How A Ghost's Testimony Was Used To Convict A Murderer

A ghost's testimony was once successfully used to convict a murderer.

More specifically, Erasmus 'Edward' Stribbling Trout Shue – yes, that's one person and he was sentenced to prison in 1897 for murdering his wife, Zona.

It's the real-life How To Get Away With Murder/Ghostbusters cross-over episode we never knew we needed.

On the morning of 23 January 1897, Zona's body was found by an errand boy; she was slumped uncomfortably at the foot of the stairs and he called for help.

But before coroner Dr. George Knapp could arrive, Edward returned home. He moved his wife to their bed, dressed her in a high-neck gown, and waited for the medical examiner.

The doctor tried to inspect Zona's body but Edward became so hysterical the coroner was forced to stop midway through and put her death down to natural causes.

Thinking little more of the case, an open casket wake was held for Zona's loved ones where, lo and behold, Edward pulled the same stunt.

He covered her neck, with a scarf this time, and became so hysterical onlookers couldn't get close to Zona.

Still, people assumed it was an intense display of grief and the young woman was buried at Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery the next day.

No one suspected a thing, except for Zona's mother, Mary Jane Heaster.

You see, Mary always had a bad feeling about Edward, but couldn't understand why. Not knowing what else to do, she prayed the truth would come to light.

And it did. According to the devoted mother, her daughter's ghost appeared before her and began to explain the abuse she'd suffered at the hands of Edward.

She even explained the cause of her death, an argument over dinner that had resulted in Edward strangling Zona and snapping her neck 'at the first joint', the ghost was apparently also able to twist her head backward, proving the injury.

Mary pleaded for the case to be re-opened and prosecutor John Preston obliged.

The investigation team exhumed Zona's body, only to find that her neck was marked and broken; the official cause of her death was changed on 22 February 1897 to anoxia from manual strangulation.

But that's not all, as Zona's neck was snapped at the first joint, known as the C1 Atlas and C2 Axis, just like the ghost said.

What's more, upon digging into Edward's background, the investigators found that he had a history of violence and another wife who'd died under mysterious circumstances.

Edward was called to trial and Mary testified against him, recounting her interaction with Zona's ghost.

Mary said of the encounter, as recorded by the West Virginia State Archives: "She told me that her neck was squeezed off at the first joint and it was just as she told me."

When asked whether she thought she'd actually seen Zona, that she hadn't been a dream, Mary said: "Yes, sir, I do. I told them the very dress that she was killed in, and when she went to leave me she turned her head completely around and looked at me like she wanted me to know all about it. And the very next time she came back to me she told me all about it."

The jury would go on to find Edward guilty and convict him of murder.

This is the first and only time the account of a ghost has secured a conviction.

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