The Greenbrier Ghost

In this spine-chilling episode, we unravel the mysterious and eerie story of the Greenbrier Ghost, one of the most unique cases in American legal history. Discover how the spirit of Elva Zona Heaster allegedly returned from the grave to reveal the truth behind her untimely death, leading to a landmark court case in 1897. Join us as we explore the chilling details of this haunting tale and the fascinating intersection of folklore and justice.

Transcript

I’ve had two run-ins with what I believe to have been ghosts. The first came when I was very little, still living at my old house on Harrison Street. I was in bed, having trouble falling asleep, the hallway light was left on for my comfort and also to help guide me to the bathroom if needed. I was an occasional bedwetter and my parents probably hoped it would help. Because, let’s face it, no one wants to start their day cleaning up pee pee sheets. 

Anyway, there I was, laying in bed, trying to sleep but staring out into the hallway. I heard a noise that I believed to be one of my parents. The next thing I knew there was a child sized something peeking around the doorframe right at me. Then a second one came and craned its neck to get a look at me. I shut my eyes and a moment later they were gone. 

It’s a moment I clearly remember happening. Could they have been the ghosts of curious children? Maybe. Their appearance has changed in my mind over time. I now remember them as hooded figures, but small hooded figures, Jawas from Star Wars? It was the early eighties and I was fairly into Star Wars. I don’t know. Whatever the case, it has stuck with me.

The second happened during Covid. I was downstairs working on something. The door to the laundry room was shut tight behind me. As I was recording something the door opened on its own. Could it have opened on its own? Absolutely it could have, but when I listen back to the footage, I can hear the knob turn before it opens. 

My point is, I believe. Believe in what? I don’t know, I just know that there’s more to life than any of us can understand. There are unexplainable things happening everyday, everywhere. The following is an example of one of those unexplainable, yet somewhat believable things. Let’s get to it. 

Welcome to year five of the Curator135 Podcast. I’m you host Nathan Olli and this is Episode 80 - The Greenbrier Ghost.

Zona Heaster Shue, born Elva Zona Heaster in 1873 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, grew up in a modest, rural household. Her parents, Mary Jane and Jacob Heaster, were hard working farmers, instilling a strong sense of community and resilience in their children. Zona was one of several siblings, each contributing to the family's livelihood through their labor on the family farm.

Zona's life seemed unremarkable until she met a tall, strong, handsome blacksmith named Erasmus Stribbling Shue. Erasmus preferred to be called Edward, but was also known by his nickname, "Trout". Shue was a man whose past was as elusive as his intentions. Born in 1861 in Virginia, Shue's early life remains largely undocumented, shrouded in mystery. What is known is that by the time he arrived in Greenbrier County, West Virginia in 1896, he was seeking a fresh start. Shue had a rugged charm and a skill for blacksmithing, which he used to establish himself in the small community of Livesay’s Mill. It was here that he met Zona Heaster, whose vivacious nature seemed a perfect match for the enigmatic newcomer.

However, beneath Shue's seemingly straightforward persona lay a more troubling history. Prior to his marriage to Zona, Shue had been married twice before, both unions ending under suspicious circumstances. His first wife divorced him on grounds of abandonment, while his second wife died under mysterious conditions. These failed marriages painted a picture of a man with a tumultuous relationship history, though the full extent of this would not become apparent until after Zona's death.

In Greenbrier County, Shue’s past remained unknown to most, allowing him to weave himself into the fabric of the community. 

The new romance quickly brought about wedding plans, much to the dismay of her mother, Mary Jane, who harbored a deep mistrust of Shue. The wedding took place at the Old Methodist Church in the town of Livesay's Mill. After the wedding, they took up residence in a small two-story frame building that had been the residence of the late William G. Livesay, who gave the settlement its name.The couple settled in as Edward set up his blacksmith shop, and Zona adjusted to her new role as a wife.

However, the marriage, which had initially appeared idyllic to outsiders, soon took a tragic turn. In January of 1897, just three months after their wedding, Zona was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Her sudden death, which was initially attributed to natural causes, would soon unravel into one of the most compelling and eerie cases of post-mortem justice. 

In the early days of January 1897, Mrs. Shue fell ill. For several weeks she was under the care of Dr. J. M. Knapp. By all accounts Shue appeared very attentive to his bride's needs, giving no cause for suspicion.

