For more than 120 years, locals in parts of Greenbrier County have debated the ultimate fate that killed Zona Heaster Shue, now a legendary folk hero in the annals of West Virginia history. Some, including a West Virginia court in Greenbrier County back in 1897, believe her ghost solved her own murder from beyond the grave.

Zona Heaster was born in Richland in Greenbrier County sometime around 1876.
findagrave.com/Brandon Ray Kirk
She had a child out of wedlock and soon met and married a drifter by the name of Edward Shue.
Edward and Zona met in October of 1896 and her body was discovered on January 23, 1897, less than five months after Shue arrived in town.
findagrave.com/Brittany Wykle
At first, her death was ruled as due to natural causes. But that would soon change. According to some newspaper accounts, on the morning of the discovery of her body, her husband had sent a young boy in town back to the house to ask Shue if she needed anything from the store.
But upon arrival, the young boy found Zona dead at the foot of the stairs with her feet placed together and her hand folded over her chest.
findagrave.com/Blue Rose of Cairo
The local doctor was called to make a coroner's report of the death, but by the time he arrived, the scene had been disturbed. Zona's husband has returned home and had carried the body upstairs, changed her clothes and laid her out on the bed in a tight, stiff, high-neck dress.
The doctor examined the body and found a mild bruise on the side of the neck and a slight bruise on one side of her face, but when he tried to examine the back of her neck, Edward became very upset and asked him to leave.
findagrave.com/Terry Collins
The doctor ruled the death a death by childbirth because he had been treating her for "female issues."

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But Zona wasn't having it. According to the transcript of Edward's trial (seen here), her mother was visited four consecutive nights by the ghost of her daughter — who insisted she had been murdered by her husband.
findagrave.com/osborne/hayner
She claimed Edward had arrived home for dinner and had gotten angry because she hadn't prepared any meat, so he killed her. According to the testimony, she told her mother exactly where to find evidence and exactly where it happened.
Google Maps/Kelly Cooper
She described in detail how Edward had squeezed off her neck at the first joint. This was apparently enough evidence for the court to order the body to be exhumed. And sure enough, the neck was dislocated below the first vertebrae. The newspaper articles following the exhumation reveal the reason for exhuming the body was entirely different and "due to the conduct and conversations of the prisoner." Lest anyone print an official report about a ghost solving her own murder from the grave.
Edward Shue was convicted of his wife's murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died on March 13, 1900 at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville.
Flickr/Taber Andrew Bain
Zona's ghost hasn't been seen since her mother saw her on that fourth night.
findagrave.com/Pamela Pomeroy
After the autopsy, her body was reinterred in the small cemetery behind the Soule Chapel Methodist Church in Smoot, West Virginia.

For many in these parts, Zona Heaster Shue is known as the Greenbrier Ghost. Do you believe in this legendary tale of the only ghost in history to solve her own murder – from the grave?

For more ghost tales and to see a list of the best places to SPOT a ghost in the Mountain State, keep reading here!

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