Charges filed in a Wisconsin court this week confirm that human remains found in a park in Cudahy on April 2 belonged to a 19-year-old woman who had been reported missing on the same day.
Maxwell S. Anderson has been charged with killing and dismembering Sade Carleena Robinson after the two met for a first date on April 1, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Robinson’s burned Honda Civic was found in Milwaukee at about 7:30 the next morning, and late that afternoon, a severed leg was found in a park in Cudahy, several miles away.
The next day, police swarmed an apartment in southwestern Milwaukee and said the had taken a “person of interest” into custody related to the body parts, as CrimeOnline reported.
That person turned out to be Maxwell, 33, who was charged Friday with first degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson as prosecutors made the connections between the missing woman, the burned car, the body parts, and the “person of interest.” His bail was set at $5 million, the Journal Sentinel said.
Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough, reacted angrily after Friday’s hearing.
“Who the f*** would do something like this to my beautiful baby?” she said. “She hurt nobody. She harmed nobody.”
She also called Maxwell “a sick son of a b****” and said she hoped he suffers.
Video, phone data, and witnesses detail Robinson’s last movements
A criminal complaint filed in the case provided further details, citing surveillance footage, cell phone records, and witness statements.
After a friend reported Robinson missing at about 9 p.m. on April 2 when she failed to show up for work, police went to her apartment. A building secretary told them that Robinson had said the night before she was excited about a date that night.
Her cell phone records showed that she was meeting someone at a restaurant at 5 p.m. for dinner, and employees at the restaurant identified her companion as Maxwell, a former employee. After dinner, they went to a bar at about 6:30, then went to Robinson’s home after 9 p.m.
Cell phone records showed Robinson’s phone left her home just before 1 a.m. and travelled to downtown Milwaukee. From there, it traveled to Warnimont Park in Cudahy — where the severed leg was found that afternoon and where the phone remained until the battery died just after 4:30 a.m.
The complaint revealed that video from the park showed a Honda Civic at the park until about 4:30 a.m., with a “human figure” seen walking down a bluff and back to the car several times.
Three hours later, the burning Civic was found about two miles from Robinson’s home. Several days later, they found a foot in the same area that appeared to belong to the severed leg.
Video and witness statements identified Anderson as the person who burned the Civic. The complaint said that he boarded a bus from that area, arriving near his home at about 8:30 a.m. on April 2.
Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputies conducted a traffic stop on Anderson’s vehicle on April 4 and arrested him.
‘Highest level of violence imaginable’
Police said a news conference Friday morning that they are still searching for more of Robinson’s remains. They would not comment about evidence found at Anderson’s home, but the complaint filed in the case said they found blood on bedding in Anderson’s home and on walls leading to the basement.
In court Friday, Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan said it appeared Anderson went to “tremendous” lengths to hide Robinson’s death.
“It’s the highest level of violence imaginable,” he said.
The Journal Sentinel reported that Anderson has been convicted on disorderly conduct and domestic violence charges in three cases between 2014 and 2019. Two of those cases involved relatives; in the third, Anderson beat a man who intervened in an argument he was having with a woman.
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[Featured image: Sade Carleena Robinson/Milwaukee Police Department]
