The Greenbrier Ghost Murder
On 23 January 1897, Zona Heaster Shue was found dead at the foot of the stairs in the house she shared with her husband, Erasmus ‘Trout’ Shue. A local doctor recorded the death as natural after only a brief examination. Shue had already dressed his wife's body in a high, stiff collar that concealed her neck and remained close throughout the examination.
Zona's mother, Mary Jane Heaster, later told the county prosecutor that her daughter's spirit had visited her on four consecutive nights and said her husband had broken her neck. The resulting inquiry led to an exhumation. A proper post-mortem found a broken neck, crushed windpipe, and bruising consistent with strangulation. Trout Shue was arrested and tried at Lewisburg that June.
The Curious Detail
The prosecution relied on physical evidence and Shue's suspicious conduct, and the judge instructed the jury to disregard talk of ghosts. Yet Mary Jane Heaster's account was heard in open court, and the defence's attempt to discredit her only made her testimony more memorable.
Did a mother's grief lead her toward evidence an investigator might eventually have found — or did something else guide her hand?
The Society invites your verdict.
Fact or Fiction?
The Society's classification is supported by contemporary reporting and surviving Greenbrier County trial records. Erasmus ‘Trout’ Shue was convicted of first-degree murder on 11 July 1897.