The Greenbrier Ghost

Hello Coven! We are happy to announce that we are back in the same state. There is some extra yapping in this one, but we are just so excited we can be back and consistent with you guys! We have missed you. Please send us any recommendations or stories you'd like us to talk about!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, Coven. Hi, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome back. To Smoke and Salt. Guess what? What? We're in the same room. Oh, I know. I'm back. I came back. I'm so glad. I know. Lots has changed. Lots have changed.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Things and stuff. Things have changed. My name is is still Evangeline, though.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I think I'm still Elowin.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

It's been 475 years.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

It literally has.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Since the Titanic sank.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

It's not funny. People people died.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

They did. I just had to say it because I immediately got a flash of like. It's been 84 years. The the heart, you know?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Yeah. The heart of the ocean.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

You can buy that in Pigeon Forge now.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Can you? I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

They have a whole like museum and you can buy a little heart in the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, I knew they had the museum or whatever, but I didn't know you could buy that.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

That's cool. Anyway. We're out of practice.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Well, you're out of practice. I'm out of practice and out of breath, so it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Also, if there's like popping.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Oh yeah, if there's popping in the background, it's my candle. I'm sorry. It smells real good. It it does smell good. It does. But but they can't smell that. They can't. They can only hear the popping. It's it's one of those woodwick candles that has a a wood wick. It's going. I don't think we're okay today.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

No. I haven't been okay in a very long time though. It's okay. It's alright. Makes for great content. You know what? I should do an entire episode of just bloopers.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yes. Also, when I'm not pregnant anymore, we need to get drunk and do one. That would be really fun. Also, Eloyn is with child. Oh, well, yeah. Caprize.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Caprize. I'm gonna be an aunt. An auntie.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

I'm gonna have to be a whole ass mom. I have to raise a human from scratch.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I mean, I did alright.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

I'm stressed.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Well, do you want to talk about a ghost?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

I absolutely want to talk about a ghost.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

I've been on a paranormal kick. I know you just said that you've been on one too.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah. Yeah, we both have.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

I even resorted to watching ghost adventures.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

We've talked about this.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

I know.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

It's real bad. Travel channel has, and they are not sponsoring us whatsoever, but they have great I know that would be awesome. They have the best like paranormal shows.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

I need to I need to do that because I have just, I don't know, I've been itching for a ghost. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

And I have too. It's fine. I've been on a ghost kick lately, and all I want to do is watch paranormal stuff, but I haven't in a long time.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

I haven't in a long time either. I think mine started though because I follow this one guy on TikTok and he he calls it a great American gay side quest.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

And he's like going on this tour basically where he's traveling through like right now, it's like Arizona and Utah and Nevada, but he's staying at haunted places and he's doing like he'll do ghost hunting and he'll like get up in the room because he stays in the haunted rooms, obviously. And he's like, ground rules no standing in any corners, no standing at the ends of my bed. Do not tickle me. And he goes through this like long list. He's like, We can have fun, okay, girl, but like don't tickle me.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

I love that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

I'll have to send it to you. It's really funny. He's like this adorable little gay guy, and he's so cute. But then he gets up and he's like, Listen, girls. I fucking love it. That's awesome. And I think that's why it started. Yeah. And he stayed at like he stayed at like the Stanley, and then there was another one. I want to say it was like Cooper something. I don't know. And like Bisbe, he stayed in Bisbee, which is I'll have to, I'll just have to share it with you. It's really cool. Okay. He's adorable and I love him. All right, are we ready?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yes. What do you have for me today?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I have the story of the Green Briar Ghost. Let's looking run it. Little backstory. It's a paranormal legend in American history, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

It happened in West Virginia in the 1890s. And it's so it's a legend because it's tied to like a real murder case. So it happened in the Appalachian Mountains in 1897. And it's like really well documented. Like there's court records and newspaper articles and like local history. If you were to visit Green Byer Greenbrier, West Virginia.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Okay. So why if it's real? Why is it like I guess maybe you'll get into that why it's legend?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

I think that it because it's a recorded real murder trial where some of the evidence came from a ghost.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Oh hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

So this took place in the isolated farming communities of Greenbrier County. It's a it's the boondocks surrounded by forests, dirt roads, mountains in the late 19th century. Obviously, we've talked about this before when we've talked about like that time period in in the Appalachian Mountains. It was difficult, right? Like it was hard.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

And a lot of the times you were hungry and like I can imagine it would be hard to like get places or like get food, livestock.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

