Tag Archives: Murder

Haunted Places, Southern Ghost Stories, West Virginia

The Ghost of Elva “Zona” Heaster, West Virginia

April 27, 2025 MJ Cooper

I. A Wretched Discovery

It was the year 1897, in the uneasy heart of Greenbrier County, positioned in the wild underbelly of West Virginia. The home of Edward Shue was rather ominously quiet this particular day. Like an empty grave, its silence was curious and foreboding, holding a secret that was soon to be unearthed. There, amidst the stillness, lay the lifeless body of young Elva “Zona” Heaster, spouse to Edward Shue. Edward, a dark outsider, sat at the center of this grave mystery, his guilt climbing in the eyes of the townsfolk, despite the absence of tangible evidence. He was like a vulture looming ominously over the scene of a terrible tragedy, stirring up a whirlwind of dread-filled uncertainty. His predatory demeanor drew suspicion like a moth to a dimly flickering flame.

II. A Twilight Visitation

With the passage of bleak winter weeks, an unexpected visitor raised a new tremor in this chilling narrative. Mary Jane Heaster, Zona’s grieving mother, stumbled upon an eerie revelation. As the clock struck midnight across four sleep-riddled nights, she was graced by the spectral incarnation of Zona. Like an ethereal ghost tale spun under the stars, Elva’s spirit materialized, propelling the narrative into a realm of the supernatural. She spoke of Edward’s harsh cruelty that transformed their marital home into a chilling battleground, painting vivid dreamscape pictures of domestic tyranny. Her haunting tales concluded with the horrifying revelation: Edward, in an eruption of bitter rage, had broken her neck, extinguishing her life like she was nothing more than a flickering candle. The spine-tingling confession sparked an indistinguishable fear in Mary Jane, gnawing at her sanity and playing out like a Stephen King novel.

III. A Haunting Testimony

This ghostly confession, like the devil whispering secrets from the other side, was enough to shake even the most stubborn skeptic. It fueled Mary Jane with a gruesome determination. She carried this paranormal revelation to the sprawling steps of the local prosecutor’s office, threading her words meticulously, like an elaborate tapestry of the supernatural. Mary Jane retold her spectral exchanges, her face the pallor of moonlight against the darkness the tale was steeped in. The prickle of unease danced through the air as a twisted symphony played by a phantom orchestra as the prosecutor, a rational man at any other time, found persuasion in her chilling account, like an insect caught in the web of a venomous huntress.

IV. A Grisly Re-examination

Aided by Mary Jane’s otherworldly testimony, the prosecutor called for Zona’s body to be returned to the realm of living for a second autopsy. In the autopsy room, death hung in the air, cold and unyielding, imbuing the scene with a certain dreadful mystique that was impossible to shake. They worked with precision and apprehension, as if dealing with a live bomb, each movement bringing them closer to a revelation. As the moon hung high in the sky, casting ghastly shadows on the poorly lit room, the examination bore ghastly fruit: Elva “Zona” Heaster had indeed met her end through a broken neck. The horrifying echo of her spectral confession rang out, a chilling reminder that the macabre tale spun in the afterlife held truth in the living world.

V. A Ghostly Conclusion

The court rang out with Elva’s supernatural testament, her death reverberating with a potent mixture of terror and justice. The gavel crashed down like a death knell, the echo a chilling reminder of Zona’s fate. Edward Shue was found guilty. He was a raging tempest reduced to a mere whisper, sentenced to inhabit the confines of a life-addled prison cell for his despicable act. An air of eeriness swallowed the courtroom as he was led away, a wolf among lambs, decreed guilty by the bittersweet testimony of a ghost. As the cell door clang shut, sealing Edward’s fate, one could almost hear the spectral whisper of Elva’s satisfaction seeping through the permeable veil between worlds, their melodious symphony a grim testament to justice served beyond the grave.

Haunted Places

Basement Freezer: Basement Freezer is a scary story about a man who murders his

October 8, 2018 MJ Cooper 17 Comments

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Basement Freezer:

Basement Freezer is a scary story about a man who murders his wife and hides her body parts in the freezer. It is based on part of an old 1970s horror movie.

William Kemp hated his wife. They had been married for 20 years and he was tired of hearing her nagging voice. He was sick of listening to her criticize and belittle him every day. He was fed up with the way she ordered him around as if he was a slave. William intended to get rid of his wife once and for all.

He had planned everything perfectly. When his wife came home that evening, she put the groceries in the refrigerator and told her husband to start cooking dinner. Instead, William told her he had a surprise for her. He knew she loved surprises.

“It’s in the basement,” he said with a smile.

As his wife made her way down the stairs, into the darkened basement, William took a meat cleaver from the kitchen drawer and followed her.

Minutes later, he was wiping the sweat from his brow. He never thought chopping up a woman’s body would be such hard work. There were six pieces in all – head, arms, legs and torso. He carefully wrapped up each piece in newspaper and tied it neatly with a piece of rope.

When he had finished, there were six tidy bundles sitting at his feet. William picked them up and tossed them into the deep freeze. Then, he shut the door and secured it with a padlock. After mopping the basement floor, he went back upstairs to wash the meat cleaver in the kitchen sink.

Leaning back in his armchair, William let out a sigh of relief. He was free. If anyone asked, he would tell them that his wife had run off with another man. Nobody would suspect that she was really in the basement freezer.

