Ep. 65 - The Greenbrier Ghost | The Spirit That Helped Solve Her Own Murder

In 1897, a young woman named Zona Heaster Shue was found dead inside her West Virginia home. Her death was quickly ruled natural… and her body was buried before anyone questioned what really happened.

But her mother refused to believe the official story.

Days after the funeral, Mary Jane Heaster claimed Zona’s spirit began appearing beside her bed at night — revealing horrifying details about her death and accusing her husband, Edward Shue, of murder.

What followed would become one of the strangest cases in American history.

A broken neck hidden beneath a scarf.
 An exhumation that changed everything.
 And the only known murder trial where testimony involving a ghost helped lead to a conviction.

Was the Greenbrier Ghost truly a spirit seeking justice from beyond the grave… or was this a grieving mother uncovering clues everyone else missed?

Tonight, we step into one of Appalachia’s most infamous paranormal legends.

👻 Welcome to Veil of Echoes.

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 Have a paranormal experience, unsettling encounter, stalking story, or true crime experience you’ve lived through yourself?

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☀️ LIGHT IN THE VEIL
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🎙️ CASE SOURCES / REFERENCES

•  Historical accounts of the Greenbrier Ghost case 
•  Greenbrier County historical archives 
•  West Virginia state historical marker records 
•  Contemporary newspaper reports from 1897 
•  The Greenbrier Independent archives 
•  West Virginia folklore documentation 
•  Testimony and autopsy findings surrounding the death of Zona Heaster Shue 

—

⚠️ DISCLAIMER
 This episode contains discussions of domestic violence, murder, and disturbing death-related content. Listener discretion is advised.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Beneath the ordinary world lies a veil, and behind it, the voices of the lost still whisper.

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We are your guides into the shadows, where true crime meets the paranormal.

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From chilling crimes to haunted histories, we uncover the stories that refuse to rest.

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This is Vale of Echoes.

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At first, you don't realize you're dead. The house is quiet. Too quiet. Your body is cold. But somehow, you can still feel the room around you. The flicker of candlelight. The sound of your mother crying downstairs. And the man standing beside your bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Watching you.

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You try to speak. Try to move. Try to scream that something is wrong. But no sound comes out.

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Because your neck is broken. And the man everyone believes is grieving you is the one who killed you.

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Days pass, then weeks, and still no one knows the truth.

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Until your mother starts seeing you.

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At the foot of her bed, standing in the doorway, appearing in the darkness long after midnight.

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And according to her, you came back for one reason. Tell her what happened.

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What followed would become one of the strangest murder cases in American history.

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A trial involving ghost testimony.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

A dead woman's voice guiding investigators toward a killer. Because in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, the dead may not stay silent. This is episode 65 The Greenbrier Ghost. Welcome to Vale of Echoes, a cinematic, immersive experience where true crime and the unexplained collide. Because some stories refuse to stay buried. Some linger in old houses, whisper through generations, and echo long after death.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

Tonight's story begins in the mountains of West Virginia, with a young woman's death that should have been ruled natural. Until her mother claimed her daughter came back from the grave to reveal the truth.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

I'm Zach.

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And I'm Bria. Before we begin, this episode contains themes of domestic violence, death, and disturbing descriptions surrounding a suspicious murder. Listener discretion is advised.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

If you enjoy immersive true crime and paranormal storytelling, make sure you're following Veil of Echoes on your favorite podcast platform.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

Leaving a rating or a written review really helps our stories reach more listeners, and we truly appreciate all of your support.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

And then our friend Alex said um veil voyagers. That was another option. That's pretty neat. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

Yeah, so start start sending us your your thoughts and opinions.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Yes, we have one week left of me.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

One week.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

So and also to um oh my gosh, I just got off night shift, so I'm I cannot think right now. In order to be Oh, sharing, post, comment, you gotta screenshot it and send it to us. Yes, a review. Yes, please.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Please, please, please.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

And then there's something else we're really excited about. We're also starting a new little community segment called Light in the Veil.

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With so many heavy stories every week, we wanted a place to also spotlight the things that bring you comfort, happiness, or peace.

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That could be your pets, your favorite cozy spaces, your collections, your art, or honestly, anything that brings light into your life.

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You can send photos or videos to us through our socials, and we'll be featuring some of them in future posts and videos. And then shout out to Jen for sending her cool, um, awesome goats and her dogs and her cats. Cat. Those are cute. Yeah, I need to send all mine in.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yes, Luna. That was funny. Yes.

