Questions linger in murder probe
Why are body parts being found by the community, not by police? Whose blood is in Anderson’s home?
It’s been over three weeks since Sade Robinson went missing and was later found to be killed and dismembered.
In the time since, suspect Maxwell Anderson pleaded not guilty to charges and asked to go to trial.
Prosecutors believe Anderson met Robinson for a date April 1, then killed and mutilated her. Body parts believed to belong to Robinson have been found at various locations around Milwaukee County after she was reported missing.
Blood was found at Anderson’s home but doesn’t match Robinson’s DNA. Anderson remains in custody. Before she was killed, the 19-year-old Robinson was set to graduate from Milwaukee Area Technical College with a degree in criminal justice and was mulling joining the U.S. Air Force. She had worked at the east side eatery Pizza Shuttle for three years, where she was a customer and coworker favorite.
A GoFundMe was started to cover a memorial service and other necessities for the family. As the case and investigation continue, questions linger. The Journal Sentinel asked them to top law enforcement officials involved in the case before a Milwaukee Community Justice Council event Wednesday.
Community members — and Robinson’s family — have been outspoken in criticism of law enforcement’s investigation into the case. Among the criticisms is that, early on, community members found a blanket of Robinson’s in an area police had already searched and that, so far, many of her remains have been located by community members.
Last week, James Burnett, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office public information officer, told the Journal Sentinel that there have been dozens of searches. “The search is ongoing,” he
said. “It’s consistent, it’s constant, it’s daily.”
On Wednesday, Sheriff Denita Ball told the Journal Sentinel that the department is still conducting searches but couldn’t provide further detail. She said the department is “dotting our I’s, crossing our T’s.”
“We’ve gone back to some of the places that we’ve searched before, just to make sure that we’re not leaving any stone unturned,” she said.
The same day, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said it’s “an ongoing case. We still have an active investigation.”
“I know that we’re not letting any particular evidence not be searched for, so we have an ongoing, looking at not only searching for other witnesses, anything that will help us further the investigation along,” he said.
Whose blood was found in Maxwell Anderson’s home?
On Monday, it was announced that blood found at Anderson’s home was not Robinson’s.
The criminal complaint against Anderson initially said blood was found throughout his home: on bedding in a bedroom, on a stairwell wall to the basement and in an unspecified location. The complaint didn’t say the blood was Robinson’s, but the mention led many to believe it was connected to the case.
On Monday, the complaint was amended, with this footnote:
“Complainant knows that preliminary testing of the blood was done by the Wisconsin State Crime Lab, and that the preliminary DNA analysis supports the conclusion that there is no support for inclusion of Robinson’s DNA in any of the blood or swabs tested, and of some of those swabs, Robinson’s DNA is excluded.”
Ball said the sheriff’s office doesn’t have information about who the blood belongs to.
Kent Lovern, the chief deputy to District Attorney John Chisholm, also said he doesn’t have information on whose blood was found. He largely deferred to comments made in court Monday by Assistant District Attorney Ian VanceCurzan, or declined to comment due to it being a pending court case.
“It indicates that the preliminary DNA supports the conclusion that there is no support for inclusion of Robinson’s DNA in the blood, or swabs that have been tested,” Vance-Curzan said in court.
Asked why the mention of the blood was included in the complaint when it was known not to be Robinson’s, Ball said: “Because we didn’t know where she was killed and there was a significant amount of blood. So, we wanted to make sure our bases were covered.”
Asked whether how it was framed in the complaint was normal, she responded: “There’s nothing normal about this investigation.”
She said she couldn’t provide any more detail.
The announcement that the blood was not Robinson’s has raised the question of whom the blood belonged to.
Ball said the office had no reason to believe there were other victims at this time, but it continues to investigate.
“We’re still investigating, just to make sure that we haven’t missed anything,” she said.
The office is still waiting for results from the other remains found, to determine if they are Robinson’s, Ball said.
Maxwell Anderson’s house has been searched twice by police
Community members have said Anderson’s father, Steven Anderson, has been at his son’s home on the south side of Milwaukee and took photos that show a man appearing to remove items from the property last week.
The Journal Sentinel was unable to identify the man, and attempts to reach Anderson’s father have been unsuccessful.
Ball said there would be nothing wrong with Anderson’s father entering the home once it was released as a crime scene.
“Anyone that he allowed in the home can enter the home,” she said.
On Thursday, Burnett said that at no point, aside from when the house was being searched via search warrant on two occasions, was the home closed off to the Anderson family.
He said that there was no concern of “sanctity” of any evidence in the home being affected by it not being closed off.
“Everything they (investigators) sought and when they sought it, they got it,” Burnett said. “Should there be an additional need ... then they’ll submit another search warrant.”
Asked if the home was considered a crime scene, Burnett said, “That’s an interesting question. I’m not going to say that ... The home was part of this criminal investigation.”
Anderson’s father released a statement April 18 addressing Robinson’s family.
“On behalf of myself and my family, I would like to express our deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of Sade Robinson. We are shocked and devastated by her senseless death,” Steven Anderson wrote in a statement released by the attorney firm representing Maxwell Anderson.
Steven Anderson ended the statement by asking the media to respect his family’s privacy.