home. I
was not going to stop until this case was solved. The guys at the sheriff's office call
her a cool dude with long hair because they say she's meaner than any of them in the gun range and in the field.
>> That fence that's hanging, I had to go underneath that into the water. >> Her name is Lieutenant Dakota Black.
She's a trained tracker and detective with the Padawatami County Sheriff's Office in Shaunie, Oklahoma. I go out to
scenes when there's manhunts or trying to locate individuals. >> Her specialty is finding the missing,
whether alive or dead. I have found them underneath piles of leaves and trees and
abandoned homes, sheds. I've found them pretty much in any area you can think of. Often by her side, her partner,
Deputy Haven, a trained therapy dog for kids and other family members caught in the crossfire of tragedy. Haven provides
comfort and consolation, a consoling presence she herself would rely on in the coming months as she embarked on one
of the most heart-wrenching cases of her career. >> This case will stay with me forever and
it will be one that I always remember through my whole life because of how cruel it was.
The last thing we said to each other was, "I love you." >> Friday, September 15th, 2023 began like
most days for Andrea Mayavi, with a 7 a.m. phone call from her best friend and younger sister, Michaela.
>> I wish I would have known. I would have said so much more. I'm grateful for that. At least I said I
love you. >> The next morning, Saturday the 16th, the phone rang as usual around 7 a.m. Only
this time, it wasn't Michaela. It was Michaela's husband, Frank Buyers. >> He's hysterical, crying, screaming, can
barely understand what he's saying. And he says Michaela didn't come home last night.
He ended up telling me that Michaela went on a date the Friday night before with a bald man in a white truck.
They left and she never came home last night. At the time, Michaela and Frank were
headed for divorce, says Andrea. They were still living on the same 10acre property in Mcome, Oklahoma, but in
separate homes. So, at first, Andrea wasn't worried. >> My first thought is she's single. I hope
she had fun. >> But Andrea's mood began to shift when her many calls to Michaela went to
voicemail. >> By noon, I was worried. 1:00, I was really worried. >> Their mother, Barbara Harper, was also
anxious. Michaela was supposed to help out at the family restaurant that afternoon, but she didn't show and
hadn't called. Unheard of for Michaela. And the more I prayed about it, the more
I realized that something serious had happened. >> Frank also reported Michaela missing to
the Pawatami County Sheriff's Office that afternoon. >> My wife's been missing since late last
night. She left at 5:30 and last time that anyone has heard from her has been at 8:00 p.m.
>> And your name? My name is Frank Buyers. B Y R S. >> What's her name? >> Her name is Michaela Buyers.
>> The deputy on duty, Dustin Richardson, felt he needed to put eyes on the ground. He got to Mcome around 400 p.m.
His body cam rolling. >> He'd given me the information over the phone, but I just wanted to see where
she was coming from and and see more of the details. Frank made a point of showing the deputy
the last Facebook message he said Michaela sent him after she left assuring him she was quote fine and to
back off. >> Did you see the guy at all? >> Then he told him the story about Michaela driving off with a bald man in
a white truck. >> I was a six and 61. >> Okay. He was completely bald and he had
a beard. If I if I had a guess of weight, I don't know, maybe 200. >> Deputy Richardson then asked if he could
see the house where Michaela was temporarily living. >> Can I go take a look around?
>> So, she's been staying in this little thing. >> Yeah. >> All locked up. >> But the shedlike home was locked. And
Frank said he didn't have a key, but he did have something to say about their relationship.
>> We have an open marriage where Oh, that's that's a brand new thing. I don't like it, but um I agreed upon it
because I'm trying to fix our marriage. >> At that point, the deputy decided to take a quick drive to the school where
Michaela worked as a teacher's aid. Maybe she had gone there. What's up, >> man? This uh Frank Buyers called in
saying his uh wife was missing. >> He called his son, also a deputy, from the car.
>> This guy is squirly, man. This Frank guy is squirly. >> The sensation was that there is nothing
about this story that is really true. While the deputy was at the school, friends and family started
showing up at the property, including Michaela's mom, Barbara. >> When I first got there, I didn't even
speak to anyone. I was on my hands and knees crawling through brush out in the pasture.
We've got to find where she's at. >> How are you? This is Deputy Richardson with his body camera rolling as he
returned to the property late that afternoon. Frank had smashed open the lock to
Michaela's place with a hammer. >> I looked and I I immediately saw empty shell casings from what appeared to be
22 caliber. He told me that she sits in there and shoots out at animals, the coyotes and stuff.
>> There's a few times I've heard her shoot. By then, more deputies had arrived.
>> I had asked him where she kept that gun and he said it was in his house. >> Is it in there? Now,
>> I had him walk me to his house >> and he walked inside and he pointed at it. I had pulled it from where it wasn't
there. >> Like always >> and put it in my vehicle. >> The gun, according to the deputy,
appeared to have been recently fired. >> That's pretty recent. I uh made phone calls to u get our
criminal investigation team out there because I just it was off. There was something that needed to be looked into
more. Hey, I'm on that I'm on that missing person thing still. It's suspicious as
>> investigators ushered family and friends off the property and blocked the driveway. I remember walking back to my
car and just screaming at God, asking him, "Why? Why did you do this? Let this happen.
Just take me. Take me and let us find her and just take me." >> The missing person's investigation was
now a possible criminal investigation. And that's when the call went out to lead detective, Lieutenant Dakota Black.
>> We definitely needed to figure out what was going on. As soon as Lieutenant Dakota Black got
the call that Michaela Mayavi was missing, she jumped in her vehicle and sped to Mcome.
>> What was your immediate mission? >> To locate Michaela. We We needed to locate her. We didn't know where she
was. >> It was 1366. Detective Black and her partner on the case, Detective Marcus
May, now the under sheriff, put out a bolo alert. Be on the lookout. >> It was be on the lookout for a white
male with a beard, bald head, driving a white truck. We wanted all of the local law enforcement and surrounding agencies
aware that that we do have a situation developing over here. The tips from this rural area where everyone seems to know
everybody came pouring in. >> Every white pickup truck with tanned windows was getting called into the
sheriff's office. >> None of the sightings panned out, but the search took on a life of its own.
>> Flyers were posted everywhere. Social media ads were everywhere. >> Michaela Miyave was beloved by
everybody. They were demanding every resource possible to go find Michaela. >> And Dakota, this was a a woman with
enormous heart. Right. >> Absolutely. She loved her family. She loved her friends. She loved children.
>> Michaela fell in love with children when she herself was still a child. Her mom,
Barbara, ran a daycare. >> We weren't just a daycare. We were the family. and she loved those kids,
especially the babies. >> Sadly, Michaela was unable to have children of her own. But that didn't
stop her. In her 20s, Michaela fostered and would eventually adopt these two kids, a brother and sister.
>> She dropped what she was doing, went to and took classes, got certified to make sure that she could give those
kids a home. She did. Around that time, an old high school classmate named Frank
Buyers contacted her out of the blue through Facebook. Frank, who was divorced, had primary custody of four
young daughters. >> Frank was telling her a story that the current girlfriend he was living with
was abusing his four daughters. So, my sister took him and all four girls in and just started basically taking care
of them. She felt like the kids needed her and she sure needed them. Probably the happiest I'd seen her in a
long time with those girls. >> Frank and Michaela got married in 2022. They built their lives together in
Mcome. Population 24. >> It's just country. It's 100% country. The kids are 100% country.
Michaela was going to college to get her teaching degree while working at the local elementary school.
>> When she would stand up for the kids and and if she saw a child that was dirty or
wasn't taken care of, she would take it to the principal and you know bring awareness to it.
>> I think that was her biggest thing in life was to help little innocent kids that needed adults help. She always felt
responsible to do that. Countywide, dozens of people turned out in the cold and pouring rain to slug through mud and
tickinfested woods in search of their beloved teacher. But one person at the heart of this
mystery conspicuously appeared not to search. Michaela's husband, Frank Buyers. >> He never participated in a single
search. He never volunteered to go out with any of the search parties to go out and try to find Michaela.
>> It wasn't like, "Oh my god, my wife is missing." >> He never seemed like concerned about
that. He seemed more concerned about himself. >> What were you noticing about Frank
Buyers? >> The the lack of any human emotion. I mean, he he did not seem scared. He just
wanted to know what we knew. He just it didn't seem human at all. Investigators were already zeroing in on Frank.
>> We strongly suspected Frank. >> Three days after Michaela was reported missing, Frank Buyers agreed to be
questioned by Detective Black at the sheriff's office. The interview was audio only.
>> At this time, I just want her found. >> The detective tried to win his trust by
playing the good cop. >> Again, I couldn't imagine. I mean, it's hard not knowing, you know, and when
everybody's pointing a finger at you, I'm sure it doesn't make it any better. >> Yeah. I feel like I got to defend myself
and tell everyone that, "No, this is what happened. This is the truth." >> She pressed him, but not enough to make
him stop talking. >> Did you ask her about the date before she left? >> I did, and uh she told me it was none of
my business. Same thing as if I went on a date, it's none of her business. Okay.
So, she never said a name or anything. How she met him, how she knew him? >> No.
>> After answering questions for two and a half hours, Detective Black let him go
home. The search for Michaela continued. Barbara remembers crawling through brush
wearing snake protectors when she says she had a premonition. >> I heard Michaela tell me, "Mama, I'm in
a tin horn." And I said, "Oh my god, she just told me she's in a tin horn." >> Barbara frantically started looking for
tin horns, pipes or culverts used to divert water under roads. But there was no sign of Michaela.
Then came the call to 911 on day five that would prove her mother's intuition was right.
>> Ma'am, I don't know exactly where I'm at, but I'm on Hamilton Road. I was searching with my friend for my cousin.
that's missing Michaela Mi >> and I think that we just found her The chatter of locust permeated the air,
an eerie sense of foroding. Michaela Mayavi had been missing for 5 days. >> I got a phone call from my friend and
she said, "I need you to sit down." And she said, "They found someone and it's a
female." And I'm like, is she dead or alive? >> Earlier that day, a cousin and her
friend had been out searching about half a mile from Michaela's house when they were stopped in their tracks by a
strong, sickening odor. The friend followed the intense smell down a ditch to a tin horn. He saw something sticking
out. It was a hand. I was searching with my friend for my cousin that's missing, Michaela Mi.
>> And I think that we just found her. >> It was the call Detective Dakota Black
had been dreading. >> It was devastating to everybody. I mean, it was absolutely terrible.
>> Just as Barbara had imagined, Michaela was in a large drainage pipe beneath the
road. She had been drugged into the middle area and she was wrapped in the carpet.
Uh she had one sock on her foot that had teddy bears on it and her shirt was actually pulled up over her face to
cover it. I mean, it was hard. It was really hard. So dark in there. >> Detective Black wouldn't leave
Michaela's side. The two women had been born one day apart in the same year, but
that wasn't their only bond. >> I did feel a connection with Michaela. I have a history also. I've been in bad
relationships. It could have been me on more than one occasion. I just got lucky.
>> While the detectives were working the scene, Michaela's family gathered just up the road.
>> You could hear hear them crying up there and they were trying to come down here
where she was. >> But the crime scene was blocked off. I can't tell. >> We can't let you central.
>> I can verify. >> Please. >> I never once doubted that it was her. >> If anyone goes to the tape without
permission, they immediately go to jail. I don't know what to say. I'm sorry. >> Can you tell them we're here?
>> Of course. Of course. Okay. I felt like I needed to see her because she had been out there for five
days without me and I just needed to be with her and they wouldn't let me. She needed me.
