‘We don’t believe it’: Workers shocked by death of Johnston County restaurant owners in apparent murder-suicide

DUNN, N.C. (WNCN) — Family, friends and employees are grieving the loss of a Four Oaks couple who owned multiple local Mexican restaurants in Johnston County.

On the doors of El Charro Grande in Dunn on Saturday, is a black ribbon in honor of owners Hector Meraz Cruz and Norma Merales Mendoza.

A note is also on the door stating that the restaurant will remain open this week despite the death of the owners.

Camilia Florez, a restaurant manager, says that’s what her boss would’ve wanted, as he loved his business.

But hearing about their deaths still remains hard to process.

“He was like a father for me,” Florez said.

CBS 17 previously reported that Johnston County deputies responded to a welfare check on Wednesday night at a home on Grants Way off of Lassiter Road when they found the two dead in a shed behind the home.

Investigators say Meraz Cruz shot and killed his wife, before turning the gun on himself.

“It was a marriage like any other; it had its problems, but it also had for sure love. Genuine love and that’s what we remember them as, because that’s what we seen — that’s what we always seen coming from both of them,” said Trayzi Turcois, a waitress.

The two had been married for 28 years.

While the restaurant had been open for 13 years.

“We don’t believe it; we want to see him walking through that door. We don’t remember Hector as what took place that night at all we don’t at all,” Turcios said.

Instead, the workers are remembering both as loving and encouraging people.

“He was my family,” Florez said.

“That’s what takes a toll on us, and we try to remind people to remember them as who they were to us not anything else,” Turcios said.

Funeral arrangements are being made for next weekend.