1897 Zona Heaster Shue Murder-128 years later-Grave and locations-West Virginias most famous Ghost

Zona Heaster met Trout Shue and instantly fell in love with the powerful 35 year old blacksmith. Though her mother vehemently objected, within weeks the two were married. Three months later on January 23rd 1897, Zona was dead. Rumors of murder persisted. As far as her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, was concerned the rumors were verified when Zona’s ghost appeared to her four nights in a row and told her of Trout’s cruelty. Mrs. Heaster's persistent telling of this story prompted authorities to exhume Zona’s body, and find that her neck had been broken. Unfortunately for Shue, his attorney decided to ask Mrs. Heaster about her ghostly sighting. It seemed obvious that he was doing it to try and make Mary Jane look ridiculous to the jury. He characterized her “visions” as a mother’s ravings and worked hard to admit that she might have been mistaken about what she allegedly saw. He continued to badger her for quite some time, but Mary Jane never wavered in her descriptions of Zona’s ghost – nor about what the specter had told hr about Shue’s guilt. When the defense counsel realized that the testimony was not going the way that he wanted, he dismissed her. By that time, though, the damage was done. Because the defense and not the prosecution had introduced the testimony about the spirit, the judge had a hard time telling the jury to exclude it. It was apparent that most of the people in the community believed that Mary Jane had seen her daughter’s ghost. Despite Shue’s eloquent testimony in his own defense, the jury quickly found him guilty. Ten of them even voted that he be hanged, which spoke volumes about Mrs. Heaster’s believability as a witness. Without a unanimous verdict of death, though, Shue was sentenced to life in prison. All Information in this video is taken from public sources available to anyone. Thank you members, subscribers and Patreon members! You help keep us on the road! If any of you would like to contribute to the "gas fund" to help go find all these amazing places, we would sure appreciate the help! Doing videos gets harder as we go. The best way to help is directly through Paypal. Our address is: leonardnew@hotmail.com Cash App $hauntedheather Join this channel to help us do more!    / @thehillbillyfiles   Patreon link https://patreon.com/user?u=83008657 Want a special video message from Leo? follow our link to order one! https://www.cameo.com/hillbillyfiles