But it wasn't there. >> Michaela's remains were placed in the coroner's van for the journey to the
medical examiner's office. My mom and I both realized that it was probably her in there
and that we would never be able to hold her and hug her again. My mom started to chase the van.
I just followed it down the road just as fast as I could and somebody hollered at
me and asked me what I was doing and I said, "My my baby's in that van." Detective Black was so angry she had to
hold herself back. >> I wanted to leave that night and go and arrest Frank, but I knew um it's better
to move thoroughly than to act quick. >> The two investigators had already begun
building a strong circumstantial case against Frank Buyers, the bullet casings in her home.
His unlikely story that Michaela agreed to an open marriage. She wanted to start
dating other people >> and left with a bald man in a white truck. >> She embraced the guy in a hug and then
they got in the truck and left. And >> when you asked Michaela's family about this open relationship, what' they say?
>> Absolutely not. They said there was absolutely no possible way that Michaela would have ever done that.
Investigators learned from interviews and from Frank's own social media accounts that he was the one who was
cheating. Frank Buyers is the biggest cheater. He was cheating on her as soon as he moved in. Every time he would go
out of town, he was creating dating profiles. >> Frank worked for an environmental
cleanup company cleaning up hazardous materials. He spent a lot of time on the road. He would meet women at gas
stations. He would meet up with them at hotel rooms. He would text them while he was home
with Michaela and hide it from her. >> He was communicating with females the day Michaela was murdered. And
immediately afterwards, >> he was sending pictures to women the day of her funeral, asking, "How do I look
in my tux?" Frank's cheating got so bad Michaela moved out about 3 months before her
murder. >> She packed bag and she came and stayed with me for a week. I held her where she
cried every night. She felt like a failure. >> But I avoided too. >> But Michaela's love for the little girls
kept drawing her back. Says Andrea. >> I love you. >> I love you most. >> I love you more.
>> I love you most. Michaela went back to the 10acre property, but not to Frank. She
temporarily moved into that little structure behind his to stay close to the girls. Frank tried to win her back,
promising to change, but the cheating continued. Detective Dakota Black would later discover this conversation in
which Michaela told Frank she was done. >> I've never once been dead set for divorce until today. Michaela recorded
it 2 days before her murder. >> I'm just saying you have officially lost me. >> Detective Black believes she recorded it
to expose Frank's infidelity. >> I'm stating to you right now that you have officially
broke the last string that was holding me to you. >> Okay? >> And you have nobody to blame but
yourself for doing it. That Friday, September 15th, Michaela returned from work to pick up her things and leave for
good. But Frank, it seemed, had other plans. Detectives would later recover these images captured on a home security
camera on his phone. Detective Black believes he thought he had deleted them. >> Where is Michaela in this picture?
>> This is Frank's home and she's coming through the front door. Michaela stayed
for 14 minutes. The detective believes they were arguing. >> Here's Michaela again.
She's leaving. >> This is the last picture of the series. Frank standing at the door of his home.
>> And what do you believe happened after this last photograph was taken? >> I think this is when he exited his home
and went to her home and killed her. I think this is when he killed Michaela. Within minutes,
>> Michaela was shot in the head. >> Michaela had a gunshot wound right here in the front. She had one on the left
side and then she had a graze wound on the same side. >> The last image she may have seen on this
earth was her own husband holding a rifle and then the shot fired. >> Yes. It started as a simmering anger.
>> And I just got to say this because I'm pretty angry. >> And grew into a raging fury. People
wanted to know why Frank was still walking free. >> I'm sorry. The most difficult part was knowing that
we were accumulating evidence to Frank's guilt in Michaela's murder, but we were
unable to release that or share that with the public. >> We knew Frank was guilty. We knew Frank
was not a good husband. We knew Frank was lying. We knew lots of things, but we couldn't prove everything. And I
wanted to prove everything to make sure he stayed in jail. Detective Black spent 18-hour days at
the office with her sidekick, Haven. >> Here, >> the therapy dog now there for her.
Give me a sense emotionally how tough this was for you. >> It was tough mentally. I was drained. I
was mentally exhausted. I had lost weight. I was tired. But I was not going to go home until this case was solved.
>> Frank used the time to defend himself on social media. I am innocent and everything will come out.
He also appeared on local news. >> Even today I called her. I mean, I know she's not here, but
it's just a fact that I have her number still and her phone still on somewhere and uh it just it would have been nice
just to hear her voice. Many in the community tuned in to watch Frank Byer's interview, including
Lieutenant Dakota Black. >> Did it make you angry? >> It did make me angry. It was sickening
to see that a beautiful woman was gone from the world and that while he's on TV professing his innocence, he's still in
communication with other women, trying to have intimate relationships with them.
>> Detective Black tracked down scores of these women. Crystal Cantrell was Frank's girlfriend before he met
Michaela. >> He's very good at making you believe him. And then he's kind of like a snake.
Once he gets you in there, he bites you. >> Detective Black learned Frank wooed Crystal the same way he wooed Michaela
with a false story that his daughters were being mistreated by his current girlfriend. And like Michaela, Crystal
had a soft heart. I love kids, you know. I have kids of my own. So, I just felt really bad for them.
>> Shortly after they moved in together, Crystal says Frank started to show his true colors. He isolated her from
friends and family and controlled her every move. They fought. One night, she woke up to see him looming over her,
clutching a pair of handcuffs. >> I closed them so he couldn't use them on me. And then after that, he just got on
my back and was choking me. He had wrapped his arms around me and had his hand on my throat and he just didn't let
go. Crystal was able to get away, but was too afraid to report the incident to the police. She left Frank for good, but
says it could have been her in that ditch. >> He would have killed me. If Frank ever harmed Michaela, she never
told her mom and sister. Sometimes they saw bruises, but Michaela always said they were just from roughousing with the
kids. I think if I think about it too much is where I will go down a dark hole and
not come out because I did see the bruises and I just chose to believe and not question
and maybe if I would have questioned it would come out differently. Bit by bit, Detective Black and her team
built a profile of a murderer. >> So, this photo was taken at Walmart. >> Using the date on a Walmart receipt
found on Frank's property, the detective was able to track down this security camera photo.
What's in the cart? >> There is bleach, ammonia, and a mop. >> And mop, ammonia, and bleach equals
what? in your mind as an investigator. >> Crime scene cleanup. >> They were also able to match the carpet
in the ditch. >> I I'll help you. >> Oh, I got it. >> To one a neighbor had given Frank and
Michaela for their dogs. >> You You gave him that carpet about eight or nine months ago.
>> Frank took the carpet that was given to him by the neighbor and used that to roll Michaela's body in.
They believe Frank killed Michaela around 400 p.m. and left her body in her home. He then picked up his girls after
school and drove them around. Returning home about 8:00 p.m. That's when the detectives believe he started
to move her body. The kids reported in interviews once they returned home that Frank was
outside most of the night. He he wasn't in his bed. >> Detective Black says there were fresh
tire tracks leading to Michaela's little house. >> We believe that the tire tracks actually
came from a vehicle backing up to load her body to take it to where she was located.
>> The detectives believe Frank drove Michaela's body to the edge of the ditch. pulled her out and then let her
body topple the 12 to 15 ft to the creek bed. They believe Frank then climbed down and dragged her into that pipe
underneath the roadway. Once Frank got rid of the body, he concocted a plan to cover up his crime.
>> So, she took her phone with her? >> Yeah, as far as I know, she took her phone with her. Remember, he told the
deputy that Michaela had messaged him from her phone that evening telling him back off,
but investigators would later find Michaela's phone in Frank's bedroom. >> Detective May confronted Frank in a
second interview. So, I'm just trying to understand how if she left with her phone and was communicating with you
through her phone on Facebook, how that phone was in your bedroom. >> I understand.
>> Okay. I mean, I I don't I mean I I don't have an explanation, honestly. >> But investigators did have an
explanation. Michaela had two phones, an iPhone and a Moto G. Frank had both of them.
>> The Moto Gone was an old phone of Michaela's that she hadn't been using for quite some time.
>> She just pushed in that hole, it pops the tray out. >> Frank knew how to get into that old
phone. >> So, there's a SIM card for those who don't know. That's what it looks like.
>> So, he switched the SIM card from her iPhone. >> Why does he do that? >> To gain full access to all of her
accounts. That's how he was texting himself, pretending to be Michaela. And in fact, it was him the entire time.
>> The evidence was mounting, but they were still waiting on two key pieces of evidence they had sent to the forensic
lab for testing. >> I needed a smoking gun that I knew was not going to let him out. I knew it was
going to keep him there. >> What have you just unwrapped here? >> This uh what do we have here? Is the
projectile recovered from the 2x4 inside Mava's bedroom. In addition to the shell
casings found on the floor in Michaela's home, they later found this bullet wrapped in what they believed was
Michaela's hair embedded in the wall. They hoped it would test positive for Michaela's DNA.
And then there were these boots. >> So these are Frank's work boots. They were recovered on the night of the
missing person's report uh from his bedroom. And what did you spot on these boots that was of interest?
>> So, we had found a substance that we believed could be blood, but he also works with lots of chemicals, so we were
unsure if that would be something that got on there while he was at work. >> 38 days after Michaela went missing,
they finally got the results. They weren't able to get a genetic confirmation on the hair, but the boots
were a different story. The substance on Frank's boots was blood. Michaela's blood.
>> As soon as we got that, we were like, "We're going right now." >> You had your man.
>> We had our guy. >> Yes. We were waiting for that arrest. >> So, it moved fast after that.
>> It was close to midnight. Flashing police lights lit up the darkness. 38 days after Michaela was reported
missing. Detective Black, Deputy Richardson, and a special ops team moved in to arrest Frank Buyers. I got with
the SWAT team, organized the take down, and went in and got him. You are under arrest.
>> He thought he was smarter than everyone, but he was outsmarted, right? >> Yes. I think he was surprised.
I swear I didn't do >> Lieutenant Black finally had Frank in her grasp and right where she wanted him
in handcuffs headed to jail. Detective May called Michaela's family with the news.
>> That was a hallelujah moment. That was about time moment. We couldn't get her back, but we knew he wasn't
walking free anymore. >> Detective May says they were done with Frank's lies. How you doing, Frank?
>> And they confronted him with the hard evidence they'd taken weeks to gather. >> Now's the opportunity
to let us know what happened. I I didn't do I mean, >> why was there blood on your boots?
>> I mean, I can't answer. I mean, I I I don't I don't know. I mean, honestly, >> Frank Buyers was charged with
firstdegree murder. The DA was seeking the death penalty, but the defense requested a deal to save
his life. 15 months after buyer's arrest, he agreed to plead guilty and serve life without parole.
>> Michaela's mom was bitterly disappointed. >> I feel that the plea deal was a copout.
The moment The second that she took her last breath, he chose that. And he got to choose what he got for
punishment, too. And that's not okay. It's not okay. >> The plea deal isn't the only thing
upsetting Barbara. She doesn't think Frank acted alone. >> You're absolutely convinced that Frank
had somebody help him. >> I'll go to my grave. been there. >> I think he had to have had an
accomplice. I don't think that he could have moved her body on his own at all. >> Physically, he could not have done it.
>> No, I don't believe so. I think we all agree that it would absolutely be difficult to move her, but people are
scared. They can do amazing things. >> What they're saying is not unreasonable. If the evidence is presented to us one
day that that uh that suggests that we will take it and we'll run with it to its fullest extent.
