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She-won-t-stop-until-she-gets-REVENGE · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: There are lots of paranormal stories floating around the internet, however,
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Speaker 1: very few are credible.
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Speaker 2: Today we're going to look at one that is.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into that story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of these strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
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Speaker 1: In the early evening of January twenty third, eighteen ninety seven,
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Speaker 1: a blacksmith named Erasmus Shoe stoked his fire inside of
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Speaker 1: his little shop in rural West Virginia and then called
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Speaker 1: out to his eleven year old helper, who was in
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Speaker 1: the back cleaning up. Erasmus had been planning to head
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Speaker 1: home early that night. However, a last minute order for
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Speaker 1: horseshoes had just come in, and so Erasmus knew that
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Speaker 1: was not going to happen. He was going to have
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Speaker 1: to work late and so he was calling for his
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Speaker 1: helper to send the helper to his home, Erasmus's home,
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Speaker 1: to check on Erasmus's wife Zona. He wanted to make
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Speaker 1: sure that one Zona knew he would be late, and
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Speaker 1: two if Zona needed anything, the helper could go out
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Speaker 1: and get it for her, or help around the house,
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Speaker 1: or whatever she needed.
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Speaker 2: After the helper had.
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Speaker 1: Left, Erasmus went back to poking at as fire, but
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Speaker 1: his mind was not on the horse shoes he needed
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Speaker 1: to make. Instead, it was on his wife Zona. The
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Speaker 1: couple hadn't told anyone yet, but Zona was pregnant. Erasmus
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Speaker 1: and Zona had only just met a couple of months earlier,
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Speaker 1: but they had fallen in love very quickly. Zona was
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Speaker 1: twenty three years old and she had beautiful dark hair
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Speaker 1: and dark.
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Speaker 2: Eyes and a quick sense of humor.
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Speaker 1: She was a total free spirit who had grown up
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Speaker 1: on a farm, and she had never really been away
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Speaker 1: from home. When Erasmus had arrived in the little village
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Speaker 1: called Livesey's Mill, which was located near a river at
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Speaker 1: the foot of this mountain and was right near where
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Speaker 1: Zona lived, he and Zona had noticed each other right away. Erasmus,
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Speaker 1: who was quite a bit older, than Zona. He was
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Speaker 1: thirty five years old, was tall and handsome with piercing
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Speaker 1: blue eyes, and he had come to this little rural
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Speaker 1: town to set up his blacksmith shop, and to Zona,
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Speaker 1: he was like this amazing, new, exciting thing. Zona's family,
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Speaker 1: especially her mother, Mary Jane, did not approve of the
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Speaker 1: fact that Zona and Erasmus had begun seeing each other,
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Speaker 1: mostly because Mary Jane didn't like the fact that Erasmus
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Speaker 1: was so much older than Zona. But Zona was known
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Speaker 1: for being incredibly stubborn and she loved Erasmus, and so
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Speaker 1: there was just no stopping her. So in November, just
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Speaker 1: a couple of months after meeting each other, Zona and
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Speaker 1: Erasmus got married and they moved into a little house together,
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Speaker 1: and very quickly Zona got pregnant, and both she and
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Speaker 1: Erasmus were so excited about this that they wanted to
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Speaker 1: go around and tell people. But early on it was
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Speaker 1: clear Zona had some complications with this pregnancy. She was
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Speaker 1: sick all the time and she just seemed really unwell,
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Speaker 1: and the doctor who was seeing her knew that it
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Speaker 1: likely had to do with her pregnancy, and so the
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Speaker 1: couple decided that they should just wait and let the
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Speaker 1: pregnancy develop a bit.
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Speaker 2: Before announcing the news.
