A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, detective had an unconventional thought of find out how to assist resolve the homicide of 19-year-old school pupil Sade Robinson.
All of it started in April 2024, when the charred stays of Robinson’s automobile have been discovered behind an deserted constructing in Milwaukee. On the time, first responders weren’t instantly alarmed for her security.
Sheena Scarbrough
“An deserted automobile … on hearth does not essentially imply that the driving force’s in peril?” requested correspondent Anne-Marie Inexperienced in “Sade Robinson and The Secret Seashore,” an all-new “48 Hours” now streaming on Paramount+.
“No, no,” replied lead Detective Jo Donner of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Workplace.
However then the hearth investigator observed that the passenger aspect of the car smelled closely of a petroleum distillate.
This was arson.
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Regulation enforcement realized that the evening earlier than the automobile hearth, Robinson had gone on a primary date however had not been seen since.
Donner and her staff examined Robinson’s broken automobile for clues. Although the hearth had ruined any probability of acquiring DNA or fingerprints, investigators have been capable of get well essential proof.
“Beneath the driving force’s seat, Sade’s purse was tucked beneath there,” Donner identified. “To me it positively eliminates a theft, proper?”
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The place of the automobile’s driver’s seat caught Donner’s consideration.
“I observed that the extent of fireside injury … that is gonna lock that seat in,” the detective mentioned. “That seat place is form of frozen in time.”
This led Donner and her staff to surprise if another person had pushed Robinson’s automobile to that deserted constructing. Donner determined to carry out an experiment.
“We be aware of the seat positioning, trigger that’ll give peak indicators,” Donner defined. “I was capable of decide about how far again that seat was. I then went to a dealership and located an similar mannequin.”
With the driving force’s seat in the identical place because the one in Robinson’s car, Donner discovered a deputy who was about Robinson’s peak.
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Workplace 
“And when she sat within the automobile, she could not contact the pedals. Her arms have been straight out and she or he’s like, ‘There isn’t any approach. I am unable to drive like this with out perching on the very fringe of the seat,'” Donner mentioned.
Donner additionally had a taller detective sit within the automobile.
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Workplace 
“It was a really comfy seat place for him,” mentioned Donner.
Based mostly on her experiment, Donner says the final individual to drive Robinson’s automobile needed to be a minimum of 6 toes tall.
“There isn’t any approach Sade was the final individual in that driver’s seat,” mentioned Inexperienced.
“No approach. No, no,” Donner confirmed.
As investigators labored to seek out Robinson, they rapidly tracked down the person she had gone on that date with: a 6-foot-1-inch bartender named Maxwell Anderson.
On April 12, 2024, regulation enforcement confirmed that Robinson had been killed. That very same day, Anderson was charged with Robinson’s homicide.
Anderson would later say he had nothing to do with Robinson’s dying.
