This is a once in a lifetime case. All I did was I pieced things together. I got the call from my inspector. He didn't have a lot of information so it was more or less like go down there and figure out what we have. You don't often see body parts being discovered. So this is odd? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely odd. Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into? Not at that point? Like it could be a voting accident. I don't know, you know, at that point I did not know. When I get there I make my way down at the beach and I stop cold. It was probably about 30 feet up the bluff. There was just no way for that to get there by accident and that's when I knew we had a homicide. You don't know who this victim is. She was definitely an African-American female. Don't know who she is. I don't know obviously who any suspect is. I know nothing. I had nothing. I needed to know what happened to her. What brought you here? We came just to do a welfare check. My name is Nora Donigan and I was a patrol officer who lives here. Shuddy Robinson. Her friends hadn't heard from her. This Robinson, Milwaukee police, please answer the door. We're going to come in otherwise. I don't hear anything. So they seen her on Monday morning at 9 o'clock. Shuddy was very excited about a date that she was going to be having. Nobody's saying her son's the date. Right away, a lot of embells were going off for me. We needed to figure out who this date was. You can't stop thinking about this. No. There was just something odd about everything. Maybe the timing of them. Missing person. Body part found. I had a weird feeling. I reached out to the sheriff's department. Detective Donner from the Milwaukee Sheriff's Department. I just said, you know, I've got this girl who's missing and I'm curious. Do you think that this could be related? She said she thinks that that's going to be her girl. I got chills. And Marie Green reports. Shuddy Robinson. A secret beach. Along the Wisconsin shoreline of Lake Michigan sits a rocky wooded area called Warnamont Park. It's not somewhere that you find a lot of people. On April 2nd, 2024, a young man out for a walk with a friend made that gruesome find. Lee Detective Joe Donner of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says she knew she had a homicide, but nothing else. You have a leg. Where's the rest of her? At that point, I didn't know. So you have human remains. No weapon. No suspect. Where do we go from here? That was a question I asked myself most of that night. But with the help of Milwaukee Police Detective Nora Donner, Donner had a suspicion who her victim might be. Shuddy Robinson, a 19 year old college student. On the evening of April 1st, 2024, she had plans to go on a date, but had not been seen since. Donner soon learned that Shuddy's car had been found behind an abandoned building. Three miles from Shuddy's apartment set on fire. This is Shuddy's vehicle. This is pretty much completely destroyed. It is. It's definitely negated any type of DNA, fingerprints, anything like that. Though the car was heavily damaged, it still revealed a great deal to the fire investigator. The passenger site smelled heavily of a petroleum distillate. So what did that tell them? That it was more unlikely in arson. And though the car's interior was destroyed, investigators were able to recover something crucial. So underneath the driver's seat, Shuddy's purse was tucked under there. To me, it definitely eliminates a robbery, right? And when investigators opened the trunk of Shuddy's car, they made a distressing discovery. We found her pants, her underwear, her jacket, and her shoes. This is the clothes she was wearing that night. And the jeans, it was apparent that somebody else had taken them off. They were turned inside out and the underwear were still attached to them. So yeah, there was definitely a red flag. Another red flag was something Detective Donner and her team noticed about the driver's seat, something that suggested someone else had driven Shuddy's car. We take note of the seat positioning because that'll give eye to indicators. I was able to determine about how far back that seat was. I then went to a dealership and found an identical model. With the driver's seat in the same position as the one in Shuddy's vehicle, Detective Donner grabbed a deputy who was about Shuddy's height. And when she sat in the car, she couldn't touch the pedals. Her arms were straight out. And she's like, there's no way I can't drive like this without perching on the very edge of the seat. Donner also had a taller detective sit in the vehicle, and based on her experiment, Donner says the last person to drive Shuddy's car had to be at least six feet tall. There was no way Shuddy was the last person in that driver's seat. No, no. The day after finding the remains on the beach, investigators contacted Shuddy's mother, Shina Scarborough. I'll never forget that day, but what's going on? Shina immediately sent for Shuddy's 16-year-old sister, Adriana, to