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- [00:01]
Carter Roy
Hi, listeners. It's Carter Roy. Before we get into today's episode of Murder True Crime Stories, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhatt. Every Monday, Dr. Bhatt goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files. Not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations
- [00:36]
Narrator
waiting for a closer look.
- [00:38]
Carter Roy
Hidden History drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
- [00:44]
Narrator
wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery. This his crime house. The bond between mother and daughter can be hard to explain.
- [01:08]
Carter Roy
It's instinct, intuition, the feeling that something
- [01:13]
Narrator
isn't right, even when everyone else says it is. In 1897, a young woman named Zona Heaster Shue was found unresponsive in her home in rural West Virginia. She was in her early 20s. Her husband said she'd been feeling sick. The doctor agreed. The coroner signed off. And just like that, the case was closed. But not everyone accepted that Zona's mother, Mary Jane Heaster, couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Not just with the explanation, but with everything surrounding it. She didn't trust what she was being told, and she didn't trust the man her daughter had married. Still, she had nothing to prove it. No witnesses, no evidence. Just a sneaking suspicion that refused to go away. And then she said she saw a ghost. Not once, but four times. Mary Jane would later describe it in chilling detail. What it showed her, what it told her, and what it seemed to know. And whether you believe in ghosts or not, what happened next is a matter of public record. Mary Jane's story helped reopen the investigation. An autopsy was performed, and the evidence confirmed everything the ghost had told Mary Jane. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon. And we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a crime House original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thank you for being part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review and follow the show and for ad free access to every episode. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This is the first of two episodes on the murder of Zona Heaster Shue, also known as the Greenbrier Ghost. It's a case that featured one of the most extraordinary murder investigations in American history. Not because of the forensic evidence, not because of a dramatic police chase, but because the key witness in the case was a ghost. Today I'll introduce you to Zona and the small West Virginia community she called home. I'll tell you how she met a charming stranger named Edward Shue. Who a man with a troubled past and a talent for reinvention. And I'll walk you through the fatal events that took place on a cold January afternoon in 1897. Next time, I'll cover what happened after, including Mary Jane Heaster's extraordinary claims, the investigation they inspired, and the trial that would make legal history. All that and more coming up.
- [04:41]
Carter Roy
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- [05:04]
Carter Roy
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Carter Roy
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- [05:55]
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- [06:28]
Narrator
Greenbrier county sits in the southeastern corner of West Virginia, tucked between the Allegheny Mountains and the broad, muddy waters of the Greenbrier river. Back in the 1800s, it was farming country, quiet, isolated and deeply rooted in tradition. The closest big city was hours away by Horse and most families had lived on the same land for generations. Life in Greenbrier moved slowly. People worked the soil, raised livestock, went to church on Sundays, and kept close tabs on their neighbors. It was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone and where a stranger stood out like a sore thumb. The Heaster family had been part of this community for as long as anyone could remember. Jacob Heaster was a farmer, and his wife, Mary Jane, was the backbone of the household. Together, they raised eight children. But of all her kids, Mary Jane had a special connection with her only daughter, Elva Zona Heaster, born in 1873. Everyone just called her Zona. By all accounts, she was vivacious, outgoing, and full of energy in a house full of brothers. She'd learned to hold her own early on, and her relationship with Mary Jane was close. The kind of bond that forms when a mother and daughter are the only women in a crowded house. Mary Jane had always wanted the best for Zona, which included marrying well, ideally to a local boy, Someone from the community, someone whose family she knew. That was how things were done in Greenbrier. You married someone your parents trusted, you settled down nearby, and you built a life within the fabric of the community that raised you. But Zona wasn't the type to do things by the book. And in the fall of 1896, she met a man who wasn't part of that fabric at all. His name was Erasmus Stribling Trout Shoe. Though he went by Edward. He'd arrived in Greenbrier just a few months earlier, in late 1895, looking for work as a blacksmith. His timing was pretty impeccable. The town's previous blacksmith had recently passed away, leaving a gap that Edward was more than happy to fill. At first glance, Edward seemed like a perfectly fine addition to the community. He was handsome, well spoken, and charming in a way that put people at ease. He told everyone he was 29 years old and eager for a fresh start. He set up shop and got to work. And before long, locals were bringing him their dull axes and broken tools. One of those locals was Zona's father, Jacob Heaster. Sometime Around October of 1896, Jacob went to Edward's shop to have an axe sharpened. Zona came along. Jacob introduced himself and his daughter to the new blacksmith, handed over the axe, and that was supposed to be the end of it. But something happened in that moment. Zona and Edward locked eyes, and there was an