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Speaker 1: So on this late January day, Erasmus began hustling to
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Speaker 1: finish these horses shoes because he really wanted to get
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Speaker 1: home and be there for Zona and make sure she
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Speaker 1: really was okay. And so as Erasmus thought about Zona,
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Speaker 1: the steel he was heating inside of this fire was
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Speaker 1: glowing bright orange and was ready to be forged into shape,
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Speaker 1: and so Erasmus got a tammer and he got to work. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: Erasmus's eleven year old helper had arrived at Erasmus and
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Speaker 1: Zona's house, and the helper walked through the gate up
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Speaker 1: to the front door of this little two story home
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Speaker 1: and he knocked on the front door, but Zona did
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Speaker 1: not come to the door, which the helper thought was
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Speaker 1: odd because Zona was someone who was always bustling around
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Speaker 1: the home and was very quick to open the door
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Speaker 1: and chat with neighbors. And now standing in front of
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Speaker 1: the door, the helper couldn't even hear a sound inside
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Speaker 1: of the house. It was like no one was home,
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Speaker 1: and so the helper knocked again, and after some more silence,
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Speaker 1: he just reached down and tried the doorknob and found
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Speaker 1: it was unlocked, and so he slung the door in,
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Speaker 1: and right away the helper noticed that the house was
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Speaker 1: totally dark. None of the lamps were lit, even though
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Speaker 1: the sun was setting fast, and so the helper stepped
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Speaker 1: inside of the house and continued to call out for
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Speaker 1: missus Shoe, but there was no answer. And at some point,
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Speaker 1: as the helper turned a corner and looked towards the
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Speaker 1: base of the stairs that led up to the second level,
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Speaker 1: he froze because lying on the ground was Zona. She
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Speaker 1: was lying perpendicular to how the stairs run, on her back,
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Speaker 1: with one arm over her chest, like she was sleeping
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Speaker 1: at the foot of the stairs, and so at this
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Speaker 1: point the helper is scared. He doesn't know what's going
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Speaker 1: on here. Obviously something is wrong, and so very slowly
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Speaker 1: the helper began moving closer and closer to Zona, and
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Speaker 1: when he was practically right on top of her, he
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Speaker 1: yelled out her name one more time, and when she
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Speaker 1: didn't call back, and her chest wasn't moving and she
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Speaker 1: was just totally still, he knew obviously something was terribly wrong,
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Speaker 1: and so the helper at this point turned around and
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Speaker 1: sprinted out of the house and ran back to his
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Speaker 1: own house, and when he got there, he ran inside
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Speaker 1: and he told his mother that he thought missus Shoe
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Speaker 1: Zona was dead. And so the mother told the helper
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Speaker 1: run back to the blacksmith shop and tell Erasmus to
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Speaker 1: go home right now.
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Speaker 2: I'll get the doctor.
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Speaker 1: It would take the local doctor, the same one who
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Speaker 1: had been treating Zona for her pregnancy complications, almost an
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Speaker 1: hour to finally get to Zona's house. And when the
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Speaker 1: doctor arrived, he found the eleven year old helper and
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Speaker 1: his mother and other neighbors kind of clustered around in
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Speaker 1: the first floor of the home. And then when he
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Speaker 1: went up to the second floor into the master bedroom,
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Speaker 1: he found Rasmus, who by this point had returned and
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Speaker 1: he was sitting on his bed, and he had laid
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Speaker 1: out his wife, Zona, so that she was on her
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Speaker 1: back and her head was in his arms, and he
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Speaker 1: was stroking her hair and rocking back and forth and crying.
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Speaker 1: The doctor, of course, knew Zona and Erasmus very well
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Speaker 1: because of how often he had been treating Zona for
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Speaker 1: her pregnancy issues over these last few weeks, and so
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Speaker 1: he felt a pit of sadness looking at this scene,
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Speaker 1: but he knew he had to do his job, and
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Speaker 1: so he gently walked over and he put his hand
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Speaker 1: on Erasmus's shoulder and he just said, you know, I
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Speaker 1: need to examine Zona's body. And Erasmus at this point
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Speaker 1: he didn't even look up. He just continued to sob
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Speaker 1: and rock back and forth while stroking her hair. Finally,
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Speaker 1: the doctor kind of was a bit more forceful in
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Speaker 1: asking Erasmus to step aside, at which point Erasmus did.