come home early from school. We drove over to my mom's house, and they were all very obviously upset. But Shuddy's family hoped that this was a mistake, and Shuddy would be found alive and well. The officer asked Adriana to share Shuddy's cell phone location from her Life 360 app. What is Life 360? Unlike find my iPhone that gives you where your phone is right now, Life 360 gives you historical data. And it uses GPS, so it tends to be far more precise than the cell records. And I pulled up the location. I saw that her phone had died at 4.35am at Warnamont Park. And when I saw that, it was like... that was a very unusual place for her to be. And when I said that, the detective, his face, like, dropped. And he was like... he just like... Yeah, he shut down kind of. I knew... something was right. Somebody had hurt my baby. It's your video, Shuddy. DNA tests hadn't yet determined if Shuddy Robinson matched the remains found along Lake Michigan. In the meantime, investigators began tracing the last known hours of her life. Younger sister Adriana saw Shuddy on Easter Sunday, the day before her date. We had worked together that morning. She picked me up. Shuddy and Adriana worked as servers at a country club. She was one of the best workers they had. It was one of Shuddy's two jobs on top of being a full-time student at a local technical college. She wanted better for herself. She wanted better for me. The hard work was paying off. With a 19-year-old able to rent an apartment and buy a car all on her own. Shuddy was set to graduate with an associate's degree in criminal justice the following month. Adriana says Shuddy hoped to then enlist in the military. And she was looking to join the Air Force, so she had been meeting with her cruders. That's how much she wanted to do everything that she... dreamed of doing. After working at the country club on Sunday March 31st, 2024, Adriana and Shuddy headed to their grandparents' house for Easter dinner. It was a really, really good night. And then she took me home whenever she dropped me off. It was always like a hesitation. We always be like, love you. And that night I still remember it was like a different kind of hesitation. The next morning, Shuddy faced timed her mom, Shina. She was glowing through the face time. She just looked so beautiful. She was in a bubbly mood. She didn't mention anything to me about going on a date that evening. Security cameras in Shuddy's building captured her leaving her apartment at 9am that morning. 15 minutes later, Shuddy arrived for her shift as the restaurant pizza shuttle. Former owner, Mark Gold. Everybody loved her immediately and it's that's kind of rare, I think, in a restaurant or any business. And she's a great worker. She comes in on time. She smiles. Every time she would work with me, I'd say, what's up, Shuddy? And she'd go to Skymark. She always said it and now I miss it. Shuddy left pizza shuttle at 5pm and texted a man she'd recently met, Maxwell Anderson. They are discussing where they're going to meet up for their date. Shuddy's text messages show they chose the twisted fisherman. Armed with that information, investigators then headed to the restaurant and obtained security camera footage of Shuddy and her date together. Detective Joe Donner examined the footage for clues. What's sort of standing out to you as you watch this video? Why is it important? You know, it's the demeanor. He does a lot of talking to the bartender. Doesn't do a whole lot of talking to her. Or even like, turning and looking at her. It just it seems a little unusual for a date. There's not a lot of interaction. Around 6.30pm, Shuddy and Maxwell Anderson left the restaurant together. With the help of Shuddy's like 360 app, the detectives knew just where the pair were headed. I'm so glad that she had that app. So when you found out Shuddy had it on her phone, you must have thought. Gold sign. Yeah, score. Big time. According to her life 360 app, Shuddy then went to a nearby bar called Duke's on water. When investigators headed there, they found this security camera footage of Shuddy and her date arriving together at the bar. Again, Detective Donor took note of the pair's dynamic. So they are playing beer pong with this couple. And honestly, this is the only time that it looks like she's having fun. I noticed that she seemed to be smiling and enjoying herself. Shuddy and Maxwell Anderson left the bar together around 9pm. She's walking fine. Doesn't seem to be impaired. I think it's interesting that they're walking together, but not until the very end, he kind of reaches out. Right. That's the only like real physical contact other than briefly while they were playing beer pong that I see them have. From there, Shuddy's date got in the car with her. The life 360 app shows Shuddy arrived at Maxwell Anderson's house around 9.30. Three hours later, the app shows Shuddy's phone left his house. Shuddy's car began traveling toward her apartment, but instead of going home, the car drove past the building. Multiple