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All the pets, send all the pets, please.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

The possum. And within the next week, we'll also be releasing our interview with Mindreader and Paranormal Performer Joe Diamond.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

That conversation got genuinely unsettling at times.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Including moments that honestly left us questioning how certain things could even be possible. Yeah, that was really fun. I don't know. He he definitely read our minds. Oh yeah. I was blown away. Definitely. So if you haven't already, follow Joe Diamond. He's the um Midwest Mystic. Yeah, he's fun.

SPEAKER_04 6:17

Yeah, and I believe his tag is Joe Diamond Live. Joe Diamond Live. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

And beginning this June, we'll officially be launching our new listener series, Echoes from the Veil. So if you've experienced something paranormal, unexplainable, or even a real life true crime situation yourself, such as being stalked, encountering someone dangerous, or witnessing something that stayed with you. We want to hear your story.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

You can send your experiences to us through our socials, or email us directly at Veil of Echoes Podcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Some of your stories may be featured in future episodes.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

Because tonight's story isn't just about a ghost. It's about a woman who may have refused to let her own murder go unsolved.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

A grieving mother, a suspicious husband.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

And a voice from beyond the grave that some believe helped bring a killer to justice. Long before the story became legend, before the ghost sightings, the trial, and the headlines, there was simply a young woman living in the mountains of West Virginia. Her name was Elva Zona Heaster, though most people simply called her Zona.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

She lived in Greenbrier County, a quiet Appalachian community surrounded by thick woods, rolling hills, and isolated dirt roads.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

In the late 1800s, places like this were deeply religious, close knit and heavily shaped by superstition and folklore.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Stories traveled quickly there, and sometimes so did fear.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

In October of 1896, a blacksmith arrived in town. A man named Edward Stribbing Trout Shoe. What the fuck? She's a stribling?

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Edward Stribbling Trout Shoe.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Okay. Okay, let's do that again. What the fuck did he also Euramus? Or you're Eurasmus? What's going on here? You're can't you just go by Ed? What the hell? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Eurasmus.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Eurasmus?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

I don't know. That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Or Eurastus okay. A man named Edward Stribling Trout Shoe.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Thought okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

What a okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

Why is there so many names? Just for one guy, okay. Sorry, I'm just reading all the names you've read by. What the hell?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Though, depending on you asked, he also went by Erasmus or Eurastus Shoe.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

He was older than Zona. Tall, strong, charismatic, and according to many people, intensely charming at first.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

The relationship moved quickly. Very quickly. And within only a short time the two were married.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

And almost immediately, some people around Zona began feeling uneasy about him.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Zona and Erasmus Shu had a very rapid courtship and eloped just three months after meeting.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

I like you. I like you.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Peekaboo. I like you alone. Yeah, just three months after their wedding.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

But what's the age?

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Zona was found dead.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Three months after?

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

So they married three months after they met. Three months after their wedding, she was dead.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

I guess yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

So they've known each other a whole six months?

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Later, neighbors would describe Edward as controlling, possessive, and quick-tempered.

SPEAKER_04 10:22

But at the time, very few people knew much about his past.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

What they didn't know was that Zona was not his first wife. Or even his second. And both previous marriages had ended badly.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

One wife accused him of cruelty before leaving him. Another had died suddenly under mysterious circumstances. But Zona didn't know that yet. On January 23rd, 1897, just three months after the wedding, everything changed.

SPEAKER_04 10:59

That morning, an 11-year-old neighbor boy named Andy Jones arrived at the shoe home to help with chores.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Instead, he found Zona's body lying at the bottom of the stairs.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Motionless, cold, already dead.

SPEAKER_04 11:20

Terrified, the boy ran for help before someone was sent to retrieve Edward's shoe from the blacksmith's shop where he was working.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

According to reports, Edward appeared distraught. He rushed home, lifted Zona's body into his arms, and refused to leave her side.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

But as neighbors gathered, some began noticing strange details.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

During preparation for burial, Edward became strangely protective over Zona's head and neck. So I'm like, please don't do anything to the head and the neck, please.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

It kind of reminds me of what the Lizzie Borden case. Sh sh sh what did uh what was it with uh the bloody clothes and she like blaming on her period or something?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Something like that.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

You found like bloody clothes in the barn.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

