Dishaye Stevenson cutting a ribbon at an event. Her husband, Michael Smith, shot and killed her, police said. (Screenshot: WFAA; mug shot: Dallas County Jail)
Dishaye Stevenson, 35, “did everything in her power” to show that she loved her husband, Michael Smith, 39, “no matter what,” her sister told WFAA in a Sunday report.
It was somehow not enough.
Cops in Dallas, Texas, claim Smith fatally shot Stevenson in the chest. Records show he remains held on a $1 million bond at the local jail on a count of murder.
Family members realized something was wrong Tuesday night when the slain woman’s 16-year-old daughter called to say she could not get in touch with her, relatives told the outlet. It was completely out of character for Stevenson, who not only had the daughter, but also served as caregiver for her own mother, who was partially paralyzed after suffering a stroke.
“She never leave my niece no matter what,” Jasmine Stevenson said. “She never leaves my Mama no matter what.”
As to her sister’s relationship with Smith, Jasmie Stevenson said, “It was a lot of red flags,” although WFAA was unclear about the details of those warning signs.
Jasmine Stevenson and their cousin, Nita, looked for her, tracking her car to the Pleasant Village Apartments, where the victim’s father-in-law reportedly lives.
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“I seen a big handprint on the driver window,” Nita said. “And you know, I’m a criminal justice major, so I start trying to use like different context clues.”
They learned from a community blog about a woman being shot to death three minutes away. They arrived at the scene of the crime, where officers confirmed the worst.
Officers reportedly tracked Smith to a home, and when he wasn’t there, they found him at a nearby barbershop.
Detectives said that surveillance footage from the apartment complex showed the couple driving into the parking lot in separate vehicles, according to an affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News. Stevenson stepped into Smith’s vehicle, officers said.
It remained parked there for a while and there seemed to be a “disturbance” inside. When officers found Smith’s vehicle in his driveway, they “could see in plain sight” that there “was blood in the front seat,” they reportedly wrote. There was a bullet shell casing in his driver’s seat. A lone sandal matching the one Stevenson wore when found was inside the vehicle, too. Investigators claimed to find multiple guns inside the defendant’s residence.
The murder leaves the Stevenson family with heart-wrenching, unanswered questions.
“Like I just don’t understand,” Jasmine Stevenson said. “I just wanna know why. Why would you take my sister from us? Like why?”
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