instant spark between them. After Edward finished with the axe, Zona took it back to her father. But she returned to the shop. Later that day, just as Edward was closing up, the two of them got to talking, and the conversation went on for hours. That became a pattern. Zona would visit Edward at work, and they'd spend the afternoon together. She told him about the pine lilies that bloomed in Greenbrier every spring and promised to show them to him when the weather turned. He told her about his travels and his dreams for the future. A passionate, whirlwind romance blossomed between them. And then, just three weeks after they'd met, Edward proposed. When Mary Jane heard the news, her heart sank. This was not the future she'd envisioned for her daughter. Edward was a stranger, a drifter as far as she was concerned. He'd only been in town for a few months. Nobody really knew anything about him. And then the rumors started. Word got around Greenbrier that Edward Shue had been married before. Not once, but twice. Zona would be his third wife. His first marriage had been to a young woman named Esty in Pocahontas county, near Greenbrier. They tied the knot in 1885, when Edward was around 24 and Este was around 17. They had a child together, but the marriage fell apart within a couple of years. Edward was violent. He beat Este savagely, so often and so badly that a group of local men actually intervened. According to one account, these vigilantes dragged Edward out to a frozen lake, broke through the ice, and threw him in while singing hymns. A kind of improvised baptism meant to scare him straight. It didn't work. Within a year, Edward was thrown in jail for stealing a horse, a serious crime in rural West Virginia, where a horse was a family's lifeline. As one of his neighbors later put it, any man who would steal a horse or a dog is automatically an SOB. Edward served two years in a Pocahontas county prison, and when he got out, he realized Este and his child were gone. After his release, Edward married again, this time to a woman named Lucy Tritt. In 1894. That marriage didn't last long either. Rumor had it Edward was up on the roof one day repairing a chimney when he called down to Lucy and asked her to bring him a glass of water. As Lucy walked out from under the roof, a brick fell down and hit her in the head. She died. Edward's neighbors didn't believe it was an accident. They thought Edward had purposely dropped the brick. He was chased out of town, and that's how he ended up drifting through West Virginia looking for work until he landed in Greenbrier. Of course, these Events happened more than a century ago, and the details are hard to confirm. What we do know is that Edward was married twice before Zona, and that his second wife, Lucy, died under circumstances that many people considered suspicious. We also know he served time for stealing a horse. Needless to say, this wasn't the type of man Mary Jane wanted anywhere near her daughter. But Zona wouldn't listen. She was in love, and her mind was made up. So, despite her mother's objections, Zona married Edward Shue in a small ceremony sometime in late October or early November of of 1896. Zona was 23 or 24 years old. Mary Jane attended the wedding, but she wasn't happy about it. She'd done everything she could to warn Zona, and now all she could do was hope she was wrong. The newlyweds settled into a modest home near Edward's shop, and for a little while, everything seemed fine. Zona looked happy and healthy. Edward was working, and it seemed like the couple was adjusting well to married life. But the calm wouldn't last, because behind closed doors, Edward Shue was the same man he'd always been. And within three months of their wedding, tragedy would strike. Foreign
- [15:09]
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- [16:26]
Narrator
It was just past noon on January 23, 1897 in Green Brier County, West Virginia an 11 year old errand boy named Andy Jones was trudging up a hill in the area, his boots crunching through the remnants of old snow. He was probably tired after a long morning spent sweeping ashes and hauling soot for the town doctor. But Andy had one more errand before he could go home for lunch. Edward Shue, the blacksmith, had asked him to check on his wife, Zona. He said she'd been feeling sick lately. Andy didn't particularly like Edward. There was something cold about him, something that made Andy's stomach tighten. But this was a job, so Andy kept his thoughts to himself. He crossed town and walked to the shoe home. He stopped at the chicken coop first to check for eggs. There were none. Andy figured the rest of the visit would be just as quick. He pushed open the front door and called out for Mrs. Shue, but there was no answer. Andy took a few tentative steps inside, his eyes adjusting to the dim light, and that's when he saw her. Sona Heaster's Shue was lying at the bottom of the stairs. Her body was rigid and her eyes were wide open, staring toward the ceiling. Andy's breath caught. He rushed to Zona's side and reached for her hand, thinking he might be able to help her up. But the moment he touched her icy skin, he recoiled. Andy turned and ran out of the house, screaming for his mother. Andy's mom, Martha was horrified by what her son told her. She took him by the hand and led him straight into town to find Edward. When Martha broke the news, Edward erupted in anger and what seemed like heartbreak. Before she could even finish explaining what Andy had seen, Edward ran out of his shop and up the hill toward his house. Martha and Andy followed as fast as they could. When they arrived, they found Edward cradling Zona's body in his arms, weeping. When he spotted Andy, he shouted at the boy to go fetch the doctor. So Andy ran again, this time to find Dr. George Knapp, who had an office just a few hundred yards from the blacksmith shop. But by the time Dr. Knapp arrived at the shoe house, there was nothing he could do. Zona was gone, and based on the state of her body, she'd likely been dead for some time before Andy found her. But here's where things start to get