Police believe a Detroit man shot and killed a woman in Texas in November 2025 over a drug deal gone wrong, and he has not yet been arrested.
Kip Stitts, 57, was charged with murder in Harris County, Texas.
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Police said Sherry Dawson traveled to a storage unit on Nov. 5, 2025, to pick up some items. After she was gone for some time, her husband went to check on her, and she was found dead with gunshot wounds.
Local 4 obtained the charging document from the Harris County District Court in Texas, filed on Jan. 16, 2026, which details why police believe Stitts is the suspect in Dawson’s death.
Woman found dead
At around 10:15 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2025, police found a woman unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. She was later identified as Sherry Dawson, and her death was ruled to be homicide.
Security footage
Police reviewed security footage taken at the storage facility and saw the following:
10:05:40 a.m. - Dawson arrived at the storage facility. She stopped her car and entered the code to the gate. The gate is the only entrance and exit to the storage lot. Stitts allegedly followed her into the lot by car before the gate closed.
Between 10:05:20 a.m. and 10:08:20 a.m. - Police noted there appeared to be some stopping, reversing and turning around with Dawson and Stitts’ cars. Both cars were then turned around and faced the gate.
10:08:36 a.m. - A witness entered her code and drove just inside the gate to her storage unit
10:09:37 a.m. - Dawson got up to her feet with Stitts in front of her.
10:09:40 a.m. - Dawson fell to the ground, and Stitts runs out of the camera frame
10:09:55 a.m. - Stitts left the storage facility, driving by the witness while the gate was still open.
Victim’s husband drug deal gone wrong
When officers arrived at the scene, Dawson’s common-law husband approached them to ask what had happened.
He said his wife came to the storage unit to get some items and she had been gone for a while, so he came to check on her. When he learned the news that she was shot and killed, he said he knew who might have done this to her.
Dawson’s husband allegedly told police that he had been involved in drug trafficking and that he had stolen money from someone who was then looking for him.
He said he was a middleman between a supplier and a buyer. He collected money from the buyer, gave it to the supplier, and the supplier would then get the product to the buyer. He told police that he had known Stitts for a while and that Stitts was looking to buy cocaine, so Dawson’s husband introduced Stitts to the supplier. Stitts apparently told Dawson’s husband that he intends to rob the supplier.
Dawson’s husband then told the supplier Stitts’ intention to rob them. The supplier then told him that they wanted to set up Stitts to steal his money in retaliation.
Dawson’s husband contacted Stitts and said the product was ready. Stitts paid Dawson’s husband $125,000 for the product. Dawson’s husband then took the money to the supplier, where he was paid $10,000. Stitts never got the drugs.
Dawson’s husband told police he cut ties with Stitts by ignoring calls and messages and blocking his number.
About two weeks before the murder, there was word on the street that Stitts was looking for Dawson’s husband. He believes that his wife was killed for stealing Stitts’ money. He also said that a friend told him Stitts was in Houston on Nov. 3, 2025, and that he was driving a white pickup truck.
Dawson’s husband said he knows who owns the pickup truck Stitts was driving, as his friend’s dad. He also told police that Stitts is from Detroit and flew back and forth frequently because he has a brother living in Texas.
Search for Stitts
Officers stopped a car that was registered to Stitts in Harris County, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2025, at around 2 p.m. The person driving the car was not Stitts. He said he did not know who the car’s owner was and believed his cousin had just bought it and was using it to drive to and from work. When police told him the car was registered under Stitts, the man said he known him for about a year and did not realise that it was his car.
The man gave police Stitts’ phone number and said he was traveling from Illinois with a friend and slept most of the day. Officers asked if they could look through the man’s phone, and he agreed. Police found the following on his phone:
- Nov. 5, 2025, at 10:20 a.m. (about 10 minutes after the shooting) - Incoming call from Stitts, not answered.
- Nov. 5, 2025, at 10:36 a.m. - Incoming call from Stitts, answered for 10 to 20 seconds.
- Nov. 5, 2025, at 1:52 p.m. - Incoming FaceTime call from Stitts, answered for 12 seconds.
- Nov. 5, 2025, at 2:01 p.m. - incoming FaceTime call from Stitts, not answered.
The man said in the first call that he answered with Stitts, told him he was waking up, and said he’d call him back. In the 1:52 p.m. call, he said he told Stitts what he was up to and was heading to work.
On Nov. 14, 2025, police presented a search warrant for Stitt’s phone number from Nov. 4, 2025, to Nov. 6, 2025, and learned the following:
- Nov. 3, 2025 - His phone showed he was in the area of 10903 Pine Desert Lane in Houston at around 6 p.m.
- Nov. 5, 2025 - His phone showed he was at a house in Humble, Texas, in the morning, where police believe he has relatives.
- Nov. 5, 2025, at around 9:30 a.m. - His phone showed he went to the area of Dawson’s home address.
- Nov. 5, 2025, at around 10:10 a.m. - His phone showed he was in the area of the storage facility where Dawson was found dead.
According to police, his phone records show he went back to Humble, Texas, until around 6 p.m. He then left the state. Phone records showed he arrived in Detroit on the evening of Nov. 6, 2025.
On Nov. 6, police spoke with the registered owner of the pickup truck Stitts was using. He said he was at a nearby gas station in Beaumont, Texas, when someone flagged him down about buying his truck since there was a “for sale” sign on it on Oct. 30, 2025. He said they came to an agreement on the price, and the same person came to his house on Oct. 31, 2025, and bought the truck. The person who bought the truck was not identified as Stitts.
On Nov. 4, 2025, at around 10 a.m., police said the man driving Stitts’ car flew from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to Illinois and traveled back to Houston. He arrived in the Houston area at around 2 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2025.
On Nov. 5, 2025, at around 10:19 a.m., Stitts tried to call that man, which showed to be in the area of Pine Desert Lane and Aquatic Drive. At around 11 a.m., he appeared to travel from the same area.
Police believe the man and Stitts were in the same area the day of the murder based on the two’s phone records.
The man driving Stitts’ car was arrested in connection with the investigation, but charges are not known.
According to court records, Stitts is currently not in custody.