Episode 357

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised All right, and what then what did you actually find? It looks like the It looks like a back in the butt in an arm What is this way? Where's the show? Where's the fucking show put out the fucking show. What is this nightmare shit? What is this AI? What is this garbage? Your shit sucks put out the show put it out put it out now I'm you just put out one you fucking scammer. You're not even fucking put it at the show every day. You fucking in piece of shit Welcome to episode 357. Sorry scale So if you go to our homepage sword and scale.com. There's a brand new show called tails. It's an animated true crime podcast thing I mean, I call it a thing because we invented it. There's nothing like it At least I don't think there is Go check it out. We we would really like some feedback and as an artist it, you know, it's nice to hear what you think the audience Let's try to be nice about it and don't tell me I just stick to what I'm good at because that kills any kind of creativity It's early april at Warnamont Park, Wisconsin. It's around lunchtime and the wind is whipping off Lake Michigan as it usually does The grass above the bluff is still flattened from the winter. The golf course sign rattles in the background Below the hill and the waves of Lake Michigan beat steadily against the rock and sand Lake Michigan stretches for more than 300 miles from north to south It's early April and the water temperatures typically just above freezing Even on calmer days the wind pushes surface currents parallel to the shore Two young men are walking near the bluff They aren't looking for anything. They're just moving along the edge of the park glancing down towards the shoreline the way people do The winter weather has broken and they're enjoying the walk and conversation Even though it's still brisk out Below them the land drops towards the shoreline It's a steep incline of dirt grass and scattered rock They take the path down to the sandy beach and start walking Their footprints follow behind them Then one of them notices something on the slope It isn't at the bottom near the water It's lodged partway up the bluff about two-thirds of the way up from the shoreline Whatever it is is caught in the grass and loose soil At first it just looks like debris But debris would be in pieces And this is one large mass It's a walk closer wondering what it is maybe a large fish of some sort The shape resolves It's not debris It's not aquatic It's pretty horrifying actually A foot with five toes The toenails are painted neon pink Now it's clear The foot is attached to a human leg The lower portion is unshaven The skin appears smooth There are no visible tattoos No visible scars The foot is facing west The top of the thigh facing east The upper portion of the leg has been severed just below the ball of the thigh bone Flesh and bone are exposed But there's no blood The skin at the cut edge forms a jagged, almost z-shaped pattern The thigh bone itself appears partially cut through For a moment neither man speaks but They exchange shocked expressions The wind continues Then one of them pulls out his phone I can't see How did anyone head on one? It's Milwaukee Yep sir, hold on a second, it's Milwaukee County If you guys have an officer in an ambulance to meet the two gentlemen at the parking lot By the golf course Apparently they found a leg Down by the water So they found a leg? Yes Okay and then where are you? Are you guys sending people? Yeah, we're going to send a couple of deputies on also Okay, all right All right, thanks You're welcome All right, let me deputies arrive But by this time the leg is shifted location It's not part way up the bluff where the men first saw it Now it rests near the base Closer to the water line And the waves are closing in on it One of them is forced to move it carefully away from the water Hey guys, I forgot to ask you Who was the one who actually called 911? Wasn't you? Okay And then when you guys initially seen the leg, where was it? It was just like, I'm on the beach. It was on the beach, it wasn't up on the hill? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, No, it's all good. It's all good. I guess you're not in trouble, dude. Like any little detail could possibly help. So it was on the cliff and it slid down or. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. And when they got down there, he had moved it from by the rock because it was. I was trying to point it, but by the cliff, because it was by the cliff. It was like, where is it? And then we were walking and I looked down like, oh, it's right there. He goes, oh, shit. Okay. All right, cool. All right. I'll be right back with you guys, okay? All right. That was weird, right? Not agreeing on where you spotted a human leg, because yeah, that wouldn't be burned into your memory forever. On that very same morning, April 2nd, 2024, the Milwaukee Fire Department responds to a vehicle fire in an alley behind a vacant building near 29th Street. The call comes in just after sunrise. It's raining. The pavement is wet and humidity is high. In the alley sits a blue 2020 Honda Civic. Flames have already broken out and the car is engulfed. Firefighters extinguished the car quickly and police have it towed to a secure impound lot. Later, investigators realized the fire did not start in the engine bay or the trunk. The damaged patterns are consistent with a fire that started inside the passenger compartment. In the burned vehicle, they find remnants of a fleece blanket and a purse. A handheld big lighter is found in the back seat. On the front passenger floorboard, investigators find what's left of a green stuffed animal. When they take it from the car, they notice a strong odor, consistent with petroleum distillate. The report notes the odor is overwhelming. Surveillance cameras in the area capture it in real time. At approximately 7.30 a.m. footage from a nearby building shows an unknown individual walking southbound from the direction of the vehicle fire. In that same footage, two women can be heard shouting, "He did it. It's him. It's gonna explode." The figure continues walking southbound and disappears from the frame. Back at the lake, officers are still investigating the leg and wondering if this was a boating accident or something else. It makes it hard to see where it came from because of the weather. You know what? I mean, if it was dry, it might be able to see like a path where it'd like slip down from. What are you saying? Like, right up here by the sticky foot. I don't think the waves are going that high. So I don't think it washed up. I don't think so either. I'm