strange. While waiting for the doctor to arrive, Edward had done something unusual. He changed Zona's clothes. He put her in her Sunday best, a long formal dress, and around her neck he placed either a high, stiff collar, a thick scarf, or A bow, Depending on the source. The details vary, but the point is the same. Edward made absolutely sure Zona's neck was covered. And when Dr. Knapp finally arrived and began his examination, Edward made it nearly impossible for him to do his job. He hovered over Zona's body the entire time and clutching her, weeping, positioning himself between the doctor and his wife. Dr. Knapp noticed bruising on Zona's neck. But every time he tried to get a closer look, Edward became more emotional, more hysterical, physically shielding her body from further inspection. Rather than push the issue, Dr. Knapping backed off. He interpreted Edward's behavior as the overwhelming grief of a newly widowed husband. They'd only been married three months. After all, his pain must have been unimaginable. It's hard not to wonder what would have happened if Dr. Knapp had been more insistent, if he'd moved Edward aside and examined that bruising properly. This entire story might have turned out differently. But he didn't. Instead, Dr. Knapp cut the examination short. Now, it's worth noting that Dr. Knapp had been treating Zona for the two weeks leading up to her death. She'd been seeing him for what were described only as unspecified troubles. He'd never been able to identify what was wrong with her. So when it came time to determine a cause of death, Dr. Knapp landed on something vague. In his initial notes, he wrote that Zona had died of an everlasting faint. That term might sound poetic, but it was actually common medical language in the late 1800s. It was essentially a catch all for cardiac arrest or for cases where the doctor couldn't determine what had happened. It was a way of saying she simply stopped living. Later, Dr. Knapp revised his conclusion. He changed the official cause of death to heart disease. That was pretty much an educated guess. Not many conditions could explain the sudden death of a young woman. And without a proper examination, heart disease was the safest bet. With that, the case was effectively closed before it ever really opened. No autopsy was performed. No investigation was launched. In the eyes of the law, Zona Heaster Shue had died of natural causes. But that wasn't how Mary Jane Heaster saw it. That same day, two of Zona's friends, Dick Watts and Lewis Stewart, volunteered to make the trip to the Heaster homestead. Someone had to tell Zona's parents what had happened. The Heasters lived on the other side of the county, about 15 miles away. Not an easy journey in 1897, especially in the dead of winter. Still, Dick and Lewis mounted their horses and set out. It probably took them close to three hours. By the time they arrived, it was nearly dusk. Zona's father, Jacob, was out of the house, but Mary Jane was home and she welcomed the two men inside. She could immediately tell that something was wrong. They looked serious and were careful about what they said. But eventually they came right out with it. Mary Jane was heartbroken, but she didn't collapse in tears. Those maternal instincts, the ones that had been warning her about Edward for months, kicked in immediately. She demanded to see her daughter right away. That night, Dick and Lewis had to hold her back. It was too late and too cold to make the journey. They promised to bring Zona's body home in the morning. So Mary Jane had to wait. She spent the entire night awake, thinking about her only daughter. She remembered the day Zona was born. The little girl who'd grown up surrounded by brothers. The young woman who'd been so full of life just three months ago at her wedding. How could she be dead? The next morning, Zona's body arrived in a plain coffin and the Heaster family held awake at their home. Neighbors and friends gathered to pay their respects, bringing food and sharing memories of Zona throughout it all. Edward stayed right next to the coffin. He barely left his wife's side, standing guard, almost in a way that struck several people as excessive. He'd positioned Zona's head on a large piece pillow and propped a rolled up cloth on one side of her face. He told guests that Zona had wanted to be buried that way. He also made sure the scarf around her neck stayed in place. When a visitor commented on it. Edward said it was Zona's favorite. He told the family she'd wanted to be buried in it. But it wasn't just the scarf that bothered Mary Jane. It was everything. Edward was clearly grieving, but it didn't seem authentic. It was loud, theatrical, almost rehearsed. And there was something else too. In Greenbriar, there was a long standing tradition. When a woman in the community died, the other women of the town would wash and dress her body to prepare her for burial. It was a ritual of respect and tenderness. Edward refused to let it happen. He insisted on dressing Zona himself. He'd already put her in that high necked outfit and he wouldn't let anyone else touch her. For Mary Jane, this confirmed what she already suspected. Something was terribly, terribly wrong. And then came the bedsheet. After Zona was buried, Mary Jane found a sheet that had been in the coffin that belonged to Edward. She tried to return it to him. But he wouldn't take it. He told her to keep it. Mary Jane brought the sheet home and washed it. When she pulled it out of the basin, it was bright red, stained, the color of blood. She tried again. She boiled it and scrubbed it a second time. The sheet never turned white again. Word spread quickly through the community. People whispered that it was unnatural, a bad omen. And for some in Greenbrier, it was the first sign that maybe Mary Jane's suspicions weren't so far fetched after all. But suspicion wasn't proof. And Mary Jane knew that if she wanted justice for Zona, she was going to need more than a stained bedsheet and a mother's intuition. What she needed was was the truth. And she was about to get it from the last person she expected.
