The boy was silent for a moment, not knowing what to do. A woman's body was stretched straight with feet together. One arm is on the side of the body and the other arm in the chest. His head was facing to one side.
initially thought Elva boy was asleep on the floor. He stepped toward her, calling softly, "Mrs. Shue?" When she did not respond, the boy panicked and ran out of the house. He told his mother what he found and the mother called the doctor and coroner, George W.Knapp.
Knapp did not come to ruma Shue until almost an hour. When he arrived, Shue had returned, carrying the body of his wife into the bedroom, cleaning and put on clothes, and laid him on the bed.
Elva Zona Heaster Shue
He's preparing for the funeral of his wife's body wrapped in a high-necked dress with a stiff collar and put a shawl to cover her face.
Knapp want to check the body that, Shue cradled her head and wept. When Knapp tried to check the neck and head Elva, Shue rebelled. Knapp did not want to bother him more, so he left.
he did not find nothing wrong on the part of the body that he has also been examined and Elva care for a few weeks before, so he decided to change the cause of death from "fainting prolonged" to "complications pregnancy. "
Elva's body was taken to his childhood home in Little Sewell Mountain and buried. Shue acting strange during the funeral. It runs on the casket, doing something on the head and neck Elva.
bears up his wife's head with a shawl additional actual pemakamanannya not match the dress, but Shue insisted that it was her favorite scarf. It also supports the head with a pillow and her body rolled cloth.
acting was very strange, but the guests consider it as part of the funeral process. Shue generally liked that no one suspected him.
Intuition is the mother
except Mary Jane Heaster, mother Elva. He never liked Shue, even without any evidence, that he was convinced that the man who killed his daughter.
He hopes Elva could tell her what happened. He then prayed that somehow Elva back from the dead and reveal the truth about his death. He prayed every night for weeks, until finally her prayers were answered.
Heaster said her daughter appeared in his dream for four consecutive nights and storytelling. Initially, his spirit appears as a bright light, then take a human form and make the room feel cooler.
Hantu Elva admitted to her mother that Shue had been cruelly tortured, and one night in a rage attacked her husband because she thought Elva did not cook meat for dinner.
Shue break his neck, said the ghost, rolling his head back. Then the ghost Elva turned and walked away, disappearing into the dark, looking at her mother.
Heaster go to the local prosecutor, John Preston to request that the case be opened again.It is not known whether Preston believe it or not a ghost story, but Heaster persuaded her to start asking people around town.
Shue Neighbors and friends told him about the strange habits while at the cemetery, and Dr. Knapp admitted that the examination on the body Elva incomplete.
Finally Preston perform a complete autopsy, and a few days later, the bodies exhumed Elva though Shue expressed objections. Knapp and two other doctors that the body lay in a school building for testing.
local newspaper, The Pocahontas Times, later reported that, "In the throat there are fingerprints indicating that she was strangled ... that the neck vertebrae to shift between the first and second . bones torn and broken shoulder blade. Stem throat was crushed at a point in front of the neck. "
Elva is clear that death is not natural, but there is no evidence that refers to the killer, and no witnesses. Shue strange behavior since the death of Elva inherent in Preston mind that he began to suspect him.
At the same time, the mother Elva explain exactly how her daughter was killed before the autopsy was performed. Maybe it was him, and ghost stories that just a trick to trap Shue.
was not the first victim of the
continuing investigation and Preston began investigating past Shue. He also knew that Shue had been married twice before. The first ended in divorce when Shue was jailed for stealing a horse. His first wife was later told police that Shue is very rude and abusive.
marriage both ended just eight months with the mysterious death of his wife. Earlier, in prison, Shue boasted that he would marry go times during his life. Death of his second wife and has a history of violent relationships Shue thin but enough for Preston to lead him to the court.
Mary Jane Heaster the prosecution witnesses, and Preston was trying to avoid a part of his daughter's ghost, because it will be considered as a mere rumor.
To prove that he can not be trusted, lawyer Heaster Shue asked extensively about ghost visits her daughter. Tactic worked, Heaster reject dubious report.
many members of the public who seem to believe in the story Heaster, and Shue did not do anything to defend himself, just babbling and asked the jury "to look into his face and said he was guilty."
Greenbrier Independent reported that the statement and his attitude does not help make the spectators sympathy for him. Jury deliberated just over an hour ten minutes before the guilty verdict.
Shue was sentenced to life imprisonment, but died soon after the outbreak of measles and peneumonia who attacked the prison in the spring of 1900. Ny. Heaster lived until 1916, and never deny Elva ghost story.
Historical marker in Greenbrier County was made to commemorate the death of Elva and the court case was unusual. Being the only case in which ghost helped imprison a murderer.