On the morning of either January 22nd or 23rd, Edward Shue appeared at the cabin of Martha Jones, mother of Anderson Jones, an 11-year-old black boy, always eager to help. Shue  was hoping that young Anderson could go to his house and perform some chores for Mrs. Shue.

Martha told Mr. Shue that her son had other errands to attend to but when he finished those he could go. Shue appeared annoyed but accepted the offer. He returned to the Jones home four times until Anderson finally became available around 1 p.m.. 

Anderson Jones left for the house and upon his arrival he immediately felt that something was wrong. All the doors were closed. There was an air about the place that he did not like.

Upon reaching the steps, he noticed a trail of blood. He was understandably scared but went to the door and knocked. No one answered. He tried the handle and, finding the door unlocked, walked into the kitchen. The trail of blood continued across the floor to the dining room. The door between the two rooms was also closed.

The boy knocked again on the second door and, getting no answer, walked in. Anderson stepped inside and immediately stumbled over the body of Zona Shue. There she was, stretched out on the floor, looking right up at the young boy through wide-open eyes. Her face was frozen in what appeared to Anderson as laughter.

He was frightened but still able to reach down and shake her. Her body was stiff and cold. He ran from the house, and called across the field to his mother, “Mrs. Shue is dead!”

Martha ran back to her house as Anderson took off down the road to find Mr. Shue. Edward Shue was at the blacksmith shop with his friend Charles Tapscott. Hearing the news the husband screamed out and the two ran towards the Shue home. Anderson ran further into town to fetch Dr. Knapp.

By the time Anderson returned to the Shue home with the doctor he found that Edward had taken his wife from the floor of the dining room to the bedroom where he sat holding her, crying and begging for her to return. The strangest part of all for Anderson was not that he’d moved his wife but that he’d dressed her in different clothing. 

In those days, the women within the community would have washed and dressed a deceased woman's body in preparation for burial. The husband, in this case, took it upon himself to dress Zona in her fanciest clothing. She now wore a high-necked, stiff-collared dress, her neck further covered by a scarf.  He’d also placed a veil over her face.

Dr. Knapp immediately tried to determine if Mrs. Shue was still alive. Throughout his efforts to revive the woman, Shue continued to hold her, allowing for only a cursory examination from the doctor. At one point he reportedly noticed some bruising on her neck but when he attempted to look closer the grieving husband’s demeanor turned violent and the doctor ended his examination.

Dr. Knapp turned to everyone in the room and said, 'It is an everlasting faint. Her heart has failed." Initially, “everlasting faint” would be placed as the cause of death on her death certificate. Shortly after, he would change it to “childbirth.” Whether or not Zona was pregnant is unknown, but during the early weeks of January, while the woman had been ill, he’d listed the reason for her illness as “female trouble.”

Zona’s parents lived in the nearby area of Meadow Bluff, a small farming community 15 miles away. Shortly after Zona was pronounced dead, two of her friends volunteered to ride to Meadow Bluff and relay the news of the young bride’s passing. When she learned of her daughter’s death, Mary Jane Heaster’s face tightened. “The devil has killed her!” she said.

On Sunday, January 24th, the body of Zona Heaster was taken to her family home in Meadow Bluff. The entourage escorting the carriage included her husband. On Monday, her parents held a wake at their home and a great number of friends and family showed up to pay their respects. 

Throughout the wake and the funeral the following day, people noticed how erratic Shue’s behavior was. The two days were filled with wild mood swings from sadness to manic. He was seen frequently adjusting his wife’s head, propping it up with a pillow, adding another scarf and never really allowing anyone to get too close to the coffin. 

Despite all of the man’s efforts, several people noticed that Zona’s head seemed to be loose upon the neck and would drop from side to side when not supported. With each bump in the road on the way to the cemetery, her head bobbled wildly. A corpse would have been stiff, they figured, it appeared as if her neck was broken. 

After Zona’s burial, with heavy hearts, friends and family attempted to get back to their daily routines. Her mother, Mary Jane, understandably had a difficult time in doing so. For the next several weeks, Mary Jane slept in her daughter’s old bedroom, crying herself to sleep most nights and praying for answers when she wasn’t. In her gut, she knew that Zona’s husband had something to do with her death. 