It's just like, man, you care so much about her, but it's like, yeah, yeah, examine all of her, but we gotta say, no, no, no, no, no. Hang on, hang on, wait a minute. No, you can't, not not the neck. No, look at the neck and the head.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

You can look at everything but the neck and the head. Don't touch it. Like, what happened?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

She fell down the stairs. Okay. I just can't like it.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

People were dumb back then, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Back then? Watch all the Chris Watts videos. Those are s I know everything that happened is terrible, but those videos are so the realization's the funniest fucking thing.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Well, I mean investigators back then. They're like, oh we're not gonna check each other. No, they're still dumb. That's what I mean, but they were I don't know, don't no, I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

No, no, no, you can't check her neck. Okay. We won't do that, sir.

SPEAKER_04 13:02

You can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

He carefully positioned pillows and folded fabric around her head. He tied a large scarf around her neck, claiming it had been her favorite.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

And anytime someone got too close, he became agitated, almost panicked.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

Local doctor in corner, Dr. George Knapp, arrived to examine the body.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

But Edward never stopped hovering near Zona. Holding her head, interrupting the examination, refusing to leave the room.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

I'm so what?

SPEAKER_01 13:43

So suspicious, like the doctor's like, oh, okay. The doctor's coming, yeah, doctor coming here. Rushes over, grabs her head. Yeah, go ahead, check everything. I'm just sitting here imagining him just sitting there holding the head and like covering the neck.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

I mean, that's poor lady. That sucks for her. That's awful, but what?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Interrupting an examination and put her favorite scarf on. What dude, what the fuck are you doing right now?

SPEAKER_04 14:06

So stupid. Street stupidity. Yep. Yeah, I'm not guilty at all.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

That don't scream suspicious.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

And eventually, Dr. Knapp stopped the examination early. The official cause of death was listed as natural causes, or what some reports described as an everlasting feint. No full examination of her neck was ever completed. And for a brief moment, the story should have ended there. A sudden death, a grieving husband, and a quiet burial in the hills of West Virginia.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

But Zona's mother didn't believe her daughter died naturally.

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And within days, she would claim her daughter returned from the grave to prove it.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Because according to Mary Jane Heaster, the dead were not finished speaking. After Zona's funeral, her mother Mary Jane couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.

SPEAKER_04 15:13

Edward's behavior unsettled her.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

That's proper reactions. Like, what the fuck are you doing to my daughter right now?

SPEAKER_03 15:28

Till at the funeral he was even guarding her body.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Like, oh, let's see her for her last time. Yeah, you guys can look at all of don't look at her neck. Check everything out, all you want, just don't look at her.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

It's stupidity. 1800.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

It's bringing out the dark parts because it's making me laugh and it shouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Like Well no, it's not. We're not it's not a big thing. I know not the situation. It's just what stupidity. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

It seems like he's acting like Kramer or something in the fucking middle of this fucking investigation.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

No, no, no, no, no, no, don't you look at it. And deep down, Mary Jane believed her daughter did not die naturally.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

But belief alone wasn't enough. Zona was buried, the town was moving on, and officially the case was closed. Then, according to Mary Jane, the dream started.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Or at least that's what she called them at first. She later claimed that several nights after the funeral, she awoke suddenly to find Zona standing beside her bed.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Mama loves you, honey, but you gotta go back to the fucking Mam!

SPEAKER_04 16:42

Mam! Hell no.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Mama, where were you? Not as she appeared in life, but pale. Still silent.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Mary Jane said her daughter's spirit appeared for four consecutive nights. And each night the story became clearer. According to Mary Jane, Zona told her that Edward had become enraged one night over something as small as dinner.

SPEAKER_04 17:15

The argument escalated and then he attacked her.

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Mary Jane later claimed, Zona's spirit said Edward grabbed her violently before breaking her neck.

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And then to prove it, Mary Jane claimed the apparition turned its head completely around.

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In a small Appalachian town in 1897, stories like that spread fast. Especially in communities where belief in spirits, omens, and signs from the dead was already deeply rooted in local culture.

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Neighbors began whispering that Zona's death had never made sense.

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And slowly, people started questioning Edward too. Determined to be heard, Mary Jane travelled to Lewisburg to speak with local prosecutor John Alfred Preston.

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At first, he reportedly dismissed the ghost story entirely.

