Today’s story is one of the strangest cases in American history — a murder investigation pushed forward by a ghost. Yes… a ghost.

In 1897, 23-year-old Zona Heaster Shue was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in rural West Virginia. Her husband insisted it was an accident. The doctor listed the cause of death as “childbirth,” even though she wasn’t pregnant. And the funeral? Strange. Controlled. Secretive.

But her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, refused to accept the official story. For four nights straight, she claimed Zona’s spirit appeared at the foot of her bed… revealing how she died and who killed her.

And here’s where things get wild: when the body was exhumed, the autopsy matched the ghost’s exact description — down to the specific vertebrae in her broken neck.

Was this a supernatural confession?

A mother’s instinct so sharp it bordered on psychic?

Or a haunting born of grief that somehow revealed the truth?

This episode blends true crime, folklore, and a courtroom twist that made history.

Because the Greenbrier Ghost remains the only U.S. murder case where a ghost story became part of the legal narrative.

If you like eerie stories, unexplained moments, and cases where the lines between the living and the dead blur… this one is unforgettable.

⸻

About the show

Kat Has Questions is a curiosity-driven podcast about real stories that sound unreal — from unsolved crimes and strange history to the quietly weird corners of human behavior.

New episodes every week.

⸻

Sources & Further Reading

• State of West Virginia vs. Edward Shue, 1897 court transcripts

• “The Greenbrier Ghost” — West Virginia Archives & History

• Smithsonian Magazine, How a Ghost Helped Convict a Murderer

• Appalachian Folklore: Ghost Stories and Legends, Vol. II

• National Register of Historic Places: Greenbrier County documentation

• Historical accounts from the Greenbrier Ghost Museum

• Newspaper archives: The Greenbrier Independent (1897)

• Interviews & folklore analysis from the West Virginia Folklife Center

🎵 Music: “Scrunchy” by Night Drift

Licensed by Uppbeat

License code: CAHWZR9T33BFXDNY

⸻

Contact

📩 ⁠⁠kathasquestionspod@gmail.com⁠⁠

Instagram: @KatHasQuestions

Support the Show

If you’re enjoying Kat Has Questions, follow the podcast, leave a review, or send in a weird historical mystery you want me to dig into next.