This went on for the next few weeks until seemingly her prayers were answered. 

Each night, over the course of four nights, the ghost of her daughter appeared at her bedside, dressed in the exact clothes she was buried in. A bright light would appear, the room would grow cold and Zona would materialize right in front of her mother. Each night, the apparition would explain how she had taken ill, didn’t have the strength to prepare a proper meal that day for her husband and that he had fallen into a fit of rage and broken her neck. She’d been murdered over a lack of meat with his supper. At the end of the fourth visit, Zona’s ghost apparently began to walk away from her mother before turning her head one hundred eighty degrees to prove her point. 

It was all the proof that Mary Jean Heaster needed. 

With her daughter’s story from beyond the grave, Mary Jane Heaster paid a visit to the local prosecutor, John Alfred Preston. The pair spent several hours in his office discussing Zona’s death. While it was likely that he more so believed the growing public sentiment about “Trout” Shue than Mary Jane’s tale of visits from her deceased daughter, he decided that it was worth another look into the case. As deputies were sent to reinterview folks close to the case, Preston himself went to speak to Dr. Knapp. 

It was at Dr. Knapp’s office that he learned of the difficulty the doctor had in finishing a complete examination of the body. He’d believed the grieving husband and felt badly enough that he didn’t want to upset the man more. This information was viewed as enough of a justification to run another autopsy. An exhumation was ordered and an inquest jury formed.

The local grave digger dug up Zona's casket and her body was brought to the nearby one-room schoolhouse, after school had ended thankfully, on February 22nd, 1897. The autopsy was conducted by Drs. Knapp, Rupert and McClung and lasted three hours. Erasmus Shue was ordered to be a part of the inquest and examination. He stood nearby and watched nervously.

Thanks in part to the cold February temperatures, Zona’s body was “in a near state of perfect preservation.” First came the examination of the vital organs, all of which looked normal. After that, the doctors turned the body over and began to work along the backside of her skull and spine. It wasn’t long before one of the doctors turned to Trout Shue, “We have found your wife’s neck to have been broken.”

According to the autopsy report, released on March 9th, 1897, "the discovery was made that the neck was broken and the windpipe mashed. On the throat were the marks of fingers indicating that she had been choked. 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." 

Shue was quoted as whispering to someone in the room, “They cannot prove that I did it.”

Despite his objection, Shue was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife.

Erasmus Shue was held in jail in Lewisburg while waiting for the trial to begin. The longer he sat in jail the more the unfavorable feelings of the locals grew. During this time, information about his past was being uncovered. It turned out that Shue had been married twice before. His first marriage in 1889 to a woman named Allie Estelline Cutlip had ended in divorce due to accusations of cruelty from the woman. The pair had one child together. His second wife, Lucy Ann Tritt died under suspicious circumstances. She may have also had a child with Shue. He stated that she had fallen and hit her head on a rock, few believed him. She died at the age of 23 in 1895, less than a year after they were married. He left the area before anyone could ask any more questions. That’s when he arrived in Greenbrier County.

A fellow inmate also relayed to the press that Shue often talked of wishing to wed seven women in his lifetime. Shue, sure of himself, told reporters that he would be “let free because there was so little evidence against him.”

He was indicted by a grand jury and was formally arraigned for murder. He immediately entered a plea of “not guilty.”

The trial began on June 22nd of 1897. A jury of twelve men was selected. The rest of the court room was filled with Shue, his lawyers, defense attorneys Rucker and Gardner, Anderson Jones, other witnesses, spectators and the State's attorney, John A. Preston.

Midway through the trial, on a Tuesday afternoon, Shue was brought to the stand as everyone looked on. He was given a chance to share his side of the story. With unimportant details he was very particular, when it came to anything having to do with his wife’s death he often brushed things aside. He denied pretty much everything said by other witnesses; said the prosecution was all spite work; entered a positive denial of the charge against him; protested his innocence, calling God to witness; admitted that he had served a term in the pen; declared that he dearly loved his wife, and appealed to the jury to look into his face and then say if he was guilty. 

His testimony, and the way he delivered it made an unfavorable impression on the spectators and jurors.

