American Elva Zona Heaster (Elva Zona Heaster) was born in 1873 in the town of Richland, Greenbire County, West Virginia. Her parents were quite wealthy, but the girl did not have a strict moral character. In 1895, it is not known from whom she gave birth to an illegitimate child, and a year later she met with the cute tramp Erasmus Shu.
Despite the fact that Shu did not have a penny for his soul and he was hired here and there for any job, Elva found something in him and soon both declared that they were in love and wanted to get married. Elva's mother Mary Jane Hister objected to their marriage, since Erasmus was immediately very unpleasant to her, but her words had no weight and the wedding took place anyway.
After the wedding, Erasmus began working as a blacksmith, he and Elva moved to a separate house and lived there peacefully and quietly for several months. But on January 23, 1897, a messenger boy came to their house with some errand and found Elva's body lying on the first floor near the stairs (Paranormal news - paranormal-news.ru).
The boy himself did not notice at that time in the house, and when he saw the seemingly lifeless body of a woman, he ran to his mother, and she called the doctor and pathologist George Knapp, but he had to wait about an hour and only after that he went to the house of Shu.
When they arrived, it turned out that Erasmus Shu lifted the body of his wife upstairs to the bedroom and put it in other clothes - a dress with a high stand-up collar. According to him, he only wanted to prepare the body for the funeral. When examining the corpse, Knapp noticed large bruises on Elva's neck, but he could not see it in more detail, since Erasmus did not allow him to "dishonor his wife."
It was later stated that the cause of the girl's death was "eternal fainting", but then Knapp changed this to problems due to pregnancy. It is known that a couple of weeks before his death, Knapp examined Elva due to a "female illness", but whether she was pregnant remains unknown.
Upon learning of the death of her daughter, Elva's mother exclaimed that the Devil himself had killed her.
The girl was buried on January 24 at the local cemetery, now known as the Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery. During the ceremony, Erasmus Shu showed his sadness and grief in every possible way. However, his demeanor soon changed dramatically, he began to vigorously protest against parting kisses and generally did not want others to come close to the coffin. And then he placed the pillow under Elva's head so that the position of the head changed.
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Erasmus explained this by caring about his wife, but his strange behavior was noticed by Elva's mother and now her suspicions that her daughter had been killed by Erasmus Shu became even stronger.
Shu's house.
Erasmus also tied a large white bow around Elva's neck, however, some of the guests noticed that when the coffin with the body was lifted, the girl's head twitched unnaturally, as if her neck had been broken.
During the funeral, Elva's mother took the fabric from the coffin and wanted to give it as a keepsake to Erasmus, but for some reason he did not want to take it and the mother brought the fabric home. When she began to wash it, something strange happened - the water turned red for a moment, and then clean again, but a stain appeared on the fabric, which the mother did not manage to remove.
Mary Jane decided that this was a sign that her daughter had been killed and began to pray that Elva Zona would return to her and tell her what happened to her.
According to local legend, a month after her funeral, Elva appeared in her mother's dream and began to say that Erasmus was very cruel to her after the wedding and that on that day he attacked her with fists, accusing her of not preparing for him meat dish for dinner. He broke her neck, which is why she died, and to prove this, the ghost of Elva shook his head and she fell from side to side.
Then the ghost of Elva came to her mother three more times and it was not always in a dream, once she appeared in reality. A bright light appeared in the room, which gradually took the form of a girl.
Mary Jane Heester then went to Attorney John Alfred Preston and pleaded with him to reopen her daughter's death. She spent several hours in his office, begging about it, and Preston finally agreed, saying that he did not believe in ghosts, however, everything seemed very suspicious to him.
By that time, many local residents were already gossiping that poor Elva Zona was most likely killed. And when Preston came to interview Dr. Knapp, he said that he could not examine the whole and made only a superficial examination. After that, Elva's body was allowed to be exhumed and submitted for autopsy.
Mary Jane Hister and her daughter's ghost visits.
On February 22, 1897, the body of the murdered woman was dug up, despite the protests of Erasmus Shu, and an autopsy was carried out. Examination of the body lasted for three whole days and it was discovered that Elva's neck was indeed broken. And not just broken, her windpipe was crumpled, and there were fingerprints on her throat. After that, Shu was finally arrested and charged with the murder of his wife.
While Erasmus Shu was in prison and awaiting trial, his identity began to be checked and it turned out that he had already been married twice and the first marriage ended in divorce due to accusations of his wife's cruelty to her, and the second wife died under mysterious circumstances. Elva was his third wife.
On June 22, 1897, the trial took place and Erasmus Shu was sure that everything would come off to him due to lack of evidence (no one believes in ghosts) and he would be released. However, Elva's mother steadfastly adhered to her version and spoke in detail about the visits of her daughter's ghost and her words, assuring that this was the truth. After that, the majority of the jury was on the mother's side and Erasmus Shu received a life sentence.
The crowd near the prison tried to break in and lynch him by hanging him on a branch of a tree, but the local sheriff calmed her down. However, Shu did not live long in prison, three years later he died due to an incomprehensible illness and was buried in an unmarked grave.
Until her death in 1916, Mary Jane Hister believed in her story and assured her that her daughter's ghost came to her. Later, near the cemetery where Elva was buried, a memorial shield was installed with her history and that this is the only time that the testimony of the ghost helped to convict the killer.