Former employee speaks out

CHINA GROVE, N.C. -- A goat was slaughtered in a Rowan County restaurant days before people who ate there started showing symptoms of E. coli. Now, an insider tells WCNC that we haven't heard the whole story.

Former employees of Captain's Galley, a seafood restaurant in China Grove, are speaking out, claiming the situation there has just gone from bad to worse for them.

The Rowan County Health Department announced Monday that they learned of the slaughter from an anonymous tip by a former employee, which was confirmed by management and ownership.

Officials can’t say for sure whether the slaughter is the exact cause of the E. coli outbreak, which sickened 20 people and killed one woman in recent weeks. Captain's Galley has been shut down by the health department.

WCNC has received hundreds of viewer e-mails about this story.

One of the most common questions in those e-mails is: Does the slaughtering of the goat have anything to do with a satanic ritual?

Rowan County Health Director Leonard Wood says there is no evidence that points to any kind of ritual in this case.

While at the now-closed restaurant on Tuesday, two former employees approached WCNC with some disturbing stories. One of them said several employees knew about the goat slaughtering incident for at least a week and never reported anything.

“People knew about it but nothing was said. They knew about it and a woman is dead from it,” said the former employee, who wants to remain anonymous.

Now, that employee says the restaurant owner is refusing to pay some former employees their checks from the last week of work.

The former employee explains that the owner told staff, “that he lost his restaurant and he’s not paying anybody nothing. The waitresses are due two weeks and the cooks are due a week’s worth of pay.”

Wood says the restaurant scored in the mid 90s on its last few health inspections. He added that there are currently no criminal charges pending against any of the employees involved in the slaughtering.

The restaurant is closed indefinitely and will need approval from the health department before it can re-open.

Health officials said eight cases of E. coli, a bacterial infection of the stomach and intestines, have been confirmed and another 12 are probable. Everyone who got sick ate at the restaurant between May 26 and June 3.

Faye Sides, 86, ate at the restaurant with family members after church on May 27, and she died last week. Both the health department and the owners of Captain’s Galley restaurant expressed their sympathies to the Sides’ family.

(WCNC's Tony Burbeck and Alex Reed contributed to this report.)