This incredible incident happened in West Virginia in the late 19th century. For the first time in judicial practice, the testimony recorded from the words of the ghost was entered into the minutes of the court session.
The ghost of the victim, who later received the name "spirit from Greenbrier" - it is "Greenbrier Ghost" (Greenbrier Ghost), appeared to the mother and called the name of the killer, and, as it turned out, was correct. Thanks to this, the perpetrator was found and convicted.
HISTORY OF CRIME
Until Elva Zona Heaster-Shue became infamous, very little was known about her. Only that she was born in about 1873, and in 1895 she had a child out of wedlock.
One day, Edward Shue came to Greenbrier, where the Zone lived, and got a job in a forge. A feeling flared up between the young people, and after a short time, in October 1896, they got married. The girl's mother, Mary Jane Robinson Hister, dissuaded her daughter from this marriage. Either she did not like Shu in principle, or he was a stranger in this city, or her mother's heart foresaw trouble.
The young family lived peacefully and quietly until, on January 23, 1897, a black boy-servant, whom the owner sent to his wife on an errand, found the Zone's corpse in the house. The deceased, stretched out into a string, with her legs closed, lay on the floor. One hand was located along the body, and the other on the stomach. The woman's head was tilted slightly towards the shoulder. Frightened, the boy rushed to the mother of the Zone.
While the doctor and the investigator were waiting for an hour, the inconsolable husband managed to move his wife's body to the second floor, to the bedroom, and put it on the bed. There he put on her the best dress with a high collar and an elegant large bow at the very neck, and covered the face of the deceased with a veil. This immediately aroused suspicion, since it was traditionally the duty of women to dress the dead.
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Shu, despite Dr. Knapp's pleas to allow him to examine the body, wrapped his arms around her head and burst into sobs. The doctor could not remain indifferent to such a violent expression of grief, so the examination was very superficial.
But this did not prevent him from seeing small bruises on the neck and right cheekbone of the corpse. The victim's husband categorically refused to examine the body from the back and study the bruises in more detail. The widower was so aggressive that the doctor was forced to leave this house.
At that time, most young women died due to complications after childbirth. Just two weeks before her death, the Zone went to the doctor, complaining of female malaise. Perhaps that is why Knapp indicated the cause of death was a miscarriage, he simply did not have more accurate information.
SIGNS
The funeral of the Site took place on January 24, 1897. While the body of the deceased was in the house, the neighbors, saying goodbye to her, noticed the strange behavior of the widower. He alternately fell into a depressed, then into an excited state. In addition, Shu did not allow anyone to come closer to the coffin.
It was also strange that the head of the deceased was covered with pillows on both sides. Shu explained this by saying that "it is more convenient for her." The neck of the deceased woman was wrapped in a large scarf, again according to her husband, very dear to her during her lifetime. When the procession moved towards the cemetery, people began to whisper that the head of the deceased was swinging strangely from side to side.
After the funeral, Mary's mother wanted to give Shu the sheet on which her deceased daughter lay, but he decidedly did not want to take it. Then the woman washed it herself. When the sheet got wet, it gave off a peculiar smell, and the water in the basin turned red.
After a few minutes, the water became clear again, and a pinkish stain remained on the fabric. It was not possible to remove it in any way, neither by boiling, nor by freezing. The mother, already convinced of her son-in-law's guilt, realized that this was a sign that her daughter's death was violent.
BEYOND WITNESS
Day and night, Mary called on her late daughter to return from the underworld and catch the killer. According to her, on the fourth night after her death, the ghost of the Zone appeared to her and told her that Shu had always mistreated his wife. That on that ill-fated day she did not have time to cook dinner in time, her husband, in a fit of anger, attacked her and broke her neck. As if to prove it, the ghost's head made a full circle around its neck.
With this story, Hister went to Judge John Elfrid Preston. Surprisingly, the judge agreed to order a new investigation based on the ghost's testimony. Most likely, the reason was not this, but that the city was full of rumors about the mysterious death of the Zone and about an unusual funeral. And Dr. Knapp made a statement that there was no full examination of the body.
A decision was made to exhume. And the inconsolable widower began to say everywhere that they wanted to arrest him, but they were unlikely to be able to prove his guilt, since he did not. That is, by doing so, he recognized that his wife was killed, and did not die of illness.
After the exhumation of the body and the autopsy, which lasted about 3 hours, it became known: “the first and second cervical vertebrae are dislocated, and the trachea is crushed. There are fingerprints on the neck indicating that there has been a mechanical constriction of the throat. There are also ligament tears in this place."
Based on the autopsy report, Shu was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, but he continued to deny everything.
THE COURT YES IT IS
After the arrest, some details of Shu's past life began to surface. On his account was a conviction for stealing a horse and two marriages. He drove his first wife out of the house without belongings and money; and the second died from an accident, either she fell, or a stone fell on her head.
The accused himself, sitting in custody, did not remember his loss. Moreover, he declared that he was young enough to fulfill his dream of having seven wives. He already had three, it remains to be released and marry again. And Shu had no doubts that it would be so.
Nevertheless, even the lack of direct evidence did not serve as a reason for canceling the trial. Of course, the testimony of the victim's mother about the meeting with the ghost could not serve as evidence, because this was contrary to church foundations.
The woman was allowed to speak and her testimony was recorded in the court record. Including the phrase that the neck of the deceased was compressed in the region of the first vertebra. The defendant's lawyer did not protest, perhaps he wanted to build the defense on Mary's insanity.
Shu continued to persist in his innocence, but the jury delivered the verdict: "Guilty." According to the law of that time, he was expected to be sentenced to death by hanging, but the court took into account that the evidence was circumstantial, and the execution was commuted to life imprisonment. Local residents were dissatisfied with the court's decision and even tried to organize a lynching trial, but for some reason, the plan remained only in the plans.
The murderer died in 1900 in a convict prison in Mounds Villa during an epidemic. The place of his burial is unknown.
QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWER
Commemorative plaque with the history of the spirit of Greenbrier
Most likely, Shu really killed the Zone, and then carefully masked the evidence. But, like everything mysterious, the story began to grow overgrown with rumors and speculation. They even said that the woman died a natural death, and her mother, wanting to annoy her son-in-law, broke her neck, already dead.
Someone was sure that the Zone was pregnant, but not from her husband, and Dr. Knapp gave her an unsuccessful abortion, which caused her death. And he broke his neck to hide it. There were generally fantastic speculations that a dead child lay under the pillow at the head of the deceased. But the autopsy did not show that she was pregnant.
As for the appearance of the ghost of the Zone's mother, many were sure that she had invented all this in order to achieve exhumation and autopsy. Especially ridiculous were the words of the ghost about the first vertebra, and not about the fact that the neck was simply broken. Or maybe Mary got this information during the re-investigation.
By the way, there is something that confirms the contrived story. On the day that the news of the death of the Site was published in the local newspaper, there was another article about how in Australia the spirit of the deceased helped solve the crime.
Perhaps this story became the basis for Mary's fantasies. And whether this was a calculation or the woman was so impressed with what she read that she really saw a ghost, now it is impossible to know.
Well, if we talk about the paranormal in this story, then the case with the Zone falls under all the canons. First, the killed do not find rest until the killer is found. Second, they return to take revenge. Third, they come at night and wake up the sleeping person.