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The prominent Texas restaurateur who was slain alongside her kids in a shocking murder-suicide by her husband had made a haunting post about her future just days earlier.
Thy Mitchell, 39, posed alongside husband Matthew Mitchell, 52, for the Instagram clip she posted on April 24 — just 10 days before he murdered her and their two young children at their Houston home late Monday.
“He thinks we will grow old together…” the text at the top of the screen reads as the reel opens with the smiling pair with their arms around each other.
“He will, but I’m Asian,” the text then reads, as the camera zooms in on Thy.
The clip appeared to be a harmless joke about how she was likely to live longer, given the life expectancy of Asian Americans — but many found it ominous given how soon both would be dead.
“The foreshadowing is chilling,” one commentator wrote.
“This feels so sinister now,” a second follower wrote.
“Why on earth did Instagram show me this account today for the first time ever? Heartbreaking,” added a third user.
The Mitchells owned and operated two successful Houston restaurants and were featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” in August 2021.
In their last interview as a couple in October 2024, the couple discussed the challenges of balancing a “restaurant family” with their home life, as they appeared on the podcast “What’s Eric Eating.”
Thy, who grew up in Houston as the child of Vietnamese immigrants, spoke about the stress of running two restaurants and the risk of failure in a December 2024 interview with Morning Honey.
Matthew often featured in his wife’s Instagram posts, which presented an idyllic family life.
In her last post just a day before her murder, Thy shared a sweet video of her and 8-year-old daughter Maya getting measured for dresses for her sister’s wedding.
No motive has yet been given for the deaths of the couple, who were well known in the Houston restaurant scene as the owners of Travelers Table and Travelers Cart.
Police discovered the bodies of the couple and their kids — Maya and their 4-year-old son Max — with gunshot wounds after responding to a welfare check at their home in the River Oaks neighborhood at around 5:30 p.m. Monday.
A family babysitter and a relative had alerted authorities after they hadn’t heard or seen the family since the previous night.
“Evidence on scene indicated the incident was a murder-suicide in which the male shot the three victims and then shot himself,” police said in a statement.
Matthew, a former journalist, lived in London, Paris and New York before returning to Texas and giving up a high-paid pharmaceutical industry job to enter the restaurant industry, according to his website’s bio.
Thy grew up working at her grandma’s and mother’s Vietnamese restaurant, working in the hospitality industry through college.
The couple met through their shared love of food and travel, according to the description on their website.
English (US)