And then also this period of time, the traditions of like the Appalachian people were still super prevalent. So a lot of families believed in omens and spirits and folk medicine and supernatural warnings. Yeah. Right. Death was a super common part of life. There were accidents, illness, harsh living conditions. I guess because of all of that, people needed reasons, right? Your wife died of an illness that we would know exactly what it was today. Right. Didn't know what it was then. There's gonna be they're gonna make something up to make it make sense, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah. Also, they had a lot of they have they had a lot of different illnesses than we do now.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah, because we have vaccines.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Yeah, that's a thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

All right, let's talk about the story. Okay. I'm out of practice. Just bear with me. At the center of the story is a young woman. Her name is Zona Hester Shu.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Zona?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Zona.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Tell me about her.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

By most accounts, she was considered attractive, energetic, and friendly. She grew up in the Greenbrier County with her mom, Mary Jane Hester, who was known to be protective of her, obviously. And then Zona eventually met a traveling blacksmith named Aramis Stribling Trout Shoe, and they called him Trout.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

I don't think anybody liked that guy.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

She was like, That's him. That's my man. He's the one Trout. He was older and had a reputation that made some people uneasy, you know, a little bit of a rake. Okay. Before arriving in Greenbrier County, he had already married multiple times, one marriage ending in divorce, and another wife had died under mysterious circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Mmm.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

And even at that time, the locals were like, he's suspicious.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I mean, I judging on that, what you've just told me. And he just like rolls into this town, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

And he's a little shady.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

A little rakey. A little slutty. Okay, I wasn't gonna say it. And now he's already been married two times. And then then poor Zona, she's gonna be thrice.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Despite concerns from her family, she married Trout in 1896.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Zona and Trout, EST 1896.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

And obviously, as I mentioned at the beginning, this murder trial was taking place in 1897. So they were not together very long. Oh, wow, that was very short. Yikes on bikes. So they got married in 1896, and then a few months later, on January 23rd, 1897, a young boy was sent to the house to run errands and discovered Zona's body at the bottom of the stairs.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

According to the reports, at the time, Zona's body was laying straight with her feet together and one hand resting on her stomach, and her head was tilted oddly to one side.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

So like she was positioned that way.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

She was positioned. And obviously the little boy was like, fuck this, and he like ran to get help. Yeah. Normal things. Right, right. So now we call in the local doctor. And he's George W. Knapp. Okay. He arrived. Okay. Trout was behaving strangely, according to course he was. To the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Fucking trout.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Instead of allowing the doctor to examine the body normally, Shu had already dressed Zona in a formal high-necked dress with a stiff collar and wrapped a scarf tightly around her neck.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Why are you doing those things, Trout?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Yeah, I was like, hello? Maybe you need to swim upstream, because what the fuck are you doing? Is that salmon? It might be salmon. Salmon too. Maybe so. That's fine. Witnesses later said he seemed unusually emotional but also defensive whenever anyone came near her head or neck. So like.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

So like he didn't want the scarf to be removed. Right. Is it like that? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

I would I would that's kind of what I gathered. Like maybe either she had bruising or maybe maybe he broke her neck and like you could see it. Or slit it. Yeah. But I don't know if he if he slit her neck because there was no mention of like the boy saying there was blood. Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Okay, right. Which would make sense if he did that.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah. Dr. Knapp later admitted that shoe's behavior interfered with the examination because forensic science was extremely limited at the time, and because the husband was hovering over the body throughout the process, the doctor never completed a thorough autopsy. So like Do you have an office for this? I guess he they just like went and got the doctor and said, Hey, come look at this body. And then Trout was like, uh-uh. But also, how quickly did where was Trout when the boy came to run errands? Saw the body. How long did it take him to get to the doctor and come back? And in that time, her husband had dressed her.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah, a t a time would be helpful. Because I feel like if he would have known the boy was at the house, he wouldn't have let him get that far.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Right. Yeah. Like it's just weird. Yeah. Initially, the cause of death was listed vaguely as everlasting faint. And this was a term sometimes used in that era when no clear explanation existed. There probably would have been an explanation if he could have seen her next.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah, probably. And I feel like also in autopsies now, there's a box for that where it's like undetermined. Right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Not everlasting faint.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Yeah, you know, the 1896 of it all.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

