HOUSTON – Charges have been filed against a Detroit man who allegedly traveled to Houston and returned to Michigan after fatally shooting a woman multiple times at an Eastex Freeway storage unit in November.
Kip Stitts, 57, has been charged with murder in Harris County. Records show he is not currently in custody.
Hours after the Nov. 5, 2025, shooting, phone records reviewed by Houston police investigators showed Stitts traveling north out of Houston and then out of state before arriving back in Detroit the next evening.
OUR FIRST REPORT: Woman dies after being shot multiple times at self-storage unit in northeast Houston
The victim has been identified as Sherry Dawson, according to court records.
She had traveled to the storage unit that day to pick up some items, according to her common-law husband, according to court records.
After she had been gone awhile, he came to check on her, where he found the murder investigation unfolding.
At the scene, he allegedly told detectives that he was involved in drug trafficking and worked as a middleman between a supplier and a buyer. After collecting money from a buyer, he’d give it to a supplier, who would then get the product to the buyer, according to records.
Stitts had paid $125,000 for cocaine, according to records, and Dawson’s husband received a $10,000 cut to assist in the setup.
But then Stitts never received the cocaine, records show, and communications between the two stopped.
About two weeks before the murder, Dawson’s husband told investigators word on the street was that Stitts was looking for him, and he believed Dawson was killed as retaliation for the money that was stolen from Stitts.
He told investigators Stitts flies back and forth from Houston often.
Prior to the murder, investigators believe Stitts was surveilling the victim’s home, based on phone location data, which also showed Stitts in the area of the storage unit at the time of the murder.
Surveillance video from the storage facility showed Dawson on her way to her husband’s unit just after 10 a.m. that morning. The suspect’s truck was reportedly seen following her into the facility before the gate had time to close.
Footage from the unit also captured a physical altercation between Dawson and the suspect. Dawson was seen falling to the ground just before the suspect ran out of frame.
Investigators believe the suspect’s vehicle, a Ford F-250, had been purchased in Beaumont a few days before the killing.
In asking for a $1 million bond, prosecutors wrote that Stitts has previous convictions for drug charges, assault with a dangerous weapon, and aggravated assault.
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