surveillance cameras would go on to capture Shuddy's car, with fogged up windows driving around for hours. Did there seem to be any kind of like rhyme or reason to where this vehicle was going that night? No, I know. It seemed to be going all over the place. Then at 2.53am, the life 360 app shows Shuddy's phone arriving at Monomont Park, where the battery on her phone would later die. When the investigators checked for security camera footage from a nearby building, they made a chilling discovery. The grainy footage shows someone, possibly a man, dragging something to the lake. This is the path that he took and then he would go down right around here. Yeah, and this is where he disappears off of camera. It drops off right there. That's where we lose sight of them. Roughly 90 minutes after first going out of view, the shadowy figure walks away from the lake, but now carrying something. The final time that it comes up, you do see a large backpack on their back. Who do you believe that figure is? Maxwell Anderson. Who is the last person Shuddy Robinson was seen with? Maxwell Anderson. Who is this person? How do you know my daughter? Had you ever heard the name Maxwell Anderson? No. There were so many questions like how they knew each other, what his motives were. The night Shuddy Robinson disappeared was not the first time she had met Maxwell Anderson. Three days earlier, Shuddy, seen here on security camera footage, walked into a bar. The owner told 48 hours that Shuddy was looking for a job. While there, she met the bar tender. Six foot one, 33 year old Maxwell Anderson. They exchanged numbers and Maxwell walked Shuddy to her car. It seemed like he was trying to be a gentleman to this girl he was trying to impress. What did you learn about Maxwell Anderson, his background? I learned that he had been in the service industry for a while. He owned a home down on the south side of Milwaukee. It was in the Navy for a brief amount of time. Why did he lead the military? I believe it was the general discharge. But the man Shuddy would go on a date with also had a criminal record that included operating a vehicle while intoxicated, disorderly conduct, and more. It was a little disturbing, like a history of violence towards his own family. And in 2019, he'd also been accused of violence towards a total stranger. According to this police report, Maxwell, seen in this video filmed by a bystander, beat a man who tried to intervene during an argument Maxwell was having with a girlfriend. He was arrested for battery, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. This guy's got a temper and he doesn't really seem to care who he takes that temper out on. You're thinking about what could have happened with Shuddy? Yes. But could he be responsible for Shuddy's disappearance? Detective Donner needed proof. Just spending the evening with her. Right. It's not enough. Right. With the help of Shuddy's Life360 app, Donner knew Shuddy had driven to Maxwell's house on April 1st. I wanted to, I'm going to get into his house. And we definitely had enough to do that. On April 4th, Donner got a search warrant to enter Maxwell's home, and she sent another team to watch him. So they begin to follow him. We prefer to not have the resident in the house. It's just safer. Within minutes, the team realized Maxwell was heading home, and they had to act fast. Ray, let's take him into custody. The deputy and the detective said that yeah, they definitely felt him shaking. Maxwell Anderson later asked for a lawyer and was never interrogated. But when investigators finally entered the house, they were surprised. There was no big bloody crime scene. And no sign of a cleanup either. It was very apparent that the dismemberment didn't happen there. Investigators did find something of interest. A lot of knives. A lot of knives. There were, I believe, like 51 found in the kitchen alone. Anything that could have been used to dismember a body. I suppose none of those knives were used. After searching the house, Detective Donner was still missing key elements, like a weapon, crime scene, or even a single piece of direct evidence in Maxwell Anderson's home tying him to Shade's disappearance. It seemed like every hopeful lead I got disappointed each time. Detective Donner started looking into other possible suspects. While Maxwell Anderson seemed like a really good suspect, I wasn't going to focus on him. And she even considered the possibility that the remains on the beach belong to someone else. What if this isn't her? So I still checked missing databases. But Shade's loved ones were certain Donner was on the right track. They sent a message covering Maxwell Anderson's yard with balloons and signs. All in Shade's favorite color. Pink. Increasing the pressure on the investigation was the shocking discovery of more body parts across the county. A more human remains believed to be those of the young woman. The remains seemed to be from the same victim. As law enforcement searched for more remains, so did