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I'm your host Mark.
And I'm Courtney.
And this is Mountain State Mysteries.
The story we have for you today is about a woman who was tragically murdered in a robbery gun wrong.
This is the story of Elizabeth Mae Williams AG, better known as Elsie.
This isn't a cold case, but it's a story we've been wanting to tell for a while.
Elsie was born on April 6th of 1926 in the town of Motoka, located in Mercer County, West Virginia.
She tragically died on October 15th in 1957 at the age of 31.
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.
You're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.
On August 26, 1950, Elsie's husband Woodrow was injured in a mining accident at the Cove, Deerfield Mine.
Sadly, Woodrow passed away due to severe head injuries leaving Elsie a widow with her children at the age of 24.
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.
Elsie was a cashier at the Writers Men Ware Store in the town of Oceana and Wyoming County, West Virginia.
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.
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.
Elsie went to another section of the store when a young man walked in. He saw the money on the counter and grabbed it.
Elsie did her best to try to stop him. The young man took a hatchet and struck her in the head multiple times.
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.
Sadly, she didn't make it.
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.
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.
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.
Sadly, Elsie died two hours after her attack.
The coroner classified her death as a homicide, her cause of death, penetrating and crushing blows to the skull and a severe hemorrhage.
The young man was ordered to have a psychiatric evaluation by the judge. He was deemed as fit to be tried for the murder.
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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.
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.
His sentence was reduced from life in prison to four to 18 years at the discretion of the prison.
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.
The young man was sent to jail for a year after the murder of Elsie's mother.
Courtney, do you have any final thoughts before we sign off?
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.
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.
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.
Other than he's called young men on Find a Grave. It kills me. We can't find more on this case.
And I even went and looked online too. Literally, it's just a little, little, tiny article that pops up on it.
And like we have said in previous episodes, that at the end of the day, children lost their mother.
And I just wish more justice was served for LC.
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.
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