What we know about the missing 19-year-old woman in Milwaukee
A 19-year-old woman has been missing in Milwaukee for over a week, and it comes as Milwaukee law enforcement investigates the discovery of human remains around the city.
Sade Carleena Robinson has been missing since April 1 – that’s when a coworker called authorities after Robinson did not show up for work. Since her disappearance, police have ramped up an investigation into the human remains.
Though officials have not publicly connected the human remains to Robinson, her mother and other relatives have met with the prosecutor in the remains case and attended a court hearing, accompanied by a victim advocate, where a person of interest in the case appeared.
Local investigators named Maxwell S. Anderson as a person of interest in the human remains investigation. On Tuesday morning, a court commission granted a request for Anderson to be held for another 72 hours before charges are filed.
Here’s what to know about Robinson:
Who is Sade Robinson?
Robinson is 19 and was taking classes at Milwaukee Area Technical College. She previously attended Ida S. Baker High School in Florida and Riverside High School in Milwaukee, according to her Facebook page and an interview with her mother, Sheena Scarbrough.
Her mother said Robinson was born in Mississippi and moved to Milwaukee before she turned two. Her father, Carlos Robinson, lives in Florida and Robinson split time between the two places growing up. By late 2019, she moved back to Milwaukee to live with her mother.
Her mother said that she was set to graduate with an associate degree in criminal justice from MATC next month and turn 20 on May 10.
She recently received a passport and used it to travel to Jamaica, along with other recent solo travels to Atlanta and New Orleans.
Robinson works at Pizza Shuttle, 1827 N. Farwell Ave., on Milwaukee’s east side. She worked mainly at the front counter as a cashier, her manager Justin Romano said.
Romano couldn’t remember a time when she had missed a shift and that there was nothing suspicious about her behavior in the days leading up to it.
“Everything was very normal, that’s why it was so concerning when she didn’t show,” Romano said.
He said Robinson was a favorite among coworkers and customers, often talking with her “all day.”
How long has Robinson been missing?
Robinson has been missing since April 1, when she didn’t show up for work and a coworker called officials for a wellness check on her.
On April 2, a resident called 911 to report a car on fire in the alley behind their home on North 29th Street. Robinson’s family said the car belonged to Robinson.
On April 5, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office found a human body part at 30th Street and W. Lisbon Avenue, about a block away from the car fire. The next day, Robinson’s family went to the area and reported finding a blanket with her photo on it in a wooded area near there.
When did the human remains investigation begin?
The remains investigation started on April 2, when a severed leg was discovered in a Cudahy park and more remains have been found since. A person of interest in that case was initially named on April 4 and upgraded the case from a suspicious death investigation to a homicide investigation.
On April 5, the Milwaukee sheriff's department told the Journal Sentinel they found a human body part near 31st and Walnut streets. That was about a block away from a car fire.
The following two days, more remains were found. Those were on the 3000 block of West Galena Street. Police said on April 8 that it not yet determined if they were connected to past remains findings.
The human remains have not yet been identified.
What are the connections between Robinson and the human remains case?
Robinson's mother and other relatives have met with the prosecutor in the human remains case and attended a court hearing, accompanied by a victim advocate, where a person of interest in the case appeared. Scarbrough, her mother, declined to speak on what investigators have told her.
On Tuesday morning, the person of interest, Maxwell Anderson, appeared in court. Anthony Cotton, Anderson's defense attorney, and Anderson’s parents also appeared in court. The defense attorney appeared to allude to Anderson's potential connection to the missing woman in his remarks.
“He’s been arrested now and held for going on over four days… on nothing more than a written submission to the court indicating that because he supposedly had contact with a missing person and there’s some cell tower suspicion that he continues to remain detained,” Cotton said.
At the hearing, Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan, a member of the office’s homicide unit, said authorities found blood on the stairwell of Anderson’s house and on a comforter.
A timeline of events on the cases can be found here.
Adrienne Davis, Ashley Lutheran, Claire Reid, Drake Bentley and Elliot Hughes of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What we know about Sade Robinson, the missing 19 year old in Milwaukee