It's fine. Later, the record was changed to complications from childbirth, despite there being little evidence to support that conclusion. Did she have did she have kids? I don't know. I don't even know if she was pregnant. Maybe they knew that. I don't know. But it even says that like there was little evidence to even support that. So like why are we changing it to complications from childbirth? Unless maybe she had just recently had a baby and they were and it was like a couple days later, and they were like it looked like she did, but maybe she like miscarried or something. Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Ugh. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Zona was buried quickly in a nearby cemetery, but her mother, Mary Jane, became convinced that something was wrong. She reportedly never trusted Trout, obviously. Yeah, like Obby, rightfully so. Yeah, and believed almost immediately that her daughter had been murdered. Which I feel like if I was her mom, I would come to that conclusion too.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah. I mean, because you know your kids. Right. And you know the things that they go through. And I'm sure I don't know how the relationship was between her and her mother, but typically back then, like unless you're just like a piece of shit mom.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Right. You're pretty close. Yeah. Yeah. Even though it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

So she probably told her mom a lot.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

In the days after the funeral, Mary Jane claimed strange events began happening in her home. She later described hearing unexplained sounds at night and sensing that someone was standing in her room.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

I wonder how far away Zona died from her mom's house.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

I don't know. I mean, typically you think about it back then everybody lived fairly close together.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So like a lot of the times there was like family compounds and shit. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah. So I wouldn't imagine she would be that far, but I mean you typically either I mean I've never been a ghost before. Right, right. But this is what I have heard that you go back to the places that were familiar or the people.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, but like it could have also been her childhood home.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

And her child Yep.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

So after she starts hearing strange sounds and like sensing that someone was in her room, she said that Zona's spirit appeared to her over four consecutive nights.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Mary Jane claimed the ghost first appeared silently at the foot of her bed before eventually speaking. Do not stand at the foot of my bed. Yeah, don't do that. During later appearances, Zona supposedly revealed exactly how she died. According to the account from Zona's ghost via her mother, Trout Shoe became enraged when Zona failed to prepare the dinner the way that he wanted.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Okay. Make your own dinner, number one. Number two, did you even communicate with her how you wanted dinner?

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Right, or did you just like have it in your head and then get pissed off that she didn't read your mind?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

But also stop it. I can't help it. Also, you're gonna eat what I fix. Or you're gonna starve. Or you and you go into bed hungry.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Mm-hmm. So according to Ghost Zona, the argument escalated into violence and he attacked her, breaking her neck.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

The most chilling detail in the legend came from Mary Jane's claim that the apparition turned its head completely around to demonstrate how her neck had been snapped.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yikes. I feel like I would shit myself. I I would also shit myself.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

So that image became one of the like defining moments of the whole ghost like folklore and helped cement the story in like American supernatural history, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

And also it was like the 1890s, so I feel like people were like, it's a demon. Yeah, they did love their demons back then.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

They really did, yeah. Yeah. Everything was evil.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Everything needed holy water.

unknown 15:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

And an exorcism.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

But now they would probably just like give you Prozac and tell you to go home. They do do that, don't they? Yeah. But also, another thing before I continue, I feel like that would be compelling, right? Because Zona's mom in the accounts wasn't there when the doctor came, right? And didn't see trout keeping the doctor from examining Zona's head and neck.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

That's very true. She probably never even saw the body.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Right. So, like So how would she know that? Her saying Zona's ghost told me that he broke my broke her neck, then I feel like that probably would have made it a lot more compelling, especially back then.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Also, why don't ghosts talk to us like that anymore? Because I feel like every time we watch it like a paranormal whatever, it's like Kevin, Barstool. Like they just say one word. They don't like she's getting like whole sentences.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

She's getting like whole premonition. Well, it wouldn't be a premonition, would it? Like ghost encounter, like dream, you know, whatever. She's getting like the full workup, and I'm a little jealous. I know. Mine just knocks shit off. Yeah. Like it just throws stuff. And I'm like, you could communicate a little better than that.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yeah, just like, can can we talk? Like, I'll talk. Can we just walk through this? Exactly. I would like for my stuff to remain on the shelf. Let's talk through our differences. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Anyway. Determined to prove her daughter had been murdered, Mary Jane went to the local prosecutor, John Alfred Preston. Alfred. And obviously the ghost story itself sounded unbelievable, but Preston already had concerns about the suspicious circumstances surrounding Zona's death and like her husband's behavior during the funeral. So combined with Mary Jane's insistence and the inconsistencies in the medical report, authorities agreed to exhume the body. Hell yeah. Zona said, I'm getting my justice today. She said, You're not gonna kill me because you didn't like these potatoes. Mm-hmm. And a comb breed. The second examination revealed more evidence, obviously. Doctors discovered that Zona's neck had indeed been broken. Specifically, the first and second vertebrae had been crushed and her windpipe showed signs of severe trauma.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