I come and I sit and I look at that place down there. I went down and hung all kinds of crosses and different
things. He didn't just take from us. He took from his own children. someone that
loved them, that put them first. >> It didn't have to end this way. He could have let her leave,
but he didn't. >> There's cold justice for Michaela. For detective Dakota Black Tracker, her
painful work continues. >> Michaela would want her life to mean something. Barbara is starting Michaela's Purple
Butterfly Foundation to fight against domestic violence. >> That was her goal, her mission in life
was when you see someone in need, help them. When I think of Michaela, I think of
sunflowers. I think of joy. She would love that though, you know. She would with all those sunflowers.
I sure miss her smile, her laugh. Oh, that laugh was something else. She was my best friend. I strived for
her to be proud of me because I looked up to her even though she was the little sister. I still lay in bed and talk to
her like she's still right there. Like she's watching over us every day. Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host,
Ann Marie Green, and today we're discussing Michaela Mayavi, who was first reported missing by her husband,
Frank Buyers, in 2023. Now, he told police that his wife had gone out on a date with another man, saying that they
had an open marriage, but then she never returned from that date. An extensive search was launched and Lieutenant
Dakota Black, a tracker and detective with the Podawani County Sheriff's Office, was brought in on this case. So,
joining me now is 48 hours correspondent Peter Vans, who reported on this episode. Peter, it's always great to see
you. >> Hi, Anie. Great to be with you again. And of course, we want to remind uh the
viewers and listeners, if you haven't listened to uh this episode of 48 Hours, you can find it in your podcast feed,
the full audio version of it. So, go take a listen, then come on back for this conversation cuz we got questions.
Um and Peter has the answers. So, Peter, Michaela, and Frank Buyers, they're living in a small rural town of Mcome,
Oklahoma. Uh, Lieutenant Dakota Black described the area as beautiful and serene, and it certainly looks that way,
but also said there are a lot of dark secrets that live there, too. What did she mean by that?
>> Well, it's hard to believe, but Oklahoma has the highest rate of domestic violence of any state in the country.
And Dakota Black told us she in her own life has experienced violence in a relationship. And while Mcome only has a
population of less than 30 and keep in mind Michaela Frank and the girls they make up 20% of the population of Mcome
uh it's near an intersection of multiple interstate highways and Dakota Black said criminals moving through the area
are known to dump victims bodies there and there are people living in Pawatami County in poverty there some are off the
grid with no electricity or or running water toilets or even a roof over their head. There are some drug problems and
uh it's an open carry state. A lot of people have firearms and Lieutenant Black said they have missing people that
are never found, homicides that are never solved. And I do want to say that while the sheriff's office there is
small, they serve this large rural county with distinction and professionalism, and they were
outstanding in their efforts to find Michaela. That's the impression that I got just from watching the hour. Like
they just seem so on point and so um unbiased and completely focused on like where the evidence is driving them.
>> That's right. >> So let's talk a little bit about Michaela and Frank's relationship. Um
they were old high school classmates. They did not date in high school, but then many years later out of the blue,
Frank contacts her on Facebook and they start a relationship. Um they are married in 2022 and it's a large blended
family because Michaela, she already has two kids. Frank has four of his own daughters. But was Michaela's family
worried about the relationship that she had with Frank because there must have been red flags.
>> Yeah. Her sister Andrea said that at the beginning of this relationship, Frank
was a romantic person. One time he left rose petals in the bathtub, but that didn't last long. According to the
family, Michaela couldn't have kids of her own, but she had such a maternal gene and her family believes that these
four kids that Frank had were a really draw for her more than Frank himself. Um, detectives believe that Frank used
those young girls, his four daughters, to lure Michaela in. He told her that they had been abused by his then
girlfriend. And investigators would later determine that that was all a lie and a tactic he used to convince other
women to be with him as well. You might say it was Frank's business model and it
worked. >> What a way to describe it. >> And um her mother Barbara and her sister
Andrea say that they saw bruises on Michaela, but Michaela said they were just from roughousing with the kids and
the family believed her at the time. And looking back now, the family wish they had questioned her more about those
bruises. According to Barbara and Andrea, he was also a compulsive liar. And Frank had this pattern of cheating,
lying, and Michaela had left at least once. Let him know that's it. I'm not going to deal with this anymore. But she
came back. She always felt because of this devotion she had to those four children that she couldn't leave them
just in Frank's hands. Michaela's sister, Andrea, said that they were headed for divorce and Michaela had
temporarily moved to another structure on the property. But then on September 15th, 2023, Michaela returns home from
work intending to pick her things up and leave for good, but she was never seen alive again. Frank then reports Michaela
missing in the afternoon of September 16th and the responding officer, Deputy Dustin Richardson, went to the buyer's
property to check it out. Typically, police will wait longer than just a few hours for a missing person's report.
But why did Richardson decide to investigate this one, you know, relatively quickly?
>> Yeah, investigator Richardson, his instincts right away told him this just isn't adding up. He listened to Frank on
the 911 call and also spoke to Frank on the phone. And he just had a hunch that something seemed off. And when he got
there, Frank launched into his explanation as if he had a story planned out in in Richardson's mind that the
last time he saw Michaela, she was leaving to go on a date with a bald man in a white truck. And Frank also claimed
that they had an open marriage. And he said that they agreed to this arrangement to try to fix their
marriage. And we hear on Deputy Richardson's uh body camera footage that he thought Frank Buyers was squirly. You
know, as a audience member, I kind of went through like what does that word mean to me when I hear somebody squirly.
I think of them as kind of like a fast talker. Someone's got an answer to everything, but nothing's adding up.
>> Squirly is a great word. Uh and it just means you can't trust him. There's something about him that's just not
right. >> And uh and that's what what he picked up on right away. Right. So, he goes to the
school where she works, where Michaela works as um a teacher's aid, and then he goes back to the buyer's property, and
Frank at this point has smashed open the lock to the structure where Michaela was
living temporarily when she sort of like moved out of the first structure cuz she
doesn't want to be with him. Um, this is all starting to look kind of more and more suspicious to Richardson.
What is it that is bothering him? Well, Richardson asked Frank if he had a gun because they had discovered some
shell casings inside Michaela's shed where she lived. And Frank said yes. And he shows the gun to Richardson. Well,
Richardson noticed he was able through his training to tell that the gun had been recently fired. And Frank told him
that, well, these shell casings on the floor of Michaela's shed were from Michaela, get this, shooting at coyotes
on the property. He claimed she would sit inside her shed with the door open and and and fire at coyotes, which was
ridiculous to her family because she hated guns. >> And uh the shell casings were found that
they were going in a direction that showed that the shooter was not firing outside of her shed, but rather into the
shed, which told Richardson, "We may have a homicide scene here." >> Right. this guy's something's off about
what he's telling police. So, this missing person's investigation pretty quickly turns into a criminal
investigation. There's a massive search that's launched. And we are introduced to Lieutenant Dakota Black. She is
leading the charge. She is a detective, but she's also a tracker. What exactly is a tracker? Well, Dakota Black told us
that she is trained to look for signs that a normal detective might not see. Uh, she found people in all kinds of
places like trees and houses that didn't belong to them. And she's trained to use
her power of observation to look for the little clues, like evidence that someone
had once been through an area, details that others might miss, helping to locate missing people, fugitives, or
suspects. People always think of a tracker too from the old cowboy movies and saying, "Yes, someone was just here
45 minutes ago. She's not that precise, but she's close and she has a way about her that she notices things that others
don't." >> Well, listeners may also associate the term with a CBS show that we have called
Tracker, starring uh Justin Hartley. He's a sort of a bit of a lone wolf, this character. Lone wolf, wolf for
hire. Um but Lieutenant Dakota Black is not. She's an essential part of a team at the county sheriff's office, right,
Peter? >> Absolutely. Cops have always told me, you know, that they stay emotionally
detached, sort of like a doctor treating a patient, but Dakota Black keeps her heart right on her sleeve, and that
extra caring, that devotion really works for her. And during one interview with producer Liza Finley, Dakota Black
teared up. She cried as she thought about the horrors that Michaela went through and how in her own life she had
been threatened. I had never seen this level of emotion from a law enforcement detective ever in my career. And that
passion pushed and pushed her to get this case solved. >> And as I understand it, Dakota's whole
team was kind of singing her praises. >> Absolutely. Her colleagues, they have so
much respect for her. Dakota Black is a woman in her early 30s and she's working
with a lot of male colleagues. Um, some of whom uh she's in charge of and she said, "You can ask all the guys. They
call me a cool dude with long hair because I'm meaner than any of them and they know to listen to me." And Dakota
Black brings her own dog, Haven, to serve as a comfort dog to victims and for herself. if they ever make a TV show
about her. Here's a detective with a comfort animal in her office. And we have Dakota Black talking about her dog,
Haven. >> Um, she works with victims of um, homicides. She also works with victims
of domestic violence and sexual assault and then as well as with children. And she works with a lot of victims every
year. Her first year we had her, she worked with over 300 victims. They can cry on her, they can love on her, they
can hug her. Um sometimes she will lick them, you know. Um but she just provides
comfort for them and that's what her name represents which is a safe place. So that's what she does for our victims
and she does a good job. >> I was really struck by the professionalism and the humanity of this
whole team in Padawatami County. Dustin Richardson had been working at the sheriff's office for only four years at
the time of Michaela's case. And because of his great work, he was recently promoted to detective. And the under
sheriff is Marcus May. He's a terrific guy. And then the sheriff, Freeland Wood, who runs all of this, introduced
himself at the shoot and said he was so happy that 48 was covering this story. I'm telling you, the Pawatami County
Sheriff's Office has a peer support group to help police, first responders deal with the trauma that they
experience on the job. and they told us, "We see things that no one should have to see." And that weighs very heavy on
them. So, it's a tiny sheriff's department with a big heart and a lot of very professional, seasoned
investigators cuz they've got a lot on their hands in this rural county. Welcome back. As search efforts were
underway with dozens of people turning out to try to find Michaela, there's one person who's absent. It's her husband,
Frank Buyers. After Michaela had been missing for 5 days, she was found in a large drainage pipe under a road and she
is wrapped in a carpet. Investigators quickly zero in on Frank Buyers as the primary suspect. Meanwhile, Frank
continues to spin his narrative of being the grieving husband, and he actually goes on TV. So, I want to play a clip
from a TV interview that he did with a local uh Fox affiliate, Fox 25. Just take a listen to this.
>> Even today, I called her. I mean, I know she's not here, but it's just a fact that I have her number
still and her phone still on somewhere and uh it just it would have been nice just to hear her voice. You know, Peter,
I was looking to see if I was seeing any real tears coming out of those eyeballs
of his because often, you know, often sometimes people make crying noises, but they're not actually crying,
>> right? Yeah. This is one heartless, uncaring, phony. Uh this uh emotion that he had
there was all fake. He had crocodile tears that didn't really flow. Um Frank was so comfortable lying on TV. He says
her phone's still on somewhere, but in reality, he had her phone the whole time before investigators took devices into
evidence, so he knew exactly where it was. >> So, you know, days turn into weeks.
There's no arrest. Michaela's family, they are livid. Frank is still walking around. So, I'm really curious, what
sort of evidence were investigators looking for before they felt comfortable making an arrest?
>> They wanted a piece of forensic evidence that would leave no doubt that Frank was
the killer. And Lieutenant Dakota Black told us towns people knew it was Frank, but investigators needed to find that
beyond a reasonable doubt kind of evidence. So, they started digging into Frank's social media, and there was a
treasure trove of information there. He had multiple dating profiles and multiple Facebook accounts. They found
comments from from women with screenshots on text messages with Frank. And one disturbing find, Frank was
actually texting other women on the day of Michaela's murder. >> Even on the day of her funeral, Frank
sent a photo of himself to multiple women asking something along the lines of, "How do I look in my tuxedo? They
also tracked down another girlfriend he had assaulted and she said he used the same tactic on her with the story of
Frank's four daughters being abused. So they found lots of stuff that really told them about how this man operates.