thinking I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it was a dog job. They got stuck into the ground. even at first glance officers determine this was probably no boating accident. This was a dump job. This was someone dumping body parts over the cliffs and alongside the shoreline. And the police combed the beach for days, nothing else surfaced there. They were no longer talking about the lake. They were talking about a person whose body parts might be scattered everywhere. And they were right. Two days later another piece of human flesh would fit the puzzle. This time in a whole other state. Another gruesome discovery along the shores of Lake Michigan, this time in Joaquigan, Illinois. The Lake County Coroner says someone walking the beach Saturday night found a human right arm believed to be a woman's. The coroner describes the arm as "mostly intact." And another part of Milwaukee, a mother, has been waiting for her 19-year-old daughter to call. They last spoke on April 1st over FaceTime and nothing about that conversation suggested it would be the last time they would talk. By April 3rd, she hasn't heard from her, but this is only slightly unusual. Her daughter is extremely busy working two jobs, including shifts at Pizza Shuttle on Milwaukee's East Side. She's also a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College, and she has her own apartment in the Lower East Side. A routine is complex. Some mornings start early with work, some evenings and late. And classes fill up most of the gaps. When she's not working or studying, she spends time with her friends and tries to have a romantic life. She's been balancing adulthood in real time like the rest of us. Paychecks, homework, rent, friendships. It wouldn't have been unusual for her to miss a call to text back later. It would have been out of the question for a day to pass quickly. But two days? Two days felt different. Her phone has not responded. She hasn't returned messages. No one has heard her voice. For someone juggling two jobs in college, disappearing without a word just doesn't fit. Friends have also noticed. All right, Josh. So yeah, the reason I'm calling you is I'm calling in regards to, uh, Suday Robinson. And could you just kind of like inform me how you know her and when the last time you talked her? Yeah. So, um, we have been talking for, like, I'd say about a month, um, since I moved to Rochester in its order. But I mean, I'm from Milwaukee, so I had met her before last weekend. Um, it was my birthday, so I came home for like four days or whatever and we ended up paying out multiple times, um, Saturday, I ended up staying at her place, um, stayed till Sunday morning. And then I left, I did some other things during the day, whatever, hung out with my family or whatever. And then Sunday night, it was Easter, like, I mean, here, a little like Easter basket or whatever. I brought it to her, um, at her grandparents' place, so I met her family and everything. And then Sunday night, I mean, something that I saw at her grandparents stayed there for about an hour, and then I left. And then that was the last time I physically saw her, we were texting everything. The last text I got from her was, uh, three, 12 p.m. on Monday, literally right before where she said, have a good day at work. After that night, no one hears from her. No texts, no calls, no explanation, and by the time her mother has realized something is truly wrong, it has already been two days. What investigators are facing isn't just a disappearance, it's a human puzzle. And they don't yet know how many pieces there are, where they are, or what happened to her. But their best guess is murder. On a chilly afternoon in April of 2024, two young men took a walk down to Warnamont Park near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As they make their way down the bluffs to the shoreline, one of them caught sight of a gruesome piece of landscape, a human leg caught in the weeds. One of them described it as looking like a mannequin's leg, smooth, dark skin, no blood whatsoever, only jagged pieces of rubbery flesh surrounding tissue, muscle, and a femur bone with sharp, spiky edges. The medical examiner would later testify about the force required to break the bone and remove the limb. Deputies responded and secured the area. The leg had been lodged partway down the slope above the reach of the waves. In the same morning, miles away in Milwaukee, a 2020 Honda Civic was found in golfed in flames. Surveillance cameras captured a figure walking southbound from the direction of the fire just after 7.30 a.m., while two women shouted from nearby as smoke filled the air. Two days later, along the shoreline in Joaquin, Illinois, a humanar washed ashore. By then, what had looked like a single horrific find along a Milwaukee bluff had stretched across state lines. And in Milwaukee, a 19-year-old college student named Shade Carlyna Robinson had stopped answering her phone. Concerned friends and family, checked in with Shade's Life 360 app, including a best friend she'd known since grade school. When you found out that Shade was missing, did you ever check Life 360? Yes. Did you also have find my phone app? Yes. Is that a similar kind of service? Yes, just through iPhone. So once through iPhone, the find my app, and then there's a whole separate app, Life 360, right? Yes. You shared your location with her on both? Yes. When you contacted law enforcement, what information did you want to provide them? My less, with the apps, her last locations that I had on my phone. Shade's mother and friends contacted officers for a welfare check. But before anything else unfolded, her friends had already been checking her social media. This is Josh, again, the friend Shade had been talking to. What I saw on her story was that she went out until like, dukes on water. Okay, was it on Sunday or Monday or what? Monday, Monday. Okay. Did you see anybody in the photo at all? No, I just saw some pom-poms. Okay. So, the reason I'm calling is, um, nobody has heard from her since Monday, and she's missing. So, today's Friday, and we're trying to put some pieces of this puzzle together. So, is there any information that you could provide? He had seen her story. She went out and was meeting someone. Pretty normal. This wasn't out of character. It wasn't alarming. Yet. No, the last thing I know is that she went out Monday night. She went drinking, and she said something about like, "I shouldn't do this again," or stuff that. I didn't see anyone in the photo. When you say she shouldn't do this again, what does she mean by that? Like, was that Snapchat? Was that a text? Like drinking on