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- [28:30]
Narrator
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- [29:00]
Carter Roy
Hi listeners, it's Carter Roy. Are you interested in the mysterious parts of history? Like when in 1518 an entire European
- [29:08]
Narrator
city couldn't stop dancing?
- [29:10]
Carter Roy
Or in 1908 when something flattened over 800 square miles of Siberian forest in an instant. I am excited to tell you about a new show, hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhatt. Dr. Bhatt has spent her entire career demanding evidence and asking why? Now, every Monday on Hidden History she's going where history touches the unknown. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files. Not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations
- [29:54]
Narrator
waiting for a closer look.
- [29:56]
Carter Roy
At the end of every episode, she'll tell you exactly what she thinks happened, and ask what if it happened today? Hidden History drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery.
- [30:20]
Narrator
By late January 1897, a few days had passed since Zona Heaster Shue was laid to rest. And her mother, Mary Jane, hadn't slept a wink the whole time. Every night, she'd lie down and listen to her husband, Jacob, snore beside her. Normally, the sound got on her nerves, but recently she'd been grateful for the reminder that she wasn't alone. Because Mary Jane had been doing something she'd never done before. Praying. She was desperate to know what happened to her daughter and the truth about Edward Shue. So she asked God, or whoever might be listening, to send Zona back to tell her. Mary Jane had grown up hearing ghost stories from her grandmother. She'd never believed them. She was a practical woman. Not the type to see visions or chase shadows. But one night, something happened that made her a believer. A strange chill rolled through the bedroom. Heavy, deliberate. Almost alive. Mary Jane pulled the blanket tighter, but it did nothing. The cold pressed through the fabric and into her skin. Then she heard a scratching sound. It came from the foot of the bed, like wood dragging on wood. Her breath caught as she listened. A cold wind swept through the room again. Even though every window in the house was latched tight, Mary Jane's eyes scanned the darkness. And that's when she saw it. A figure was standing in the doorway. It was soft, translucent, strange, but unmistakably familiar. Mary Jane realized she was looking at her daughter. Zona was wearing the same blue dress Mary Jane had stitched for her two winters ago. Her skin glowed pale. Her eyes were full of sorrow. Mary Jane reached out a trembling hand toward her daughter's spirit. Zona didn't speak. Not at first. She simply stared at her mother, watching her. After what felt like minutes, she did something that Mary Jane would never forget. Zona slowly turned her head to one side and. And then she kept turning it all the way around. A full three hundred and sixty degrees. Then came her voice, soft and hollow, like she was far away. She said, he did it, Mama. Edward killed me. He broke my neck. And with that, Zona vanished. Mary Jane was left alone in the dark, shaking. The chill still hanging in the air. But now she had something she hadn't had before. She had the truth. Zona's spirit returned the next night. And the night after that. And the night after that. Four nights in a row, Mary Jane was visited by her daughters grand Ghost. Each time, Zona revealed more. She described an argument that she and Edward had the day she died. She said Edward had thrown her clothes outside in the dead of winter to spite her. When Zona went to pick them up, he attacked her. He grabbed her by the neck and squeezed until something snapped. The details were vivid, bloody and specific. This wasn't some vague, ethereal visitation. According to Mary Jane, Zona described her own murder in terms that left no room for doubt. But what do you do with that kind of information? Mary Jane wrestled with it for days. She knew what she'd seen. She knew what she'd heard. But she also knew how it would sound to anyone else. A grieving mother alone in the dark, claiming her dead daughter had come back to name her killer. People would think she'd lost her mind. And at first, that's exactly what happened. Mary Jane started by telling her neighbors. She laid out everything. The visitations, the details Zona had shared, the broken neck. She spoke with confidence and clarity. They didn't believe her. Well, not really. They were sympathetic, of course. They could see that Mary Jane was suffering, but they chalked it up to grief. An old woman seeing what she wanted to see. They told her she was imagining things, that the loss was getting to her. Mary Jane understood their skepticism. She even expected it. But she couldn't put the visits out of her mind. This hadn't been a dream. There had been sound and cold and sensation. She had been wide awake. She had to push forward. But she needed more than her own testimony if she was going to convince anyone that Edward Shue was a murderer. And thankfully, she wasn't the only one in Greenbrier who had doubts. One of Mary Jane's neighbors, a woman named