2113 Kingston St, Houston, TX 77019
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Author: Jewls Krueger
On the evening of Monday, May 4, 2026, Houston Police responded to a welfare check at a home in the upscale River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, Texas, after a babysitter reported that the family inside had not been heard from since the night before.
Officers discovered four bodies: prominent local restaurateurs Matthew and Thy Mitchell, and their two young children, 8 year old Maya and 4 year old Max. All four had been shot in the head. Police determined the killings were a murder-suicide carried out by Matthew Mitchell.
Matthew Mitchell, 52, and Thy Mitchell, 39, were one of Houston's most recognized restaurant couples and were named the Houston chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association's Restaurateurs of the Year in 2025.
Matthew had an unconventional path to the food industry. He earned a bachelor's degree from Emory University, studied abroad at Oxford, and worked as a journalist in London, Paris, and New York. He later returned to Texas, attended Rice University's Jones School of Business, and spent more than a decade in the pharmaceutical industry, eventually serving as CEO of the Texas Center for Drug Development. He later earned a culinary degree from The Art Institute of Houston and pivoted to the restaurant business.
Thy Mitchell, born in Chicago and raised in Houston, was a first generation Vietnamese American who grew up helping at her family's small Vietnamese restaurant. She graduated from the University of Houston, worked as an HR manager for three Fortune 500 hospitality companies, and was studying for an MBA at Rice University.
The couple opened the globally inspired Traveler's Table in Houston's Montrose district in 2019. It became one of the highest rated restaurants in the city and was profiled on Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." In 2024, they opened a more casual second concept, Traveler's Cart.
The Mitchells lived in a home on Kingston Street in the wealthy River Oaks neighborhood, just west of downtown Houston.
On the morning of Monday, May 4, the family's babysitter went to pick up Maya and Max from school and was told the children had never arrived. The family had also not been heard from since Sunday night. The babysitter contacted authorities to request a welfare check.
Houston Police officers arrived at the home shortly after 5:30 p.m. and found the bodies of all four family members inside. According to the Houston Police Department, evidence at the scene indicated that the male had shot the three other victims and then turned the gun on himself.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the cause of death for Thy, Maya, and Max as homicide, while Matthew's death was ruled a suicide. All four victims died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
Houston Police confirmed there were no prior records of domestic violence calls to the residence, and county court records showed no history of civil or criminal cases involving the couple. Several early news reports suggested Thy had been pregnant at the time of her death, but her family released a statement on May 12 calling those reports false. No motive has been publicly identified.
In the days following the deaths, friends, neighbors, and members of the Houston restaurant community left flowers, candles, and tributes outside the Kingston Street home. Both Traveler's Table and Traveler's Cart remained open under the leadership of longtime director of operations Ryan Brown.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 at any time, day or night.
The home is located on a quiet block of Kingston Street in River Oaks, one of Houston's wealthiest neighborhoods, just west of downtown and immediately south of Buffalo Bayou. The multi story home sits on a tree lined street of similar large, upscale residences. It shares a wall with the neighboring unit to the right. As of this writing, the home remains tied up in the Mitchell family estate.
Please be respectful of the surrounding residents and neighborhood, stay on public roads and walkways at all times, and do not trespass. Those wishing to honor Thy Mitchell and her children's memory can do so by patronizing Traveler's Table or Traveler's Cart in Houston's Montrose district.
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