volunteers, including Kiki and Arlinda, family friends of Shade's. They were already searching. Why didn't get involved? I didn't see enough police out here. We came by in the area of empty. But we were like, okay, let's go back and double check and see if we could find anything else. While searching a wooded area, Kiki found a blanket that belonged to Shade. The next day, Arlinda discovered a human bone next to train tracks. Both were found in areas and investigators had already searched. Could you understand why people might feel a little frustrated when they hear that? Absolutely. Detective Donner was also frustrated. That's when this woman, Chloe Wright, stepped forward. It was like a heart-stopping. I mean, it's just like this camp. Be real. Chloe had dated Maxwell for more than a year, and she was stunned to hear her ex-boyfriend was a suspect. This type of gruesome, graphic murder I just didn't see from him. Chloe and Maxwell broke up a year earlier. She told us he was never physically abusive, but he could be verbally abusive. And he made comments about like my body weight, often, me not being attractive. He wasn't a great boyfriend. This sounds toxic. He was very toxic. Chloe describes Maxwell as a secretive person, but he did share one secret with her. Investigators were very interested to learn. I remember it was like winter when he had brought it up and he was like, if we're still together come spring, I'm going to take you to this secret beach. And then eventually he took me there. But Maxwell was so protective of his secret beach that when Chloe drove them there, he would only give her step-by-step directions. He didn't want me to know the name. In case we broke up, he didn't want me bringing other people to his secret spot. But she remembered where it was. The police were like, okay, you direct us. Repeating the directions, Maxwell had always given her. Chloe led investigators straight to his secret beach, Warnamont Park. Just having that proof that he knew about it and was familiar with it, to a level that he referred to it as his secret beach, that that was pretty big. What do we think happened here? This is where he dismembered her. When you think of that special place, special to him, what comes to mind? Chade. Yeah. Think about Chade. On April 12, 2024, Milwaukee County Sheriff DeNita Ball made an announcement. The severed leg has been preliminarily identified as belonging to Miss Robinson. That same day, Maxwell Anderson was charged with first degree intentional homicide mutilation of a corpse and arson. He would plead not guilty to all charges. DNA testing would later confirm the other remains were also Chade. On what should have been Chade's 20th birthday, her family held a memorial for her. It would take a year before they would see the man accused of killing Chade, brought to trial. For years, Gunn South has been a podcast about crime in the American South. But for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South. In a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to Gunn South season 5, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. In May 2025, Maxwell Anderson's murder trial began. Detective Donner knew it would be a tough fight with a circumstantial case. I really wanted that Gacha piece of direct evidence, you know, and it never came. Use your common sense and search for the truth. The prosecutor showed that jury this grainy footage of Anderson's home. Captured on his neighbor's security camera, it's hard to see, but investigators say it shows Maxwell and Chade in silhouette arriving at his house and turning on the light of his second floor living room. Then through the upstairs window, moving shadows can be seen. Investigators had poured over the footage hoping to find proof of Anderson murdering Chade. Do we have any idea what's happening now? I don't. But Detective Donner did notice something that happened hours later. I'm only seeing one person waving, and I know that one person that is leaving is the same height as the fence in the gate, which is pretty tall, is six foot, six foot. Investigators suspect Maxwell had already killed Chade by that time. But Max had nothing to do with these crimes. Maxwell Anderson's defense attorney, Anthony Cotton told the jury that Anderson being the last known person with Chade proved nothing. We don't dispute any of that timeline that they went out together and went back to Max's house, but that doesn't mean he killed her. And he dismissed the footage collected by the prosecution. All of this video, all the hundreds of hours of video, you can see the car, but you can't ever conclude that he is the one who is driving this vehicle. It's a pure speculation. Cotton highlighted what he called the serious holes in the state's case, mainly the lack of motive and the unknown cause of death. There is absolutely no reason for Max to commit a crime like this. Why would he ever do something like that? Cotton pointed out that authorities can't even say how Chade died, because some of our