January 2022

Page A12 JANUARY 2022 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A www. vischerfuneralsupplies.com Order Direct at 1-800-782-8249 Free UPS Ground Shipping www.mccordcasketsandvaults.com When an autopsy was performed it was discovered that Zona suffered a broken neck (second and third vertebrae fractured), crushed larynx and had bruises consistent with finger pressure marks on her throat. She had been stran- gled. Edward Shue knew he was to be arrested and proclaimed, “but they will not be able to prove I did it!” Shue was arrested by Sheriff Hill Nickel and a trial date of June 22, 1897, was set before Judge J. M. McWhorter. He pleaded not guilty. Mary Jane Heaster described her “dreams,” rather than referring to them as the supernatural visits she truly felt she experienced. The defense tried unsuccessfully to repudiate her testimony. She held firm to her story and offered facts that would be difficult to know without this ghostly assis- tance. Edward Shue testified in his own defense and did not win over the jury. After an hour’s deliberation, Shue was found guilty of murder. A lynch mob gathered to give their idea of justice to Shue until the Sheriff ended the raid. He was sentenced to life in prison. In 1900, measles swept through the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville and complicated with pneumonia, Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue died on March 13, 1900. His exact burial site is not known. As with many of these stories, various accounts tell a slightly different version of facts. Several theater and musical adaptations of this story were created by West Virginia residents and performed by local theater groups. “He had boasted that he expected to have seven wives. In this, however, he was disappointed. He passed to the Great Beyond to meet the three he treated so brutally here.” –Judge J. W. McWhorter in a letter to a friend after the trial Observations “It was not a dream. I don’t dream when I am wide awake, to be sure; and I know I saw her right there with me.” –Mary Jane Heaster’s testimony at the Edward Shue Trial. When the prosecutor has a ghost of a chance of convic- tion in a murder trial, he may accept the testimony of an apparition to help win his case. Mary Jane Robinson Heaster had great suspicions about the sudden death of her daughter, Zona. It wasn’t until her daughter’s postmortem visits gave her the information to charge Zona’s husband with her murder. Elva Zona Hester (known by Zona) was born in Green- brier, West Virginia in 1873. It was reported that she had an illegitimate child born in 1895. In 1896, she met Eras- mus (also referred as Edward or Trout) Stribbling Trout Shue. Zona’s mother, Mary Jane, did not approve of this out of towner, who was working as a blacksmith. She knew there had to be more to learn about his background. Zona was smitten with Shue and they eloped shortly af- ter they met, over the objections of her mother. On January 23, 1897, 125 years ago, Elva Zona Heaster Shue was found dead in her home in Lewisburg, Virgin- ia. Andy Jones, an 11-year-old neighborhood boy went to the Shues’ home, at Shue’s request, to see if Zona needed anything from the market. He found her sprawled on the bottom of the stairs leading to the second story, her eyes open wide. Andy ran back to his home and told his moth- er what he saw. Andy went to the blacksmith’s shop where he told Zona’s husband Edward what he had discovered at the Shue home. The woefully stricken Edward imme- diately ran to his home. He swept his deceased wife in his arms and carried her to the bedroom and requested that the coroner, Dr. GeorgeW. Knapp, be called to declare the cause of death. When Dr. Knapp arrived, Shue had bathed her, clothed her in her finest stiff high collared dress and had her ly- ing in bed with a veil over her face and tied in a large bow under her chin. He cradled her head, making the doctor’s examination, difficult and incomplete at best. When the examination involved her head, Shue fell into deep grief By Steven Palmer and, in compassion, Dr. Knapp relented, and a more exten- sive investigation would not happen then. He declared that she “died of an everlasting faint,” presumably a heart attack. There was also speculation that Zona was pregnant. Edward Shue was fully involved in his wife Zona’s prepara- tion for burial, and he placed her in the unfinished casket, al- ways protective and cradling her head. The visitation was held at Zona’s childhood home of her mother, Mary Jane, at Big Sewell Mountain. Edward Shue’s actions at the casket caught mourners’ attention. He had tied a large scarf around her neck, claiming it was her favorite. He had placed a folded sheet by one side of her head and a piece of clothing on the other. He stayed by the head end of her cas- ket keeping people at a distance. All of this was not lost on Mary Jane. Her distrust and ani- mosity toward him grew. Burial followed the next day at a little hilltop cemetery, what now is known as Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery . It was then that an important witness appeared to Mary. She prayed nightly