He started drifting off to sleep. The house was peaceful and quiet… very quiet… except for the bumping sound.

William sat up straight and listened. Something was flopping and thudding up the basement stairs. The noise was getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, William woke up. He knew it was just a dream, but it had seemed all too real. His heart was pounding and sweat was dripping down his face. He opened the kitchen drawer and took out the meat cleaver. Then, he went back down to the basement to check the deep freeze.

It was still securely locked. He was about to go back upstairs when he noticed something on the floor. A chill ran down his spine. It was a sheet of bloody newspaper.

William unlocked the deep freezer and looked inside. To his horror, he realized that it was empty. All six packages were missing.

As he stood there in stunned silence, he thought he saw moving something out of the corner of his eye. A shadow scuttled across the floor behind him. He whirled around, but there was nothing there.

Just then, he heard a click and the lights in the basement went out. He was plunged into darkness. Then, he heard a rustling sound. It came closer and closer until it seemed to be coming from all sides. He was surrounded.

William backed up against the wall and began swinging the meat cleaver wildly. In the darkness, he couldn’t see a thing. All he could hear was the horrible rustling of newspaper.

Then, all of a sudden, something slithered between his legs. He felt icy fingers wrap around his neck. He tried to scream but nothing would come out. Something grabbed the meat cleaver from his hand and he felt the fingers around his neck tighten, choking him until he was unconscious.

It wasn’t until weeks later that the police searched the basement after recieving tips from the mail man and neighbors that the old couple hadnt been seen in a while. They opened the deep freezer in the basement and inside, they found the lifeless frozen body of William Kemp. He was surrounded by the dismembered body parts of his wife.

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Rocky Mountain Ghost Stories, Wyoming

The Headless Bride at Yellowstone National Park

November 20, 2014 MJ Cooper 1 Comment

Once there was a lady who grew up in New York, her family was quite well-to-do as they were transporters for the area. In those days, rich youngsters were required to make their presentation in the public arena and to wed a well-off young person from a upper class family. At the same time this fair lady was a bit of a radical. When she became mature enough to wed, she despised the rich youthful society men and fell for a more established man who was filling in as a steward in her home.

Yet as I’m sure you’d have guessed there was a huge contention inside the family after the she had reported her decision of spouse. Her elders were irate, especially the patriarch, who blamed the steward for courting his little girl as a means to expedite and grow his position in the families business. Nonetheless, she demanded the marriage, her father gave the couple a large amount of money with the stipulation that they leave after the ceremony of marriage and never return.

When the newly wed couple arrived at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone, the once steward had bet away the greater part of the cash that his wife’s family had presented to the love birds. There was not enough cash for the couple to complete their honeymoon, much less to purchase a house and begin their life together.

The young lady had became vexed with her spouse. They had argued constantly about money during the stint of the honeymoon, and by now, she realized that her father had been right about the insatiability of her new spouse. He was clearly more intrigued by her fortune than being with her. Still, they were now bankrupt and required something to pay the hotel and services here at Yellowstone, so she had not choice but to call on her parents for more funds to pay their bill.

Her mother nor father would not provide any relief. They declined any further involvement in the finances of the newlywed couple.

That evening, after she had been unable to produce any money from her family, the couple had a horrid battle in their hotel room. The new husband frenzied out of the Inn in an anger, leaving his lady in the hotel room. The woman did not come out of the room for days, after days had passed the staff finally had to enter the room as the bill had still laid unpaid and there had been no sign of activity from the room.

The maid knocked and of course as you guessed, there was no answer. The maid finally entered the room using the master key and gazed upon a horrific site. The room looked as though a mad bull had cleared through the inside. Garments were strewn all over, and the bedclothes were thrown on the floor. Even worse, the maid was practically smothered by the metallic smell that pervaded everything. There was no indication of the other half of the newlywed couple, yet the stink that wafted from the connected lavatory indicated at what the maid would find. Lying in the bathtub in a pool of dark soupy blood was the corpse of the poor newlywed bride, well at least most of what was once her young body. Her head had been removed and was nowhere in the room.

The maid’s shrills of horror alerted the rest of the hotel. The local police were brought in, the bride’s mother and father were updated on the status of their poorly misled late daughter and the room was washed leaving no indication of the horrors from just hours before. The detectives had done anything and everything they could have done to find the brutal killer but unfortunately he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, after some time passed, the entire story was quieted to avoid embarrassment to the family.

A couple of days after the news of the homicide, a horrid smell was noticed up in the Crows Nest where the musical artists frequently played, the smell was followed to its source: The spouse’s rotting head. Her blonde wavy hair surrounded her wide-peered gaze of horror. The stench was unbearable.

The funeral of the tortured bride ought to have been the end of the repulsive occurrence and that it proved to be until one late night when a hotel courtier up late studying heard a weird commotion originating from the foyer. It was the stroke of midnight when he rushed out onto the gallery and looked upward, looking for the source of his interruption. He found towards the Crows Nest, far above, and saw a shining figure in white gradually following the stairs downward from the Crows Nest. Tucked under its arm was a head! Solidified with horror, the man viewed the lady plummet the steps and hover along the passageway until she arrived at the entryway of her old room. At that point she vanished!

From that day ahead, there are individuals who say they can see the headless lady floating down the stairs from the Crows Nest at the stroke of midnight; tragically looking for her lost murdering husband and her lost dreams of happiness.