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But Mary Jane refused to back down. She spent hours explaining why she believed her daughter had been murdered.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

And eventually, whether Preston believed in ghosts or not, he began believing there was enough doubt to reopen the investigation.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

When Preston questioned Dr. Knapp again, the doctor admitted he had never completed a full examination of Zona's body.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

That alone was enough to justify an examination.

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And on February 22nd, 1897, Zona's body was brought out of the ground for a second examination. And this time they would examine her neck. If Mary Jane was lying, the autopsy would prove it.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

But if she was telling the truth, then a ghost had just led investigators to a murder.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

And beneath the soil of Greenbrier County, the dead were about to speak again.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

Word spread quickly through town. People whispered about a grieving mother who claimed her dead daughter had returned from the grave.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

And despite publicly denying the accusations, Edward Shu reportedly became furious over the exhumation.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Don't do that! Did you see the video of Chris? Oh, that's what I picture him at.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

I can't that's what I'm saying. Like, it's not funny, but just seeing the way he was acting is like, bro, you're so guilty, it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Kind of reminds me of it.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Well, he didn't know that his neighbor had the camera pointing so well at his house.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

I hate that. Well, it kind of reminds me too of this guy that had murdered his friend, and when they talked about it, like when they found out about the murder, it was on the news station itself, and he was like, What? Like he had to go sit down because he just realized that he had just been caught.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

Do you remember um this just came uh uh God, what was his name? Um the hit the hitchhike the hitchhiker guy.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Um the one that like hitchhike axe killer came.

SPEAKER_03 20:44

Yeah, and then he ended up really like murdering this old man. Yeah.

unknown 20:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

I don't remember what his name was, but yeah, I remember who you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Yeah, that interview was well, at the time it was funny before he k ended up killing this guy, but of course he denied it too. So he was self-defense.

unknown 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

But by then it was too late to stop it. Zona's body was transported to a nearby one-room schoolhouse where an inquest jury gathered to witness the autopsy.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

For hours, doctors carefully examined her remains, and almost immediately they noticed something disturbing.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Her neck did not move naturally.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

The examination revealed that Zona's neck had been broken.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

But not only that, her windpipe had been crushed.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

According to the reports, there were bruises on her throat. Finger marks, but signs she had been strangled before her neck was violently snapped.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

All over dinner. The psychopath.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

You didn't use the right potatoes. Fuck making. You didn't use Idaho potatoes. Yeah, like what the fuck? Learn how to cook? I don't know what to tell you.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Um.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Just the stupid shit. What, bro?

SPEAKER_04 22:11

You use the red potatoes, not the Idaho potatoes, you stupid bitch.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

You didn't cut them all in the same size. They weren't cute!

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Yeah, like what? Come on.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

I don't know, that was fine and stupid.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yeah, that's over the smallest thing as dinner. Like, come on.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

Yeah. The ligaments in her neck had been torn and her vertebrae dislocated. Zona Heaster Shoe had not died from natural causes. She had been murdered.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

Suddenly, Mary Jane's story didn't sound so impossible anymore.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

And across Greenbriar County. People began asking the same question. How did she know?

SPEAKER_03 23:00

Was it intuition? Suspicion? Grief? Or had Zona truly returned to tell her mother the truth? I think I don't know. I think I don't know. I think weird things can happen like that. How do you take? I'm It's just a is for this specifically, it's just a coincidence creep.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

I mean, I I mean, have you seen the uh case about the girl who like drove into the wall killing her boyfriend and his own?

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Oh my god, don't give me that. What the Mackenzie sh what the fuck in her name a big ass butt on top of her?

SPEAKER_01 23:39

But apparently during one of the police cams you can hear somebody saying she killed us. That's kinda eerie because they say that sounded like her friend Devante, or I don't even know his name. But one of the guy that was in the back seat, and I was like, I that was really good.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

She 100% killed them, and then the mom's getting up. Well, she's a good girl. She no, no, she's not. She fucking killed them, you stupid.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

All the weird phone calls of her speaking like Carney to her mom and her saying something about that's going on the world news, and maybe Kim Kardashian will reach out herself and she's like, that's what I was gonna hope in. Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 24:14

Isn't that the one smart thing I think Kim Kardashian did? Didn't she like throw it out? I that's what I read.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

And did you see like during like the whole interview process after the boys were already dead, her dad was wearing that shirt that said like boom, like big comic letters that said B-O-M-M, like boom, like you know?

