Greenbrier Ghost


There is a historical marker just off I-64 at Exit 156 near Sam Black Church, WV that tells of the Greenbrier Ghost:

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 a ghost helped convict a murderer.

Indeed, I’m not sure that I have read another ghost story in which the ghost of the deceased secured a murder conviction!

The story began in the fall of 1896 when a young Zona Heaster met E. S. “Trout” Shue. Unfortunately for Zona, it would not come out until later—after it was too late—that Shue had been married twice. His second wife died under mysterious circumstances and his first marriage ended in divorce. Shue's first wife accused him of “great cruelty.”

Shue was a drifter who ended up in Greenbrier County, West Virginia supposedly looking for a better life. He found work as a blacksmith at a local shop and met Zona shortly after his arrival. Against the wishes of Mary Jane Heaster, Zona’s mother, who did not like Shue—not one bit!—the couple quickly married.

On January 23, 1897, Zona’s lifeless body was found by a young man sent to the home on an errand. The local doctor and coroner, George W. Knapp ruled the cause of death "everlasting faint." The cause of death was later modified to "childbirth," although it is unknown if Zona had been pregnant at the time or not.

Zona’s mother was instantly suspicious and believed that Shue had killed her daughter. Many townsfolk, too, had their doubts about the cause of death. Moreover, Shue had behaved in a very strange and suspicious manner after the death of his wife.

Four weeks after her daughter was buried, a ghost appeared before Mary Jane Heaster. The ghost was Zona, and Zona told her mother of Shue’s abusive behavior and that he killed her by breaking her neck after becoming enraged about his dinner.

Mary Jane Heaster shared the details of her daughter’s death with the local prosecutor who reopened the case. Zona’s body was exhumed and an autopsy was performed. The findings of the autopsy revealed that Zona has suffered a broken neck. E. S. Shue was arrested and tried for murder.

The Greenbrier Independent gave an account of Mary Jane Heaster’s communication with her deceased daughter while on the witness stand during the trial in the July 1, 1897 edition: 

The following very remarkable testimony was given by Mrs. Heaster on the pending trial of E. S. Shue for the murder of his wife, her daughter, and led to the inquest and post mortem examination, which resulted in Shue's arrest and trial. It was brought out by counsel for the accused:
Question. - I have heard that you had some dream or vision which led to this post mortem examination?
Answer. - They saw enough theirselves 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 cames [sic] four times, and 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 it; 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.
Q. - Had you ever seen the premises where your daughter lived?
A. - No, sir, I had not; but I found them just exactly as she told me it was, and I never laid eyes on that house until since her death. She told me this before I knew anything of the buildings at all.
Q. - How long was it after this when you had these interviews with your daughter until you did see buildings?
A. - It was a month or more after the examination. It has been a little over a month since I saw her.
RE-CROSS EXAMINATION.
Q. - You said your daughter told you that down by the fence in a rocky place you would find some things?
A. - She said for me to look there. She didn't say I would find some things, but for me to look there.
Q. - Did she tell you what to look for?
A. - No, she did not. I was so glad so [sic] see her I forgot to ask her.
Q. - Have you ever examined that place since?
A. - Yes, sir. We looked at the fence a little but didn't find anything.

Greenbrier Independent July 1, 1897

E. S. Shue was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died on March 13, 1900, at the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville. In what has to be one of the most interesting cases and trials in the Mountain State’s history, Shue was convicted entirely on circumstantial evidence and on the testimony of a ghost, no less!

In 2017, I authored the book Wild & Wonderful (and Paranormal) West Virginia. Although I did not include this fascinating tale, there are a number of other hauntings, ghost stories, as well as cryptid creatures, interesting history, folklore, and more. I hope you’ll check it out!

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