a Monday or something like that. Shade wasn't known to be a partier. Her friends and family knew her to be a responsible young adult with military lineage. Her grandfather was a retired U.S. Navy veteran and her uncle was a U.S. Army veteran. Shade herself had been considering joining the U.S. Air Force and was studying criminal justice with plans that included military service. At the same time, she was a normal young adult who liked to socialize. Okay. What time was that at? I'd say she went there after work. Okay. So she was, was that a text message to you, or was that on her Snapchat, or when you said-- It was on her Instagram. Her Instagram, okay. Yes. And that was at Duke's, or was that a different bar? It was at Duke's, but I think she went somewhere else. Shade's. This friend Josh wasn't the only one to report she was meeting someone. So did her best friend. Do you remember her talking to you about a person she had met at the bar? I can't remember the place, but I remember she met somebody. Would that have been the weekend prior? Like, with the dates, I can't remember the exact dates. I just remember before this incident, she told me about some person who was. that she met at a bar. The bar apart, I can't remember. Investigators would later retrace Shade's movements that night using phone data. Her phone first left pizza shuttle where she worked earlier that day. It then traveled to a restaurant along the Milwaukee River, the twisted fisherman. Surveillance cameras outside the restaurant also captured Shade entering, wearing a white top, black puffy jacket, and jeans. Later that night, the phone moved again, this time to dukes on water. A busy bar on water street. After that, the signal went south across the city to a residence. Then in the early morning hours, the phone traveled one last time towards the Lake Michigan shoreline. Warnamont Park. But at that point, investigators still didn't know whose house Shade went to that night. And they didn't know who she was meeting. So detectives stuck deeper with her friend Josh. And it turned out, they may have been more than friends. I say, we were really good friends starting to form a relationship, kind of like boyfriend, girlfriend kind of thing. Did you go in a pizza shuttle and just start talking to her? Is that the work you're referencing, pizza shuttle? Yeah. She wasn't at the register, whatever, and then you're just getting ready for it. But at the point, she really got some pizza. And we kind of just dropped the crap. We were like, yeah, we're from Hartford or whatever. And she was like, oh, I got to go to Hartford. And then we just kind of talked for a little bit from there. And then you got her number? Yep. OK. Did you give her your number or did she get your number? I asked her hers. OK. I have kind of a personal question I ask you. And I'm only saying this because I've interviewed her coworkers and some of her friends. Did they? So here's a-- I'm trying to get some pieces of this puzzle together. And they keep referencing a guy. And I don't know if the guy is you or some other guy. But did they ever refer to you as the virgin? They did. Poor Josh. Obviously, he and Shade hadn't had sex even though they'd been hanging out together. And the nickname pretty much said it all. But Josh wasn't the one she was meeting that night. The thing is, on Monday, April 1, she works 9-5. And then she goes to the twisted fisherman with some other unknown guy. And that's the last time we see her. And now I understand that she goes to Duke's. We're trying to get some of your own video from that, but we're trying to determine who this unknown guy is. So was there no-- Go ahead. I want a question for you. Do you-- so you kind of know what that unknown guy looks like? Uh, yeah. Do you have a little bit longer here? Yeah. Oh, shit. OK. And so she was telling me that-- so we went out Saturday night or whatever, and I have friends and everything. Oh, you said this phrase. There was this one guy who was long here, kind of looked kind of like a hick a little bit, not too much about a little bit. And when we got there, he kind of like, after he's like, you know Shade, and then she's like, and then I was, you know, I was with her. This is on Saturday, son. Nope. OK, where was that? It's all a wait. Friends birthday. OK. She, you know, said, hey, you're whatever. And then, you know, I was hanging out with her or my other friends or whatever. So, you know, they were talking about it where we were having a good time. You know, we were drinking whatever. I mean, I wasn't drinking because the night before it was my birthday. And I drank too much, so I felt like shit. So she was drinking, you know, like I was making sure she got home OK or whatever. So, you told me at the end of the night, she said, yeah, you know, this one guy, he was, he told me that, you know, he liked me or something like that. And I was like, well, he's not even my type. And I said, oh, it's your type. She said, oh, you're my type. And she's like, yeah, he was really, really mad. According to what Shade told Josh, this guy was upset because he was crushing on her. After that day, Shade went mini golfing with friends and ran into this guy. He must have asked her out, and she turned him down because of her plans with Josh. Josh remembered Shade telling him that this guy just wasn't her type. But then, they ran into him that night. If I hadn't put my money on it, if you saw a guy with long hair, it was probably this dude because he had, I think she had liked her and she wasn't into him. And I think she got pissed off when he saw me. He didn't say anything. But that's what she told me. She, you know, as we're looking, she doesn't really notice him. She kind of touched her and says, hey, Shade, she's like, oh, because, you know, they had seen each other golfing. And then the girls, I mean, then I continued and the girls were talking and she said, yeah, my friends really like you. Um, there's this one dude, though, and he said he was like crushing on me or whatever. And he said that he doesn't really open up to girls about his feelings and shit like this. So that's why I think there could actually be a motive of jealousy or some shit like that. Josh, the Virgin, was easy to talk to. He was providing a lot of insight into Shade's last movements. He said that even her mother couldn't provide. So not only was this long-haired guy a possible person of interest, but Josh remembered even more. "The only other guy that I know that could have made me do something like highly doubt it was her neighbor." Is that the real guy? "Okay. No. I guess if you keep doing good and you poke my mind, so I guess if there