How Life360 and Surveillance Led to Sade Robinson’s Killer

On April 2, 2024, human remains found near Warnimont Park along Lake Michigan led Milwaukee investigators to a homicide inquiry that would end with a conviction. Detectives used historical GPS data from Sade Robinson’s Life360 app and multiple security-camera recordings — from a date-night restaurant to city streets and a burned vehicle — to reconstruct her final hours. The evidence, largely circumstantial but cumulative, pointed prosecutors to 33-year-old Maxwell Anderson, who was convicted in May 2025 and later sentenced to life without parole. The case highlights how digital traces and ordinary surveillance can turn disparate clues into a prosecutable narrative.

Key Takeaways

• Remains discovered: A leg was found at Warnimont Park on April 2, 2024, prompting a homicide investigation; DNA later confirmed the victim as 19-year-old Sade Robinson.
• Digital timeline: Life360 historical GPS logs show Robinson’s phone at Warnimont Park at 2:53 a.m. on April 2; the phone’s battery died there at 4:35 a.m.
• Vehicle evidence: Robinson’s car was located burned behind an abandoned building about 3 miles from her apartment; investigators identified signs of arson and recovered clothing in the trunk.
• Surveillance chain: Cameras captured Robinson leaving her apartment, meeting a date at two venues, arriving at the date’s house, and later showed her vehicle driving around with fogged windows for hours.
• Suspect and arrest: Maxwell Anderson, 33, was the last person seen with Robinson; police obtained a search warrant April 4 and arrested him the same day; he was charged April 12, 2024.
• Forensic links: Investigators recovered a jacket with Robinson’s DNA in a neighbor’s trash and photos from Anderson’s phone depicting Robinson in his home; prosecutors argued these helped bridge gaps in direct physical evidence.
• Trial outcome: In May 2025 a jury found Anderson guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and arson; in sentencing he received life without parole.

Background

Warnimont Park, a rocky, wooded stretch on Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan shoreline, is ordinarily quiet and sparsely frequented. On April 2, 2024, a passerby discovered a human leg there, triggering a full homicide response by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators had to piece together events from digital traces, surveillance video and physical items recovered at multiple locations across the city.

Sade Robinson was a 19-year-old college student working two service jobs while studying criminal justice; she planned to graduate the following month and had said she intended to enlist in the Air Force. On the evening of April 1 she went on a date with Maxwell Anderson, a 33-year-old man she had recently met. The couple’s movements that night — captured on business and residential video and by Robinson’s Life360 app — became the backbone of the prosecution’s timeline.

Main Event

Security footage shows Robinson leaving her apartment on April 1, arriving for a daytime shift, then, after work, meeting Anderson for dinner at The Twisted Fisherman. The two later went to a second bar, where Robinson appears smiling in footage while playing beer pong; they left together around 9 p.m. and drove to Anderson’s home, according to investigators’ review of timestamps and Life360 data.

Life360 records indicate Robinson’s phone left Anderson’s residence about three hours after arrival and then the vehicle did not head straight to her apartment. Multiple surveillance cameras captured the car driving aimlessly through the night; by 2:53 a.m. the phone’s location registered at Warnimont Park, where the battery later died. Grainy park footage shows a person dragging an object toward the lake and a figure carrying a large backpack before disappearing from view.

The following day, firefighters and investigators located Robinson’s burned vehicle behind an abandoned building roughly three miles from her apartment. Although the blaze destroyed interior surfaces, arson investigators detected petroleum residues. Crucially, officers recovered Robinson’s purse under the driver’s seat and, in the trunk, the pants, underwear, jacket and shoes she had been wearing that night; the jeans were inside out, suggesting they had been removed by another person.

Police executed a search warrant at Anderson’s home on April 4, 2024, and arrested him shortly thereafter. Officers found numerous knives in the residence and later recovered a jacket from a neighbor’s trash containing Robinson’s DNA. Investigators also obtained deleted photos from Anderson’s phone showing Robinson in his home; prosecutors presented those images at trial as part of a pattern of circumstantial evidence linking Anderson to the crime.

Analysis & Implications

The case underscores how modern investigations increasingly rely on an ecosystem of digital and video evidence rather than a single definitive forensic item. Life360’s historical GPS logs provided location history with greater granularity than typical carrier records; combined with time-stamped surveillance, they produced a minute-by-minute reconstruction of movements that proved persuasive to jurors despite the absence of a murder weapon in the defendant’s home.

Legally, the prosecution’s strategy turned on the accumulation of circumstantial links: last-seen status, movement patterns from multiple cameras, the burned car with the victim’s clothing, DNA on a jacket found in a trash can, and deleted photos from the defendant’s phone. Each element carried uncertainty on its own, but collectively the jury concluded the totality established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

For policing and privacy debates, the case raises questions about the evidentiary weight of consumer location services. Apps like Life360 are designed for family tracking and safety; here, historical location exports became a critical investigative tool. That dual use amplifies calls for clear legal standards on access, retention and admissibility of private location data in criminal probes.

Comparison & Data

The timeline above shows how nontraditional sources — consumer GPS logs and closed-circuit cameras — stitched a sequence that physical forensics alone did not provide. Investigators emphasized temporal alignment across devices to reduce opportunities for misattribution.

Reactions & Quotes

“I will never forget that day,”

Sheena Scarbrough, victim’s mother (family statement)

Robinson’s family expressed anguish and a demand for answers, pressing for recovery of the victim’s remaining remains and for accountability through the courts.

“We were able to piece together a path from cameras and phone data,”

Det. Jo Donner, Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (investigator)

Investigators described the cumulative nature of the evidence and how Life360 historical data provided a level of detail they could not get from standard cell-tower records.

“Being the last person seen with her is not proof alone,”

Anthony Cotton, defense counsel (trial)

The defense argued that gaps — including the lack of a clearly identified cause of death or a murder weapon in the defendant’s residence — left room for reasonable doubt, a point the prosecution countered with the totality of circumstantial links.

Unconfirmed

• Exact cause of death: Some remains were not recovered, and prosecutors acknowledged that the precise medical cause for all injuries could not be definitively determined in open court.
• Motive: While investigators highlighted the suspect’s violent history and the couple’s interaction that night, a fully established motive for the killing was not proven through direct evidence.
• Location of additional remains: Sade’s head has not been recovered; its location remains unknown and is the subject of ongoing searches and family requests.

Bottom Line

The Robinson case demonstrates the evolving anatomy of modern homicide investigations, where consumer-location services and ubiquitous surveillance can transform scattered observations into a cohesive prosecutorial narrative. Although prosecutors lacked a single, indisputable forensic item tying the defendant to the act of killing, the jury weighed the pattern of digital traces, physical discoveries and deleted images and convicted.

For families and communities, the case also underscores uneven outcomes: digital evidence can help identify suspects and secure convictions, yet it may not answer every question victims’ loved ones seek — such as precise motive or the recovery of all remains. Policymakers and law enforcement will continue to confront trade-offs between privacy, data access and public safety as similar technologies play larger roles in investigations.

Sources

• CBS News — 48 Hours report (news)
• Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (official statements)
• Milwaukee County court records (official court filings and docket)