Maud Dawkins, had been paying close attention. Like Mary Jane, Maude didn't fully trust Edward. And while she wasn't sure what to make of the ghost story, she thought Mary Jane's instincts about her son in law deserved a closer look. So Ma decided to do some digging. She traveled to a courthouse in Pocahontas county and started pulling records. What she found confirmed the worst of the rumors that had been circling Greenbrier since Edward arrived. First, she found Edward's previous marriage license. And it revealed that the age he'd been telling everyone was 29 was a lie. According to the official record, Edward Shue was actually 35 years old. But the more alarming discovery was about his second wife, Lucy Tritt. The story about the brick falling from the chimney was already well known, but seeing it laid out in official documents made it feel less like gossip and more like a pattern. Maude brought everything she'd found back to Mary Jane together. They stayed up talking through the details, comparing what they knew. Edward had been married three times. He'd beaten his first wife so badly that strangers intervened. His second wife had died in a suspicious accident. And now his third wife was dead within three months of their wedding when. With bruises on her neck that the doctor never properly examined. And there was one more thing. Maude had heard from someone in town that Edward had been flirting with another woman shortly before Zona's death. It wasn't proof, but it was a picture. And it was damning. Armed with Maude's research and her own extraordinary story, Mary Jane made a decision. She was going to take this to the law. She went to see the local prosecutor, a man named John Alfred Preston, and told him everything. She described Edward's behavior after Zona's death. The way he'd prevented Dr. Knapp from examining the body. The way he'd refused to let the women of the town wash and dress his wife. She told him about the high collar, the scarf. The way Edward had stood guard over the coffin at the wake. She told him about the bed sheet that turned red. And then she told him about the ghost. John listened, politely and sympathetically. He spent most of the day with her, which was more than Mary Jane had expected. But she could see it in his eyes. The same look she'd gotten from her neighbors. He didn't think she was lying. He just thought her mind was playing tricks on her. And some of what Mary Jane told him seemed to confirm that suspicion. She admitted she'd never liked Edward. She confessed that she'd stayed up all night praying specifically for Zona to come and reveal the truth. To a prosecutor trained to evaluate evidence, it sounded like a woman who'd willed herself into seeing exactly what she wanted to see. But John Preston was a thorough man. And despite his doubts about the ghost, there were other things Mary Jane said that caught his attention. The bruising on Zona's neck, The fact that Dr. Knapp's examination had been cut short, Edward's insistence on dressing the body himself, his history of violence, the death of his second wife. None of it was conclusive on its own, but taken together, it was enough to give a careful prosecutor pause. So John decided to look into the case. Not because he believed in ghosts he didn't. But because the earthly evidence was, when you stacked it all up, suggested that something had gone terribly wrong in the Shue household. And the only way to know for sure was to do what should have been done from the very beginning. He needed to examine Zona's body properly this time. John's first stop was Dr. Knapp himself. Dr. Knapp admitted that his examination of Zona had been cursory and incomplete. He'd never gotten a proper look at the bruising because Edward wouldn't let him near her neck. His cause of death, heart disease, was really just a guess. That was all John needed to hear. He was going to exhume Zona Heistershue's body and order a full autopsy. And when the results came back, they would change everything, confirming what a grieving mother had been saying all along and what a ghost had allegedly revealed in the dead of night. Before long, the question wasn't if Zona had been murdered, it was whether the evidence would be enough to convict the man who killed her.
- [41:56]
Carter Roy
Foreign.
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Narrator
Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next time for part two on the murder of Zona Heaster Shue and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference and to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free. We'll be back on Thursday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertofsky, Alyssa Fox, Cassidy Dillon and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.
- [43:24]
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- [43:53]
Carter Roy
Looking for your next listen? Check out hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhatt every Monday.
- [43:59]
Narrator
Dr. Bhatt goes where history gets mysterious
- [44:03]
Carter Roy
vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies and events that science still can't fully explain. Follow Hidden History now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.