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Speaker 1: He got out of the way and positioned Zona flat
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Speaker 1: on the bed, and he made sure her hair was
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Speaker 1: perfectly combed all around her neck. And then Erasmus knelt
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Speaker 1: down right next to the bed and continued stroking his
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Speaker 1: wife's hair and crying while the doctor or at this
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Speaker 1: point kind of moved to the foot of the bed
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Speaker 1: and began looking at Zona and beginning his examination. And
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Speaker 1: the doctor would quickly confirm that yes, Zona was dead,
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Speaker 1: and after looking at her pelvis and kind of moving
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Speaker 1: her around, the doctor came to the conclusion that very
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Speaker 1: likely Zona had passed away from pregnancy complications. Zona's funeral
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Speaker 1: would be held the next day at the local cemetery
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Speaker 1: at the top of this hilltop. And by this point
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Speaker 1: the word had gotten out that Zona had been pregnant
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Speaker 1: when she died, and so during this funeral, everybody was
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Speaker 1: staring at Erasmus, who was overcome with grief and crying
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Speaker 1: so hard that he could barely catch his breath. And then,
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Speaker 1: right before they lowered Zona's casket into the ground, Erasmus
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Speaker 1: made a point of putting his wife's favorite scarf into
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Speaker 1: the coffin with her. He said his final goodbyes, he
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Speaker 1: shut the casket, and then it was lowered into the ground.
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Speaker 1: But while the mourners were obviously very moved by just
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Speaker 1: how unbelievably grief stricken Erasmus was, I mean, his whole
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Speaker 1: family was wiped out in one blow, what really stood
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Speaker 1: out to the people that attended that funeral was not
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Speaker 1: Erasmus's reaction to his wife's death, but rather Zona's mother's
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Speaker 1: reaction to Erasmus. During this funeral, Mary Jane' Zona's mother
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Speaker 1: didn't seem sad or grief stricken, or in any way
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Speaker 1: reacting to the fact that her daughter had died. Instead,
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Speaker 1: as the funeral went on, Mary Jane shamelessly glared at
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Speaker 1: Erasmus with a look of pure hate and disgust on
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Speaker 1: her face. And then after the funeral was over all
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Speaker 1: the mourners wanted to go up to Mary Jane and
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Speaker 1: Erasmus to pay their final respects to the family, but
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Speaker 1: Mary Jane ignored all these people and promptly left the
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Speaker 1: funeral without saying a word to anyone. Lately, me and
8:52
Speaker 1: old Siga Lung had been eaten pretty healthy, and so
8:55
Speaker 1: we decided last Friday to finally have a cheat meal.
8:58
Speaker 1: And so for hours we liberated over which delicious food
9:02
Speaker 1: we were going to enjoy, and we settled on a
9:04
Speaker 1: pipe and hot plate up and we settled on a
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Speaker 1: pipe and hot plate of eagle tonsils and a couple
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Speaker 1: of hunks of undercooked cheetah meat.
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Speaker 2: Now, the next morning, when we woke up.
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Speaker 1: We expected to feel rejuvenated, refreshed, but instead we felt
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Speaker 1: like we had spent the night before sucking down weird
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Speaker 1: bird tonsils and strange exotic meats. And so as I
9:23
Speaker 1: stumbled out of my bed to go to the bathroom
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Speaker 1: to vomit, Rungey was already in there, and he looks.
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Speaker 2: At me and he says, Papa, ye did that?
9:29
Speaker 1: He almost teteficado com hello fa, which, of course in
9:33
Speaker 1: Porto Gasee, which of course in Portuguese means Papa, we
9:37
Speaker 1: should have just stuck with Hello Fresh. And of course
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10:12
Speaker 2: Again, that's HelloFresh dot com. Use code mister Balin's sixteen.
10:16
Speaker 1: Okay, back to the story, and in the days that
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Speaker 1: followed Zona's funeral, Mary Jane's behavior only continued to get
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Speaker 1: more and more bizarre. When neighbors would drop by Mary
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Speaker 1: Jane's house to drop off food or just check in
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Speaker 1: on her, Mary Jane refused to come to the door.
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Speaker 1: Mary Jane basically began staying up all night. People would
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Speaker 1: see there were candles lit in her bedroom at all hours,
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Speaker 1: and they'd see her pacing around her room and then
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Speaker 1: periodically kneeling on the ground and kind of staring off
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Speaker 1: into the distance. And then on the rare occasion that
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Speaker 1: Mary Jane actually left her house, she would look totally
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Speaker 1: disheveled and distracted, and as she walked around town, she'd
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Speaker 1: be mumbling under her breath, constantly looking over her shoulder,
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Speaker 1: like she was scared someone was following her. And when
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Speaker 1: concerned neighbors came up to Mary when she was out
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Speaker 1: of her house, she refused to make eye contact with them,
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Speaker 1: didn't want to talk to them, and as fast as
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Speaker 1: she could would get away from them. Whatever was going
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Speaker 1: on with Mary Jane, her husband was not willing to
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Speaker 1: talk about it to other people in town. However, they
11:20
Speaker 1: did notice that he had begun sleeping in the barn,
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Speaker 1: so he was not.
