The Greenbrier Ghost
In West Virginia, on 23 January, 1897, 21-year-old Zona Heaster Shue mysteriously died at her home. Her husband, Erasmus “Trout” Shue, called the doctor but when he arrived, Erasmus had already moved her body from downstairs where she died and placed her on the bed after dressing her up. Over the next few days, Erasmus behaved quite bizarrely but Zona’s cause of death was determined to be heart failure. A few weeks after her death, her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, requested that the body of her daughter be exhumed. When asked why, Mary Jane explained that over the course of a few nights, Zona’s ghost came to Mary Jane and confessed that Erasmus had been abusive towards her and had strangled her to death. When her body was exhumed, an autopsy revealed that Zona’s neck was broken. Erasmus was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.