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Why the fuck would they give her her own prison interview, anyways? Because they always give them an interview, which is stupid.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

It's so annoying. Stop letting them do that. Exactly. Stop letting them sit there and tell their side of the stuff the fucked up story. Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Well, even before the accidents, like she obviously wanted to be famous because she was trying to be an influencer, and then whatever happened she thought was gonna boost it, and even if the records show that the car was trying to slow down, like why were you going a hundred miles per hour heading towards a wall anyway?

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Like, so was she trying to kill herself too or something?

SPEAKER_01 25:02

I don't think she was intentionally trying to kill herself at all, but whatever happened, she definitely could have died and she didn't.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Well, two fuck well.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Two people did because of what she did.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Like, why couldn't she?

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Like she has she easily could have been the third victim. I don't know what happened.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

Did she survive and they died though?

SPEAKER_01 25:20

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

The whole question.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

Why did she why was she the sole survivor of it if she's because I mean a hundred miles per hour into a brick wall, something like How did she survive that?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

She had to She's a dumb bitch. Swerve into it because they were both on the same side.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

She swerved at the last minute. She's crazy. She sounds like she's nuts.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Well apparently, what's that tracker showed that she break real hard? I'm like, that don't matter, so she apparently could have been going.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

Why was she doing it in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 25:52

There's no because I don't know what happened, like I wasn't there. I don't know the argument. I don't know if there was an argument, who knows?

SPEAKER_03 25:59

She sounds like a psychopath.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

She definitely does not seem remorsive at all. And the fact that she has to speak her mom in some kind of fucking parcel tongue.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

I was watching this TikTok kind of similar to that guy who was making fun of Kendra that time. That this guy was making fun of her bun, and he was like, put a big bun on top of his head and like was his head was falling down because he said it was too heavy.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I don't understand. Like, to me, she still seemed that something happened, she's guilty. Two people died. Like, you don't need to execute her, but she deserved a life behind bars.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

No execute her. Well she killed two people.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

She definitely killed two people and it was purpose had to be purpose driven, but like I don't I don't feel bad for it.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

She can go to someone.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Like, obviously, you just you gotta be guilty if you're speaking a whole different fucking language.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

She's she's stupid.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Following the autopsy findings, Edward Shu was arrested and charged with murder.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

And as investigators look deeper into his past, the picture became even darker.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

They learned Zona was his third wife. One former wife had accused him of cruelty, and another had died unexpectedly. And while sitting in jail, Edward reportedly told people he planned to marry seven women in his lifetime.

SPEAKER_04 27:28

Sorry. Okay, seven women.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

So how many was he playing with It just reminds me of Willie Picton. He wanted fifty kills.

unknown 27:41

Idiot.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Right? It was fifty, wasn't it? I think so. Yeah, that's I don't know. What is with these weirdos wanting a certain number?

SPEAKER_01 27:50

I don't know. My next thing starts with the ghost story had been right.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

As if Zona's death meant nothing at all. A month earlier, Zona's death had almost been buried forever.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

No investigation, no murder charge, no justice. Until a grieving mother claimed her daughter refused to stay silent.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

And somehow, the ghost story had been right.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

If someone that close to you claim a spirit revealed the truth about a crime, would you dismiss it completely? Would part of you start wondering if they're telling the truth?

SPEAKER_04 28:32

I would start wondering. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

I'm a big, I don't know, like dreams and like sig I don't know. I'm one of those weirdos.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

I mean if you believe in I mean, paranormal, then that's one of the aspects and you believe in spirits, it shows and Oh yeah, there's definitely have these signs, and there's no reason she'd be just randomly dreaming about her daughter who was murdered. Nobody wants to dream about it.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

A broken net, too. Exactly. It came down to the what how she died.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

So I think that's after re-examination, they're like, oh well.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

So I mean, no, I mean you hear people all the time seeing these seeing, you know, their loved one. Like my mom, for instance, when my or her grandpa died. But that night or the night of his funeral, she saw him and my brother's dad saw his shadow in the doorway. And then like the plants from the funeral home were like moving, like the leaves were moving. Like like wind was I don't know. But they both saw his silhouette and stuff. That's creepy. But like that stuff, like I believe, you know, energies or whatever can come to Yeah. Interact.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

I feel like my grandpa stuck around my grandma's house before they tore it down. My great grandpa down there in the Hillsborough one. Yeah. Because they said they felt I I don't know what they were doing, but they said like the window slammed on them when they were in there. And it was maybe the day after or the day of his funeral. We were all over there and they're cleaning up, helping grandma. Like that's always a good time.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Yeah. They're leaving little messages.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

After the autopsy results became public, fear and suspicion spread rapidly through Greenbrier County.