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Speaker 2: Even staying in the house with his wife.
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Speaker 1: And then, on the morning of February twenty first, so
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Speaker 1: about a month after Zona had died, Mary Jane walked
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Speaker 1: out of her house looking totally clean cut. She was
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Speaker 1: not disheveled, she was not looking over her shoulder, she
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Speaker 1: wasn't muttering to herself. She was standing tall, moving with
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Speaker 1: a purpose, looking totally coherent, and as she moved, the
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Speaker 1: only emotion people could see on her face was anger.
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Speaker 1: And so Mary Jane, angrily walking with a purpose, walked
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Speaker 1: her way to the local prosecutor's office, and instead of
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Speaker 1: knocking and waiting to be let inside, she just opened
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Speaker 1: the door and barged right inside. The prosecutor knew Mary
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Speaker 1: Jane and knew how strange she had been acting over
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Speaker 1: these last few weeks, and so when she came inside,
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Speaker 1: he was alarmed at her sudden presence, But he was
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Speaker 1: also pretty curious as to what was going on, and
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Speaker 1: so when she came in and demanded to speak to him,
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Speaker 1: he was happy to go into his office and take
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Speaker 1: a meeting, kind of simply out of curiosity. But once
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Speaker 1: the two of them sat down in his office, Mary
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Speaker 1: Jane proceeded to tell this prosecutor this totally outlandish story
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Speaker 1: about her dead daughter Zona that at first made the
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Speaker 1: prosecutor think, Okay, clearly, Mary Jane has lost her mind.
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Speaker 1: That's what's been going on over the past few weeks.
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Speaker 1: All this grief of losing her daughter has caused her
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Speaker 1: to kind of snap. But by the end of these
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Speaker 1: two hours that Mary Jane seemed to just be kind
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Speaker 1: of rambling about this story about her daughter. The prosecutor
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Speaker 1: started to realize that what she was saying kind of
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Speaker 1: made a lot of sense, and his suspicions began to
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Speaker 1: rise and rise. And so once Mary Jane was done
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Speaker 1: telling this wild story about Zona, the prosecutor was convinced
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Speaker 1: that what Mary Jane was saying had to be true,
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Speaker 1: and so he knew they needed to dig Zona up.
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Speaker 1: And so after Mary Jane had left, the prosecutor ran
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Speaker 1: to the local doctor's house, the same doctor who had
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Speaker 1: been treating Zona and then also looked at her after
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Speaker 1: she died, and the prosecutor would tell the doctor that, hey,
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Speaker 1: we need to exum Zona and you need to examine
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Speaker 1: her again. And the doctor at first was like, wait
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Speaker 1: a minute, what's going on here, But then after hearing
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Speaker 1: what the prosecutor had to say about this crazy story
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Speaker 1: that Mary Jane had just told him, the doctor agreed that, okay, yeah,
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Speaker 1: we do need to do this.
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Speaker 2: And so the next.
