In Greenbrier County, West Virginia during 1897 a young woman was murdered. She had initially been declared dead via natural causes but the court later ruled that she had been murdered. The victims mother spoke out about it being the husband that had murdered the woman and she claimed that her daughters spirit had been the reason she was able to find out.
The victim’s name was Elva Zona Heaster and she was born around 1873, not a lot is known about her apart from she had a child out of wedlock in 1895 and then met a drifter. The drifter was Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue and he moved to the county in search of a new life, he gained employment as a blacksmith. She found work in the shop of James Crookshanks and soon after Heaster declared that Shue and her were to marry. Her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, had taken a dislike to him and placed an open objection to her daughter, but she was in love and they married anyway.
23rd January, 1897 and Zona’s body was found at her home by a young boy who had been sent there by Shue on an errand. Zona was found at the bottom of the stairs, stretched out with her feet together and one hand on her stomach. The boy ran to his mother and the authorities were called in, it took them over an hour to get there.
By this time Shue had moved his wife to the upstairs bedroom and laid her on the bed, in modern terms this would be a direct infringement because the evidence was already tampered with and would arouse immediate suspicion I am sure. He dressed the corpse himself, he washed her down this was unusual as it would normally have been done by the women of the community.
He would not leave his wife’s side, he dressed her in a high collar with a veil over her head and when the doctor attempted to examine her Shue’s reaction was so violent that Dr Knapp left the house. All of this was seen to be part of the terrible grief he was suffering, his crying and refusal to leave her were put down to the belief that he had suffered such a loss. The resulting investigation was that her death was down to her fainting or perhaps complications with “female troubles” although it is not clear if she was pregnant or not. Her mother declared that the “devil” had killed her when notified about the tragedy.
24th January 1897 Zona was buried in Soule Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery, he kept a vigil by the body at the head of the open coffin. Soon the aggressive behaviour aroused suspicion, during the wake his moods moved from grief or sadness to energetic. He would let no one get too close, especially when he was putting a pillow on one side of her head and then a rolled up sheet on the other. He told people it was to help her rest easier, and he had a scarf around her neck saying it was her favourite one. When the corpse was moved later for the service several people noted that her head seemed to be quite loose.
Mrs Heaster was still not convinced by the whole thing and was sure he had been responsible for her death. She removed the sheet from the coffin afterwards and attempted to have it returned. He refused to accept it and she also noted that the sheet had a strange odour to it, she decided to get it washed and when it was put into water the sheet turned red. The sheet turned pink and then the water went clear and she was unable to remove the stain. She took this as a sign that Zona had been murdered and began to pray for her to come and tell her what really happened.
Zona is said to have appeared four weeks after the funeral, she told her mother that Shue had been an abusive and cruel man who went into a fit of rage when she had no cooked meat for dinner. He broke her neck, and the ghost turned her head to show her until it was facing backwards. She originally turned up as a bright light and then finally arrived with a chill in the room, and she visited her for four nights after that.
Mrs Heaster then visited the local prosecutor, John Alfred Preston, and spent several hours convincing him about the matter of her daughter’s death. It’s not sure if he took credence about her haunting but he agreed to reopen the case, it is possible he also took into consideration that locals were talking about her death being a murder too.
Dr Knapp was asked about the body examination, he explained he was not able to view her or arrange a proper investigation and so it was ordered that she be exhumed. An inquest jury was formed and an autopsy ordered. Zona’s body was exhumed and the autopsy took place 22nd February, 1897 and Shue complained vigorously about it, he responded that he was bound to be arrested even if they could not prove any guilt.
The autopsy took three hours and concluded that she indeed had a broken neck and she had a crushed windpipe. Based on the evidence and his behaviour at the inquest Shue was indeed arrested. Shue had been found to have had two prior marriages with the first ending in divorce. His second wife died under mysterious circumstance and even during his marriage to Zona spoke of wanting to marry several women. He even spoke about this in jail, assured he would be free with so little evidence against him.
During the trial his defence tried to undermine the case by talking about the ghost and trying to get Mrs Heaster into a fluster but she never wavered. July 11th 1897 he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. A mob tried to get him from the jail to hang him but they were dispersed and four of them later faced charges for the disruption. In the end he was moved to West Virginia State Penitentiary and died in 1900 and buried in an unmarked grave there.
Mrs Heaster never changed the story about her daughter’s ghost and died in September 1916. She had seen the death of her daughter and the First World War, and Zona’s ghost had never been heard of again since the original visits; presumably because she had completed the job of identifying her murderer and could rest in peace.
Greenbrier Ghost – https://westvirginiahauntsandlegends.com/Greenbrier_Ghost.htm
Investigations into the unknown and weird 