>> Right. And we see in the hour something else that they found. Um they recovered
footage from a home security camera. And really, I mean, detectives believe that
this is sort of the last that anyone would have seen of Michaela. Yeah, I'm telling you, technology now is solving
so many of these cases. Um, investigators were never able to find the actual physical security camera that
recorded these images, but Frank used an app on his phone to view the images, and
he thought, according to investigators, that he had deleted them. But when investigators did the forensic
extraction on Frank's phone, they were able to find these images. The first image you see is Michaela coming into
his home and she's there for about 14 minutes. The next image we see her leaving the home. The last image is
Frank standing at his door looking out like he was about to follow Michaela back to the shed where she was living
where investigators believe he confronted her and shot her. >> Investigators also used a Walmart
receipt to track down security camera photos. Frank Buyers is seen buying bleach, ammonia, a mop, and according to
Dakota Black, all of this looks like a possible, you know, toolkit to clean up a crime scene.
>> I mean, go to Walmart and buy all those things. Frank even called the police while he was at that Walmart buying
those cleaning supplies. >> And then there's also the carpet, right? And what um investigators find out is
that the carpet that Michaela was wrapped up in, that was a carpet that a neighbor had given to the couple for
their dogs. Um so the evidence is adding up here, but they had hopes that a specific bullet that was found embedded
in Michaela's wall would also test positive for her DNA. >> That's right. And they weren't able to
get a a genetic confirmation on hair that was stuck to that bullet, but a dark substance that was found on Frank's
boots was Michaela's blood. That's when they went in for the arrest. >> 38 days after Michaela was reported
missing, Frank Buyers is arrested and he's charged with firstdegree murder. His defense, though, negotiates a deal
to take the death penalty off the table. Then 15 months later, he agreed to plead
guilty and serve life without parole. Michaela's mother really feels like this is a copout because he chose to take
Michaela's life and then he gets to choose his own punishment. >> And I understand Barbara's frustration
with the death penalty being taken off the table. Moving forward, they have now turned their grief, the family, into a
charity. They have started Michaela's purple butterfly nonprofit to fight against domestic violence. And they
raised money by selling handmade crafts made by women affected by domestic violence to build transition housing for
victims. And once 48 hours learned of Michaela's case, we really wanted to honor her by telling this story.
>> Well, you absolutely did. Um, what I kept on thinking over and over again was
just how remarkable she was in her daytoday life. She was transforming the lives of his daughters, her own
children, the children at school. And I think about all that was lost, the future impact that she would have had
because of one selfish person's actions, >> right? She was a guardian angel to those
four kids. And when Frank took her life, he really impacted theirs so profoundly.
And we wish the best for those children. >> Yeah. And you know, once again, just
spotlight on domestic violence. Those red flags, that gut feeling, listen to them. It may end up saving, you know,
your life or the life of somebody that you love. Um, Peter Vansen, always lovely having you here. Thank you so
much. >> Thank you, Emry. And to our listeners, if you like this episode, please rate and review on Apple
Podcast or Spotify. 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 Norah Donigan and I was a patrol officer. >> Who lives here? >> Shade Robinson.
>> Her friends hadn't heard from her. Not first. >> Miss 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 and 10:00. >> Shade was very excited about a date that
she was going to be having. >> Nobody 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. Along the Wisconsin shoreline of Lake
Michigan sits a rocky wooded area called Waramont Park. >> It's not somewhere that you find a lot
of people. On April 2nd, 2024, >> what's up, man? >> A young man out for a walk with a friend
made that gruesome find. >> They're walking that black. See that leg right there?
>> 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 a question I asked myself
most of that night. >> But with the help of Milwaukee police detective Norah Donigan, Donner had a
suspicion who her victim might be. Shane 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 Shotti'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's 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 because 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, 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
six feet tall. >> There's no way Shade was the last person in that driver's seat.
>> No. >> No. >> The day after finding the remains on the beach, investigators contacted Shade's
mother, Sheena Scarro. >> I'll never forget that day. Like, what's going on? Sheena immediately sent Fashad'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 Shade's family hoped that this was a mistake and Shade would be found alive
and well. The officer asked Adriana to share Shade's cell phone location from her Life 360 app. What is Life 360?
Unlike Find My iPhone that gives you where your phone is right now, Life 360 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 Waramont 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 like he just like Yeah. He shut down kind of. I I knew
something wasn't right. Somebody had hurt my baby. This your video. DNA tests hadn't yet determined if Shade
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 Shade on Easter Sunday, the day before her date.
>> We had worked together that morning. She picked me up. >> Shade and Adriana worked as servers at a
country club. >> She was one of the best workers they had. It was one of Shade'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. Shade was set to graduate with an associates degree in criminal justice the following
month. Adriana says Shadeai 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
Chaday 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, SA facetimed her mom, Sheena. >> She was just 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. 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. and texted a man she'd recently met, Maxwell Anderson.
>> They are 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 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 just it's
seems a little unusual for a date. There's not a lot of interaction. Around 6:30 p.m., Shadeai and Maxwell
Anderson left the restaurant together. With the help of Shade's Life 360 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 Shadeai had it on
her phone, you must have thought, cold mine. >> Yeah. Score big time. According to her
Life 360 app, Shadeai then went to a nearby bar called Dukes on Water. When investigators headed there, they found
this security camera footage of Shade Day and her date arriving together at the bar. Again, Detective Donner took
note of the pair's dynamic. So, they are playing beer pong uh 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.
>> Shade and Maxwell Anderson left the bar together around 900 p.m. >> She's walking fine. Um, doesn't seem to
be impaired. >> I think it's interesting that they're walking together, but not until the very
end. He kind of reaches over, >> 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, Shade's date got in the car
with her. The Life 360 app shows Shade arrived at Maxwell Anderson's house around 9:30. 3 hours later, the app
shows Shade's phone left his house. Jade'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 Shade'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 know. It seemed to be going all over the place. >> Then at 2:53 a.m., the Life 360 app
shows Shadeai's phone arriving at Waramont 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 up, you do
see a large backpack on their back. >> Who do you believe that figure is? Maxwell Anderson.
>> Who is the last person Chad Robinson was seen with? >> Maxwell Anderson. >> Who is this person? How do you know my
daughter? Had you ever heard the name Maxwell Anderson? >> No. >> There were 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, Shadeai, 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, 6'1,
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 Shade 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 Shade? >> Yes. >> But could he be responsible for Shade's
disappearance? Detective Donner needed proof. >> Just spending the evening with her,
right? >> It's not enough, >> right? >> With the help of Shade's Life 360 app, Donner knew Shade had driven to
Maxwell's house on April 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 to follow him. We prefer to not have the resident in the house.
It's just safer. >> Within minutes, the team realized Maxwell was heading home and they had to
act fast. >> 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, but
when investigators finally entered the house, they were surprised. >> There was no big bloody crime scene
>> and no sign of a cleanup either. >> It was very apparent that the 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 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 Shandai's disappearance. >> 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. >> 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 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. >> And more human remains believed to be
those of the young woman. The remains seemed to be from the same victim. As law enforcement searched for more
remains, so did volunteers, including Kiki and Arinda, family friends of Shade. 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, Arinda 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, Khloe Wright, stepped forward. >> It was like hearttoppping. I mean, it's
just like this can't be real. >> Khloe 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. >> 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. Khloe describes
Maxwell as a secretive person, but he did share one secret with her. Investigators were very interested to
learn. 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 Khloe drove them there, he
would only give her stepby-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, Khloe led investigators straight to his secret beach, Boramont Park.
Just having that proof that he knew about it and was familiar with it to a level that he referred to it as a 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? >> Shade.
>> Yeah. Think about Chad. >> On April 12th, 2024, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball
made an announcement. >> The severed leg has been preliminarily identified as belonging to Miss
Robinson. That same day, Maxwell Anderson was charged with firstdegree 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 Shade. On what should have been Shade'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. >> They 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 Kerzanne 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 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 note that that one person that is
leaving is the same height as the fence in the gate, >> which is pretty tall. >> Is 6 foot.
>> 6 foot. >> Investigators suspect Maxwell had already killed Shade by that time.
>> 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 Refe 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,
>> I feel like 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 4 woman 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 Khloe right. >> 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. 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
>> 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 uh 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 Shotti'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? >> 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 firstdegree intentional homicide, guilty of mutilating a corpse, guilty of arson of
property other than building. >> Guilty of Shade Robinson's murder >> as to count.
>> 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. >> Oh yeah, baby girl.
This is the most heinous crime this court will see. It doesn't get more serious than this.
Shade Robinson's family was determined to see that Maxwell 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 to 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. >> 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. Sheena, wearing Shade's favorite color, pink, on her eyelids, wanted answers
from her daughter's killer. >> You disrespectfully 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. You would think that he would tell us the things we wanted to know and 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 Crell read a statement Anderson made to an investigator after
his conviction. He regretted he did not walk Miss Robinson to her vehicle when she left
his apartment, and he believed it was at that point she was abducted by an unknown asalant. Quote, "Either from the
alley or from my backyard," unquote. When asked how he accounted for his presence in the area where Miss
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 doumented temper came out.
>> And Donner suspects 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. 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. 5 hours later, Maxwell Anderson met Shade Robinson when she applied for that
job. >> It's got to give you the chills. It's eerie. >> Before sentencing Anderson, Judge Cllo
took a moment to share her own thoughts about the loss of Shade 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 forever. >> You stole a truly shining light is 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, Shade'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 Shade sits beneath her beloved pizza shuttle. Sheena has launched a program in Shade'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 Shade'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 anywhere near her
shoes. >> I don't know about that. >> I do. in Waramont Park, the site where this
tragic investigation began. Shade'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 Shade's loved ones deepest wish of laying all of Shade to
rest. >> Do you think we'll ever find Shadi's crown? >> I think so. When the lake is ready to
give her back. Welcome to Postmortem. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Natalie Morales, filling
in for Anie Green, who is on the other side of the mic to talk about her latest report on the murder of 19-year-old
Shade Robinson. Thanks for joining me, Anmarie. 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 Sha Day, but nobody could get a hold of her.
Well, that same day, a body part from an unidentified female washed up on a remote beach on the Wisconsin shoreline
of Lake Michigan. And Emory Shade'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 co-workers at Pizza Shuttle that really raised the alarm. She was
concerned that Shade 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 around 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, Wart Park, was just it was remarkable that they even had video from there. And Shade 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 Shadeai 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 would seem 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, she's incredible. it. 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, well, 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, pinup
contest. We're not talking burles stuff, right? We're talking about people who dress like in the era. Her pinup 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 Shadeai'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's seat is situated, that doesn't change. So, they know that, you
know, Shade 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 Donigan, 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 in 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 Shadeai's younger sister Adriana. I mean
her ability to offer up data on Shadeai via Life 360 the app. I mean, it proved to be invaluable, right?
>> Yeah, exactly. Um, Detective Donner 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 life 360 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 Life 360 app
that at 2:53 the phone arrived at Waramont Park. All of these things were crucial. that Life 360 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. Yeah.
>> Um because it really is um remarkable the amount of detail. It helped investigators literally kind of like
walk the path that Shadeai 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's, you know, as you
can imagine, an interesting character. He's 33 years old. Shane was a teenager. She's 19. We spoke to his ex-girlfriend
Khloe. And Khloe also was very young when they started dating. Perhaps praying on their vulnerability.