were three guys that would think of me that got you in the bar if he had been along here, there was an old ex about a month and a month and a half ago, so you kind of got over him. I think he was still on her like he called her and was still talking to the family and stuff, so that could be it. He was a truck driver." "White dude, black dude, his fan, dude." "Shit. I think he was black. I mean, I think the other first white guy that she'd say because I met her family, they are speculating a white guy." "Okay. But." "Yeah, that's kind of like what her friends said as well. So, please say, is that a neighbor?" But all Josh could remember Shade saying about the neighbor guy was that he convinced her to try some of his gummies and she borrowed his phone charger. "So that's all I really know about that neighbor, dude, that other ex and something you probably should be aware of is that, I'd say, two weeks before this, her car was broken into you." "Yeah." "And they didn't take any of her personal stuff. It was more of like a statement." "Okay." "They just broke her window, and they took her cover wheel under driving." "It's like the steering column." "Yeah." "So, if you were to look into, I'd say, it'd probably be one of those three guys." Josh had just given detectives three directions, a possible break in involving Shade's car, a neighbor who may have made her uncomfortable, and the man she had gone out with that night. At that point, investigators couldn't rule any of them out. Every lead had to be checked. But while the detectives were still sorting through those possibilities, more body parts were surfacing. Some were found along Milwaukee's lakefront. Others appeared miles away scattered across different parts of the city. One discovery happened on the north side of Milwaukee. A passerby strolling through the park notices something in the grass in a playground area, not far from where Shade's burned car had been discovered. At first, it looked like debris, some wadded up paper bag, or maybe a discarded child's toy. Whatever it is, it shouldn't be there. The person moves closer and figures they'll just throw it away, whatever it is in a nearby garbage can. But now, they see what it is. A human foot. The skin is dark, and flaps of flesh poke up around where the ankle would be. The toenails are neon pink. Investigators are called and find additional pieces of human tissue nearby. Tissue that is much larger, and looks like it was carved from, or fell away from, someone's stomach, or thigh. Another grim discovery happened while a woman walked her dog on the beach in South Milwaukee. You can still see footprints all over this remote beach that's a long lake Michigan here in South Milwaukee. Thanks. Yards from my front door. Someone walking the remote beach around 730 this morning. in an arm just yards away from Angela Buchanan's home. I'm definitely on edge now. Milwaukee County Sheriff's office believes the body parts belong to 19 year old Chatea Robinson. This is not something that anybody should have to go through, especially such a young girl. It just kind of makes me like scared now. To kind of want to come down here with my dog, you know, and do what we do every day because now it's am I going to come down here and be the next one that's going to find more body parts. The worst fear in Chatea Robinson's case was confirmed. The body parts belong to her. What started as a missing persons investigation was now officially a homicide. While detectives chase leads across Milwaukee, Chatea's family and friends were doing something else entirely. They were searching for pieces of her. They walked the lakefront, they checked parks, they scanned the shoreline hoping to find anything that might help bring the rest of Chatea home. For Chatea's mother, one thought repeated in her mind. That even after everything that was done to her, Chatea had still managed to leave behind the clues investigators needed. Chatea is forever. She will be forever remembered as an angel. A light worker who's touched so many souls, so many lives in the Milwaukee community. She is our hero. She is forever leaving an imprint. She walks in her own path, her own light. She saw her own case. My baby saw her own case. That's how I raised my kids. We don't give up, we are fighters. Chatea's mother was right. Before Chatea disappeared, she left behind a trail of clues, texts, messages, pictures. As intrusive as social media is, these small moments shared with friends in real time would act as digital breadcrumbs. But investigators weren't relying on digital evidence alone. There was also the matter of Chatea's car. Not long after she vanished, her charred vehicle was found burned in an alley near the playground where her foot was discovered. At first glance, it was obvious someone had tried to destroy it. But detectives noticed something about the inside of the car that just didn't sit right. The driver's seat. The seat and Chatea's car had been set for someone much taller. This is when detectives started closing in on the man Chatea went out with the night she disappeared. Maxwell Anderson. Max lived on Milwaukee's south side. And as detectives compared notes, he realized he matched the description Josh had given in his interview. Josh had mentioned a man Chatea ran into days earlier, someone she turned down for a date when she went mini golfing with friends. But the man hadn't disappeared from her life. Just days later, she agreed to go on a first date with him. Max was 23 years old. To most people who knew him, he seems quiet, soft-spoken. The kind of person who kept mostly to himself. He worked as a bartender and owned a house where he subletted to a roommate. - And we're talking about Maxwell Anderson. - Maxwell Anderson, yeah. - Okay, just clarifying that. And is he on this, uh, resident? - He says that he does. But, I mean, in the absence of him, he put like $40,000 down on this and bought the place. But I don't see how if he only works two days a week, how you can afford this place to begin with. I don't know if maybe his dad helped him out. I know his dad will sometimes, okay, like see the Anderson male here. So I don't know if he helped him out buy it or something like that. He was real flexible with the rent, which is why it was one of the reasons why I wanted to stay here. - To paint a picture for you, Max looks like an urban lumberjack version of Brad Pitt. If that helps. - Did he have a girlfriend? Was he in a relationship with anybody that you know? - I know that he texted me about, like March 8th, and says that he had just broken up with this girl named Maya, and he was feeling really bad about it. - Okay. - I don't know