The defense lawyer representing a man from Wisconsin, who is accused of murdering a 19-year-old woman during their first date and then dismembering her body, has reported that his family has been threatened with harm, with warnings of violence if he continues to represent the client, according to the police.

“It is uncalled for and unacceptable,” said Maxwell Anderson’s attorney, Anthony Cotton, in a statement to local NBC affiliate WTMJ on Friday.

The accused, Anderson, aged 34, faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and setting fire to property other than a building, in the case surrounding the alleged murder of Sade Robinson last year.

The Waukesha Police Department told Fox affiliate WITI that someone called Cotton’s local law office recently and made threats to kill members of his family if he does not drop the Anderson case.

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As previously reported by Law&Crime, an investigation was launched in April 2024 after someone found a human leg in the water at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, just south of Milwaukee. A joint probe between the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and Milwaukee Police Department determined that Robinson’s family reported her missing the day before, when she failed to show up for work.

According the criminal complaint, he and Robinson met for the first time on April 1, 2024, to go out on a date. Detectives allegedly obtained text messages of the two planning their meetup earlier in the day and surveillance video shows them at a downtown Milwaukee restaurant and bar before they leave in Robinson’s Honda Civic and head to Anderson’s home, per the complaint.

An app on Robinson’s phone shows it left Anderson’s residence shortly after midnight on April 2, 2024, and later traveled to Warnimont Park, where the victim’s leg was found, according to the complaint. Surveillance video from the park shows a Honda Civic ramming through a gate at around 3 a.m. and someone is seen going down to the water several times before leaving around 4:30 a.m.

At around 7:30 a.m., the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the 1800 block of 29th Street for a vehicle fire and investigators later determined it was Robinson’s Honda. Cops recovered surveillance video from a bus that shows Anderson getting on the bus near where the vehicle was torched and riding to a stop near his home, according to the complaint.

Police found a foot and human flesh not far from the burned-out Honda on April 6, 2024. They were confirmed to belong to Robinson.

A search of Anderson’s home found blood in a bedroom and on the walls leading to the basement, according to the complaint.

In the basement, investigators found a “sex dungeon,” local ABC affiliate WISN reported.