Two months after restaurateur Matthew Mitchell killed his wife, Thy Mitchell, and their two children in an apparent murder-suicide, her parents have accused him of intentionally planning and plotting her murder amid his financial troubles.
The Houston Police Department previously confirmed that Matthew, 52, seemingly shot Thy, 39, and their two children, ages 8 and 4, before he died by suicide in May.
In a new lawsuit filed by Thy’s parents, Thuy Mai and Lan Huong Tran, on Thursday, July 23, they claimed that Matthew planned to kill his family and himself, according to the Houston Chronicle. Mai and Tran cited dozens of video clips that were taken from the family’s Ring security cameras, which captured the two weeks leading up to the killings on May 4.
“Rather than own up to the financial loss and fraud that he had committed, and face the shame that it would bring, he elected to murder his entire family and then kill himself,” Thy’s parents said in the lawsuit, which was filed in a Harris County probate court.
Thy’s parents are seeking damages for wrongful death, punitive damages and the creation of a court-imposed trust over Matthew’s estate, per the outlet. Probate proceedings regarding the estate are currently pending.
According to the lawsuit, Matthew mumbled aloud that he “gotta kill everybody” one week before the murders.
Additional videos showed Matthew speaking out loud to himself as he said he needed to “end it” and said he couldn’t “prevent what’s about to happen to us.”
The family’s last day before the murders on May 3 was also captured in several short video clips, in which they were seen leaving home for brunch and running to Target for an errand. Meanwhile, one clip showed Matthew seemingly alone as he paced around the house and muttered to himself.
“I can’t stop it for myself — I can’t stop it for myself,” he said in the footage. “I’m in such a deep hole.”
About an hour later, he was seen in their living room on the couch as he buried his face in his hands.
Thy’s parents also accused Matthew’s mother, Thy Mitchell , of “conspiring” with him to shield funds from “those who might seek to recover them based on likely bankruptcy and the fraud he had previously committed” in the lawsuit.
Thy’s parents claimed that $1.4 million from various accounts were transferred into Bettie’s accounts in an attempt to hide the extent of their assets before he committed the killings. They then claimed that Bettie later moved the assets back to the original accounts after the family had died.
An attorney for Bettie was not immediately available for Us to contact.
Matthew and Thy owned two successful restaurants in Houston before their deaths. They opened Traveler’s Table in October 2019, followed by their second restaurant, Traveler’s Cart, in 2024.