if, you know, that has anything to do with anything, but he's always had girls, you know, he's, I wouldn't say ladies, man, but he's also always had like girl companions over and stuff like that, yeah. - When detectives interviewed his most recent ex, Maya, she painted the picture of what seemed like a normal relationship. - We're probably gonna ask you some personal questions. If you choose the answer, cool. If you don't want to, that totally get. But there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle that we're trying to put together, and some of the things that you might know might really, really help us. - One of those personal questions was how many times Maya had had sex with him, in the span of about two months they'd been seeing each other. And of course, what was the sex like? - So do you say, 12 times, 20, 50? - Probably like, go with like 12. - Okay. - Maybe. - When you guys are hooking up, was there any communication, whether it's through the phone or in person, where he was like, he expressed like any fantasy things that he wanted to do? - No. - No. - He was, no, he didn't really have any weird keeps like that at home. - He didn't express anything, cool and cool. Not the average thing you would do. - No, okay. - He was, no, he was like very just, I think like, and very just gentle. He never like, screamed at me or like, he never put his hands on me ever. - This didn't seem like killer type behavior. Maya went on to explain that early in their relationship her dog was sick and she needed to put him down. She remembered Max asking to meet the dog and said he was kind to him. In fact, he had two dogs of his own that were well cared for. Although his roommate portrayed him to be a big drinker, Maya said she didn't go for that. - Did you think that alcohol and Max were an issue or not? - So I mean obviously I didn't really know him for that long but I'm pretty sure he was a pretty frequent drinker. And I kind of go through phases of that too depending on like when I'm hanging out with. But like when we were seeing each other, like I talk to him on multiple occasions, like hey, like I know I'm fun but like I really don't want to be like drinking and going out this much. Like I like to be in the gym every day. I like to feel good and get my shit done. And he was like on board with it. He was like yeah, I'm down to not drink. He started to go into the gym, like he. He was trying to put his life together. It seemed like once he met me. - But once he met her, his timetable didn't quite line up with hers. He seemed all in. - I was talking to him on a day's of him and then he was moving things way too quickly than I wanted him to naturalize. - Yeah, all right. - He was like the prime of all things very, very quickly. I don't have good experiences with people moving into liquid in the past. So I kept telling him I wanted to slow down and you say that he wanted to move things quickly, like what do you mean, like what was his idea? Did he say anything? He was he. - I mean he introduced me to a lot of his friends right away. He wanted me to go to South Carolina and use mom and sister and he booked flights first to do that. He would call me his girlfriend, even though I wasn't his girlfriend. - Just to be clear, you know that in 2026 he can't be boyfriend, girlfriend until the question is asked and the words are spoken. I mean, you can have sex 12 or 20 times and go on multiple dates, but that's just talking. That's nothing serious, you know? Anyway, the more questions detectives asked, the more sides of Max came to the surface. - And so I did go on my date with someone else and he did not like the March 1st. I was working on IA off early and I went out to dug out another bar next door with the guy that I was at Lux's off page with and I was hanging out with him and his friends and then my coworker called me and she's like, my max just showed up looking for you and I was like, well it's 'cause he normally works Friday nights. Where was he looking for you at? - He came in my bar looking for me and thinking I was still at work. - Okay, I'm sure. - But he didn't text me or anything. He was like trying to surprise me I guess. - She was surprised, but not in a good way. She says that Max then started hanging out with her and the two guys she was with, but he was upset when one of them flirted with her. Max stormed out and she later told him she needed space. She should be able to hang out with whoever she wants. Unfortunately, they had planned to go to the. Many golf course in a few days, but now she wanted to blow him off. She said she didn't want to go with him, but she went anyway. That's when things escalated. I told him I didn't want to go with him anymore, and I told him I wasn't going to go in general, but he must have, I don't know if we just like sat there all night in the parking lot, like looking for him to show up there or what, but I went there at like 7-38pm or what his name's Chris. When we were with Chris, we played golf. I was going to talk to a manager there, because I used to work at Look's Golf Base, and I was about to swing and hit the golf ball, and I hear behind me. He's like, "You better not get too close to the edge, you might fall off." I thought it was maybe like an old co-worker messing with me. On my turn around and Max is there, and basically blew up that I was there with Chris, a different guy, and then he stormed off. We were on the third floor, so we could see the whole parking lot, so we were watching to see if he was going to leave. He got in his car, he drove, but he reparted. What is he going to do? He circled Chris's car, he knew what Chris's car looked like, because of when we went out that Friday before. So he circled Chris's car once, went back to his car, circled it twice, went back to his car, and he did it like four times, and we're like, "What is he doing?" The fourth time, a bunch of police cars show up, and he drives off immediately once the police car shows up. You're probably thinking that Maya and her friend called the police on Max. Well, you'd be wrong. It was the other way around. Not only did Max call the cops, but he also smashed out her friend's tail light, and gave the police his license plate telling them the guy was driving drunk. He was hoping the police would follow the friend and pull him over for the smashed tail light, or even give him a DUI. Maya was Max's most recent girlfriend/not girlfriend. Although he was pretty devastated when she told him that he needed space, and didn't know if she could get over what he did, he did not take his frustrations out on her. This was March. Just one month before Shade would disappear. But Maya