Elliot HughesMilwaukee Journal Sentinel
One week after his arrest, Maxwell S. Anderson has been charged with killing and dismembering 19-year-old Sade Carleena Robinson.
The charges confirm what many had grown to suspect in the last week and a half — that human remains discovered in a Cudahy park April 2 belong to Robinson, who was reported missing the same day. The case received extensive publicity as additional human remains were found in Milwaukee in the days since.
Anderson and Robinson met April 1 to go on a first date with each other, the criminal complaint said. The two ate dinner and went to a bar before going to Anderson's home on Milwaukee's south side.
Using surveillance footage, witness statements and phone tracking records, the complaint pieces together the movement of Anderson, Robinson, her phone and her car for about a 16-hour period beginning with their meeting over dinner.
Anderson was charged Friday with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and arson. In a court appearance Friday morning, his bail was set at $5 million.
At a joint press conference Friday morning with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and the Milwaukee Police Department, officials said a search for remains continues and an investigation into a motive remain active.
They declined comment on evidence found or taken from Anderson's home during a search, although the complaint said blood was found in bedding in Anderson's home and on walls leading to a basem*nt.
Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball said, at this point, there's no evidence there are other victims.
At Friday's court hearing, Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan said much of Robinson's remains have yet to be located and Anderson appeared to go to "tremendous" lengths to cover up her death. He called the allegations "abhorrent."
"It's the highest level of violence imaginable," he said.
After the hearing, Robinson's mother, Sheena Scarbrough, reacted angrily, calling Anderson a "sick son of a (expletive)" and openly wished he would suffer.
"Who the (expletive) would do something like this to my beautiful baby?" she asked as family gathered closely around her. "She hurt nobody. She harmed nobody."
Robinson, who graduated from high school a semester early and was working at Pizza Shuttle in Milwaukee, was a month away from earning an associates degree in criminal justice at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Scarbrough said Robinson considered pursuing a career in the U.S. Air Force and has multiple family members with military service.
"Her whole life was so ahead of her," Scarbrough told the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday. "She was so, so amazing. So beautiful, such a beautiful angel. Everywhere she went, people just admired my baby."
The family has established a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral services.
More: Here's a timeline of events in the Sade Robinson homicide, Maxwell Anderson arrest in Milwaukee
Anderson and Robinson met for first date April 1
According to the criminal complaint, which cites extensive surveillance footage, cell phone records and witness statements:
A friend reported Robinson missing at about 9 p.m. April 2 after she didn't show up for work. Police went to Robinson's apartment building, where a building secretary said Robinson told her April 1 that she was excited for a date that night.
Robinson’s cell phone records showed she arranged to meet someone at 5 p.m. at the Twisted Fisherman restaurant, 1200 W. Canal St., for dinner.
Management and workers at the restaurant told investigators that Robinson was there with Anderson, a former employee.
The two left the restaurant shortly before 6:30 p.m. and went to Duke’s on Water, 158 E. Juneau Ave., arriving in Robinson’s Honda Civic. After 9 p.m., they went to Anderson’s home on the 3100 block of South 39th Street.
Around 12:45 a.m., Robinson’s phone left the area and went to Milwaukee’s downtown, eventually reaching the Riverwest neighborhood, at Pleasant Valley Park. From there, it went to the Warnimont Park area in Cudahy, where it stayed until the phone’s battery died shortly after 4:30 a.m.
Warnimont Park is where a severed human leg was found around 5:29 p.m. April 2. Video at the park showed a Honda Civic at the park until about 4:30 a.m. A “human figure” was seen walking down a bluff several times and back to the area of the car.
At 7:32 a.m. April 2, Robinson’s burned Honda Civic was found near West Lisbon Avenue and North 29th Street in Milwaukee, with what officials later determined to be Robinson’s clothes and other belongings inside. On April 6, police found a foot in the area of the burned car that appeared to be from the same body as the severed leg.
Using video and witness statements, police identified Anderson as the suspect who burned the vehicle. He boarded a bus that took him near his home and arrived there on foot at about 8:35 a.m.
Early in the morning of April 4, sheriff’s deputies stopped Anderson’s vehicle and arrested him.
Preliminary results of the blood testing on the severed leg determined it belonged to Robinson.
Anderson had criminal history including domestic violence
Anderson, 33, of Milwaukee, has a criminal history that includes misdemeanor convictions of disorderly conduct and domestic violence across three cases from 2014 to 2019.
In two incidents, he destroyed property at the home of two relatives in Waukesha and Door counties. In the third, Anderson was accused of beating a man on a Milwaukee street when he intervened after seeing Anderson in an argument with a woman.
Anderson owns a home on Milwaukee’s south side. A neighbor, William Rosario, said Anderson kept a low profile and would be seen occasionally walking his dogs. Anderson has worked at several area bars, most recently on a part-time basis at Victor’s Nightclub, 1230 N. Van Buren St.
A manager there, Vic Jones, said Anderson was “well-liked” and known as a “good worker.”
Contact Elliot Hughes atelliot.hughes@jrn.comor 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter@elliothughes12.
