Suspect turns himself into Detroit Police for 2011 homicide

It was a brutal crime, and for months police had nothing to go on, but now the case is closed for the Detroit Police Department.

The victim was shot and set on fire, and there were few clues to catching his killer, but now police have a suspect in custody, after receiving help from a concerned citizen.

We first brought this case back to light last Wednesday, when police reached out to us and said they were looking for 25-year-old Antowan Stitts. They said he is a cold blooded killer, and he could be walking the streets of Detroit armed and dangerous.

Click on the video player to watch the report from Wednesday, March 6, when DPD first re-opened the case and named Stitts as a suspect.

That was on March 6. The next day, a citizen contacted the homicide unit and provided information.

By March 8, Stitts walked into a DPD precinct and turned himself him. He was arraigned Saturday on a felony charge of first-degree murder, then remanded to the Wayne County Jail.

Police weren't not pointing to him because of his past criminal history. They are referring to the sheer evil they say he is responsible for right now.

It was September 12, 2011.  Detroit firefighters jumped on a call of smoke and flames inside a vacant garage.  The structure sits on Collingham and Barlow on the city's northeast side.  Once the blaze was battled, what they discovered was gruesome and disturbing -- the burned body of a young black man in his twenties.  His cause of death was a homicide.

Detectives were on the hunt for a murderer, but they had no leads.  No citizens called in tips.  Initially there was no clear evidence at all, but investigators refused to give up and let this case go cold.  They worked it meticulously, digging up clues and uncovering the evidence that was desperately needed.  Almost a year and a half later, Detroit police say they now have in custody the person they believe responsible for the brutality on Barlow Street -- Antowan Stitts.

His next court date has been scheduled for March 20 at 1:30p.m.