also remembered something else Max had said once. I know it's not a comfortable thing to talk about. I know Kevin Sex is a weird thing to talk about, and I get it. It's fine. We're all adults in their own. It's just something that we're kind of looking into, and that's all. He was very gentle, more so than some of a lot of guys have been one. Even like he made a comment, he's like I think it's weird how some girls want to be choked and feel like he's like I really don't like doing that. Max had brought up the subject of choking during sex. Not in a threatening way, if anything, he sounded almost disgusted by it. He told her he couldn't understand why some women liked that. Maya said Max had always been gentle with her. And when their relationship fell apart, he seemed genuinely hurt by it. At the time, it didn't seem like an important detail, but detectives would remember it later. Because Maya wasn't the only woman investigators spoke to. Even before Shade and Maya, there was another young woman. We're gonna call her Sherry for privacy. And what Sherry would eventually say would send chills down the spines of the most seasoned detectives. I've talked to two of his ex girlfriends and I'm just keeping saying the same thing. We're working in a case where there's a girl who will disappear. It's pretty much just a big puzzle piece right now. I'm trying to put everything together. So your answers might be able to help us figure out what was going on. So when did you guys start dating? We started talking November of '21 dating March-ish '22. It was like kind of on and off and then I completely cut them off. I would say March or April of '23. How did you guys meet? Heartbreakers. Heartbreakers? Heartbreakers there. Does he dance there? Okay. What did he do there? Heartbreakers. How did you guys just start talking or watch the connection? Yeah, we were just talking. I was single on him, single on him. I was looking for somebody and they're kind of other life together. So I was like, I don't like this could work. When detectives sat down with Sherry, the story she told started in a way investigators had heard before. At first, Max seemed quiet, reserved, almost shy. But that didn't last. I mean, we would just like constantly get in fights. So he was either like really feeling mean and just like using anything he could. Like any insecurity I had. He wasn't ever like physical with me though. Is it always petting you down? Yeah, he'd always. He'd either be super, super mean or like super loving. There wasn't like that in between. He would call me a slut of war. He had this weird obsession with my ex boyfriend. They ended up getting in the cabaret fight on the St. Paddy's Day two years ago. And then ever since then, he's just like obsessed with him. So he'd always like whenever we got in fights, like, oh, like why do you go fuck Jack? Like so immature. It's just, that's mine. That's mine. That's mine. That's mine. That's mine. Funny, creepy, not sure which. But go ahead. Go ahead. And then with all the drinking that I was doing when I was with him, I obviously gained weight. And like, no, I wasn't a teenager anymore. He told me like, I mean, like 18. Okay. So as I was like aging and then drinking, I was gaining weight. And like every single day it would be like, I don't want you to eat all of that. Just watching like how much I was eating. I was only like fat for like every day. Told me even if I did lose the weight, I'd never be able to keep it off. So. Sherry told detectives Max could swing between extremes. Affection at one moment cruel the next. Arguments became more frequent. And sometimes Sherry said, Max would talk about revenge. Not just arguments. Weird plans. My best friend ended up moving in with my ex-boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend Jack? Yes. So my best friend Lexie ended up moving in with Jack. Yeah. And Max was like, Jack took your friend from you. I'm going to take, I took you his last girl now. I'm going to take his next girl. So he reached out to Lexie. Okay. There was one instance where he knew Jack worked on Brady Street. So he told me he was going to Brady Street to find his car. I don't know if this ever happened or not because of this point. It was like I was trying to leave him. So it's really distancing myself. I don't know exactly. At one point he asked me to invite Jack over to my place. And to beat myself up in the bathroom and call the police to get Jack arrested. And he said, either I do that or he will do it himself. This was becoming a theme, similar to what Maya had told detectives. Jealousy, possessiveness, and weird revenge plots. And then came the questions about their sex life. Sherry's version was slightly different from Maya's. So this is for about a year? Okay. In a year, did you guys have sex a lot? In the beginning. In the beginning? Yes. How often do you remember? Why? Daily? Two times a day. Two times a day when I saw him. And then when did it start doing down? When I started getting it. Okay. Did he ever make videos with you? Yes. Okay. How many do you think? Two. Okay. Does he have the videos or do you have the videos? Did he ever send them to you? Okay. By chance, do you have a tattoo right here? Is it a scorpion? Okay. So just something to keep in mind. Sleep with a criminal and the cops might see your tattoos. No matter where you hide them. And speaking of which, Max did have a criminal history. Just a little. A few years earlier. earlier he was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property after smashing the windows of a car during a domestic dispute. Police had also been called to incidents involving arguments with family members at his home. All of this pointed to emotional or impulsive disorders, but not murder. Yet their conversation with Sherry continued, giving detectives even more reason to suspect him. Next, they pulled from Max's diary. Says bondage equals rape, calm a roleplay. And I'm not judging, not knocking it too bad. I'm cool. It's fun. I get it. I really get it. Even if you are willing to accept that about yourself, you like to pretend you being raped because you otherwise can't feel anything. And he likes to pretend to be the rapist because that's how he'd imagine. I think he says bed finally get laid or he'd finally get laid. Does that make any kind of sense to you at all? Sherry said no. It didn't make sense to her. But it's also possible she was embarrassed. So one more time about the pretend rape comics. When was that kind of like were you guys in bed together? Were you guys just like drinking or like how was he just brought it up? Yes. Just said I think that be hot? No, I think it might have