And that's not gonna happen just falling down the stairs like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

No. Bruising on her throat suggested strangulation or violent force. The findings completely contradicted the original cause of death and transformed the case from a mysterious tragedy into a murder investigation. And Trout was arrested.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

You go, you go, Zona.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Trout needed to be arrested for his name alone.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Really? But who I would have picked literally anything else to go by. I would have gone by Aramis over Trout. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

I think I would have picked that too. But you know, whatever. Not our names. We weren't the mama.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Although probably have some questions for her too. But anyway. The murder trial quickly became national news because of its bizarre connection to the supernatural. Newspapers across the country printed sensational headlines about the ghost witness from West Virginia. During the proceedings, prosecutors focused mainly on the physical evidence from the autopsy, but the ghost story still hung over the courtroom. The defense attempted to discredit Mary Jane Hester by portraying her as superstitious and emotionally unstable. However, that strategy reportedly backfired. When questioned, Mary Jane calmly and confidently repeated her story about Zona's ghost visiting her. Her unwavering belief made a strong impression on the jury and courtroom spectators.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

That would never fly today.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

No, literally, they would be like, you need a psyche vowel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Which they probably would have done that as soon as she said that. They would have done a psyche vowel anyway.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

But still.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Historically, there is debate about how much influence the ghost testimony truly had on the verdict. And most historians believe the conviction rested primarily on the medical evidence showing Zona's neck had been broken. But also, I feel like without the ghost story, her body wouldn't have been exhumed. True.

unknown 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

And they wouldn't have looked at it. I don't think so either. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Yeah. So it still played a role. Like as much as they're like, yeah, but it was the broken neck. Yeah, but you wouldn't have exhumed the body if she didn't come forward and say, hey, I'm being haunted by my literal child.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Yeah. Like. And obviously, like the ghost story shaped public opinion and kept attention focused on the case. Some researchers believe Mary Jane may have simply pieced together clues that others ignored and she may have noticed bruising on Zona's neck during the funeral or sensed that Trout's behavior was unnatural. Um also though, I feel like how would she have noticed at the funeral if he had dressed her in a high-neck, stiff dress and wrapped a scarf like around her head and neck. I don't know, unless she was looking for anything. Which she very well could have been, and then she could have said, like, they're not gonna believe me, so let me, you know, you never know, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

I wonder unless well, I was gonna say unless Zona visited her before her funeral, and then she looked after the fact.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Maybe. But also when it comes to like those isolated Appalachian communities, dreams and visions were considered like meaningful sources of truth. So her experiences may have felt completely like real to her, even if she conjured up these dreams on her own somehow.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

I mean, there there have been instances of people being so emotional over something that they believe they see their deceased relative, or is that true? I don't we don't know. It could very well be, but you know, sometimes people are just so distraught over it, they conjure this up in their mind.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yeah, but I mean, even it even still, like without her doing that, we wouldn't know what happened.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yeah, but I feel like she couldn't conjure up details.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Exactly. Yeah, she wouldn't know. No, she wasn't there. Witnesses during the trial also described Trout Shoe as controlling and oddly obsessed with his wife's neck even after her death. So, like I kind of almost equate that as now when you are talking about true crime and serial killers or killers in general, and they like return to the place of the crime or they like hide the body somewhere so they can go and visit. That kind of that's kind of what that makes me think of, sort of.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Now I want to know how his um other wife died. Like I wonder if it was similar.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Right. And so she did have a scarf around her neck. It said some testified that he repeatedly adjusted the scarf around her throat. During the funeral and became angry whenever anyone approached the body too closely. Jeez. Others recalled him making strange comments, suggesting no one would ever prove he killed her. Why are you doing that at the funeral, my guy?

