Hi, listeners, it's Carter Roy. Before we get into today's episode of Murder True Crime Stories,

I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love, Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bot.

Every Monday, Dr. Bot goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations,

doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena, and events that science

still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files, not myths,

not superstition, just incomplete explanations, waiting for a closer look.

Hidden history drops every Monday.

Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

So you never miss a mystery. This is Crime House.

There's a saying in the legal profession, the evidence speaks for itself.

You don't need a confession if the facts are strong enough. You don't need a

witness if the science is clear. The truth is the truth, no matter how it comes to light.

But in 1897, in a small West Virginia courtroom, the evidence came to light in a way that no one had ever seen

before and hasn't seen since. After a young woman named Zona Heister Shoe was found dead in

her Greenbrier County home, her mother, Mary Jane, prayed for answers. Despite what the doctor said, she knew Zona hadn't died of

natural causes, and eventually she learned the truth from Zona herself. Mary Jane claimed that

Zona's ghost appeared and described exactly how she'd been murdered.

Most people rotted off his grief, but local prosecutor John Preston thought the earthly evidence

was suspicious enough to warrant a closer look.

The trial that followed divided a community, made legal history, and left behind a question that still debated more than a

century later. Can the dead really speak?

People's lives are like a story.

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