come off in conversation like just like rape or like a movie or something. And he said like rape can be hot. Okay, so but just just like everything straight. He didn't try to like set that up with you. He just said that rape could be hot. Okay. Sherry denied participating in the rape fantasies Max mentioned. Yet she did participate in another fairly common sex practice. I guess over all adults. I believe I saw the video that you guys made. Do you recall the video? Yes. Okay. Are you tied up in the video? From your recollection, what was going on? I think he was just fingering me. Okay. And then was that what the belt you described? Like you said you're okay. Yeah. Okay. Do you know where you were at at that time? His bed. Say, uh, where's the female detective in this picture? Just asking. Sometimes it was like a little more kinky. Okay. I wouldn't say anything. Super crazy. But in the kinky times, what were they like? What was it like? He had the belts on his boyfriend. So he used that to tie me up. And then there were points. No, it's totally fine. Trust me. We've talked about it. And this is just it's just adults talking. Don't be embarrassed. Not anything. There were points where he would try and put his whole hand in me. Okay. But that like you should end it. It's sad because it was painful and I laid some. Okay. Did he ever, were you guys? Did he ever choke you? Oh, yes. Okay. And you were fine with that? Yeah. He wasn't on my like like crazy. It was just like normal. Like I wasn't. I could not breathe or anything. Okay. But everything he was doing, you were cool with as well. Yes. Okay. Sherry was possibly so mortified at laying out all the details of her sex life with a potential killer that she almost forgot to mention something pivotal to the whole investigation. Anything that we did like date wise involved drinks. So like going up to the bar, concert. What do you guys went on dates? What kind of dates? Were they just mainly like going out getting food drinks? Was it? Yeah. Pretty casual like that. Did you ever are flying anywhere with him? No. Good. He did take me to a park. He wouldn't tell me what it was called because I was like his secret like private beach. So I would know if I like broke to it. Because there's a Mexican restaurant on the way that we always stop that. But that secret beach had a name. Warnamont Park. The same shoreline where pieces of Shade Robinson had already turned up. A place where Sherry had visited with the very man detectives now suspected was the killer. It was April of 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It started with a severed leg on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Then an arm all the way over in Illinois. And it didn't stop there. By then, investigators knew the victim was 19-year-old Shade Robinson, a college student working two jobs and building a future that ended in pieces scattered across the city and state lines. Detectives had already started reconstructing the final hours of her life, which wasn't difficult in some ways. Shade had left behind a digital trail. Her burned car abandoned in an alley not far from where one of her severed feet would later be discovered. Surveillance cameras capturing her and her date moving between bars and restaurants. And phone data tracing her movements across the city in the hours before she disappeared. By the time investigators finished mapping that trail, one name kept appearing at its center. The man Shade Robinson had gone out with that night. Max Anderson. He was also the last person known to have seen her alive. It didn't take long before the evidence started piling up. Detectives obtained search warrants and started looking at Max's place. And before they even stepped inside, the yard looked like something had been clawing its way in and out of the ground. Max's tenant spoke with detectives about it. Do you know how long he's owned this place? I know there was one tenant before me who also moved out because she hated it here. And she said why? I've never talked to her, but that's just what Max was telling me. He was like, oh, she's always calling the city on me because of holes and shitheads got out on the yard. He said that was going to be a shed. It was a big old hole. He says that was going to turn that into a shed with like a basement. And then he said when it gets cold in the winter, that's where I was going to keep my dogs. And I'm like, this is the dumbest idea I've ever heard of my life. Dumbest or maybe sickest? Who adds a basement to the shed in their yard? And for dogs that are indoor dogs anyway? Well, the answer is nobody. And then in the top it was going to be storage for like long stuff or whatever. That was his idea. And then there's another hole going like back to the garage. He said he was going to do an outdoor bar there. That's just weird man. He had all these weird ideas that you just as a normal person you look at that and you're like, that's never going to work. You know what I mean? The inside of the house was even weirder as Max's ex-girlfriend remembered. Well, he had like the hidden closet. Okay, behind the TV here, for example? Yes. He had that like marble piece that you could remove from underneath his bathroom counter. And he told me that he would store all his money there so he was just paranoid of somebody coming in. Yeah, but he was just very paranoid. He had his little mushroom lab. The basement. Yeah. When she was questioned earlier about the so-called mushroom lab, detectives assumed she meant psychedelic mushrooms, but actually Sherry didn't know what the hell they were. Max never specified. He only told her that they could eat them, which she declined. Once inside Max's house, detectives found cutting tools, including a hacksaw, consistent with the saw marks the medical examiner found on Shade's bones. But the most disturbing discovery came from Max's phone. Investigators found pictures taken the night Shade disappeared. And one, Shade is lying face down on a couch looking unresponsive while Max is grabbing her breast. During the autopsy, the medical examiner determined the same breast had been cut off. It was never found. By that point detectives had seen and heard enough on April 4th. With 2024, Milwaukee police arrested and charged Maxwell Anderson with first-degree intentional homicide mutilating a corpse, arson, and hiding a corpse. Prosecutors told jurors he killed Shade Robinson after their first date, dismembering her body inside his home, and scattering her remains across Milwaukee and along the Lake Michigan shoreline. They pointed to surveillance footage of the pair together. The digital trail left on Shade's phone, the