Kirsten Gilliam (via Traveler’s Table on Facebook)
Thy Mitchell, who was found dead along with her family on May 4, 2026, was one of the co-owners of the Traveler’s Table restaurant.
Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. Helplines outside the U.S. can be found at www.iasp.info/suicidalthoughts.
Nearly three months after Houston restaurateur Thy Mitchell and her children were killed in an apparent murder-suicide, Mitchell’s parents are accusing her late husband of deliberately planning their killings.
In a lawsuit filed in Harris County probate court earlier this month, Thuy Mai and Lan Huong Tran, Thy’s parents, allege Matthew Mitchell “planned and plotted the murders of his wife and children in order to avoid public shame stemming from financial failure and fraud he had committed.”
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Attorneys for Mai and Tran declined to comment. An attorney representing the estate and family of Matthew Mitchell did not immediately return a request for comment.
On May 4, the Mitchells, who owned the Houston restaurants Traveler’s Table and Traveler’s Cart, were found dead in what authorities described as an apparent murder-suicide at their home in River Oaks. Houston police said at the time that evidence indicated “the male shot the three victims and then shot himself.” The Harris County medical examiner ruled the deaths of Thy and the children, Maya and Max, as homicides, while Matthew’s death was determined to be self-inflicted.
In their lawsuit, first reported by the Houston Chronicle, Mai and Tran are seeking damages for the wrongful deaths of Thy, Maya and Max, punitive damages and the creation of a court-imposed trust for the estate’s funds.
As part of the lawsuit, Mai and Tran also asked for a temporary injunction to stop Matthew Mitchell’s family from allocating any funds from the estate as well as stopping them from “taking any action with respect to Traveler’s Cart or Traveler’s Table.” On Monday, Traveler’s Cart management announced it would close its doors at the end of the week, while noting the other restaurant would remain open.
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As evidence in the suit, Mai and Tran also included dozens of surveillance videos they say were captured from Ring cameras inside the Mitchell home in the days leading up to the shootings. Though they do not depict any of the moments leading up to the deaths, they appear to depict Matthew Mitchell panicking over a potential financial issue, as alluded to by Thy’s parents in the lawsuit.
No one affiliated with the Mitchells has shared details of any financial misconduct prior to the deaths.
One video dated April 29 allegedly shows Matthew saying, “On top of everything else, we’re going to get frauded.” Another video from around 11 p.m. that day appears to show Matthew on a phone call asking, “And so that means that we may be showing a lot more profit than we were actually receiving?” to which an unnamed speaker on the phone says, “That’s correct.” One week before the deaths, on April 27, Matthew allegedly stated, “There’s no way to figure this out. They’re going to say ‘f— you, we want all our money.’ “
Several videos dated later that same day appear to depict Matthew pacing around the home while speaking out loud. “You’ve got to end it. … You can’t fix any of this. You’re not strong enough,” he allegedly said at one point in the late afternoon, according to the video. At 4:47 p.m., he allegedly whispered, “gotta kill everybody.”
Days later on April 30, one video depicts Matthew allegedly contemplating suicide. Hours later, he appears to be seen pacing around the house speaking to himself before allegedly shouting, “Am I gonna do it or not?”
The last video to depict Maya and Max is from May 3, the night before their deaths, as they prepare to go to bed. Three videos from the early morning hours of May 4 — the day of the shootings — appear to depict Matthew walking in Max’s room and Thy’s office. Thy’s family had previously said the bodies were discovered when the “children’s babysitter went to the school to pick up Max and Maya and discovered the children had never arrived,” at which point law enforcement conducted a welfare check.
The lawsuit is filed in Harris County’s probate court, which oversees wills, estates and other administrative processes.