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Speaker 1: Day, February twenty second, a team of men with shovels,
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Speaker 1: along with the prosecutor and the doctor headed up to
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Speaker 1: the Hilltop Cemetery where Zona was buried, and they dug
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Speaker 1: her casket up, and then they carried the casket down
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Speaker 1: to the local schoolhouse. And then once she was inside,
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Speaker 1: the workers lifted her body, which was fairly well preserved
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Speaker 1: because the ground was so cold. They lifted her body
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Speaker 1: out and they placed it on a table, and then
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Speaker 1: everybody left except for the doctor and the prosecutor. And
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Speaker 1: once the room was clear, the doctor and the prosecutor
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Speaker 1: began examining Zona all over again. And within about thirty
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Speaker 1: seconds of this re examination of Zona's body, basically at
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Speaker 1: the exact same time, the doctor and the prosecutor, who
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Speaker 1: were on either sides of the body, saw the thing
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Speaker 1: that Mary Jane had alluded to in her wild story
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Speaker 1: about her daughter. And so the doctor and the prosecutor
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Speaker 1: they're seeing this thing. They look up at each other
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Speaker 1: and they can't believe it. Mary Jane's story had to
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Speaker 1: be true. The following is Mary Jane's wild story on
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Speaker 1: the day of Zona's funeral. Even though Mary Jane was
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Speaker 1: overcome with grief over losing her daughter, the feeling that
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Speaker 1: she really was harboring was hatred towards Erasmus. She hated Erasmus,
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Speaker 1: she had always hated him, but now it was like,
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Speaker 1: her daughter is dead and she's forced to watch this
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Speaker 1: guy saw and cry over her daughter's casket, when in
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Speaker 1: her mind, she's like, this funeral is about her, it's
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Speaker 1: not about you.
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Speaker 2: And so the whole funeral she's.
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Speaker 1: Just staring at Erasmus, channeling all of her energy towards
15:11
Speaker 1: hating him. But then as she's doing this, a new
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Speaker 1: emotion began to creep up on her that she couldn't
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Speaker 1: quite describe. Basically, it felt like something was terribly wrong,
15:22
Speaker 1: and intuitively, Mary Jane felt like the only person who
15:26
Speaker 1: could explain what this thing was that was wrong kind
15:29
Speaker 1: of in her life somewhere was her daughter Zona, who
15:33
Speaker 1: was obviously dead, and so this feeling that something is
15:37
Speaker 1: terribly wrong it completely consumed Mary Jane's mind. And so
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Speaker 1: by the end of the funeral, she wasn't mad at Erasmus.
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Speaker 1: She was just thinking, how do I get in touch
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Speaker 1: with my daughter? I need to get answers from my daughter.
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Speaker 1: And so when the funeral ended, Mary Jane just left
15:53
Speaker 1: the funeral as fast as she could.
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Speaker 2: She went home.
15:55
Speaker 1: She went into her bedroom and she knelt down and
15:58
Speaker 1: she began to pray for peace or strength in this
16:02
Speaker 1: difficult time, but instead she prayed for her daughter's ghost
16:07
Speaker 1: to appear to her and tell her what was wrong.
16:10
Speaker 1: And for the next month, that is all Mary Jane did.
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Speaker 1: She was obsessed with this idea that she needed to
16:18
Speaker 1: basically conjure her daughter's ghost to tell her what this
16:22
Speaker 1: thing was that was wrong, and so that was why she.
16:25
Speaker 2: Was acting totally crazy.
16:26
Speaker 1: All she did was pray and then look for signs
16:30
Speaker 1: that her daughter's ghost had come or was on her way,
16:33
Speaker 1: and so she'd be up all night kind of looking around,
16:36
Speaker 1: hoping her daughter would suddenly appear, and then when she
16:38
Speaker 1: would go outside. The reason she was muttering is because
16:41
Speaker 1: she was still praying under her breath, and she was
16:43
Speaker 1: always looking over her shoulders because she thought her daughter
16:46
Speaker 1: would appear any moment.
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Speaker 2: And then finally, one.
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Speaker 1: Night in the middle of February, so this is a
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Speaker 1: month into Mary Jane's attempts to conjure her daughter's ghost.
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Speaker 1: She was in her room, she was praying like she
16:58
Speaker 1: normally did with all of her candles, and all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden, as she's kneeling down praying, this bright light
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Speaker 1: appears in the middle of her room. And as this
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Speaker 1: light suddenly appeared, the room began to get really cold,
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Speaker 1: and Mary Jane is staring at this light, thinking this
17:13
Speaker 1: is my daughter. But then just as quickly as the
17:15
Speaker 1: light and the cold that came with it had appeared,
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Speaker 1: it disappeared.
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Speaker 2: And so Mary Jane was both really.
17:20
Speaker 1: Excited because she felt like, Okay, the prayers are working.
