The last person to see 19-year-old Lee Porter alive sat across from her brother, Max, under a park gazebo, pretending to perform a tarot card reading while the young man’s phone silently recorded every word. For nine agonizing days, Max had played a dangerous game, pretending to befriend the man he suspected of killing his sister, all while the suspect publicly pleaded for Lee’s safe return on television. The recording captured the moment the suspect, 38-year-old Christopher Wade, finally cracked, admitting he choked Lee and stabbed her through the sternum during a confrontation in his apartment, before dumping her body in a dumpster.
Max Porter, then 23, had flown from California to Colorado the moment his mother called him in a panic, saying Lee had stopped answering her phone. The family was already fractured by a messy divorce years earlier, and Max had always been the protective older brother, the one Lee followed everywhere, the one she confided in when she was struggling with depression and a toxic relationship with a much older man. When Lee vanished on June 3, 2014, after telling her mother she loved her in a text message, Max knew in his gut that something was horribly wrong, and he was determined to find her no matter the cost.
The investigation initially stalled when police questioned Wade, who claimed Lee had simply left his apartment after receiving a text message, getting into a truck driven by an unknown man. He even went on local news, describing himself as a loyal friend, saying, “I don’t really have very many friends but the friends I do have I’m very loyal to so even losing one is a heavy blow for me.” Lee’s mother, Renee Jackson, watched the interview with growing suspicion, noting how flustered he seemed and how his eyes shifted constantly, and she knew immediately that he was not the concerned friend he pretended to be.
Renee had already discovered that Lee had been staying at a hotel with a man named Jesse on June 2, and she learned from Max that Jesse was Lee’s ex-boyfriend, a 38-year-old tattoo artist who had introduced her to drugs. Lee had been trying to get clean, and she had reached out on Facebook for a place to stay, which is when Wade, a former high school acquaintance, offered her a temporary home. But Wade’s story to police differed from what he told Renee, particularly when he failed to mention the man in the truck who supposedly picked Lee up, and detectives began to focus on him as their prime suspect.
When police searched Wade’s apartment on June 10, they found a knife with bleach stains next to his mattress, along with a receipt for bleach and rubber gloves purchased the day after Lee disappeared. The sheets and pillowcases were missing from his bed, and Wade gave conflicting explanations, first claiming Lee had a nosebleed and he washed them, then changing his story to say she took them with her when she left. Despite the mounting evidence, police had to release him due to lack of physical proof, but they placed him under surveillance, hoping he would lead them to Lee’s body or slip up in some way.
Desperate for answers and frustrated with the stalled investigation, Max decided to take matters into his own hands, knowing that Wade was the only one who could tell them what really happened to his sister. He began messaging Wade, pretending to be sympathetic to his situation, even telling him that he believed he was being unfairly blamed by the police. Max slowly earned Wade’s trust, and after about a week of careful manipulation, he convinced Wade to meet him under a gazebo at a park, claiming he wanted Wade to do a tarot card reading to help find Lee.
On June 12, nine days after Lee’s disappearance, the two men met, and Max placed his phone on the table, recording everything without Wade’s knowledge. Wade began the reading, saying he saw no indication of anyone who would want to harm Lee, but Max gently pushed him, telling him that the police would eventually find out the truth and that he would not hold grudges. “Chris we just really need to know man you know what happened Chris please they’re going to find out eventually it’s going to eat you up I won’t hold grudges you tell me right now what happened to my sister start talking please,” Max pleaded, his voice steady despite the rage boiling inside him.
Wade hesitated, but Max could see he was considering confessing, so he continued to comfort him, telling him to let it out and that he knew it was hard. Finally, Wade cracked, and he began to tell a story that was different from anything he had told police before, claiming that Lee had tried to stab him with a knife he kept by his bed after he refused to give her money for drugs. “She grabbed the knife that I keep by my bed and tried to attack me saying that she would stop attacking me if I agreed to buy drugs for her,” Wade said, but Max immediately called him a liar, saying his sister would never do such a thing.
Wade continued, describing how he grabbed Lee’s neck and began to choke her, and then he noticed that the knife had stabbed her through the sternum, and she went limp. “I should not have done it but I covered everything up,” he admitted, and when Max asked where her body was, Wade said he put her in a dumpster, claiming he planned to turn himself in to the police within the week. At that moment, Max could no longer contain his fury, and he jumped over the table, attacking Wade while his friend pulled him off, and he screamed, “You killed my sister,” revealing that he had recorded the entire confession.
Max made Wade call 911 and confess to the murder, and police, who had been watching the entire meeting, moved in to arrest him. The recording was a bombshell, providing the first solid evidence that Wade had killed Lee, but his claim of self-defense still complicated the case, especially without a body. Police searched a landfill for 45 days, and they found Lee’s phone and purse, but her body was never recovered, leaving prosecutors unable to definitively refute Wade’s story that he acted in self-defense.
Wade accepted a plea deal for second-degree murder in exchange for the location of Lee’s body, but after signing the paperwork, he simply repeated his earlier story, claiming he had put her in the dumpster. Prosecutors were frustrated, knowing that Wade was likely lying, but they could not prove it, and the plea deal stood. On November 6, 2015, Christopher Wade was sentenced to 48 years in prison, and he will have to serve 75% of that sentence before he is eligible for parole, but Lee’s family still does not know the full truth of what happened to her.
Max Porter’s actions were hailed as heroic by prosecutors, who noted that in 25 years of experience, they had never seen a family member confront a suspect and get a confession out of them. Renee Jackson praised her son, saying, “Max was a hero and he did that for his sister because he loved her so much,” and she continues to hold out hope that one day they will find Lee’s body and bring her home. Max has since written a heartfelt Facebook post, saying, “I miss you Lee your friends and family will always be here for you and we will never give up on finding you and helping others that are stuck in the same predicament I love you more than my own life forever and all always you will never be forgotten you are a beautiful soul you will always be my best friend sister and support.”
The case remains a haunting reminder of the dangers that can lurk behind a friendly face, and of the extraordinary lengths a brother will go to for justice. Max Porter risked his own safety to confront a man he believed had killed his sister, and his bravery ensured that Christopher Wade will spend decades behind bars, even if the full story of what happened to Lee remains a mystery. The family continues to search for answers, and they hope that one day, they will be able to give Lee a proper burial and find some peace.