pictures from Max's phone, and the cutting tools investigators found inside his house. Max's trial started on May 28, 2025, and after roughly two weeks of testimony, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on all counts. Both Max and his father made statements at his sentencing. While this point, Max had said nothing, but now he was claiming innocence. I would like to start by saying that from the bottom of my heart, my deepest and most sincere condolences go out to Shade's family, as well as everyone else affected by this tragedy. That being said, Your Honor, I took this to trial without ever one trying to make a plea deal with any kind, because I did not commit these crimes. And so I plan to appeal my convictions while I hope and pray that further investigations not only prove my innocence, but find and deliver true justice. Max's defense team made a similar argument throughout the trial. They told jurors the case against Max was built entirely on circumstantial evidence. But no one had witnessed a killing. No, clear crime scene had been established inside Max's home, and no single piece of physical evidence directly proved he had murdered Shade Robinson. They urged the jury not to mistake suspicion for proof. When Max's father addressed the court, he spoke about loss. In an ironic twist, he referenced another young man he had once cared for deeply. It seemed like a tragedy had happened, and that family long before his son was ever convicted of murder. "I'm behalf of myself and my family." "I'd like to say a few things. First, to Shade's family, there are no words that I can share that will reduce your pain. You are all in my thoughts every single day. Although it is not the same, having lost a boy, I was a little like a son to me ten years ago, I have some sense of what you are feeling. It took me a very long time to get the past, past the pain that I felt for the person that contributed to his passing. I'm not asking you to forgive anybody or anything that is between you and your God." After making this mysterious comment, he turned his attention to his murderous son. "We want you to know that we love you and support your plan for self-improvement. In this, we hope for a path for you to become a positive influence for society, both while you are incarcerated and hopefully after." But there was no path forward for a cold-blooded killer like Max. We don't know much about him, even from his own father's words. But we know the facts, and we know that the jury voted quickly and unanimously. His father talked about hope, self-improvement, and the possibility that someday Max could contribute something positive to society. The judge and the jury didn't see it that way. "I've weighed your character, and as I've indicated, I find it wanting. I've also reflected on the needs of society, and are you a good risk? Sadly, you're not." So how do we protect society from a man who clearly has had darkness in his past, who engaged in behavior that is the facts that you see written in horror novels? That's what we have to determine. And you know it isn't easy. I can tell you that when you think about, is there ever something redeemable in a person? You'd like to say at some point there is. And I can tell you that at the points in life where I've come to the conclusion that there isn't anything redeemable, you do think about, I think it takes away a little piece of my soul. How come I couldn't find anything good? How come I can't find anything that I can say at some point you'll be a better person? Sometimes, people are just not redeemable. No matter how hard to try to see the good in them, there just isn't any. Maybe they started as a good person, and life's events just eroded the goodness away, until there was nothing left but darkness. Or maybe they were just born with a heart of darkness. If that's even possible, who knows, I'm no philosopher, I'm no theologian. That's what makes this case so unsettling. Maxwell Anderson looked like every other guy. He wore that mask perfectly. As for Shadee, she was trying to do everything right. She did everything everyone expected her to do. She did the things people are told to do to stay safe. She told friends where she was going. She shared her location. Her movements at night were captured again and again on security cameras across Milwaukee, restaurants, streets, parking lots. Almost every step of that evening exists on video. All except one. The minute she walked into the house of secret compartments, there rumors have it they watched a movie about a serial killer who dismemberes his victims. If true, was this a trigger? Or was this just for play for Max? Because after the movie ended, he killed her. Then he dismembered her body, burned her car, and took her to his secluded beach to leave parts of her body. All right, well, I'm going to send the deputies down there to St. Tite. It should be that too long, OK? Thank you. All right, and what did you actually find? It looked like the back and the butt and the arm. Back arm, as you know, the rear of the product, OK. OK. All right. Expect a call from one of the deputies. I'm assuming I'm probably going to give you a call so they can figure out exactly where you are, but we'll be there as soon as we can, OK? He then scattered the rest of her remains across the city. To this day, she has not fully been recovered. No one knows where Shade put her head to rest. After the trial, allegations surfaced that Max told someone weeks earlier, he was going to kill and dismember a woman he had recently met. That claim came from an informant tied to search warrants in the case. It was never fully tested at trial, but it raises the disturbing possibility that Shade may have been targeted from the very beginning. Some people close to Shade also believe she initially rejected Max. At some point, he seemed jealous of her friend Josh. It's possible the date happened only after she tried to smooth things over, something many women do when they feel pressured or uncomfortable. If that's true, it adds another tragic layer to the story, because what may have looked like an ordinary first date may actually have been the final step in a situation that had already turned extremely dangerous, or worse, if it can get any worse. Maybe, just maybe, Shade would have been the first of many unbeknowing women to follow in her path, all the way to Warnamont Park and all the way to Max's private beach. Well, we hope that'll keep you satisfied until next week, we know it won't, but, you know, boy can dream. Go! Check out Tails and leave us some feedback. We'll see you next week. Stay safe. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)