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Speaker 1: That had to be my daughter's ghost or some sign
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Speaker 1: that my daughter's ghost is going to come here. And
17:28
Speaker 1: so Mary Jane just doubled down on her prayers. She
17:32
Speaker 1: knew she was close to getting her daughter to show up,
17:35
Speaker 1: and so over the next two days, that bright light
17:38
Speaker 1: would appear two more times, and each time it would
17:41
Speaker 1: just quickly disappear. But again Mary Jane is thinking, Okay,
17:45
Speaker 1: something's happening. My prayers are working. And then finally on
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Speaker 1: the fourth night, as Mary Jane is in her bedroom praying,
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Speaker 1: the light appears in the middle of her room. It
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Speaker 1: starts to get cold, but then instead of the light disappearing,
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Speaker 1: Mary Jane would describe seeing her daughter kind of step
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Speaker 1: out of this light and suddenly appear in the room.
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Speaker 1: Mary Jane said that her daughter was dressed all in
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Speaker 1: black and her skin was very pale, and her eyes
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Speaker 1: were these dark pitts, and her hair was straight down
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Speaker 1: right over her shoulders, and she was staring at her
18:15
Speaker 1: mother and Mary Jane when she saw this, even though
18:18
Speaker 1: she had been trying for a month to get her
18:20
Speaker 1: daughter's ghost to appear, now that it seemed to be happening,
18:23
Speaker 1: she was terrified, and so Mary Jane began backing up
18:27
Speaker 1: right as this ghost begins walking towards Mary Jane. But
18:30
Speaker 1: then Mary Jane, as she's up against the wall, tells herself,
18:33
Speaker 1: you have to be strong.
18:34
Speaker 2: You need to talk to the ghost. You need to
18:36
Speaker 2: figure out what's wrong.
18:38
Speaker 1: And the only question that Mary Jane was able to
18:41
Speaker 1: come up with was how did you die? And when
18:44
Speaker 1: she asked this question, Zona's ghost came to a stop.
18:47
Speaker 1: And then when Zona opened her mouth, dirt poured out,
18:50
Speaker 1: and then with a raspy, low voice, she began to
18:53
Speaker 1: tell her mother a story. She told her that Erasmus
18:57
Speaker 1: appeared to be this wonderful person to the unity, but
19:01
Speaker 1: behind closed doors he was a monster. He hit her
19:04
Speaker 1: and screamed at her over the littlest things. And then
19:07
Speaker 1: on the night of January twenty second, so one day
19:10
Speaker 1: before Zona would be discovered at the base of the stairs,
19:13
Speaker 1: by Erasmus's helper.
19:15
Speaker 2: Zona's ghost would tell Mary.
19:16
Speaker 1: Jane that Erasmus had become enraged at Zona over the
19:21
Speaker 1: food she.
19:21
Speaker 2: Had made that night for dinner.
19:23
Speaker 1: He had wanted meat and she had made something else,
19:25
Speaker 1: and so he was furious. And when Zona tried to
19:28
Speaker 1: tell Erasmus that she would make more food or there
19:30
Speaker 1: was other food for him to eat, to just please
19:32
Speaker 1: calm down, Erasmus stood up and he grabbed Zona by
19:36
Speaker 1: the neck and he lifted her off the ground. And
19:38
Speaker 1: right at this moment in this story that Zona's ghost
19:41
Speaker 1: is telling Mary Jane, the ghost would stop speaking and
19:44
Speaker 1: this look of abject terror would come across the ghosts face,
19:47
Speaker 1: as if she was suddenly reliving this moment that happened
19:51
Speaker 1: with Erasmus. And as she's standing there with this horrible
19:53
Speaker 1: look on her face, the ghost began to levitate off
19:56
Speaker 1: the ground, and then it opened its mouth, and as
19:59
Speaker 1: it did, no came out, but instead, it was like
20:02
Speaker 1: all the air in the room was getting sucked into
20:05
Speaker 1: this ghost's open mouth. And then all of a sudden,
20:07
Speaker 1: there was this loud cracking sound as the ghost's head
20:10
Speaker 1: suddenly violently whipped around one hundred and eighty degrees, but
20:14
Speaker 1: the ghost's body was still facing towards Mary Jane.
20:17
Speaker 2: And after this happened, Mary Jane.
20:19
Speaker 1: Is sitting there totally dumb struck, and the ghost suddenly
20:22
Speaker 1: drops back down onto the ground, still with their chest
20:25
Speaker 1: facing Mary Jane, but their face pointing behind them.
