'Left in the dark': Employees speak out after subway closures, missing pay

All three Subway restaurants in Morganton have abruptly closed, their owner is under criminal investigation, and former employees are coming forward with claims of bounced paychecks, unpaid wages, and working conditions so taxing one said she ended up in urgent care.

The closures at the Burkemont Avenue, Independence Boulevard, and Fleming Drive locations coincide with reports from workers. Multiple complaints against then-owner William Parish have been filed with Morganton Public Safety, North Carolina Department of Labor, and allegedly the FBI.

As of press time, Morganton Public Safety was aware of four victims who have not received compensation. Parish has a deadline of Thursday, July 17, to pay those victims or will face criminal prosecution. Multiple attempts to receive comment from Parish were unsuccessful.

Former employees describe a chaotic and demoralizing workplace.

Parish acquired the Morganton franchises in 2022 from Angela Buchanan and rapidly expanded to 17 locations across the Carolinas. But court filings show eviction proceedings as a result of missed rent payments and late fees.

A new owner may be taking over the locations, according to employees, but no details have been confirmed. For now, only one Subway remains open in Burke County — the store owned by Buchanan in Rutherford College.

Parish’s 17 Subway locations across the Carolinas are in Concord, Kannapolis, Spruce Pine, Albemarle, Burnsville, Columbus, Mount Pleasant (S.C.), Charleston (S.C.), Richfield, Arden, Old Fort, Claremont, and multiple stores in Morganton.

The Morganton franchises were acquired first, with the most recent additions — Concord, Kannapolis, Richfield, and Albemarle — added in January 2024.

In interviews with The Paper, former employees described not only financial distress but also emotional tolls from working under Parish’s ownership. Employee Renee Harris said she worked tirelessly to keep one location running, only to be suddenly told by a stranger to shut down the store with no explanation. She and her wife and are now behind on rent and at risk of eviction.

Another former employee, Katherine Pierce, said she moved back to Morganton to be closer to family and took a job at one of the stores. She said she never received pay for her work and said a bank confirmed the business account had been emptied and closed.

Both she and Harris said customers frequently lashed out over missing ingredients — a result of unpaid vendor accounts that left stores without basics like bread or vegetables.

Parish’s family raised red flags. His mother-in-law, Sharla Donner Lewis, said she loaned him money, left a stable state job, and worked across multiple stores, often sick and alone, only to be let go in April.

She recounted instructions to pay bills using maxed-out credit cards and her growing suspicion when food deliveries were halted due to unpaid balances. Even after her firing, she said utility companies continued calling her over unpaid bills — tied to accounts she’d been told to open in her name.

HARRIS FAMILY

Former employee Harris said her last day came without warning when a man she didn’t know, claiming to be the district manager, cleared out the store and told her to shut it down “until further notice.”

Harris said that “further notice” never came. “We were completely left in the dark about everything,” she said. “We didn’t know which way to go, where to turn, who to turn to, anything.”

The first store to shut down in Morganton was the Independence Boulevard location, then the Burkemont Avenue location and lastly, the Fleming Drive location, Harris said.

Harris started at the Independence Boulevard location in late September or October of 2024 and then became the manager of the Burkemont store in January. Now, she and her wife, Lisa Harris, said they are at risk of being evicted because she said she still has not received around $1,600 for her work.

“I worked day and night for him and kept that store running, like, I lost time with my own family because I mean, I stayed there 24/7 just about,” Harris said.

Harris and her wife said they have filed police reports with Morganton Public Safety and filed complaints with the North Carolina Department of Labor and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“I am super stressed out, like I’m constantly worrying,” Harris said. She got another waitressing job, but she said it’s still not enough to cover rent and other bills.

KATHERINE PIERCE

Pierce recently returned to Morganton to be near family and accepted a job at the Burkemont Subway. She used her earnings to buy a car and secure housing, but said she lost both after not being paid for a month of work.

She is missing over $500 for one check that she could not cash and she said that she never received her second check. When Pierce went to the bank to cash her paycheck, she said employees told her the account it was issued from had been emptied and closed.

Pierce said ongoing ingredient shortages made the work environment tense, as upset customers frequently blamed and lashed out at employees. “Customers would come in and get mad at us and start fussing at us when it wasn’t our fault,” she said.

SHARLA DONNER LEWIS

Lewis, Parish’s mother-in-law, said she was one of the people that loaned him money to purchase the three Morganton locations, which was $35,000 out of her savings.

Lewis also left her state job at Broughton Hospital to work for Parish as district manager. She said Parish promised her a 401(k) retirement savings plan and a fully paid health insurance package, which she said she never received. She said she has reported this to the North Carolina Department of Labor. Lewis also reported that she received bad checks, which she was only able to cash after waiting nearly six months.

She said he would tell her and other employees that the company bank account had been hacked or he had to switch bank accounts.

She said she began to suspect financial issues in September or October 2023, when unpaid bills to US Foods — a major restaurant supplier — stopped her from ordering ingredients for the stores.

By February 2024, Donner said the severity of the financial problems became clear when she had to use her own funds to cover expenses at two Charleston stores owned by Parish. He later reimbursed her via Venmo from his personal account.

She also described the toll the job took on her health, saying she was stretched thin traveling between stores across the Carolinas.

“He was making me drive to Charleston, living out of a hotel for 10 days. I wasn’t seeing my grandkids. I wasn’t seeing my boyfriend, my family,” Lewis said. “I can’t tell you how many times I ended up at urgent care because I was so just run down, sick.”

Lewis said she once worked three consecutive days alone at the Claremont store while running a 104-degree fever. On April 26, 2024, she was fired by her son-in-law, who claimed she wasn’t meeting his performance standards. Even after her dismissal, Lewis said she continued receiving calls from utility and service providers — including Spectrum, gas companies, and waste services — about unpaid bills. She said she had to request her name be removed from those accounts.

INVESTIGATION

Subway Real Estate, LLC filed an eviction notice on Friday, June 13, for the Fleming Drive location due to unpaid rent. Parish missed the May 1 payment, and after a 10-day grace period and formal demand, Subway filed the eviction.

He is accused of breaching the lease and now owes $3,499.46 in back rent. The case was continued on June 24, with a new court date set for Tuesday, July 15, according to court records.

In the Cabarrus County court system, building owner Fiat Company c/o Nancy Tran filed a lawsuit with an eviction notice on June 12, that requested Parish to appear before a magistrate on June 30.

Parish did not pay rent for the 8345 S.C. 49 N. in Mount Pleasant, S.C., for the months of April, May, and June 2025. The total amount that the defendant is seeking is $7,689.81.

Regarding police reports, Lt. Nick Edwards of Morganton’s criminal investigation division said that the number of victims could change any day. If this matter is resolved by the deadline, Edwards said that MPS will still consult with the district attorney’s office on whether to pursue charges or if fulfilling the deadline is satisfactory. The eviction process is handled by the Burke County Sheriff’s Office.

“With a case like this with an employer and employee, we make sure the employee gets what’s theirs,” Edwards added.

NEW OWNERSHIP

Harris and Pierce said they’ve been in contact with someone they believe has purchased all 17 of Parish’s former Subway locations. However, The Paper has not been able to confirm the identity of the new owner or reach anyone at the phone number provided by employees.

Harris and Pierce both said they would be willing to return to working at Subway, but only with certain few stipulations, including payment through direct deposit. According to Harris, Parish originally paid employees through direct deposit, but in the last six months of his ownership, something occurred with the app where they received their payments, so he switched to payment through paper checks.

“We’re kind of skiddish. That throws us off,” Harris said.