Driver seat position tied to suspect in Sade Robinson murder probe

Sade Robinson, 19, disappeared after a first date, and Milwaukee investigators say clues found inside her car pointed to the person who assaulted and killed her. Investigators found remains on a beach and "the day after finding the remains on the beach, investigators contacted Sade's mother," Sheena Scarbrough, who said, "I, I'll never forget that day. … Like, what's going on?"

Detectives focused on two physical details recovered from Robinson's vehicle: the condition of clothing and the driver's seat position. Det. Jo Donner described the clothing observation bluntly: "And … the jeans, it was apparent that it was somebody else had taken them off. They were turned inside out, and the underwear were still attached to them. So, yeah, it was definitely a … red flag."

Donner and her team then used the driver's seat as a forensic indicator of height. "We take note of the seat positioning, cause that'll give height indicators. … Iwas able to determine about how far back that seat was. I then went to a dealership and found an identical model," she said, describing a methodical recreation of the vehicle's interior. Donner enlisted a deputy "about Sade's height" to sit in the identical model with the seat set to match what investigators observed. "And when she sat in the car, she couldn't touch the pedals. Her arms were straight out and she's like, 'There's no way. I can't drive like this without perching on the very edge of the seat,'" Donner recounted.

Donner then had a taller detective test the same configuration. Based on that hands-on experiment, investigators concluded the last person to drive Robinson's car would have had to be considerably taller than the victim. "...based on her experiment, Donner says the last person to drive Sade's car had to be at least six feet tall." An exchange on the CBS segment underscored the finding: anchor Anne-Marie Green said, "There's no way –" and Donner replied, "No way."

The investigative sequence, an interior clothing observation followed by a replication of seat position at a dealership and human-subject testing, illustrates how routine, low-tech evidence can produce a specific, actionable characteristic for investigators to pursue. Milwaukee authorities have said these clues pointed to Robinson's assailant, but the materials provided to this report do not include a suspect name, arrest information, exact vehicle make or model, measurements of seat position, dates for the disappearance or discovery of remains, or autopsy results.

That absence of corroborating public details leaves key questions unanswered even as the team narrows physical parameters for a possible driver. The seat-position experiment offers a concrete lead that could focus witness canvasses, surveillance reviews and forensic comparisons, but it remains one element in a broader homicide inquiry that investigators have described, without disclosing further procedural outcomes or charging decisions.