>> Exactly. Even before he met Shade, he had a criminal record, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, disorderly
conduct. And you saw in the hour that he was arrested for battery against a bystander who tried to intervene. He 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 and you know, I'm I'm
pretty sure investigators were hopeful that amongst those knives, they would find something that maybe he played a
role in this case, and that that simply wasn't the case. Khloe 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 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, Khloe 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 Shade went over there and never
heard a thing. >> Did investigators have a theory as to how Shade 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 Shadeai Robinson. And on
that same day, Maxwell Anderson was formally charged with firstdegree 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 an 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. 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
with a 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, Shadeai's mother, father, and sister, they weren't having any of that.
>> No. Um, they were very outspoken. Shad'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 I'm going to read some portions of this
because 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 was 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 Dawnmer. And when you
think of of Dawnmer'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 a hotel that Jeffrey Dawnmer killed one of his victims in. But I gotta tell you, I
slept with the lights on. I would have too. >> Yeah. >> Oh my gosh. 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 Shadeai'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,
it's like she hasn't been allowed to to to stop fighting. Like, her battle is 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
Shadeai'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 Shade'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 Shade 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 Shadeai's
legacy is her younger sister Adriana. Adriana, as we mentioned, such a a bright light in this world. Well, she
accepted Shadeai's graduation diploma um for her associates 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 uh thank you again for uh your incredible reporting and Marie on this one. Appreciate it.
>> Always great talking to you, Natalie. >> And if you liked this episode, please
rate or review on Apple Podcast or on Spotify. My name is John O'Hare. I am a police
officer with the Broomfield Police Department. >> Officer, how did this case begin for
you? >> On December 14th of 2023. I was dispatched to a welfare check at the Krug household.
>> Springfield dispatchers meeting. >> Hi there. Uh my name is Dan Krug. >> Dan Krug was calling and asked that we
check on his wife Christile. My wife isn't responding uh to text messages or phone calls.
>> Said that he had not been able to reach her for about 3 hours. >> We've had threats against us. We have
both been targeted by a stalker. >> Dan said that this alleged stalker had made threats to both him and his wife
Christile, >> which is why I'm Yeah. >> I'm nervous that she's not answering me.
>> Yeah. The first thing I did was walk right to the front door, kind of peek inside.
Everything looked orderly, quiet. I gave it a wild knock. My thinking at the time was it's very
possible she's not even home. So, I wanted to see if I could peek into the garage.
Quickly realized that I'm not tall enough to see in those windows. I went back to my patrol car and I
pulled it into the driveway so that I could get my push bumper close to the garage and use it as a as a step up. I
stepped up on it and looked in the window. I immediately see Christile apparently
lifeless. She had some type of wound to the head. >> 151 send medical. I got a female down in
the garage. >> Rodale police. Romefield police. >> Immediately I just checked for any signs
of life at that point. Does she have a pulse? She does not. >> 151. >> I immediately started CPR. There was a
stab wound on her chest. >> Send the next unit emergency, please. >> As the paramedics arrived, I opened the
garage door and a woman came up and I believe this woman was Christile's mother.
>> I arrived. >> I need you to stay out, please. I said, "That's my daughter." >> She came running up to me and said,
"Cristile is dead." >> It's just shocking. >> Oh my god. >> You don't want that to be your reality.
>> Oh my god. This can't be true. This can't be true, can it? >> It was chaos. >> I heard screaming coming from the top of
the hill. >> My house. >> Hey, stay back. Stay back. Stay back. Stay back. my house.
>> I understand. >> I see a man come running down the hill. >> This is Dan. This is her husband.
This man just lost his wife. And he is beside himself. I'm with Dan and he's on the floor and
he's crying. They all just kind of said, "I can't believe this happened. He did it." The
stalker did it. >> We were on heightened alert. We were very, very concerned for Dan's safety.
>> This is after Christile was murdered. You're worried that Dan may be next in this in this stalker's sights.
>> Correct. We thought Dan Krug was next. >> The community was very alarmed. >> Is this a murder?
>> There's a killer out there and we're going to go after him. Hey, hey, hey. It's a weird feeling standing there when
somebody's being told, "I'm sorry, but your loved one has died." Victims advocate Heather Aates is
trained to comfort those in emotional agony like Dan Krug who dashed home from work and learned his wife Christile had
been found murdered in their garage in suburban Broomfield, Colorado on December 14th, 2023.
>> This man has been going through a stalking case with his wife. He's being stalked as well and now she's gone. As
investigators searched the crime scene for clues, Heather drove Dan to the police station.
An officer's body camera recorded the ride. >> He was crouched over to the side of the
passenger door, and it was very much. I'm comforting Dan by rubbing his back. >> Dan and Christile had been married for
16 years. The couple, both 43, had three young children. >> What did he say in the car?
>> In the car, he was pretty focused on the kids. He was very adamant about wanting
to be the one to tell his children. >> Under the command of Broomfield Police Chief, Aniia Hempleman, investigators
were doing everything in their power to find the killer. >> We immediately uh started doing
interviews, talking to neighbors, canvasing. Several hours had passed since Dan Krug's emotional ride to the police
station. He had settled down and he told detectives there was nothing out of the
ordinary that morning. >> Mornings are very routine in the house. >> He said they got the kids to school and
Christile seemed fine when he left for his job at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. While I
was driving, uh, my my phone dinged. >> Dan said Christile texted him asking if he could pick up one of the kids after
school. But when he texted back and asked what time, he said Christile never responded.
>> And that that was weird. >> So weird. So out of character for Christile, Dan called police and asked
them to check on her. I got a female down in the garage. >> There are not words that can describe
what you feel as a parent at that point. >> It's probably some parents worst nightmare.
>> These are some memories, aren't they? >> Christile's parents, Lars and Linda Grimsrooude.
>> She was an engineer. She had incredible skills in math, sciences, chemistry, physics, but she also had the talents in
the arts. She loved to just get out and live life. >> Throughout her life, Christile spent
countless hours working with her dad on classic muscle cars in his colorful garage.
We'd work on the cars. We'd race the cars. Christile always felt very comfortable coming over here. If we
needed to talk or whatever, this is where we would sit and just en enjoy each other's company.
But those fun, casual conversations suddenly turned disturbing in the fall of 2023 when Christile first told her
father that she was living with intense fear. >> She sat here and told me that she was
being stalked. And that just shocked me when I asked her, "Well, have you talked
to the police?" >> Christile had called the police and met with Broomfield detective Andrew
Martinez. She came into the interview room and just kind of took over and just told me everything without hesitation.
>> Their conversation was recorded. >> I keep trying to remind myself this is intending to be terrorizing. This is
intending to scare me. >> Christile told Martinez that on October 2nd, 2023, she received an unsettling
text from someone named Anthony who said he would be coming to the area and asked
if Christile wanted to hook up. And how does she respond to that? >> She did not respond.
>> The following day, Christile told Martinez she got more texts from Anthony that included obscenities and said, "You
should kill yourself. Don't waste my time. >> Somebody who wants to hook up now is
saying, "Go kill yourself." How do you interpret that that second text? >> It's a pretty extreme reaction to not
getting a response. Christile told Martinez she knew an Anthony from her past. Anthony Holland,
a boyfriend she dated for about a year after high school and into college. The two broke up in the fall of 2000. Lars
and Linda say back then Anthony made a good impression. >> Very friendly, very courteous. He always
had good manners. >> In 2002, out of the blue, Anthony contacted Christile. According to
Christile, Anthony never seemed to take no for an answer, contacting her again in 2005, 2010, and 2016 via Facebook.
>> He's like, "We're meant to be together." I said, "This is really creepy for me.
You need to stop." >> Christile deleted Facebook and thought she'd heard the last of Anthony Holland.
>> But then came the text in 2023. >> Like, this was alarming. He's never said this kind of stuff to me before. Over
the next two months, Christile said she received alarming message after message through text and email. They included
threats to her and Dan, including this disturbing photo of Dan getting out of his car at work, which prompted Castile
to first come forward and call police. A few days later, this text to her. Saw you at dentist. See you soon. That
suggests he might be surveilling them both. Right. >> Correct. >> This now is escalating.
>> The harassment uh is just constant and she's just believing that every corner
presents some sort of danger for her. >> To gather evidence and locate Anthony Holland, Detective Martinez was required
to file search warrants with the phone and email companies. A slow process. Getting that information takes time.
Sometimes those companies are reluctant or they sloww walk getting that information to you. Correct.
>> Yes. >> Christile had been searching for Holland on her own. She hired a private
investigator and eventually located him living in Utah about 500 miles away. Christile shared her discovery with
Detective Martinez, who chose not to contact Holland. I explained to Christile that we wanted to gather as
much evidence as possible and ideally obtain an arrest warrant so when law enforcement does go to Anony's door, we
can take him into custody and not have to walk away. >> But Lara says Christile had been losing
patience with the investigation. >> She made the comment that she felt uh they had abandoned her, that they
weren't doing things aggressively enough. Christile had taken steps to protect herself and her family,
including installing security cameras. >> She was scared. I said, "Well, this sounds serious enough that uh you need
to start carrying. You'll use one of my guns for for right now." >> Is this the very gun that you
>> that that is the the actual gun that she initially then carried? >> Dan was also interviewed. The threats
were taking a toll on him as well. I went to the grocery store briefly on Tuesday
and someone behind me dropped a can and I panicked. So what am I doing? I'm panicking
and I'm doing a lot of protecting my wife. So I'm not I'm not doing good. >> Dan told Martinez the stalker had a
nickname. We call him Kickman. >> Where'd that name come from? >> Kickman Dan had told me was because the
suspect email that was initially contacting Christ was aholland kicks@gmail.com.
>> As the weeks went by and Martinez's investigation continued, Lars and Linda say the constant threats were ruining
their daughter's life. >> It was just heartbreaking. She was just in tears. She was just like, "What am I
going to do? How am I going to live?" >> Did she feel she was being hunted down by by Anthony?
>> Yes. >> Christile also shared her fears with siblings Jenna Ericson and Josh Adamson.
>> She was terrified. >> Did she ever express to either of you the fear that this man I think is going
to kill me? >> Yes. She said, "It's either going to be me or him that's dead, and I'm going to
do everything in my power to make sure it's not me." When Christ was found dead in her
garage, Detective Martinez had only one suspect in mind. My initial assumption was that Anthony Holland had uh gone to
her home and murdered her. >> Within hours, local police descended on Holland's home in Eagle Mountain near
Salt Lake City. >> So, you're alone in a house. What do you hear? >> Pounding out the door
>> like >> Yeah. >> big time. >> So, I go to the door. I see like eight cops. I had no idea what was going on.
>> Where's your ID at my room? >> Have you ever heard of the name Crystal Krug? >> They asked me if I knew Crystal Krug and
I told them I did know her. >> She was my very first girlfriend ever. >> When was the last time you talked to
Crystal? Has it been a while? A minute. >> Um, it's been a minute. Yeah. >> When was the last time you had reached
out to Christ? >> It was around 2014 2016. Anthony says he'd reached out to Christile on Facebook years before.
>> What are you thinking? Why would they come over all the way here to ask me about Christile?
>> I thought it was for that message where I said I missed her. That's the only thing I could think of cuz I was like, I
haven't contacted her since then. >> They didn't tell you that Christile Krug had been murdered.
>> No, they did not tell me. >> Police were there to gather information from their suspect, not give it.
