In distant 1897, Erasmus ‘Edward’ Stribbling Trout Shue was convicted of murdering his wife, Zona. However, before his conviction, everyone attributed her death to an accident. And the solution to the mystery came from the testimony of a... ghost.
On the morning of January 23, 1897, Zona's body was found by a delivery man and he immediately called for help. Before the coroner could arrive at the house to examine the body, the victim's husband - and his murderer - managed to hide all the evidence that could possibly point to his guilt. His reactions while the coroner was examining the body were hysterical, causing him to reach his limit and attribute Zona's death to natural causes.
As the Unilad, no one suspected anything, except her mother Zona, Mary. In her grief and suspicions, she prayed that somehow the truth would be revealed to her.
One of my favorite things about WV (I have a lot of them) is our love of monsters and ghosts.
I'll tell you about some of my most favorite. pic.twitter.com/Hkpoiuhzvr
- Emily Fridenmaker (@emily_fri) June 20, 2020
So it happened, but in the most... unorthodox way. As she herself later testified, the figure of her lost daughter appeared before her and told her the truth. She told her that her husband strangled her after an argument they had, he squeezed her neck so tightly and broke a knuckle.
After this shocking incident, Zona's mother requested that the case be reopened. She recounted exactly what her daughter had told her to the prosecutor and he ordered her exhumation.
Indeed, after the second examination, it was found that what her mother claimed was proven by the injuries she sustained to her neck. On February 22, 1897, Zona's official cause of death was changed to anoxia by strangulation.
