The Greenbrier Ghost
Zona Heaster Shue died in 1897, supposedly of natural causes. But her ghost appeared to her mother four nights in a row, describing how her husband had murdered her. The mother's testimony convinced authorities to exhume the body - and her ghost's account was proven true.
The Greenbrier Ghost is unique in legal history - a case where testimony about a ghost’s appearance was admitted in court and helped convict a murderer. Zona Heaster Shue’s spirit returned from the grave to tell her mother how she died, and that testimony sent her husband to prison.
The Death
Zona Heaster married Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue (known as Edward Shue) in October 1896, after knowing him only three months. On January 23, 1897, just three months into the marriage, Zona was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.
The local physician, Dr. George Knapp, was called to examine the body. He found Shue cradling his wife’s body and weeping. He had already dressed her for burial in a high-collared dress with a veil covering her face. When Dr. Knapp tried to examine the body, Shue became agitated and protective. The doctor, perhaps wanting to spare the grieving husband, performed only a cursory examination and listed the cause of death as “everlasting faint” and later “childbirth” (Zona may have been pregnant).
A Mother’s Suspicion
Zona’s mother, Mary Jane Heaster, had never liked or trusted Edward Shue. Her suspicions deepened when she noticed him behaving strangely at the funeral - constantly adjusting Zona’s head and neck, placing a pillow on one side and a rolled cloth on the other. When she washed the sheet that had been used to prepare Zona’s body, it turned the water red.
Mary Jane prayed for four weeks that her daughter would return and reveal what had happened. Then, she later testified, Zona appeared to her on four consecutive nights.
The Ghost’s Testimony
According to Mary Jane, Zona’s ghost appeared in her bedroom and described her death in detail. Shue had attacked her because he thought she hadn’t cooked meat for his dinner. He had grabbed her by the throat and strangled her, then broken her neck.
To demonstrate, the ghost turned her head completely around on her shoulders - something impossible for a living person.
Mary Jane took her story to the local prosecutor, John Alfred Preston. Skeptical but thorough, Preston ordered Zona’s body exhumed. An autopsy revealed exactly what the ghost had described: a crushed windpipe and a broken neck. The cause of death was changed to murder.
The Trial
Edward Shue was arrested and tried for murder in June 1897. The trial attracted enormous attention because of the supernatural element. Defense attorneys tried to discredit Mary Jane’s testimony about the ghost, but the prosecutor argued that regardless of how she came to suspect murder, the physical evidence supported her claims.
On cross-examination, Mary Jane was unshakeable. She maintained that her daughter had appeared to her and told her the truth.
The jury deliberated for an hour and ten minutes before finding Shue guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison and died in the Moundsville Penitentiary in 1900.
Legacy
The Greenbrier Ghost became famous as the only case where testimony about a ghost’s appearance helped convict a murderer. A historical marker stands in Greenbrier County commemorating the case.
Skeptics suggest Mary Jane simply suspected murder and later came to believe her suspicions had come from a supernatural source. But she never wavered in her account, maintaining until her death in 1916 that her daughter had returned to reveal the truth.
Whatever the source of Mary Jane’s knowledge, it proved accurate. Zona Heaster Shue was murdered by her husband, and her mother’s determination - supported, she believed, by her daughter’s ghost - brought the killer to justice.