Mary Jane Heaster would go on to be the star witness. Preston made sure to keep his questioning about factual points relating to the case. He never intended on bringing up the ghostly witness. 

It was only when she was cross examined by Shue’s attorney on July 1st that the visits by her deceased daughter would be brought up. The attorney hoped that by questioning the grieving mom, it would make her look crazy and unbelievable. 

Question. - I have heard that you had some dream or vision which led to this post mortem examination?

Answer. - They saw enough themselves without me telling them. It was no dream - she came back and told me that he was mad that she didn't have no meat cooked for supper. But she said she had plenty, and said that she had butter and apple-butter, apples and named over two or three kinds of jellies, pears and cherries and raspberry jelly, and she says I had plenty; and she says don't you think that he was mad and just took down all my nice things and packed them away and just ruined them. And she told me where I could look down back of Aunt Martha Jones', in the meadow, in a rocky place; that I could look in a cellar behind some loose plank and see. It was a square log house, and it was hewed up to the square, and she said for me to look right at the right-hand side of the door as you go in and at the right-hand corner as you go in. Well, I saw the place just exactly as she told me, and I saw blood right there where she told me; and she told me something about that meat every night she came, just as she did the first night. She came four nights; but the second night she told me that her neck was squeezed off at the first joint and it was just as she told me.

Q. - Now, Mrs. Heaster, this sad affair was very particularly impressed upon your mind, and there was not a moment during your waking hours that you did not dwell upon it?

A. - No, sir; and there is not yet, either.

Q. - And was this not a dream founded upon your distressed condition of mind?

A. - No, sir. It was no dream, for I was as wide awake as I ever was.

Q. - Then if not a dream or dreams, what do you call it?

A. - I prayed to the Lord that she might come back and tell me what had happened; and I prayed that she might come herself and tell on him.

Q. - Do you think that you actually saw her in flesh and blood?

A. - Yes, sir, I do. I told them the very dress that she was killed in, and when she went to leave me she turned her head completely around and looked at me like she wanted me to know all about it. And the very next time she came back to me she told me all about it. The first time she came, she seemed that she did not want to tell me as much about it as she did afterwards. The last night she was there she told me that she did everything she could do, and I am satisfied that she did do all that, too.

Q. - Now, Mrs. Heaster, don't you know that these visions, as you term them or describe them, were nothing more or less than four dreams founded upon your distress?

A. - No, I don't know it. The Lord sent her to me to tell it. I was the only friend that she knew she could tell and put any confidence into; I was the nearest one to her. He gave me a ring that he pretended she wanted me to have; but I don't know what dead woman he might have taken it off of. I wanted her own ring and he would not let me have it.

Q. - Mrs. Heaster, are you positively sure that these are not four dreams?

A. - Yes, sir. It was not a dream. I don't dream when I am wide awake, to be sure; and I know I saw her right there with me.

Q. - Are you not considerably superstitious?

A. - No, sir, I'm not. I was never that way before, and am not now.

Q. - Do you believe the scriptures?

A. - Yes, sir. I have no reason not to believe it.

Q. - And do you believe the scriptures contain the words of God and his Son?

A. - Yes, sir, I do. Don't you believe it?

Q. - Now, I would like if I could, to get you to say that these were four dreams and not four visions or appearances of your daughter in flesh and blood?

A. - I am not going to say that; for I am not going to lie.

Q. - Then you insist that she actually appeared in flesh and blood to you upon four different occasions?

A. - Yes, sir.

Q. - Did she not have any other conversation with you other than upon the matter of her death?

A. - Yes, sir, some other little things. Some things I have forgotten - just a few words. I just wanted the particulars about her death, and I got them.

Q. - When she came did you touch her?

A. - Yes, sir. I got up on my elbows and reached out a little further, as I wanted to see if people came in their coffins, and I sat up and leaned on my elbow and there was light in the house. It was not a lamp light. I wanted to see if there was a coffin, but there was not. She was just like she was when she left this world. It was just after I went to bed, and I wanted her to come and talk to me, and she did. This was before the inquest and I told my neighbors. They said she was exactly as I told them she was.

When the defense counsel realized that the testimony was not going the way that he wanted, he dismissed her. The tactic had backfired on Shue and his attorneys. Mrs. Heaster refused to waver in her account despite the intense badgering by the defense. And, since the defense had introduced the issue, the judge found it difficult to instruct the jury to disregard the story of the ghost, and many people in the community seemed to believe it.