SPEAKER_04 30:25

People who once viewed Edward Shu as a grieving husband now saw him very differently.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Because the deeper investigators looked into his past, the more unsettling it became.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Stories of cruelty, violence, control, and the growing realization that Zona may not have been his first victim.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

While awaiting trial in the Lewisburg jail, Edward reportedly remained strangely confident.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

According to reports, he openly told people he believed he would walk free. There was no eyewitnesses, no confession, but only circumstantial evidence.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

And one impossible story about a ghost. The trial officially began on June 22nd, 1897.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

The prosecution's case focused heavily on the autopsy findings. The injuries to Zona's neck and Edward's suspicious behavior before the burial.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

But looming over the entire courtroom was the story everyone in town had already heard. The story of Zona's ghost.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Interestingly, the prosecution tried to avoid the ghost story altogether.

SPEAKER_04 31:58

But Edwards' defense attorney believed Mary Jane Heaster could be discredited publicly.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

So during cross-examination, he pushed her repeatedly about the ghost sightings.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

And that decision backfired.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Under intense questioning, Mary Jane never changed her story. Not once.

SPEAKER_04 32:21

She calmly described how Zona appeared to her night after night, how her daughter claimed Edward attacked her.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Fuck yeah, like what the fuck. Maybe that's where they got the idea for the exorcist.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

Maybe, yeah, that was before that.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

The courtroom reportedly sat in stunned silence.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Because whether people believed her or not, Mary Jane sounded utterly convinced that her daughter had returned from the dead.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

On july 11th, 1897, Edward Shrew was found guilty of murdering Zona Heaster Shu.

SPEAKER_04 33:13

He was sentenced to life in prison after the jury recommended mercy.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Fuckers. Yeah. Always too much sympathy back then.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

And now really you're gonna have sympathy for this asshole and not have sympathy for the when the evidence shows that and the grieving mother who seen this and got it right, and you're just oh it was just a it just keeps reminding me of uh uh the haunting a hill house when she kept seeing the bent neck lady.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Oh yeah. And it was her future self that she after she hung herself.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

I wish they'd never stopped making those.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

But yeah, the I wasn't expecting that. Blind Manor was good, but I wish they would have did like stuck with that family story.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

And like developed it more beyond because that was Well, it was based off the book. Well, I never read.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

And then the Blind Manor was based off the cork and the screw or something. I know Reed Whale.

SPEAKER_04 34:10

Me know Engrish, well Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

That's how I feel right now. And while historians point out that the ghost story itself was not official evidence in the case, many locals believed Mary Jane's visions helped uncover the truth.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yeah, because I mean it all after re-examination they found exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

To this day, the Greenbrier ghost remains one of the strangest cases in American history.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

A murder investigation reopened because a mother claimed her dead daughter spoke to her.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

And a killer convicted, after the dead refused to stay silent.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Because in Greenbrier County, even death wasn't enough to bury the truth. And after Edward was convicted, the story should have faded into history. Another Appalachian murder, another man sent to prison, and another grieving family left behind.

SPEAKER_04 35:14

But this case was different. Because people weren't just talking about the crime itself, but they were talking about the ghost.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

And over time, the haunting became inseparable from the murder. Edward Shu was taken to the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville to serve his life sentence.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

But he would never leave prison alive. In March of 1900, less than three years after his conviction, Edward died behind bars during an epidemic outbreak.

SPEAKER_03 35:52

Alright, I'm so tired of these fuckers getting the easy way out.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

They always do. Yeah, he should have been strangled and his neck should have been broken.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Exactly. And fittingly, he was buried in an unmarked grave. Why? He shouldn't have been buried in a grave.

SPEAKER_04 36:13

None of these fuckers should be buried. They should just be inspect by girls.

SPEAKER_03 36:17

Yeah, exactly. But Zona's story didn't disappear with him.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

For generations, people across Appalachia continued retelling the legend of the Green Briar Ghost.

SPEAKER_04 36:33

A young bride murdered by her husband, a mother visited by her daughter Spirit, and a ghost that may have helped solve its own murder. Oh, that's so creepy.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

That'd be a sick movie. That's awesome. It's gotta be good for her. I love ghost movies, though.

