Paul Min says his sister Michelle tried to save her husband even after he secretly gambled away more than $100 million of their fortune.
The 58-year-old brother of Michelle Min, the wife of slain fashion CEO Bryan Walker, told The California Post that Walker, who had stood to the side while Michelle ran their women’s fashion company Bryn Walker, descended into mental collapse after a series of hidden financial bets went catastrophically wrong. The couple, described by family as “extremely wealthy,” were found dead Friday morning on a turf terrace attached to their hillside home near UC Berkeley.
Walker had gone behind the family’s back to take out loans against their properties, Paul said, then poured money into risky options and leveraged positions. By mid-September, Walker believed he had lost well over $100 million. The revelation shattered him.
“He just curled up into a ball, and he was just sobbing like a baby for weeks on end. He was just completely useless,” Paul said.
Michelle responded by feeding, coddling, and embracing her husband in an effort to pull him back from the edge, her brother recounted. She hired what Paul called a “hotshot” accountant in Chicago who delivered better news than they expected — their situation was not as dire as Walker had believed. But the intervention came too late.
“Imagine that happening to you? You would collapse. Your spouse lied to you and lost over $100 million and you might be out on the streets,” Paul said. “You might go from being one of the wealthiest people in the country to being homeless because your husband lied to you and wagered everything on crazy bets.”
Walker “had basically gone insane,” the family concluded. They made arrangements to have him institutionalized, with Friday set as the day he would enter care. That morning, Walker texted a friend from down the street with two words: “Call 911.”
The friend bolted toward the residence but arrived too late. Gunshots had already rung out.
Haunting surveillance footage, deemed too disturbing to broadcast, captured the sequence. The first shot sounded around 10:43 a.m., followed by a man crying and screaming in what was described as a “very dramatic” scene. A second shot followed shortly after, and then, as reports said, “it was dead quiet.”
Police found a note at the scene containing the passcodes to both Walker and Michelle’s phones, suggesting Walker had planned the act and wanted the family able to arrange their affairs. The family had previously hidden the firearms they owned, but Paul said Walker somehow retrieved one, concealed it in a downstairs bedroom, and loaded it there while Michelle went to the turf patio to let out their small dog, Pip. Walker then walked upstairs and shot her, Paul believes.
Paul thinks Walker acted because he had learned of the institutionalization plan and had long resisted mental health intervention. The couple’s marriage had lasted more than three decades.
Michelle’s final words to her husband, as Paul recounted them, reflected her character. “Brian, you’ve been sick. It’s my fault, I should have known better. I should have known you were in a crisis.”
“She blamed herself. That’s the kind of person she was,” Paul said.
The family is now left reorganizing what Paul called a “complete mess.” Michelle is survived by her brother Paul and sister Alexandra, 60. Paul said he intends to run Bryn Walker going forward.
The question of why Walker took his wife with him remains unanswered. “I think he was just too weak to go by himself,” Paul said. “I used to think of him as a strong person, but I’d never seen him tested. When he lost his money, I kept trying to tell him, like, ‘It’s just money.'”
“Why take our beautiful sister?” he asked. “Why not just kill yourself?”
The Oakland Police Department is leading the investigation and has not ruled out a murder-suicide. One firearm was recovered from the home.