On July 7th, 1897, the trial came to an end. Here’s an article from the Greenbrier Independent newspaper in West Virginia from the following day.

“After an elaborate argument of the evidence by the prosecution and the defense, the case of the State vs. Shue was given to the jury last Thursday afternoon, and the jury, after being out one hour and ten minutes, returned into Court with a verdict of murder in the first degree, as charged in the indictment, but recommending that the accused be punished by imprisonment, which means, under the law, that he be confined in the penitentiary for the term of his natural life. Dr. Rucker entered a motion for a new trial, but this was withdrawn the next morning, and Shue will be duly sentenced before the Court adjourns. Though the evidence was entirely circumstantial, the verdict meets general approval, as all who heard the evidence are satisfied of the prisoner's guilt. After the murder Shue had every opportunity to make his escape, as four weeks elapsed before he was arrested and put in jail. The fact that he did not do so was explained by Mr. Gilmer, in his argument, by showing that Shue was all the time laboring under the impression that he could not be convicted on circumstantial evidence, and felt secure in knowing that there was no witness but himself to the crime. This Mr. Gilmer argued, showed not a lack of sense, but information, and accounts for Shue's presence at the inquest and his oft repeated remark that they could not show he did it.

Taking the verdict of the jury as ascertaining the truth, then we must conclude that Shue deliberately broke his wife's neck - probably with his strong hands - and with no other motive than to be rid of her that he might get another more to his liking. And, if so, his crime is one of the most horrible, cruel and revolting ever known in the history of this county. 

Mr. Preston deserves the thanks of the people for his diligence in hunting up the evidence and for his admirable management of the case before the jury.”

Ten of the twelve jurors voted to hang Erasmus Shue. They weren’t alone in that feeling but without a unanimous verdict of death, Shue was sentenced to life in prison.

On July 11th, 1897, a large group of men assembled just outside of Lewisburg to form a lynching party. The well armed men, brandishing a newly purchased rope made their way towards the small stone jail that held Shue. 

Luckily for Shue, someone tipped off the local sheriff at the jail ahead of time. The sheriff had just enough time to remove Shue from the jail and hide him in the woods outside of town until they had time to calm the mob. 

Shue was quickly moved to the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville later that day where he went on to serve time for the next three years of his life. In March of 1900 Shue found himself under the effects of one the numerous epidemics passing through the area and he died on March 13th of that year. He was buried in an unmarked grave next to the cemetery where his body presumably still lies today. 

Mary Jane Heaster lived until 1916. Until the day of her death she never wavered in her story about Zona visiting her after her death. 

While Zona’s ghost was never seen or heard from again, her legacy lives on to this day thanks to a historical marker in Greenbrier County. The marker, which sits along Route 60 reads:

“Interred in nearby cemetery is Zona Heaster Shue. Her death in 1897 was presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her mother to describe how she was killed by her husband Edward. Autopsy on the exhumed body verified the apparition’s account. Edward, found guilty of murder, was sentenced to the state prison. Only known case in which testimony from ghost helped convict a murderer.”

So what do you think, my ghost story, true crime loving friends? Do ghosts exist? Have you seen one? Did one help you solve a crime? Did Zona come back to seek vengeance for her murder, or did Mary Jane make it all up to get officials to take another look at the body. A mother’s intuition perhaps?

I should mention another interesting theory. In the January 28th, 1897 edition of the weekly Greenbrier Independant, the same issue that featured Zona’s obituary, the paper ran a front page article titled, “A Ghost Story”. 

The article discusses a famous Australian ghost story/murder case that occurred in 1826 involving a man named Frederick Fisher who went missing. Long story short, the neighbor claimed Fisher left for England, another man claimed to see the ghost of Fisher sitting on a fence pointing to where the body was, police later found the body in the spot the ghost pointed to and the neighbor ended up being arrested for murder. The man claiming to see the ghost later admitted on his deathbed that he made the ghost story up. He’d actually witnessed the murder but didn’t want to get in trouble for snitching. Anyhow, could Mary Jane Heaster have read the article and come up with the idea or is that just a creepy coincidence? 

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