SPEAKER_04 36:48

I'm gonna I'll fucking come back from the dead to fucking go after my murder. There's actually fucking grudges, bitches.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Ghost movies are probably my favorite paranormal ones.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

Oh yeah. Well yeah, because they're just they're they're real.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Ooh, and witches. Something about witches and then vampires. I don't know. Those three I love watching so much. They always give me the goosebumps.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

I love the craft, one of my favorites. That's a good one. I love Hocus.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

I never appreciated Blair Witch until I grew up. For some reason, when I watched him when I was younger, I was just like, what the fuck is this?

SPEAKER_03 37:18

The Witch. The Witch is good.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Yeah, Season of the Witch. I really like that one.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

Season of the Witch is the game.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

I love Nicholas Cage and Ron Perlman.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

Ron Pearlman, I I'm gonna say this. If you follow him on social media, he is the wokest motherfucker ever. And you wouldn't think of it looking at him because of how he is and the like the characters he portrays. I mean with Clay, I guess I could see that.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Hellboy.

SPEAKER_03 37:48

Today, near the cemetery where Zona is buried, stands a historical marker placed by the state of West Virginia.

SPEAKER_04 37:56

And written on that marker are the words that still unsettle people more than a century later.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Only known case in which testimony from a ghost helped convict a murderer.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Okay, if any of our listeners live there, please send us a picture. Yes. I've seen it, but that's cool. I want to see it. Let's go. Like in person. Let's go! West Virginia. Now I need to see that. Take me home.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Here we come.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Country Road. Of course, skeptics argue Mary Jane Heaster likely suspected Edward long before the visions began.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Some believe her dreams were simply grief. Combined with details, she subconsciously noticed at the funeral.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

Others believe the ghost story itself became exaggerated over time, but a legend built from tragedy.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

But even skeptics admit, without Mary Jane pushing investigators to reopen the case, Edward Shu may never have been arrested at all. And maybe that's why the story still lingers. Not because people fear ghosts. But because deep down people want to believe the truth cannot stay buried forever.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

That even after death, the victims still matter.

SPEAKER_04 39:21

And maybe sometimes they still find a way to be heard.

SPEAKER_03 39:26

Especially in places where the mountains remember everything. More than a century later, people still ask the same question. Did Zona Heaster shoe really return from the dead?

SPEAKER_04 39:40

Was Mary Jane Heaster visited by her daughter Spirit? Or was she a grieving mother desperately searching for answers?

SPEAKER_01 39:49

And if the ghost story never happened, would anyone have questioned Zona's death at all?

SPEAKER_03 39:55

Because even stripped of the paranormal elements, certain parts of this case remain deeply unsettling.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

The scarf wrapped tightly around Zona's neck. Edward refusing to let anyone examine her properly. The rushed burial.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

And the fact that the original examination ended before doctors ever discovered that her neck had been broken.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

A murder that nearly disappeared forever. In Appalachian culture, stories about signs, spirits, and messages from the dead have existed for generations.

SPEAKER_04 40:34

Dreams were often seen as warnings, visions carrying meaning. And many families believed the dead could return when something was left unresolved.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

Which makes this case feel uh almost inevitable. Like the story belonged to the mountains long before it became famous.

SPEAKER_03 40:55

But maybe the Greenbrier ghost has survived all these years for another reason, too.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

Because beneath the folklore, there's something painfully human at the center of it.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

A young woman whose voice was nearly erased.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

And a mother who refused to let people forget her. Whether the visions were real or not. Maybe Zona's ghost never appeared at all.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Maybe grief simply pushed Mary Jane to notice what others ignored.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Or maybe some truths refused to stay buried.

SPEAKER_03 41:32

A broken neck beneath a scarf. A mother waking in the dark. A dead woman standing beside the bed, asking to be heard. And somewhere in the hills of West Virginia, people still wonder what really visited Mary Jane all those nights ago. And that concludes this episode of Veil of Echoes.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

If you'd enjoyed tonight's episode, make sure you're following Veil of Echoes on your favorite podcast platform.

SPEAKER_04 42:03

You can also follow us on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for teaser clips, tarot style posts, weekly polls, and behind the scenes content.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

This Monday, we continue one of the darkest stories in modern American history.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

In part two of our Columbine series, we step deeper into the aftermath.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

The library.

SPEAKER_04 42:43

And how Columbine changed schools in America forever.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Until next time, keep your ears open.