Houston police investigate homicide after Alief business worker found dead

Houston police were investigating a homicide Friday after a worker was found dead inside the kitchen of Tropical Tea, a business at 10515 Bellaire Blvd. near Turtlewood Drive in Alief, a discovery that rattled a busy commercial stretch where customers and nearby employees were used to seeing the place open around the clock.

A coworker went to check on the overnight employee after nobody had heard from him all morning and found him dead inside the business, police said. Detectives said the victim had blunt-force injuries, and investigators were working to determine when the death happened and who, if anyone, was inside the building overnight.

The business appears to operate as a bar and game room serving food and drinks, and HPD Homicide Det. Keith Lovelace said it is believed to run 24 hours a day. That detail has become central to the investigation because officers are trying to reconstruct who came and went during the night, when the death occurred, and whether the victim encountered someone after hours.

Police said the front door was locked when investigators arrived, but the back door was unlocked. The victim’s vehicle also appeared to be missing, adding another unresolved piece to a timeline that already hinges on security video and witness accounts. Multiple cameras are believed to cover the complex, and investigators are treating that footage as a priority.

FOX 26 reported that two witnesses came by during the night and found the place locked when it should have been open. KHOU reported that the victim had not been heard from all morning before the coworker checked on him, and ABC13 said the coworker found him in the kitchen area after going to the 10500 block of Bellaire Boulevard. Police have not named a suspect, made an arrest or identified any immediate threat to the public.

For people working and shopping along Bellaire Boulevard, the case raises the kind of workplace-safety questions that reach beyond one business: who had access to the building, what was taken, and how a man could die inside a place that should have had people coming and going throughout the night. Anyone with information was asked to call HPD Homicide at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-224-TIPS.