A teenage girl goes missing. Will evidence on a secluded beach reveal what happened? “48 Hours” correspondent Anne‑Marie Green reports.
On April 2, 2024, a young man walking in Warnimont Park along the Lake Michigan shoreline found human remains. Lead Detective Jo Donner of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office recognized a homicide. The discovery initiated a search for a victim and a suspect with almost no immediate answers.
Detective Norah Donegan of Milwaukee Police had been investigating a missing person report for 19‑year‑old Sade Robinson, a college student and server with plans to graduate in criminal justice and to join the Air Force. Sade had been last seen after a date on the evening of April 1. Her family reported she didn’t return home. When deputies checked Sade’s car—found burned behind an abandoned building three miles from her apartment—the vehicle’s recovery revealed key clues: Sade’s purse beneath the driver’s seat, clothing in the trunk including the jeans and underwear she’d been wearing (jeans turned inside out), and gasoline odors suggesting arson. Fire investigators ruled the car had been intentionally set.
Sade’s Life360 app provided a crucial digital trail. It showed her phone battery died at 4:35 a.m. at Warnimont Park—the same shoreline where remains were found. Security camera footage from the area captured a shadowy figure dragging something to the lake and later carrying a large backpack away. Detective Donner noted the figure’s height and gait, and a seat position in Sade’s burned car suggested the last driver was at least six feet tall. Meanwhile, DNA testing would later confirm the remains discovered across Milwaukee belonged to Sade.
Investigators traced Sade’s evening: on April 1 she worked a shift, then texted a man she had recently met, Maxwell Anderson, arranging to meet at The Twisted Fisherman. Surveillance showed Sade and Maxwell together at the restaurant and later at Duke’s on Water, where they played beer pong. Sade’s Life360 placed the pair at Maxwell’s house around 9:30 p.m. and then showed Sade’s phone leaving around midnight; Sade’s car was captured on multiple cameras that night driving around with fogged windows for hours before being abandoned and set on fire.
Police obtained a search warrant and arrested Maxwell on April 4. Inside his home they found many knives but no obvious crime scene, no blood evidence, and no weapon used in a dismemberment. Detective Donner searched beyond the house, looking into other leads and checking missing persons databases while Sade’s family and friends began independent searches. Kiki and Arlinda, family friends, found Sade’s blanket and a human bone in areas previously searched by police, intensifying community frustration and involvement.
A witness stepped forward: Chloe Wright, Maxwell’s ex‑girlfriend, who said Maxwell had taken her to a secluded spot he called his “secret beach.” She led investigators to Warnimont Park and described how Maxwell guarded that location. Her knowledge established that Maxwell knew the area intimately. That evidence, combined with the Life360 record, surveillance footage of a man carrying a large backpack near the lake, and the discovery of Sade’s items in the burned car, convinced prosecutors to file serious charges. On April 12, 2024, the county sheriff announced the severed leg found at Warnimont had been preliminarily identified as Sade’s; Maxwell Anderson was charged with first‑degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and arson.
The months leading to trial included intensive forensic work. Investigators recovered more remains across Milwaukee believed to be from the same victim; DNA later confirmed all belonged to Sade. Police also found a jacket in Maxwell’s neighbor’s garbage can that, when tested, contained Sade’s DNA on the hood and zipper pull. Videos taken from neighbors’ and city cameras captured a man—later identified as Maxwell—on a bus wearing the same pants and shoes seen after the burned vehicle, and images on Maxwell’s phone showed disturbing photographs of Sade at his house, including images interpreted by jurors as taken when she was in a compromised state.
Maxwell, who had a criminal history that included battery and other offenses, pleaded not guilty. His defense alleged the circumstantial nature of the case: no eyewitness to the killing, no murder weapon found, no motive established, and unanswered questions about cause and immediate location of death. Maxwell maintained he did not commit the crimes and later told investigators he regretted not walking Sade to her car and speculated someone else could have abducted her. He invoked claims of being set up.
In May 2025 Maxwell Anderson’s murder trial began. Prosecutors presented the timeline of Sade’s last day, the Life360 data showing movements between the restaurant, bar, and Maxwell’s home, footage of Sade and Maxwell together, and surveillance of a figure at Warnimont Park. They showed the burned car containing Sade’s purse and clothing, the backpack footage, the jacket with Sade’s DNA found in a neighbor’s trash, and deleted photos from Maxwell’s phone. Chloe Wright testified about the secret beach and Maxwell’s controlling behavior. Volunteers and family members who searched the shoreline described finding Sade’s blanket and other items in places law enforcement had previously searched, reinforcing the extent of the search.
The defense emphasized gaps: lack of direct evidence of the killing, no recovered weapon tied to Maxwell, and the possibility that other people could have had access to Maxwell’s car or known the route. Jurors, however, were influenced by the combined circumstantial evidence: timeline, location data, surveillance, physical evidence linking Maxwell’s clothing to Sade, and the photos from Maxwell’s phone that jurors described as particularly disturbing and convincing.
Jury deliberation was short. Maxwell Anderson was found guilty of first‑degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and arson. At sentencing the judge described the crime as among the most serious, and Maxwell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Sade’s family and community mourned. On what would have been Sade’s 20th birthday, they held a memorial. Her sister Adriana accepted Sade’s associate degree at graduation the following spring. Sade’s mother Sheena launched a program to help crime victims and partnered with a state representative to pursue a task force examining violence against Black women and girls. The City of Milwaukee and local supporters created tributes: a mural near Sade’s workplace and a memorial bench at Warnimont Park—the shore where the investigation’s evidence first surfaced. Her family continues to press for answers about any remaining unrecovered remains, including Sade’s head, which has not been found.
Detective Donner said she believed the investigation had prevented further violence and that, based on the brutality of the homicide and the dismemberment, the offender left a danger behind if not stopped. Sade Robinson’s loved ones said the conviction could not bring her back but sought to keep her memory alive through advocacy and community support.