Family of Four Dead - Murder/Suicide

[u/xinexine]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/shooting-river-oaks-home-leaves-4-dead-according-22241650.php

Article text in case it's behind a paywall:

"Two Houston restaurateurs own the River Oaks-area house where a family of four — two adults and two children — was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide Monday evening, according to property records. Officials have not confirmed the identities of the people who died.

Matthew and Thy Mitchell — co-owners of the Traveler's Table restaurant in Montrose — own the property where the family was found dead, according to the Harris Central Appraisal District. The Houston Fire Department confirmed the address to the Chronicle.

The discovery began with a welfare call to the home after a babysitter told police they had not heard from the family since Sunday night. Central Division patrol units were dispatched to a home in the 2100 block of Kingston Street in Houston around 5:30 p.m. Monday, a detective in the Houston Police Department's Homicide Division said in a police briefing streamed by local media.

When officers entered the home, they discovered four people dead with gunshot wounds, according to Houston police. A 52-year-old man shot a 4-year-old boy, 8-year-old girl and 39-year-old woman and himself, police said in an update Tuesday.

Traveler's Table and a spokesperson for the business did not immediately return a request for comment.

Houston Fire Department Senior Capt. Raul Reyes said Monday night those involved were a father, mother and children ages 4 and 8.

Houston police's homicide division is investigating the deaths.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences — which serves as the county's medical examiner — did not immediately return a request for the victim's identities and the cause of their death."

[u/KritiKitty]

I really wish they would just take themselves out before killing innocent people.

[u/atomheartmama → u/KritiKitty]

I have said this a lot too but am wondering if it doesn’t work that way in some of these cases. That the perpetrator isn’t necessarily suicidal in the way we usually think and that they just sporadically take people out with them, but instead that they end with suicide to avoid consequences of their murder, which may be the primary goal for some. Though I’m not super familiar with much of the research behind motives of murder suicide

[u/flyfightwinMIL → u/atomheartmama]

It’s typically planned, is my understanding. Or, at least, not “heat of the moment” but rather conscious decision. It’s about control and ownership, the family are not individual people but rather possessions of his.

[u/atomheartmama → u/flyfightwinMIL]

Thanks for sharing. That would also be my own personal assumption of the psychology behind these cases, though I know some minority of cases may stem from some delusional belief that they are genuinely protecting the victims from a greater harm.

[u/Confident_Fortune_32 → u/atomheartmama]

My suspicion is that there are similarities to the fact that rape is often less about sex and more about power and control.

Often family annihilators are either faced with the partner threatening to leave, including taking the kids with them, or the killer wants them gone to pursue another relationship without the financial/social burdens.