>> They asked me where I was that day. Can I prove where I was? >> Anthony had made a purchase just hours
earlier at a coal store near his home. >> What'd you buy? >> A sweatshirt. This one right here.
>> And he still had the receipt. The purchase was made at 12:16 p.m. Investigators say Christile was attacked
around 8 a.m. >> Turns out that was one of the most important purchases you have ever made.
>> Cuz it was my alibi. because there's no way I could have made it from Colorado
back to Utah to buy the sweatshirt. It was an eight hour drive. Anthony also showed police some of his employment
records. They proved he'd been in Utah all along, never traveling to Colorado, as the messages from Christile stalker
led cops to believe. I had a bunch of receipts from my work showing the days that I worked and they took those took
my receipt from Kohl's and went to the squad car and made a phone call. Came back in and told me I was free to go.
>> You had a better day. Okay. >> Back in Colorado, Dan was still face tof face with investigators. He told them
his theory of the crime. >> So in my brain, the story that I have is someone came to the door.
Maybe she went outside to get a package and they must have come in. And she's she's a fighter. She's
she is strong. She would have fought Earlier in the interview, Dan requested he tell the children what had happened
to their mother. >> Your kids do not know yet. >> Okay. >> Here arrive in the hall.
I should >> You want to tell them? >> I just don't know. >> Okay. Watching their response is just
heartbreaking. >> Investigators were working every angle. They checked those security cameras
Christile had installed on the house. >> The doorbell camera, the side camera, and the side house camera were all
manually turned off >> except for that one Nest camera near the garage. Police canvased Dan and
Christile's neighbors in search of anything their home security cameras might have recorded.
>> So, I saw you had a Ring doorbell camera. You mind reviewing that camera? >> Oh, goodness. Absolutely.
>> If possible, if you guys can review the last 3 to 5 hours. >> They also enlisted Randy Pilac, a
digital forensic examiner with the Broomfield Police Department to take a closer look at those disturbing messages
to Christile. I think it was probably four hours, 5 hours after the murder was reported to us.
>> Now that the stalking case had become a murder investigation, Pilac was able to
file new expedited requests for information. He quickly discovered that messages from two accounts used to
harass Castile had been sent from the same location. >> Both came back to the same IP address.
That IP address was the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which is where Dan worked.
The messages to Christile threatening her, threatening her husband had been sent using the Wi-Fi system at Dan's
office. For the first time, detectives believe Christile's stalker could be sitting
right in front of them. Could he be her killer as well? >> The entire air was just kind of
evacuated out of our investigations room and we realized that we need to focus on
Dan and where he's been and what he's been doing. >> Martinez along with detective Jennifer
King Sullivan confronted Dan. >> Who do you think killed her? >> I think it's K. I think it's Anthony.
>> What if I told you better? We had already spoken with Anthony. There's no way that he was in town
today. And I have nothing and I'm terrified to bring my children home. >> What are you terrified of?
>> If it wasn't him, who was it? But even as Dan claimed ignorance, the detective
saw that his body language told a different story. >> What were you seeing with Dan? He took a
defensive posture. He sat back in the couch a little bit. He crossed his arms. Kind of like I have nothing to explain.
I think his head is spinning thinking about what else are they going to find? The mystery continues. And I ask you,
>> if you were watching these facts unfold in front of you in a movie, what would
you say happened? There has to be some. >> Moments after detectives told Dan Krug
they had eliminated Anthony Holland as a suspect, Dan calmly insisted he was not
the one who stalked and murdered his wife Christile. >> I loved her. There has to be someone
else. But I don't know who that is. Martinez and King Sullivan didn't believe a word of it and were struck by
how stoic, how unmoved Dan was. >> He had no reaction. Um, and really no explanation.
>> Help me make sense of it. >> I don't know. I'm not the one who does this. I don't have a narrative or a
story that I can offer you. Within minutes, Dan Krug had gone from sympathetic victim to murder suspect.
>> I I I get the narrative you're putting together, >> but it alleges that I would do this to
my children. >> I love and adore my children. >> It's a pretty frightening idea that the
biggest threat to you and your safety is actually living in the same house as you.
>> We need to process you for physical evidence. Okay. He knows that we're on to him. We just
didn't have enough evidence at that point to take him into custody. >> On his way out, Dan kept insisting the
real killer was still on the loose and he made a desperate plea. >> He took my children's mother
for Christmas. They're never going to get over that. I don't care if you capture them. I
don't care if you kill them. Find out. Don't just assume this man. Keep looking.
>> When did you find out that Dan was now a person of of interest in this case? >> I think at his interview, so that same
day when they held him, they held him pretty late. An autopsy revealed what happened to
Christile. She had been attacked from behind with a blunt object, bludgeoned to death in the
head and rolled over and then stabbed in the heart. >> With Dan now the prime suspect, the
detectives wanted to know more about his relationship with Christile. According to Christile's parents, it wasn't good.
>> She said, "Well, I'm sleeping on the couch, Mom." But you knew there was trouble in paradise, right?
>> Yeah. And especially in that those last few months. >> Christile's family says those troubles
were caused by Dan's fiery temper. >> What set him off? >> It it could be it could be anything, but
it was usually if he was losing control. >> Christile's sister, Jenna Ericson, says
she could always tell when Dan was angry. >> His face would get really red when he
would was getting frustrated. I vividly remember seeing his face get red. They had a thing where they'd go, "Okay, walk
away. You need to walk away." And so, you know, they were trying to manage it. >> But in the weeks before her death,
according to her parents, Christile was getting ready to leave Dan. >> She didn't want to have this marriage
anymore. >> She had decided that she needed to get a divorce. As the detectives methodically built
their case, more evidence was uncovered on Dan and Christile's cell phones by digital forensic expert Randy Pilac,
including texts from the morning of the murder. >> So on Crystal's phone, we see text
messages to Lars, Detective Martinez, and then a text message to Dan, >> the one Dan said he received while
driving to work about picking up one of the kids at school. But Pilac discovered
those texts had been set on a timer. It was a new feature on the phone Cile had.
Who do you believe pre-programmed those messages? >> Uh, Dan Crew. >> And he did it to do what?
>> To hide his actions. >> Pilac says the messages were pre-programmed before Dan left the house.
>> And we believe Christile was deceased. That for him then would establish an alibi that well I had already left and
my wife is alive, right? She's texting me. >> Correct. >> All while Dan casually arrived at work.
Pilac discovered more damning evidence from Dan's phone. Internet searches like what happens when you're knocked
unconscious? Do people really go unconscious when hit in the head? and how hard for head trauma to go
unconscious. >> All searches were the day before the murder. It was rather damning.
>> Just 2 days after Christile had been murdered, detectives Martinez and King Sullivan felt they had enough evidence
to charge Dan Krug with stalking and murdering his wife. We began following him.
>> Coming up to the stop sign now. >> How many cars we talking about? >> Probably eight cars.
>> We're like, "That's him. He's alone in the car." >> Hey, be ready to pop that once he gets
it into park. >> We follow him all the way to the grocery store. >> Pulling in King Supers parking lot.
>> We wait for him to park. We quickly converge on his car. >> Go, go, go, go, go, go.
>> Show us your hands. Show us your hands. on your face. Hands on your face. >> Hands on your face.
>> So, we surround him. >> Pull him out of his car and tell him he's being arrested for the murder of
his wife. >> I asked him just one question. >> Do you want me to tell your kids that
you killed their mother or do you want somebody else to? That's quite a line that goes back to
when he said he wanted to tell his kids that their mother was dead. >> After I asked that question, he just
said that he wanted to speak with his attorney and then looked away from me. >> All right,
>> good luck. >> And I shut the door and he went to the county jail. You >> get one leg up and then kind of swing
around. I felt a huge relief. They got him. It felt like a burden had been lifted that
he had been arrested. And soon Christile's family would come face to face with the man detectives say
murdered her. >> He looked right at me and smiled at me. >> And here for the first time, Dan's side
of the story. When deputy district attorneys Kate Armstrong and Stephanie Fritz were
assigned to prosecute Daniel Krug, they say they were struck by his downright stupidity in belieing ing he could get
away with murdering his wife by impersonating her ex-boyfriend. >> The audacity with which he thought he
could manipulate not only his family, his loved ones, but also the police department.
>> And some of this is sophisticated, is it not? >> It's sophisticated, but not too
sophisticated because we were able to figure it out. >> The trial began in April 2025.
When he first came in, he smiled at me like he was saying, "Hey, thanks for being here for me." I believe my facial
expression made it very clear that I was not on his side. >> The prosecution laid out Christile's
final hours of life for the jury. >> On December 14th of 2023, Christile Krug started her day like any other day. She
took her younger two children to school. And when she returned, >> Crystal pulled back into her garage. She
gets out of the car when she is attacked from behind. >> And did she ever see him approaching, do
you think, or was this an ambush? >> It was an ambush. She had uh two or three skull fractures as she's laying on
the floor bleeding. He pushes her over, gets over her, and stabs her just above her heart.
>> And why do you suppose he had to do that vicious last stab? I think it was rage.
I think it was control and power that he wanted to exert over Crystal. >> Dan had been losing that control for a
long time, say prosecutors. Their theory of the crime is that Dan sent Christile
those disturbing messages in an attempt to drive her closer to him and not leave, hoping she'd see him as her
heroic protector. >> It was not working. the stalking was not leaving her back to him. I think it then
turned to I'm still losing her kind of a if I can't have you, nobody can. >> The prosecution says that in the last
days of her life, Christile had begun to suspect that her stalker was possibly her husband.
We know from Dan's own interview that she confronted him and said, "I can't rule you out as the stalker."
>> She said that right to my face that she wanted to know if it was me. And I told her
>> he felt the walls closing in. >> Closing in. He was going to lose Chris Steele anyway. He was going to be
exposed as the stalker. So, he did that last fatal act and murdered her. Prosecutors say Dan tried to outsmart
investigators, pre-programming those text messages on Christile's phone before he left the house, assuming he
wouldn't be caught. >> Were we not able to discover that that was a delayed send text, it would have
appeared as though Crystal was still alive when he left the house. >> At trial, the long list of digital
evidence against Dan was laid out. the threatening texts, the emails, the internet searches. Also included that
photograph of Dan arriving at his office attached to a menacing email seemingly sent by Anthony Holland to Castile.
But there was one problem. According to the state's digital expert, who took this picture, do you believe?
>> Uh Dan. Dan took this picture. Pilac discovered that the phone which snapped that photo was in selfie mode
using a timer. A fact that Kate Armstrong reminded the jury about in her closing argument.
That's when the judge allowed cameras into the courtroom. >> The phone was propped on the back of
this vehicle next to him. The defendant took this photograph and then he sent it
to his wife. >> We respectfully disagree with the prosecution in this case. Defense
attorney Philip Geel argued the murder investigation was poor. The blunt object used on Christile's head and the knife
used to stab her were never recovered by police. The defense also zeroed in on the fact that Christile's phone was not
tested for fingerprints or DNA. >> Why not the phone? And the prosecution wants to believe, well, you know, there
may not be a lot to be found there. Well, you won't know if you won't try. Geel said other forensic tests supported
his claim that Dan is innocent. >> They submitted the chest swabs. And you know whose DNA wasn't there? The person
who lived in the house, the person who ate in the kitchen with them, the person who shared the living room, that idiot
right there. There is absolutely no physical evidence on Mr. Krug's clothing. There's no blood found on that
car inside or out. It searched three times. In week three of the trial, the jurors
began deliberations. After a day and a half, verdicts were reached. >> Please rise for the jury.