that her daughter would visit her and tell of what truly happened. The ghostly image of her daughter Zona came to visit her over a period of four nights. This spec- ter of Zona revealed that Edward had killed her as she had not prepared any meat for dinner. He had broken her neck. At one visit, the apparition walked away fromMary’s bed, her head turned completely around to look back at her mother. Thoroughly convinced that the visions were real, and she now knew what Edward had done, she visited Lewisburg at- torney John A. Preston. After listening toMary’s recounting of the ghostly visits, he would prosecute Edward Shue, as there was quite a bit of circumstantial evidence to bring charges. As Preston investigated Shue, he found a lot of disturbing parts of Shue’s past. Shue had lost two wives who died by trauma. One was killed from a broken neck after falling from a haystack. A second wife was killed as a stone fell on her head as they repaired their chimney at their home. He also had served two years in prison for stealing a horse. Preston interviewed Dr. Knapp about his examination of Zona and realized that any of these suspicions were never in- vestigated. The only way to know would be to exhume her body. The Case of the Apparitional Evidence Steven Palmer entered funeral service in 1971. He is an honors graduate of the New England Institute of Applied Arts & Sciences. He has been licensed on both coasts, he owned theWestcott Funeral Homes of Cottonwood and Camp Verde, AZ, where he remains active in operations. Steve offers his observations on current funeral service issues. Hemay be reachedbymail at POBox 352, Cottonwood, AZ 86326, by phone at (928)634-9566, by fax at (928)634-5156, by e-mail at steve@westcottfuneralhome.como r throughhiswebsite at www.westcottfuneralhome.com or on Facebook. F U N E R A L H O M E & C E M E T E R Y N E W S w w w . N o m i s P u b l i c a t i o n s . c o m Monthly Columns online at Funeral Service Podcast Reaches Milestone Through My Mourning Fog is a Poignant Look Back on the Author’s Experience with Losing her Beloved Husband Broeske shares, “The journey of our lives was filled with heartache and gladness. Sometimes I wondered which outweighed the other. “In just three months, we would celebrate another an- niversary, or would God change our plans? Did I have the strength to face what may come next? “My ability to cope was hanging on each letter that formed my words. I wondered if this time, life may prove to turn in a direction I was unaware of. There wasn’t one thing I could do to change the fog I was about to walk through.” Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Marilyn Lange Broeske’s new book is a personal retelling of the author’s experience with coping with significant loss. Broeske shares a heartfelt and open account in hopes of helping others who are learning to rebuild after losing a loved one. Consumers can purchase Through My Mourning Fog at traditional brick and mortar bookstores, or online at Am- azon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. DELAWARE COUNTY,IN— In late October, Under- taking: The Podcast crossed the 300-episode mark. Since it began three years ago, the show has become popular both in the United States and internationally. Regular listen- ers in over 50 countries have streamed or downloaded the MEADVILLE,PA— Through My Mourning Fog : a powerful exploration of grief and learn- ing to live again. Through My Mourning Fog is the creation of published author Mari- lyn Lange Broeske, a loving mother, grandmother, and great grandmother who mar- ried her high-school sweet- heart at age seventeen. The devoted couple were married for forty-five years in 2015. podcast over 500,000 times. In the fall of 2018, Indi- ana funeral directors and embalmers Ryan Ballard and Brian Waters started the podcast to tell the sto- ry of funeral service from the inside. “Funeral ser- vice can be a lonely pro- fession because many of us work in relative solitude,” explained Brian Waters. “This podcast began as a way to connect funeral direc- tors as a wider community,” said Ballard. “But it’s also be- come a way for consumers to learn more about the servic- es their local funeral home provides to the community.” Since its inception, the podcast has interviewed doz- ens of leading names in funeral service as well as differ- ence makers both inside and outside of the death care industry. The podcast frequently highlights the impor- tance of organ and tissue donation and advocates for its greater acceptance in funeral service and in society at large. Twice each month, the podcast features funer- al director and educator, Todd Van Beck, who shares historical funeral service stories. Undertaking: The Podcast tells the story of funeral ser- vice through the eyes of funeral directors themselves. In new episodes released every Tuesday and Friday, the hosts share the struggles common to funeral directors across the globe, while also highlighting the stories of those who have experienced the death of a loved one. Listen to Undertaking: The Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. @Nomis.Publ ications Like us on