SPEAKER_00 22:13

You're being weird. Stop. Stop it.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

After only a short period of deliberation, the jury found Trout Shue guilty of murder. Rightfully so. He was sentenced to life in prison rather than rather than execution, partly because the case relied heavily upon circumstantial evidence, despite the autopsy findings. I don't agree with that, but whatever. Shue continued claiming innocence until his death in prison in 1900. So I mean he didn't even live much longer. Yeah, he didn't much longer after that. So much for that life sentence. Some local legends later claim that his ghost haunts the prison as well. Ew, uh no, thank you. I don't want trout shoe hobag walking around the freaking prison. Over the decades, the Greenbrier ghost story became deeply woven into Appalachian folklore in West Virginia. Writers, paranormal investigators, historians, television programs have all revisited the case countless times. A historical marker still stands in Greenbrier County, commemorating the events, making it one of the few officially recognized ghost stories in American history.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

That's awesome. Yeah, I think that's really I think we need to go to West Virginia. I think so too. I feel like a lot of stories come out of the Virginias. No, yeah. For sure. What is going on? I have questions. What has been going on?

SPEAKER_01 23:32

I have questions. I also have questions. And then just a little bit. I mean, obviously, this continues to fascinate people because between like documented and then like supernatural legend, there really was a murdered woman that really was her name. Like they really did exume her body. There really was testimony from her mother saying that she was being haunted. So it's like it it's kind of crazy when you look at it and you're like, that's a like the overlap is weird, right? Yeah. Which I guess is why it's still like such a tourist spot now, because it's just one of those things that didn't happen. It didn't happen. Ghosts didn't solve murders.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

I wonder how many people after this tried to be like, a ghost told me that um I don't know, I'm trying to think of something. A ghost told me that my husband was cheating on me, and um, so that's why I killed him because it's illegal to cheat on me.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

That probably happened somewhere. Probably somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

I know that wasn't a very good um example, but but I knew what you were trying to do. Right. Like they, you know, they're like, Well, the ghost told me. No, no, that happened once.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

But yeah, I mean, it could have just been like a determined mom and a grieving mom who put the puzzle pieces together, or it could have been a vision from Zona being like trout killed me.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

I think that actually happened.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Yeah, I feel like I just feel like there's she wasn't there, right? She didn't see the body, the little boy ran to get help. Her neck and head were covered, her mom couldn't have known or couldn't have seen. Because I what I'm here's how my brain is working. Because in the beginning the boy said that her neck was at like a strange angle, right? So I'm thinking he put her in that like stiff, like high-collared, and then used the scarf to hold her head in place.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah, I wonder if he if he dressed her after the boy saw her. Yeah. I wonder why the boy didn't say like, I don't know, like she had bruises on her neck or her neck looked weirder.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

I think that he did. So I think that the the boy ran to get help because her he saw her at the bottom of the stairs and her neck was at a weird angle. And then when the doctor came, Trout had changed her clothes, put the scarf around her neck, in my mind, like I said, I think probably to hold her head in place, and then didn't let the doctor get close enough to examine her neck. Yeah, right. Okay, that makes sense. Because like I feel like if it's broken, right, in the way that they said it was broken with the vertebrae and the crushed windpipe, it wouldn't you couldn't turn it and it'd stay, right? Yeah, so hold it there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

It's like that story, the the green scarf lady. Do you remember that story? Yeah, or the green ribbon. The green ribbon, yes, where you take the ribbon off and her head falls off. Yes, which is what would have happened.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Right, yeah. And that's kind of what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Like he's with the green ribbon.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

He's obsessing over her neck, he's making sure her scarf is like perfectly in place. But I think at that point, right, she would have been in a coffin or in a like something at the funeral. Unless that was put her on a buffet table or something.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Yeah. He wanted to make sure she was in the ground.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Right, and he wanted to make sure her neck didn't move at the funeral so nobody could Yeah, because he was like, I'm not going down for some ranked mashed potatoes.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

But he did indeed. But he did. Hell yeah. Yeah, Zona came through. She sure did. And her mom was like, I do not accept. Good for her though. Yeah. That's awesome. I like that story. Yeah, we do need to go to West Virginia. Yep. We're add it to the list. We got we got a growing one. Yeah, we do. At this point, we're we're set to go all over the country. Uh and out of the country.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah, literally. And out of the country. Well, I hope that you guys enjoyed this and we promise we will be more consistent now that we're back in the same state.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, and I'm so sorry if you can hear me breathing. I'm growing a human from scratch, and I I can't breathe.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

I just can't breathe. So I'm not growing anything over here. Except leg hair. I fucking can't with you. Sometimes stuff just comes out. I can't help it.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Oh, my baby's gonna come out a mixed drink. Okay, anyways, like touch grass. Drink water, ground yourself, don't break anybody's neck, and put a scarf around it to cover it up.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah, like don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Okay. Turn the fucking page or something. Turn the page. Okay, bye. Bye.