>> Judge Priscilla Low read the verdicts. >> We the jury find the defendant guilty of
murder in the first degree. We the jury find the defendant guilty of count number two stalking extreme
emotional distress. Krug was also found guilty of stalking with credible threat and criminal
impersonation. >> Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And at that point, I think I started breathing
again. >> Krug was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole
on the murder charge and an additional 9 and a half years for the stalking and impersonation counts.
But right after his conviction in a video call from jail, >> how are you? >> Uh, been better.
>> Daniel Krug told his family that the jury got it wrong, saying the real killer remained at large and that his
children could be the next targets. >> I need them safe. I don't know where or who
did this, where he is or who he is. I need my children out of Colorado. As Daniel Krug began serving his life
sentence, he continued making video calls to his parents and brother in the days immediately after his conviction.
The man who viciously murdered his wife, terrorized his own children, and lied to
everyone was seeking sympathy from his side of the family. Yeah, I'm probably sleeping like 16 hours a day because of
the depression. >> Mhm. >> I sleep, I read, and I cry. That's about it. >> Okay.
>> Despite overwhelming digital evidence against him, Krug fell back to his old ways, lying to his loved ones, now
claiming he was wrongly convicted. >> They never produced a single piece of hard
evidence. His brother Jeremy gave Krug a much needed reality check that the foundation of the family's loyalty had
started to crack. >> Support is dwindling. You know, mom and dad want to believe
you very much. I want to believe you very much. Right? There's a lot that's come out. Um, and as imaginative as I
can be with finding explanations and ways to theorize how that, you know, this or that could have been the the
reality. Um, some of it is beyond even my creativity. The case that ended with a murder had
begun with stalking and criminal impersonation of Anthony Holland, which begs the question, what if Detective
Martinez had acted on the information Christile and the private investigator had uncovered?
>> They should have found me right away. They should have found me. They should have came to my house. They should have
approached me. They should have talked to me. But Detective Martinez chose not to call, telling us he didn't have
enough evidence to do so and was concerned a phone call could exacerbate the situation.
>> Is this something where you've kicked yourself about this? >> Uh, this case has uh haunted me since um
it occurred and the outcome of this case has haunted me for the past two years. And if you could get in a time machine,
perhaps you make that call today. >> Absolutely. >> And Christile's parents sympathize with
Martinez and believe their daughter was doomed no matter what the outcome of his
investigation. >> Inevitably, I think he was going to kill her. When someone sets their mind to do
something like that and that's what the plan was, I don't think that would have uh stopped the murder from happening.
>> Christile's death has left a hole in the lives of those who experienced her love
and joy for life. >> I've had lots of other girlfriends and I've never been in love with anybody
else like her. >> She was the love of your life. >> Yeah. Jenna hopes her sister Christile's story
will serve as a cautionary tale. >> If it can help just one other person who's in a dangerous situation like she
was in that it gives them the strength to make a move because it can escalate and it can escalate really really fast.
>> What was lost when she was taken from us? >> Her light. you know, light. >> It's a That's a tough one to talk about
because there's uh there's so much. >> I wanted to jump out of that car and say, "Hey, Bubba."
Laura still passes his time restoring parts for vintage cars. That fatherdaughter hobby is now being passed
down to Christile's children. >> They're in here. They run that same electric screwdriver and they can tear a
carburetor apart. >> So, in that way, you're honoring her memory, aren't you? >> Well, that's the whole idea. Yeah. Yeah.
That's the whole idea. She She would get such a kick out of seeing the kids doing
the stuff that she was involved in. I look at my grandkids and I find a moment of peace because I see her.
Welcome back to Postmortem. I'm your host, Ann Marie Green, and today I'm joined by 48 Hours correspondent Peter
Vans and journalist Sheila Flynn. We are discussing the murder of Christ Krug, a
Colorado mother of three. Ashila, you actually reported on this case for the Daily Mail and you were also in the
courtroom during the trial. Um, so we're going to get into that and we're really,
really appreciative that you're here to give us your perspective on this case. >> Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here.
Hopefully I can help. >> And Peter, it's always great to have you here with us to break down uh this 48
hours episode here on Postmortem. >> Yes. In in honor of the Daily Mail, I'll say hello and welcome, Sheila.
>> Is that that's your best British accent? >> It's pretty good. I lived there for a
while, so I I'm all right. >> It's better than mine, so we'll take it. So, before we get into it, a reminder to
everyone. If you haven't actually listened to this 48 hours episode yet, head on back to your podcast feed.
You'll find the full audio version of this in your feed right below this podcast. So, go take a listen and then
come on back for this conversation. So, in December of 2023, Christile's husband, Dan Krug, requested a welfare
check on his wife, uh, who wasn't responding to his text messages or his phone calls. Krug also told police that
there was an alleged stalker that had been threatening them. When police arrived at the couple's home, they found
Christile dead in the garage. An autopsy later revealed that she had been bludgeoned to death in the back of the
head and she'd also been stabbed in the heart. There was a tremendous amount of police body cam footage from the crime
scene for this case, and we use it a lot in the hour, and we see also just how emotional Krug was at the scene.
Peter, when you watched that video, what did you think about his behavior at the
scene? >> I had never heard anything like that before. Here was a man you could hear
before you saw him on these body cams. He was shouting and wailing as he ran down the street. It seemed so unnatural.
when by the time he got in front of that house and he was bent over and he was wretching and making all of these
sounds. It was an extraordinary performance and we know now it was a performance and but
it was completely over the top. You know, I first viewed it actually sitting just feet behind Krue himself who was
sitting as a defendant in court at the trial. And you know, Peter used the word performance. It seemed so much like a
performance to me. Just very overblown, not asking why. Just almost seeming like
he was trying to make himself seem scattered, like he didn't know what to do as he wailed. And it was really
interesting to watch him watch that without any reaction as he was on trial for Christile's murder.
>> I'm glad that both of you guys said that because when I watched the video, I felt
like I was judging him, but I just wasn't convinced with his behavior, the way he was sort
of hunched over. And then we see that he's actually with a victim's advocate. Her name is Heather Ace. So, she's seen
people in situations like this many, many times. Um, and we want to play for uh the listeners here some unaired
footage from Peter, your interview with her, and she talks about when she actually first started to suspect Krug.
>> The car ride from his house to the police department seemed like an eternity, and it felt as if
something had switched. I I was starting to look at him a little differently, especially since he was
very adamant about telling the children. And he wasn't asking any other questions. He wasn't asking where was
she? How what happened? And I turn and I look at him and I get this weird feeling. And
it's a it's a it's a feeling of are you really crying? Are are you really is this happening?
Did you do this? You didn't know. You didn't do this, Heather. You're watching You watched too many 48 hours episodes.
You're watching too much TV. This is This man has lost his wife. Why are you thinking that? But it was it was a gut
instinct. How interesting. But Peter, it's not just a gut instinct. He's not asking any
questions about what happened to his wife. >> Yeah. Bizarre behavior. and she followed
her instincts, which was great. Heather has a lot of wisdom in all of this. At one point, she said, you know, he had
really settled down. Then he started to make this very strange whimpering sound,
and she felt it was invented, that it just wasn't uh genuine. So, to bring people some of the background that we
already know about if you watch the hour, for months before her death, Christile had been receiving threatening
text messages and photos that appeared to be coming from an exboyfriend, Anthony Holland. Christile brought her
concerns to Detective Martinez, who at the time chose not to contact Anthony. Uh he said that they were compiling
enough evidence against him to actually obtain an arrest warrant. You both interviewed Anthony.
What was your impression of him? >> He was a very uh downto- earthth individual. There's a sadness about him.
Christile uh was somebody that um he deeply cared for. They'd met in high school, but they were such different
people. Christile was this intellect, a a truly genius level intellect. An engineering future awaited for her. She
was very ambitious. she was going to go to university. And um Anthony on the other hand had no plans. He had no
academic interest. These two split up and it haunted him. He he just felt like a big part of his life was missing.
>> Anthony is just very very earnest, very honest, genuine, softspoken. Uh and he just really loved Christile.
And when he described to me, you know, they had met, they were both working at J C Penney as teenagers, and he
described their first date and their first kiss as magical. And it almost sounded like he was recounting scenes
from a teen movie. And when I saw him testify at her trial, he was so anxious. He was clutching fidget toys. And you
could tell he was really trying to do Christile's memory well up on the stand as well as stand up for himself. And he
told me that he stared down. And I could see this that he stared down Krug uh at
the defense table. Kind of going, "Man, you tried to frame me for murder." And he thanked me later after I ran a story,
an interview with Anthony about his past. And Christile, he thanked me for sharing her story as well as his because
it was his great love. >> So seeing as you know she had been his his great love. Sheila had Anthony
actually contacted her over the years. >> He had you know I think in that way sometimes you reach out with whatifs
etc. He sent a few messages, I believe the last, I think in 2016, just saying seeing how she was doing. Nothing
malicious or anything. You know, he had kind of a rockolid alibi. He he literally and figuratively had the
receipts. >> Yeah. It's it's an incredible twist in in this story that on the day that
Christile was murdered, he'd gotten up and uh he now thinks this voice in his head was Christile sending him a
message. He got this urge to go to a Kohl's department store and to buy a sweatshirt. And when I did the interview
with him, I didn't realize he was wearing that very sweatshirt and he had the receipt and it proved that he was
500 miles away in Utah and could not have been um in Colorado uh not not in the area at all, not in the neighborhood
to have committed this murder. And he thinks somehow Christile's uh spirit um helped save him, exonerate him in in
this case. >> Wow. So more and more often with these cases though, we are able to use uh
surveillance footage or you know body cam footage, but it it's not often that we have so much of the victim before the
crime. In the hour we see Christile's interview with police when she's reporting that someone is stalking her.
She seems to be taking all the right steps to protect herself and her family. Do you think that she would have maybe
eventually uncovered the truth that it indeed was her husband behind these threatening text messages?
>> You know, I think she absolutely would have. She was so smart and it was so frustrating to see her in that footage
talking to the detective with everything laid out before him. I mean, she had spreadsheets and color-coded files and
mountains of evidence. And he joked that she had done his job for him. And she had I mean, she did everything. And she
had even told her stepmom's sister, I can't even rule out my husband. This is someone used to using the scientific
method to solve problems. And she had done that looking at the facts of this case. And we know now because Dan Krue,
whether that was a this was a slip up or whatever, he actually admits during the
course of one of these interviews that she had mentioned to him that he could be the stalker. And think about that
because it wasn't that long after she revealed that to him that she ended up being murdered.
>> I mean, she was she was petrified as well. She, you know, she broke down in tears in a parking lot to her mother
once. She was, you know, re-uping her shooting skills. She was arming herself. This was all discussed in court when
they were outlining witnesses on the stand as well as the prosecution. So to know that she was in fear and literally
carrying a gun at the time of her death and just always looking over her shoulder and still died, it was it was
really tragic and infuriating. Dan was aware that uh she had armed herself um when she was attacked and authorities
came into that garage. Her gun was inside her purse. She may have felt a little bit of safety going into that
garage. Dan obviously knew the garage. He knew her her habits and he was able to uh to ambush her. And all of that gun
training and all that preparation uh ended up being for nothing cuz he he got to her first. You mentioned that she had
mentioned that she couldn't rule out her own husband. Most people don't say that about, you
know, their partner. I'm kind of curious about how Christile's family felt about
Krug. Did they give you any indication as to whether or not they liked him or not?