20:29
Speaker 2: And then Zona's ghost turned around and began walking out
20:32
Speaker 2: of the room.
20:33
Speaker 1: And because she had turned her body around, that meant
20:35
Speaker 1: her head, which was facing the wrong way, was now
20:38
Speaker 1: oriented towards Mary Jane again, and Mary Jane would say
20:41
Speaker 1: the ghost was smiling, and then right before Zona's ghost left,
20:45
Speaker 1: she would say to her mother, now do you see
20:47
Speaker 1: what he did to me? And then Zona just vanished
20:50
Speaker 1: and the room became warm again, and Mary Jane, who
20:53
Speaker 1: was suddenly feeling so exhausted, just sat down on the
20:56
Speaker 1: bed and wept. Mary Jane had the next morning promptly
21:00
Speaker 1: gotten up and rushed to the prosecutor's office and told
21:03
Speaker 1: him the story of seeing her daughter's ghost and how
21:06
Speaker 1: the ghost had told her that Erasmus had throttled her
21:09
Speaker 1: and that was what killed her. Now, the prosecutor was
21:12
Speaker 1: really moved by Mary Jane's story, but it was when
21:15
Speaker 1: he rushed to the doctor to ask about re examining
21:18
Speaker 1: Zona's body to see if she had marks on her
21:21
Speaker 1: neck from where she could have been throttled. That was
21:23
Speaker 1: when the doctor actually told the prosecutor that when he
21:26
Speaker 1: did the examination of Zona's body on the day she
21:29
Speaker 1: was found, he would say that Erasmus spent the entire
21:33
Speaker 1: examination at the head of the bed, cradling Zona's head
21:36
Speaker 1: and brushing her hair. But now that he was thinking
21:39
Speaker 1: about it, he could have been covering up her neck
21:42
Speaker 1: with the hair. And then also they thought about the
21:44
Speaker 1: funeral when right before Zona was lowered into the ground,
21:47
Speaker 1: Erasmus placed a scarf, claiming it was his wife's favorite,
21:51
Speaker 1: around her neck when she was buried, again, perhaps trying
21:55
Speaker 1: to conceal the fact that there were marks on her neck.
21:58
Speaker 1: And when they did exume Zona's and they removed that
22:01
Speaker 1: scarf that Erasmus had placed, they would see there were
22:04
Speaker 1: marks all over her neck that looked like fingerprints, and
22:08
Speaker 1: then upon further examination they would see that her neck
22:11
Speaker 1: was actually dislocated and that her windpipe had been crushed.
22:14
Speaker 1: Erasmus would be arrested for the murder of his wife
22:17
Speaker 1: just minutes after the doctor and prosecutor basically at the
22:21
Speaker 1: same time saw the marks on Zona's neck during their
22:24
Speaker 1: re examination. During Erasmus's trial, Mary Jane would take the
22:28
Speaker 1: stand and she would tell the story of her daughter's
22:31
Speaker 1: ghost coming to her and explaining that Erasmus had killed her.
22:35
Speaker 1: And the testimony was so compelling that the jury found
22:38
Speaker 1: Erasmus guilty, even though there was no motive. Basically, they
22:42
Speaker 1: convicted him on the strength of Mary Jane's ghost story.
22:45
Speaker 1: Erasmus would be sentenced to life in prison, but he
22:48
Speaker 1: would die just three years after being incarcerated from a
22:52
Speaker 1: mystery illness that passed through the prison. It would also
22:55
Speaker 1: turn out that Erasmus had been married two times before
22:58
Speaker 1: marrying Zona. One of his wives had divorced him for
23:01
Speaker 1: being abusive. The other wife died in a freak accident
23:05
Speaker 1: when she was helping Erasmus fix their chimney when all
23:08
Speaker 1: of a sudden, a brick fell loose and hit her
23:11
Speaker 1: in the head. Today, there is a plaque right near
23:13
Speaker 1: the cemetery in West Virginia where Zona was buried that
23:17
Speaker 1: reads in part only known case in which testimony from
23:21
Speaker 1: a ghost helped convict a murderer.
23:27
Speaker 2: So that's going to do it.
23:28
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