remains have not been recovered. CBS 58 reporter Adam Rife says the defense's case seemed to be effective with courtroom watchers. There was talk as this trial wore on that not all the evidence is there. If it was Maxwell Anderson, how did he do it and where is that murder weapon? But what would the jury think? Did any of you think, oh this is a slam dunk? We spoke to four of the jurors, Becca, Marilyn, Nikki, and Mel, who said she was unimpressed with the footage of Chade's car that the prosecution presented. I was like, where the hell is this going? Why are they showing us this? Who is driving? We don't know. Like there's no definitive proof. But there was one video that did make an impression. This footage of a man leaving the scene of Chade's burning vehicle. You can hear a bystander calling out. Okay, go. Go! Marilyn, the jury for woman, says the footage reminded her of the mystery person on the beach. You know, that is the same silhouette that we saw walking the streets of Milwaukee. The man then gets on a city bus and you can see his face crystal clear. It was Maxwell Anderson. What does he have with him? He has that large backpack still. The backpack pants and shoes Anderson is wearing on the bus were never recovered. His gray jacket was eventually found in his neighbor's garbage can. When the jacket was tested, it had Chade's DNA inside the hood and on the zipper pole. Now, could it be maybe explained away? Sure. And she did go to his house. Why would you throw it into trash can too? How does this away from your home? Exactly. Stay calls Chloe Wright. Chloe Wright, who chose to testify off camera, spoke about her ex-boyfriend and his secret beach. He looked at her like, I'm going to kill you right now. Don't you say a word. You all noticed that. That's not that. She played a very vital role, I think. But jurors would soon learn about a safe found in Chade's apartment. Inside, marijuana and what appeared to be methamphetamine pills. Although the pills were never sent to the state crime lab for conclusive testing, the defense seemed to suggest more should have been done to see if Chade's murder was really connected to those drugs. I felt that it was irrelevant to the case because there was never, ever any evidence that pointed to her as being a substance abuser. They're just trying to distract us. So it never crossed your mind once that maybe this was a drug deal gone wrong or whatever. Never, never. Investigators had tested Chade's remains. Did they find any drugs in her system? No. Caffeine was the only thing found. Jurors say it was actually one of the last pieces of evidence that they saw that made the biggest impact. Photos found on Maxwell Anderson's phone that he had taken and deleted. The photos are of Chade at his home. She is a face down. Her arm is over her face. You see the hand of a white male grasping what would be her right breast. Do you believe Chade was deceased or alive in those pictures? Do you know? I do not know. My assumption is that she was deceased. To see the way he treated her like an object, it was really disturbing. I mean, I personally felt like I had lived the last few hours of Chade's life with her. And you were walking kind of her footsteps throughout the night. And to see her end up like that was disgusting, humiliating, just horrible. We went all back into the jury room and there was a lot of quiet, a lot of hugs, and just everybody was just kind of sick. The state has no more witnesses, the state rests. And then Maxwell Anderson's defense rested without calling a single witness. Is it still your decision not to testify? It is my decision. The jurors headed to deliberate, but they didn't deliberate for long. After breaking for the night, the jury had a verdict in less than an hour. We want to come in here and we want to make a statement with how fast we make this decision. We the jury find the defendant Maxwell Anderson guilty of first degree intentional homicide, guilty of mutilating a corpse, guilty of arson of property other than the building of Chade Robinson's murder. But two months later, Maxwell Anderson decided to tell his story. And then he said, what would you like to say? There once was a woman who lived in a shoe. A size two snug book, what could she do? But that's not where her story ends. Thanks to a little help from her experienced friends, she got her scouring to much better shape and relocated to a box fresh new place with room to grow and a mortgage to suit. Now, she lives in a spacious four bedroom cowboy boot. Better your experience credit score to help get mortgage ready. Experience. Better your score. Better your story. Baby girl. This is the most heinous crime this court will see. It doesn't get more serious than this. Chade Robinson's family was determined to see that Maxwell Anderson would never be free again. They spoke directly to the judge at his sentencing. 