#greenbrierghost

[thesassygazette]

“My daughter told me from the grave who killed her and she was right.”

The Greenbrier Ghost murder trial is the strangest true crime case you’ve never heard: part ghost story, part domestic violence indictment, and 100% chilling.

Read the full story on The Sassy Gazette →

#TrueCrime #GreenbrierGhost #TheSassyGazette #DickingAroundWithRichie #JusticeForZona #AppalachianFolklore

[brandonraykirk]

#GreenbrierGhost #GreenbrierCounty #WV #Appalachia #photos #history #ghosts #brandonkirk

[brandonraykirk]

#GreenbrierGhost #GreenbrierCounty #WV #Appalachia #photos #history #ghosts #brandonkirk

[brandonraykirk]

#GreenbrierGhost #Greenbriercounty #WV #Appalachia #photos #history (at Sam Black Church)

[buildpaintrollslay]

Greenbrier Ghost - Murder Revealed

"In 1897, Elva Zona Shue was found dead in her Greenbrier County, West Virginia, home. The initial report ruled the cause of death as an unfortunate happening but nothing sinister.

However, four weeks after her death, Zona appeared to her mother in a series of dreams and told a story of murder..."

Read more about this intriguing story here: http://www.theparanormalguide.com/blog/greenbrier-ghost-murder-revealed

[theremightbecupcakespodcast]

The Dollop: Episode 147: The Greenbrier Ghost. Now, in America, you know you've made it into the history books when you have your own highway roadside marker. You're reading that marker correctly: the ghost of Zona Heaster Shue appeared to her mom to testify that her husband, Erasmus "Edward" Shue had murdered her. Zona's testimony, through her mother, was accepted to convict her husband of murder. #greenbrierghost #ghosts #ghost stories #law #Americanlaw #history #ZonaShue #EdwardShue #West Virginia #podcasts #thedollop #claradoxical #Carla #1897 #boo #murder #truecrime #truecrimepodcast #historypodcast

[theremightbecupcakespodcast]

Episode 147 expanded: http://thedollop.net/wp/blog/greenbrier-ghost-and-postmortem-photography/ Postmortem Photography. I think the famous photo of Zona Heaster Shue, the Greenbrier Ghost, is actually a postmortem photograph. In this entry, I explore why, the history of postmortem photography, and the premortem (not a typo) photo of my greatgrandfather, shown here--and his story about it. #thedollop #thedollopdotnet #greenbrierghost #ghosts #ghost #WestVirginia #NorthCarolina #ZonaShue #NealPorter #Porter #CorneliusPorter #family #history #historypodcast #podcasts

[husheduphistory]

Indicted by the Dead: The Tragic Tale of the Greenbriar Ghost

     On January 23rd  1897 blacksmith Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue (known as Edward) sent an errand boy from his shop to his house to see if his new wife, Elva Zona Heaster, needed him to pick up anything from the store. The boy entered the Shue home to find 23 year old Zona (as she preferred to be called) dead at the bottom of the stairs. Horrified at his findings the young boy ran home and told his mother what had happened. By the time the doctor and coroner Dr. George W. Knapp arrived at the house an hour had passed and he was surprised to find that Mr. Shue had taken the body of his wife upstairs and placed her in bed. Even more unusual was that Shue re-dressed his wife in a fancy dress with a high neck, stiff collar, and a veil over her face. Dr. Knapp tried to examine the body but found it extremely difficult to do so with Shue cradling the head of his dead wife, sobbing, and refusing to allow the doctor to examine her above the shoulders. The examination was cut short with the cause of death being cited as “an everlasting faint” and later being recorded on paper as being “childbirth” despite there being no evidence of pregnancy.

Elva Zona Heaster

     The wake for Zona took place several days later and the bizarre behavior of Shue grew more and more disturbing. He paced around the casket, wavered back and forth between extreme grief and mania, would not let anyone get a close look at the body, placed a pillow and a rolled up cloth on either side of her head so she could “rest easier”, and wrapped a scarf around her neck claiming it was “her favorite”. One person in attendance that took particular notice of these actions was Zona’s mother, Mary Jane Heaster. Heaster had despised Shue since their first meeting and never approved of her daughter marrying him. As suspicious as she was that he had something to do with the death of her Zona she had no proof. So, she decided to look for answers from another source and that is when Heaster began to pray.

The Shue home where the murder took place

     The grieving mother prayed to Zona directly, begging for her to reveal the circumstances of her death for 4 weeks before her wish allegedly came true. According to Heaster her daughter appeared 4 nights in a row telling her that Shue had treated her cruelly, beaten her, and finally choked her breaking her neck on that fateful day because she hadn’t cooked any meat for dinner. According to Heaster the apparition was very specific even telling her which vertebrate were broken in the attack. This was enough to send Heaster to the office of the local prosecutor, Alfred Preston. Preston was not overly convinced of her account for obvious reasons but after several hours of speaking with Heaster he conceded to re-questioning some people who were involved with the case. After asking around Preston became very uncomfortable with how the investigation of Zona’s death was carried out. Dr. Knapp confirmed that he could not fully examine the body and he found out about Shue’s erratic behavior at the wake. It was enough, according to Preston, to exhume Zona for a full autopsy.

     The autopsy of Elva Zona Heaster took place on February 22nd and the findings were chilling. A local newspaper printed that “On the throat were the marks of fingers indicating that she had been choken; that the neck was dislocated between the first and second vertebrae. The ligaments were torn and ruptured. The windpipe had been crushed at a point in front of the neck.” The injuries were exactly as her mother described to Preston. When informed about the findings Shue’s response was “They cannot prove that I did it”. He was arrested and brought to jail to await trial. It was while Shue was sitting in his cell that his past began to come to light. Zona was Shue’s third wife, the first filing for divorce with the paperwork revealing his abusive nature and the second suffering a “mysterious” death eight months after marriage. It did not help his case that Shue bragged in prison that he intended on being married seven times. A trial date was set and Shue would be tried for murder.

Mary Jane Heaster

     The trial of Edward Shue began on June 22nd 1897 and although many stepped forward to speak against him the most highly anticipated was Heaster for not only being the mother of the deceased, but also for being the one who knew how her daughter died when no one else did. Preston stayed away from Heaster’s tale of Zona speaking to her beyond the grave because he wanted her appear reliable and not someone swayed from sanity by grief. However, the legal team representing Shue grilled Heaster intensely about her ghostly visitor and surprisingly, it backfired. The mother was so adamant and unwavering of her account that the jury began to seriously take it into consideration. This, paired with Shue’s own rambling testimony, sealed his fate and after 10 minutes of deliberating the jury decided on a guilty verdict.

     Shue was sentenced to life and prison and died on March 13, 1900 when outbreaks of measles and pneumonia swept through the prison. Heaster lived until 1916 and never again told the story of her daughter speaking to her after death. Beliefs for or against guilt, innocence, and the possibility of a paranormal intervention aside, if it had not been for Heaster’s story the body of Zona would never have been exhumed and Shue would never be brought to trial. To date the murder case of Elva Zona Heaster, affectionately called the Greenbrier Ghost after her home county in West Virginia, is the only known case where a murdered was convicted by the testimony of a ghost. 

A historical marker commemorating the Greenbrier Ghost

photo by Emmett Unlimetted on Flickr