Mother's Worried Call

Elva Zona Heaster Shue, known as Zona, was only 23 years old when she died unexpectedly. As the mother of Zona, Mary Jane Heaster, watched her daughter be lowered into the cold, dark ground, she began wondering what really happened to her daughter on a dreary day in January 1897. The coroner listed Zona’s death as problems with childbirth, but she had not been giving birth when she died and as far as anyone knew, she wasn’t pregnant. Mary Jane was certain that her daughter’s death was quite unnatural. The mother hoped that Zona would come back from the dead to reveal this unsolved mystery on how she really died. Just two years before Zona’s death, she had given birth to a child out of wedlock- a shameful event in the late 1800s. The father of the baby did not marry Zona, so the young woman was in need of a husband. In 1896, Zona met a handsome young man named Edward Shue who was newly arrived to the town in which they lived. He was planning on becoming a blacksmith. Edward and Zona took an instant liking on one another and a relationship began. Mary Jane wasn’t pleased with Zona’s decision. There was something about him she didn’t like, perhaps even something evil that, blinded by love, could not see. Regardless of her mother’s protest, they were married anyway, on October 26, 1896. Three months passed on their marriage. On January 27, 1897, an 11-year old African American boy named Andy Jones entered the newly wed’s home and found Zona lying on the floor. He had been sent there by Edward to ask Zona if she had needed anything from the market. Little Andy Jones stood there for a moment, not knowing what to make of the scene. Her body was stretched straight out with her legs together with one arm at her side and the other across her body. Her head was tilted to one side. Andy had wondered if Mrs. Shue had just been resting. Something did not feel right and Andy’s heart began racing as he rushed home to tell his mother what he’d found. The local physician and coroner, Dr. George W. Knapp didn’t arrive at the Shue house for another hour. By this time Edward had already taken Zona’s inert body to an upstairs bedroom. When Knapp entered the room he was flabbergasted to see that Edward had redressed her in her best Sunday clothing- a beautiful dress with a high neck and stiff collar. He also covered the woman’s face with a veil. Dr. Knapp tried to examine the body to determine the cause of death with Edward crying hysterically, cradling his dead wife’s head in his arms. Dr. Knapp could find nothing out of the ordinary that would have killed Zona. But then he noticed a slight discoloration on the right side of her cheek and neck. Dr. Knapp wanted to do some further investigation to examine the marks, but Edward protested so intensely that Knapp ended the examination; Zona had died of “an everlasting faint.” For the record he wrote that she had died of “childbirth.” Mary Jane Heaster was beside herself with grief. She knew Zona’s marriage with Edward would come to a bad end, but not this. Her suspicions deepened at Zona’s wake. Edward was acting strange; not exactly like a husband would in mourning. The neighbors seemed to notice it, as well. One moment he seemed grief-struck and the next, highly nervous and agitated. He had placed a pillow on one side of Zona’s head and a rolled up cloth on the other, as if trying to keep it propped in place. He refused to let anyone near her. Her neck was covered with a large scarf that Edward claimed was her favorite. At the end of the wake, as the coffin was being carried to the cemetery, several people noticed an odd looseness of Zona’s head. Zona was buried. Despite all the strangeness surrounding Zona’s death, she had no proof that Edward was to blame, or that any of this seemed unnatural. Mary Jane had taken the rolled up white sheet from Zona’s coffin before it was sealed. Days after the funeral she tried returning it to Edward; he refused to take it. Mary Jane brought it back home with her, deciding to keep it in memory of her daughter. She noticed it had a strange impalpable odor. She filled a basin with water in which to wash the sheet. When she submerged the sheet, the water turned red. Mary Jane jumped back in astonishment. She took a pitcher and scooped some water out. When she did, it was clear. The once-white sheet was now pink and nothing that Mary Jane did could remove the stain. She washed it, boiled it, and hung it in the sun but it stayed stained. Mary Jane thought it was a sign from Zona telling her that her death was far from natural. Mary Jane prayed that Zona could come back from the dead and tell her everything that happened. She prayed the same prayer for weeks, and one day it was answered. From out of the dim atmosphere of night, the spirit of beloved Zona appeared to her on four nights. During these visits, Zona told her mother how she had died. “Edward was cruel and abusive,” Zona said. The night of her death, Edward became irrationally angry because Zona had no meat for his dinner. He savagely attacked his wife, leaving her with a broken neck. To prove this, the ghost of Zona slowly turned her head completely around at the neck. Zona’s ghost confirmed her mother’s worst suspicions. It all made sense now, why Edward was acting so odd. He had murdered her. Mary Jane took her story to the local prosecutor, Alfred Preston. Preston listened patiently as Mary Jane told her story about the encounters she had with her deceased daughter. Mary Jane ordered her daughter to be sent to have an autopsy. And just as she expected, it revealed exactly what the ghost of Zona had told her. Edward Shue was arrested on charge for murder. As he awaited trial in jail, Edward’s background came to light. He had served time in jail in the past for stealing a horse. He had been married twice before, each marriage suffered under his violent temper. His first wife divorced him after he angrily threw all of her belongings out the window. His second wife wasn’t so lucky; she died under mysterious circumstances of being blown to the head. His jail keepers and cellmates reported that Edward bragged that it was his intention to eventually have 7 wives. Normally, such a conviction would have brought a sentence of death, but because of the circumstantial nature of the evidence, Edward was sentenced to life in prison. He died on March 13, 1900 in the Moundsville, W.V. penitentiary.
This story is an odd one. I never thought a ghost could come back and solve her own murder. Whether this is true or not, the story tells me that ghosts are real and things like this can really happen. I don’t like the fact that they drug this story out so long, but then again it gave me more of a description on what actually happened in this story. I’ve enjoyed reading about all the ghost stories that people have been through. Hopefully I will get to encounter some myself.


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