17-year-old Adriana. When Maxwell Anderson murdered my sister, he redefined my definition of misfortune. He made it to where I cannot meet any person without the fear that they're going to harm or kill me. Because all my sister did was meet someone and as a result, he ended her life. He tried to erase her existence and her value. Now I no longer have the opportunity to try and give her everything she gave me. Chade's father, Carlos Robinson, told the court, what justice would be for him. To lose your child in this manner is unthinkable. What he has done is inconceivable. He deserves the punishment that he gave to my daughter. Everything that he did should be done to him. To me, that's justice. Sheena wearing Chade's favorite color pink on her eyelids wanted answers from her daughter's killer. You disrespectfully spread my daughter across Milwaukee, like a piece of trash. How dare you. And she made a heartbreaking plea. I'm going to respectfully request that you confess with my daughter's crown is. Chade's crown, her head, which has still never been found. You've already done the worst. You could at least give us that much. But if Chade's family was hoping for answers, they were disappointed. Mr. Anderson, what would you like to say? Maxwell Anderson finally chose to speak. I would like to start by saying that from the bottom of my heart, my deepest and most sincere condolences go out to Chade's family, as well as everyone else affected by this tragedy. That being said, your honor, I did not commit these crimes. By hope and pray that further investigations not only prove my innocence, but find and deliver true justice. You would think that he would tell us the things we wanted to know, and finally fill some remorse after sitting in jail for these mumps. And then he didn't. Anything else you wish to say? No, ma'am. Judge Laura Crivello read a statement Anderson made to an investigator after his conviction. He regretted he did not walk Miss Robinson to her vehicle when she left his apartment, and he believed it was at that point she was abducted by an unknown assailant. Quote, either from the alley or from my backyard, unquote. When asked how we accounted for his presence in the area where Miss Robinson's vehicle was set on fire, Mr. Anderson said that he was set up. You're hearing this stuff and you're like, no. What do you think happened that night? I believe that they went back to his house. I think he may have wanted to take things further than she was comfortable with, and that maybe she rejected him. And his rather well-documented temper came out. And Dauner's suspects Anderson would have killed again. I think this was his first time killing. I could be wrong, but that's my opinion. I do firmly believe though that it probably wouldn't be his last if he hadn't been caught. Given what he did to her body. Chloe wonders if she could have been one of his targets. A year after they broke up, she says, Maxwell sent her a message on Instagram. And it was ignore time is over. Five hours later, Maxwell Anderson met Todd A. Robinson when she applied for that job. That's gotta give you the chills. It's Erie. Before sentencing Anderson, Judge Cervello took a moment to share her own thoughts about the loss of Saude Robinson. She was a girl that I would hope all young ladies strive to be. She was loved in the community by almost everyone that touched her. You stole a truly shining light is what it sounds like. And then she gave the man who stole that light the maximum. You shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life. I am ordering that you will not be eligible for extended supervision. Life without the possibility of parole. Thank you guys for supporting us. Outside the courthouse, Shade's loved ones thank the city of Milwaukee for keeping her memory alive. I do appreciate the city of Milwaukee because they have shown my daughter a lot of love. A mural of Shade sits beneath her beloved pizza shuttle. Sheena has launched a program in Shade's honor to help crime victims. And she has partnered with a Wisconsin State representative to create a task force to examine and prevent the disproportionately high levels of violence against black women and girls. In May of 2024, Adriana dressed in a pink cap and gown, accepted Shade's degree at what should have been her big sister's graduation. Seeing her live her life as such a hard worker who never let anything stop her, I knew that she would want me to do that after I lost her, that she would want me to keep living. And so I'm going to remember her by following in her footsteps and feeling the whole that she left. Although I know I can never live up to anywhere near her shoes. Hmm, I don't know about that. I do. In Wormont Park, the site where this tragic investigation began, Shade's family and friends unveiled a memorial bench. It's in the area Detective Daughter has searched dozens of times, in the hopes of fulfilling Shade's loved ones' deepest wish of laying all of Shade to rest. Do you think we'll ever find Shade's crown? I think so when the lake is ready to give her back. In August 2025, Maxwell Anderson announced he planned to appeal his conviction.
