The father of a man accused of killing and dismembering a Wisconsin college student released a statement on Thursday expressing his family’s “shock” at the woman’s death.
“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,” Steven Anderson wrote in a statement released by his son’s attorney, adding that his family was “shocked” and devastated by Robinson’s “senseless death.”
Anderson’s son, Maxwell Anderson, 31, was charged on Friday with murder and mutilating a corpse in connection with the death of Sade Carleena Robinson, a 19-year-old Milwaukee Area Technical College student. Body parts believed to be Robinson’s have been found scattered across the Milwaukee area over the past month.
“To Sade’s mother and father, words cannot express our sorrow for the
incomprehensible pain and grief you are going through,” Steven Anderson’s statement read. “We join the entire community in celebrating Sade’s life.”
The family ended the statement by requesting privacy as they “process this terrible tragedy.”
Robinson was reported missing on April 1 by a friend who told detectives that she hadn’t been returning calls and failed to show up to work, according to a criminal complaint obtained by HuffPost. Robinson’s last Snapchat activity showed that she’d visited a local bar where Maxwell Anderson previously worked.
Phone records indicated that Robinson and the suspect had discussed meeting at the bar the night of her disappearance, according to the complaint. A bartender who was working that night told detectives he witnessed the two dining together, and that Maxwell Anderson had referred to it as a “first date.”
According to the complaint, a leg believed to be Robinson’s was discovered at Warnimont Park the day her friend reported her missing. Her car was found that same day engulfed in flames, with the remnants of her phone and the clothes she’d worn the night of her disappearance.
A search of Maxwell Anderson’s home on April 4 revealed blood on a bed and walls leading toward the basement, where detectives found multiple containers of gasoline, according to the complaint. The suspect was arrested following a traffic stop that same day.
On April 6, detectives located a human foot and “another piece of what appeared to be human flesh” believed to be Robinson’s a block away from where her car was burned, according to the complaint.
On Thursday, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office announced they’d discovered a torso and arm on a beach along Lake Michigan, “nearly a quarter mile from an apartment complex, where they are believed to have washed ashore.”
According to the sheriff’s statement, all the remains found are believed to be Robinson’s, though that has not been “formally confirmed” yet.
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