1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content and may not be suitable for all audiences. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Listener discretion is advised. 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:10,000 I'm your host Mark. 4 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:11,000 And I'm Courtney. 5 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:40,000 And this is Mountain State Mysteries. 6 00:00:41,000 --> 00:01:00,000 The story we have for you today is about a woman who was tragically murdered in a robbery gun wrong. 7 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:07,000 This is the story of Elizabeth Mae Williams AG, better known as Elsie. 8 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,000 This isn't a cold case, but it's a story we've been wanting to tell for a while. 9 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Elsie was born on April 6th of 1926 in the town of Motoka, located in Mercer County, West Virginia. 10 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:26,000 She tragically died on October 15th in 1957 at the age of 31. 11 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:51,000 Elsie was the daughter of George Williams and Lydia Woods. Elsie married Woodrow Harrison Wiley in 1947 that had three small children, two boys and one girl, Marion, George and Brenda. 12 00:01:51,000 --> 00:02:06,000 You're listening to Mountain State Mysteries. 13 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:15,000 On August 26, 1950, Elsie's husband Woodrow was injured in a mining accident at the Cove, Deerfield Mine. 14 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Sadly, Woodrow passed away due to severe head injuries leaving Elsie a widow with her children at the age of 24. 15 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:37,000 A few years went by and Elsie married Roy AG between 1951 and 1957. Like we said before, Elsie was a victim of a robbery gun wrong. 16 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:45,000 Elsie was a cashier at the Writers Men Ware Store in the town of Oceana and Wyoming County, West Virginia. 17 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:54,000 The store was located at 59 Copperston Road in Oceana. However, the store is no longer there and a few businesses has came and gone. 18 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:04,000 One of her co-workers asked Elsie if she could cover a shift due to being ill. Elsie was opening the store and left a bag of money for the cash register on the counter. 19 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:10,000 Elsie went to another section of the store when a young man walked in. He saw the money on the counter and grabbed it. 20 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:17,000 Elsie did her best to try to stop him. The young man took a hatchet and struck her in the head multiple times. 21 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:27,000 He hid the hatchet in a box of merchandise and took the money from the counter. Elsie managed to crawl to the doorway in the back of the building in an attempt to get help. 22 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000 Sadly, she didn't make it. 23 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:37,000 A customer came in to return a shirt he had bought a few days prior. He walked in and he didn't see a worker. 24 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:46,000 However, he heard Elsie moaning from the back of the store. As the customer walked in, he saw a young man run out of the store. 25 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:55,000 He called the cops and then ran out the door to go after the young man. Luckily, the customer captured the young man and turned him over to the cops. 26 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Sadly, Elsie died two hours after her attack. 27 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:10,000 The coroner classified her death as a homicide, her cause of death, penetrating and crushing blows to the skull and a severe hemorrhage. 28 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:18,000 The young man was ordered to have a psychiatric evaluation by the judge. He was deemed as fit to be tried for the murder. 29 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:31,000 And you're listening to Mountain State Mysteries. 30 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:51,000 A March 11, 1958, almost a year after the murder of Elsie, the young man played guilty to the murder and received a life sentence. 31 00:04:51,000 --> 00:05:02,000 Ten years later, he hired a new attorney to look at his case. Sadly, the prosecution made an error in the charges and the judge ruled that he had played guilty to second-degree murder. 32 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:11,000 His sentence was reduced from life in prison to four to 18 years at the discretion of the prison. 33 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Woodrow and Elsie's children moved in with family after both parents passed away. The boys, Marion and George, were moved around between the family and the daughter, Brenda, went to live with Elsie's mother, Lydia Woods Williams. 34 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:51,000 The young man was sent to jail for a year after the murder of Elsie's mother. 35 00:05:51,000 --> 00:06:01,000 The young man was sent to jail for a year after the murder of Elsie's mother. 36 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:12,000 Courtney, do you have any final thoughts before we sign off? 37 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:35,000 I'm sure both of our families were from the family. I knew absolutely nothing about it. My uncle or grandmother had even said anything about it. Luckily, your grandmother was able to fill this in a little bit on the information. 38 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:46,000 The only thing I really knew about this case is that my cousins and I went to a hair salon that actually happened in the building that she was murdered in. 39 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:56,000 But sadly, the only thing I could find with the amount of research I've done was on Find a Grave. We have no idea who the young man is. 40 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:02,000 Other than he's called young men on Find a Grave. It kills me. We can't find more on this case. 41 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:10,000 And I even went and looked online too. Literally, it's just a little, little, tiny article that pops up on it. 42 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:18,000 And like we have said in previous episodes, that at the end of the day, children lost their mother. 43 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:42,000 And I just wish more justice was served for LC. 44 00:07:42,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Next time on Mountain State Mysteries, we're going to tell you about a newborn who was thrown from a bridge. The story of baby Christian. 45 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:12,000 If you find yourself enjoying Mountain State Mysteries, take a second to rate it on your favorite podcasting service. 46 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,000 It helps others find good, true crime podcasts. 47 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:23,000 If you haven't yet listened to our second episode on the Soldier of Bolt Mountain, James Lee Haynes, please do so. 48 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:37,000 Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and wherever you listen to podcasts.