HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A WV state marker calls this the only case where a ghost's testimony helped convict a murderer; Zona Heaster Shue is buried at Soule Chapel.
US Route 60 near Sam Black Church (Greenbrier Ghost marker), Sam Black Church, WV 24996
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free; roadside historical marker, with the Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery grave nearby
Access
Limited Access
Roadside pull-off for the marker; the cemetery is on uneven rural ground
Equipment
Photos OK
1897 murder case central to the Greenbrier Ghost legend · Subject of an official West Virginia state historical marker · Conviction of Erasmus 'Edward' Shue (July 11, 1897)
Zona Heaster married Erasmus Stribbling Shue, a blacksmith, in late 1896. On January 23, 1897, she was found dead at their home in the Richlands area of Greenbrier County. The death was first attributed to natural causes, and she was buried.
In the weeks afterward, her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, told family and the local prosecutor that Zona's spirit had appeared to her on several nights and said that Edward had broken her neck in a fit of anger. Heaster pressed for the case to be reopened. The body was exhumed on February 22, 1897, and the post-mortem examination found that Zona's neck had been broken and her windpipe injured, with marks consistent with strangulation.
Shue was charged and tried in Lewisburg. He was convicted of first-degree murder on July 11, 1897, and sentenced to the state penitentiary at Moundsville, where he later died. Historical accounts are careful on one point that the folklore tends to blur: the prosecution built its case on the physical evidence from the exhumation, and the mother's account of the ghost played no formal role in securing the conviction.
The case is memorialized by a West Virginia state historical marker on US Route 60 near Sam Black Church, which describes it as the only known case in which testimony attributed to a ghost helped convict a murderer. Zona is buried in Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery.
Sources
What keeps the Greenbrier Ghost in circulation is Mary Jane Heaster's testimony. She maintained that Zona appeared to her over several nights, described how Edward had broken her neck, and even turned her head fully around to demonstrate the injury. Heaster repeated the account under oath, and the defense's attempt to discredit her on cross-examination reportedly backfired with the jury.
The folklore frames the apparition as the thing that solved the murder. The historical record is more measured: it was Heaster's insistence, not the ghost's standing as evidence, that got the body exhumed, and the medical findings did the rest in court. Both versions coexist at the site. The state marker leans into the supernatural framing, and that wording is what most visitors come to photograph.
Reports of present-day phenomena at the marker or the Soule Chapel grave are thin and anecdotal; the draw here is the documented case and its place in state folklore rather than active hauntings.
Notable Entities
The West Virginia state marker on US Route 60 near Sam Black Church summarizes the 1897 Zona Heaster Shue case, which it calls the only known instance in which a ghost's testimony helped convict a murderer. Many visitors pair it with a stop at Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery, where Zona is buried, a short drive away.
Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent. Full disclosure
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Free Guide
11 verified stops, rated for families, mapped in order. Free.
One email to confirm, then the guide link. Unsubscribe anytime.
Elfrida, AZ
The property operated as the Cochise Guest Lodge and Ranch, a dude ranch in Arizona's remote Sulphur Springs Valley. On December 3, 1977, ranch hand James Dean Clark killed four people — ranch owners Charles and Mildred Thumm and two fellow wranglers, Gerald McFerron and George Martin — in a spree that ended with his arrest in El Paso. Clark was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder in 1978 and executed by the State of Arizona on April 14, 1993. The property was subsequently acquired by VisionQuest National, a youth rehabilitation organization founded in 1973, which operates it as a residential program to this day.
La Porte, IN
Between 1896 and 1908, Belle Gunness used her 48-acre farm northwest of La Porte to murder an estimated 40 or more people, including at least two husbands, her own children, and a series of suitors lured by matrimonial advertisements in Norwegian-language newspapers. The farmhouse burned on April 28, 1908, and the case was never fully resolved — Gunness was never captured.
Hawthorne, NJ
On January 9-10, 1850, former farmhand John Jonston stabbed Judge John Van Winkle and his wife Jane to death at their home on Goffle Road in what would become Hawthorne, marking the first murder in Passaic County's recorded history. Jonston was convicted and hanged in the county's first execution. The house gained a haunted reputation, with an 1882 New York Times account describing it as 'the abode of unearthly visitants.'