College Student Was Slain and Dismembered. How a 'Flurry of Racist Emails' Stopped Plans for Her Memorial

• Sade Carlee Robinson was reported missing three days after she was last seen in April 2024
• Investigators found her car on fire and her body parts scattered around Milwaukee
• Without a body, her mother requested county officials to have a public memorial in her honor

Milwaukee officials have reluctantly halted their plans for a memorial for a college student who was killed and dismembered after going on a first date last year. 

Sade Carleena Robinson, 19, disappeared after she went on a first date last April, her friends and family said at the time. Over the next week, her dismembered body parts were found strewn across Milwaukee and another nearby municipality, per authorities.

Two weeks after she was last seen, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office announced homicide and arson charges against 33-year-old Maxwell Anderson.

Robinson’s bereaved mother requested that county officials sponsor a $7,000 memorial for her, citing the fact that the family didn’t have an intact body to bury, FOX6 reported.

“We don’t have all of my baby’s remains, we don’t still have all of my baby’s remains,” her mother Sheena Scarbrough said, per the outlet. “We don’t have a gravesite to go to. This is still the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

However, when county officials began planning for the memorial, they say they received a slew of racist messages about the plan, officials told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. County Board Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez said there had been a “flurry of racist emails.”

County Supervisor Felesia Martin told the paper, “It is most unfortunate that we’re at this moment in our country’s history where, once again, we feel very comfortable being overt with our prejudices, with our racism and with just plain evil, hateful thoughts.”

Some people emailed saying they didn’t want taxpayer money allocated to the memorial, according to Martinez, who asked for the proposal for the memorial to be withdrawn last week, citing the pain of the victim’s loved ones.

“People should be thoroughly ashamed of the way that Ms. [Scarbrough] has been treated for wanting this,” Martinez said at a meeting of the committee, per the outlet. 

“I just want to say shame on people for treating a grieving mother this way and making it a race thing, and treating her as subhuman when it’s absolutely unnecessary and absolutely unethical and it shows the most disgusting and detestable parts of our society,” he said. 

The suspect, Anderson, is White and Robinson was Black, though authorities have not said the case is related to race.

Since the notice of withdrawal became public information, there has been an outpouring of support for Robinson’s family. 

Omar Sheikh, owner of a local steakhouse Carnevor, announced on Tuesday that he will be raising funds for the family. 

“I’m not understanding how this Sade Robinson is a racial thing. I’ve heard firsthand how great of a girl she was & [Pizza Shuttle] top employee 4 years,” he wrote on X. “I’m going to do a [Carnevor] dinner and raise the remaining $4,000 for her memorial. Can’t imagine what her family is going thru.” 

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Following Robinson’s disappearance, police found her car burned and recovered several of her body parts over the course of a few days. Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office alleged in their April statement that Anderson “intentionally killed Sade C. Robinson, mutilated her remains, and set fire to her car in an attempt to obscure potential evidence of the killing.”

He was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and arson. Online court records show he has entered pleas of not guilty.

His trial is set for May 5, per FOX6.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

To help combat systemic racism, consider learning from or donating to these organizations:

• Campaign Zero works to end police brutality in America through research-proven strategies.
• ColorofChange.org works to make the government more responsive to racial disparities.
• National Cares Mentoring Movement provides social and academic support to help Black youth succeed in college and beyond.