>> They did in the interview. Uh her mother, Linda, in particular, didn't really like him from the beginning, and
she just had a bad feeling about him. He was very awkward in family um gatherings. He at times could be uh
quiet. And I asked them, "Did you ever just mention it to her that you were concerned about it?" They said, "No,
she's very smart. Um we we wanted to leave that decision up to her as to who the person, her partner in life would
be, but from the very beginning, it just didn't feel right to them." >> They said in court that they were aware
that the marriage was disintegrating. Um, and I just think what united them in the weeks running up to Christile's
death was this stalker. I mean, there was family testimony during trial that at a family birthday party in the weeks
before Christile's murder. Dan was really playing up the stalker angle. He kept looking out the window in case the
stalker might be surveilling them or in in the vicinity. And I I just think that
his behavior looking back now must anger them so much more seeing that deceit. I
want to talk about the footage of Krug's police interrogation. We see the very the moment really where the tables turn
on him where police reveal that Anthony has an alibi. And I want to play a clip from the show.
>> What if I told you that we had already spoken with Anthony and there's no way
that he was in town today? And I have nothing and I'm terrified to bring my children
home. >> What are you terrified of? >> If it wasn't him, was it? What gets me in all of this is um I covered the Lacy
Peterson murder case many years ago and at the time we did a story about deception and signs of deception. One of
them is whisper talking and you noticed it there. It's in that audio. It is dramatic. He's talking and all of a
sudden it just falls off and you'll you hear him speak in this whisper talk which is which is for these these
psychological experts a sign that that he's lying and telling a story. Um the frustrating part in all of this too is
that they had to release Dan after this interview even though he was their number one suspect and at that point
they were pretty convinced that he is the killer. He knew they were on to him and that whisper talk just said it all
to me. >> You know, even throughout his police interviews that we saw during the trial,
he was always presenting himself as completely harmless and non-threatening. He's very tall, very skinny. He was
stooped, slouched on the couch, hunched over, um moving gingerly, you know, holding a cup of coffee or water as if
it was going to hurt him. uh just constantly putting out this vibe of I'm harmless. Don't look at me. And even
there when he was still protesting his innocence, who could it be pretending to be afraid? It was all it was all a
facade. Welcome back. Well, after a digital forensics expert traced the stalker's
messages to Krug's office wifi and uncovered chilling searches on his phone, like, "Do people really go
unconscious when hit in the head?" Police move in to arrest him. It's rare that we see this moment, uh, you know,
the hands up, you're under arrest moment, but we actually get it from multiple angles here.
>> We get it from six different angles. This is like this is like a Hollywood movie at this at this point. And as more
and more local law enforcement gets into the get into the body cam technology, we're seeing uh incredible moments like
this unfold before our eyes. The tragedy, you know, he was out at that supermarket because his daughter was
going to be performing in the Nutcracker that night and they wanted to get some flowers. Um, on the day of the murder,
Dan insisted to police that he wanted to be the one who told his three children that their mother was dead. Well, at the
time of arrest, you flip the script here and Detective Martinez, who had uh such
enormous frustration during the course of this investigation and some self-doubt whether he should have acted
earlier to pursue Anthony Holland, reach out to him earlier, he finally had a moment where he's looking at it and he
says basically, "Hey, you want me to tell the kids that you murdered their mother or someone else?" And it was, I'm
paraphrasing there, but it was it was such a powerful moment there. Uh, and I I felt good for the detective that he
finally got one jab of the sword at this at this creep. >> Absolutely. Um, let's go to the trial. No cameras
were allowed in the courtroom until closing arguments. Uh, but Sheila, you were there in person for pretty much
most of the trial. >> Mhm. >> What was Krug's demeanor like? A and was there family there to support him
through the trial? >> There was, you know, he his demeanor was very similar to how it was in police
interviews and on that footage where he stooped over, he moved slowly, presenting himself as harmless, meek,
sitting there quietly at the defense table. Um, his older brother was there for much of the trial. His elderly
father was one of the last witnesses called and he and his elderly mother were there for the verdict as it was
read. His brother seemed shell shocked when he addressed the judge. But Chris Steele's family, meanwhile, was there
right behind the prosecution every day at the trial, active, engaged, just supporting her every step of the way.
The prosecution's biggest hurdle in this case was really the lack of DNA evidence
tying Krug to the murder. The murder weapon was also never recovered and investigators didn't find Priscile's
blood on Krug's clothes or in his car. That is something you would expect uh when someone has, you know, a stab
wound. So, it begs the question just how is it possible to have no DNA evidence in a case like this where there's
clearly a lot of blood. >> Well, for all the mistakes that he made, perhaps it's blind luck in his case. It
is something that, you know, the prosecutors and Sheila knows this very well, they all want a CSI moment in a
case like this. You know, the DNA, her DNA found in his car to really lock this down for jurors. But in this case, um,
there just wasn't that. >> And, you know, that was a cornerstone of the defense really, that there was no
DNA. And how could that be? I mean, investigators were told that he by his children that he was wearing the same
clothes that morning that he was when he came after she was murdered. So truly, how did he manage it? But I always
wondered. I mean, Krug worked for the Department of Health here in Colorado. who knows what he had access to. And
when you think about it, even though he made a number of really elementary and unbelievable mistakes when it came to
digital evidence or emails or phones, he did have a lot of time to plan this over
a matter of months as he was carrying out that stalking campaign. >> Well, let's talk about the digital
evidence. I mean, I don't know when people are going to learn like your Google searches will become part of the
case against you. The Google searches first off were incredible where he was asking about, you know, basically I'm
paraphrasing uh what does it take to knock somebody out and if you strike somebody on the back of the head, which
of course is what happened to his wife when they were able to determine that messages had been sent from his company
wifi system. That is as good as a fingerprint. That who else could have have done that? Now, the defense tried
to say, well, the person that was stalking him may have been in the building at the time and that's how this
occurred, but they really had him on that. Also, they were able to determine that there was a a iconic picture in the
course of this where the alleged stalker had taken a photograph of Dan as he was
getting inside uh a vehicle. Well, their digital expert was able to determine that that had been that picture had been
taken on Krug's phone at in selfie mode on a timer. And they were even able to figure out the bumper that was was used
to hold the phone to take that photograph. >> It would be laughable if it hadn't
involved the loss of a life. I mean, it's just astonishing. He bought a burner phone, but with a gift card that
was registered to himself. He also in one of the really wow moments of the trial on October 2nd when he sent a text
one of the threatening stalker messages to Christile. She didn't answer and it was the first stalker message he sent.
And when she didn't answer, he clearly was worried that the message wasn't getting through. So he texted his own
cell phone test and then responded to that text with his cell phone to the burner. Yeah. So, I mean, he absolutely
absolutely kind of condemned himself with that interaction >> clearly. Um, and a a jury uh finds him
guilty. Uh, he's found guilty of firstdegree murder as well as stalking and impersonation. Sheila, what was the
reaction like in the courtroom when the verdict was read? >> On Krug's side, his uh parents, his mom
slumped into his dad. a supporter put a hand on her back. They were just clearly
in disbelief and bereft. On the other side of the courtroom, people were tearful for different reasons. You know,
they later spoke about how they felt this was some semblance of justice for Cris. After he was convicted, we get
more fascinating video uh and we include this in the hour of a jail house call that Krug makes to his family. We want
to play for you now an extended clip of that call that was not in the show. >> We are in
a digital and monitored age. They never produced a single photograph of me with phones. They never produced a
single photograph of me buying anything. They never produced a single piece of hard
evidence. Just identity theft. That's it. That's it. And we're in a world today where that's
enough. DNA exoneration doesn't mean because someone can do things with a cell phone.
Not a single photograph, not a single drop of blood, not a single scrap of DNA. Not a single recording.
Identity theft is all it takes to destroy somebody. >> This almost sounds like an attorney
performing closing arguments. It's quite dramatic with all those pauses and such.
>> They don't have that hard physical evidence, but the evidence that was presented was compelling um to this jury
and uh I think to the community. You know, you could tell that his brother who got up, Jeremy, who spoke at trial
during victim impact statements, you could tell that he was caught off guard, that he still had no idea how to handle
this because the point he made was that the family hadn't been privy to all the evidence until it was presented at
trial, that they were holding on to a glimmer of hope. That hope had been very quickly shattered once they saw the case
that was presented. And his brother also expressed anger at Dan for doing this to
his family and putting them through it and talk about driving his elderly parents home as they collapsed against
each other in the car. So, not only did he put his children through it, now he's
putting his parents and extended family through it and continuing to do it is gling.
>> Yeah. So Dan Krug, he is sentenced to life in prison um without the possibility of
parole on the murder charge and an additional n and a half years for the stalking and impersonation counts. And
Sheila, you were talking about the victim impact statements um at at sentencing. And Christile's
sister-in-law also got up and made a victim impact statement and and she talked about what the children will have
to deal with. >> She did. She actually read out statements from the kids themselves who
spoke of their grief. And it was not just Christile's sister-in-law and the children speaking. It was a long line of
friends and family members. Whether they were school friends of Christile's or friends she'd met in adult dance classes
or cousins, relatives, siblings, everyone spoke of what a bright light she was, how smart, how quick, how she
would amuse them with self-deprecating humor. And you could see how much Christile touched so many people's lives
and how angry they were that she was so needlessly stolen. >> Yeah. Um, how's Christelle's family
doing? They are um they're such incredible people. Um Lars um Christile's dad is Norwegian. Uh he's
from a family of engineers. Christile followed in that tradition. In that uh workroom they have at the house where he
has these these old vintage cars. They used to work on them together. Lars can rebuild an original Corvette carburetor.
He's a brilliant guy. He misses her so desperately as he looks around that that uh shop. He can hear her voice. He can
see her there. Um they're trying to continue that tradition with the children. Lars is and he's desperate uh
and and will never let her memory die. >> The kids, the oldest is about 16 now. And you know what they do have around
them is a very large and loving extended family. And the crowds who stood up for
Christile for victim impact statements were just I think the tip of the iceberg. And the judge even acknowledged
at sentencing what a pleasure it was despite being an awful tragic and bittersweet circumstance to get to know
about Christile and her family. So I I guess despite this horrific situation, the kids are lucky in that regard to
have all of them around her, all the people who turned up at the trial for Christile and the many others out there.
>> Absolutely. It's a community that they will need moving forward. And it, you know, it makes me feel at least a little
good to know that they are well loved and well protected and supported. Um, well, Peter Sheila, this has been a
great conversation. Thank you so much. Thanks, Anmarie. >> Thank you. >> If you like this episode, please rate
and review us on Apple Podcast or on Spotify.

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00:00 Tracker Dakota Black + Post Mortem 1:01:44 Sade Robinson and The Secret Beach + Post Mortem 2:03:43 The Setup Murder of Kristil Krug + Post Mortem

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Brief Summary

Christile Krug was murdered by her husband Dan, who stalked her and attempted to frame her ex-boyfriend.

Key points

The Search for Michaela. Detective Dakota Black leads the search for missing Michaela Mayavi, facing emotional challenges.
Michaela's Last Moments. Detective Black believes Michaela's last moments were filled with fear and conflict.
Plea Deal Controversy. Michaela's family expresses disappointment over Frank's plea deal for life without parole.
Evidence Mounts Against Frank. Investigators uncover Frank's disturbing behavior and evidence linking him to Michaela's murder.
A Night to Remember. A seemingly perfect night ends with a haunting hesitation and a promise of love.
Maxwell Anderson Charged. Maxwell Anderson faces serious charges including first-degree intentional homicide.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I heard Michaela tell me, 'Mama, I'm in a tin horn.'.

A mother recalls a haunting premonition during the search for her daughter.

17:31WatchJul 4, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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