A wealthy woman with no offspring met a mysterious end at her residence in Beach City, Texas. Her demise set off a protracted legal battle over her vast estate, involving numerous potential beneficiaries. It took more than forty years and three different rulings on the cause of death to finally untangle the puzzle surrounding Virginia Mayes’ passing.

“It is exceedingly unusual for a case to undergo so many revisions,” remarked Dr. Pramod Gumpeni, the Harris County Medical Examiner, during Oxygen’s Accident, Suicide, or Murder. He described his decision to amend the cause of death as driven by “moral and ethical responsibility.”

The saga began on August 1, 1982, when Virginia—known for her unconventional and fiercely autonomous nature—was discovered lifeless in the upstairs sitting area of her waterfront mansion. The 76-year-old had amassed her wealth through the Mayes Brothers pipe fitting enterprise, which she co-owned with her late spouse, Harold Boyd Mayes. She was found lying on her back, draped with a quilt. Her 63-year-old housekeeper, Sybil Eady, who lived with her, reported that she had found Virginia’s body after going to check on her due to her recent illness.

Virginia Mayes Was Found Dead Under Perplexing Circumstances

It all began on August 1, 1982 when Virginia—an eccentric and fiercely independent widow—was found dead on the floor in the upstairs sitting room of her bayfront mansion.

The 76-year-old, who made her fortune through the Mayes Brothers pipe fitting business she owned with her late husband Harold Boyd Mayes, was laying face-up and was covered with a quilt. Her 63-year-old live-in housekeeper Sybil Eady told authorities that she’d discovered the body after going to check on Virginia, who hadn’t been feeling well.

Although there were no obvious signs of what happened, Larry Cryer, a justice of the peace for Chambers County who was called in to evaluate the death, noticed Virginia had red markings and bruises on her nose and face. 

“That’s odd, because Mrs. Mayes is laying on her back,” Cryer remembered. “How do you explain the red on her face?”

Authorities also noticed that some pill bottles and jewelry had been knocked off a night stand, suggesting a possible struggle.

Sybil, her husband Melvin, who served as the property’s groundskeeper, and a neighbor, who called 911, were all present at the scene. Sybil and Melvin lived in a guest house above the garage and had taken care of Virginia on the sprawling 14-acre property for years.

Investigators retraced Virginia’s final movements and learned the neighbor spoke to her that morning on the phone around 8:30 a.m., when Virginia told her she wasn’t feeling well. Sybil was the last one to see Virginia around 8:45 a.m.. When she returned to check on her again around 10:15 a.m., she told police that she found Virginia dead on the floor.

She rushed to get her husband, who ran to several neighbor’s homes before the call to 911 was made.

A medical examiner determined Virginia died of asphyxiation, due to suffocation, and ruled the widow’s death a homicide. 

Investigators Consider Financial Motive

To determine who may have wanted to harm Virginia, police looked at who stood to inherit her $4 million fortune.

“In 1982 $4 million went a lot further than it does in 2025,” remarked The Baytown Sun journalist Matt Hollis. “So, it’s quite a bit of money to consider here.”

Virginia had divided her estate among relatives and those closest to her, including Sybil and Melvin who she’d always treated like family. They each stood to inherit $500,000 in the event of her death.

“They were all people that Virginia really cared about, took care of her,” Cryer shared of the eight beneficiaries. “They were well trusted.”

Suspicion quickly fell to Sybil and Melvin—who were the only beneficiaries to have been in proximity of Virginia that day. They insisted they had nothing to do with her death and cared deeply for Virginia.

New Detail Changes Theory of the Virginia Mayes Death

While talking to authorities, Sybil revealed that she’d initially found Virginia laying face down on her knees and had turned her over to her back before authorities arrived.

Both Melvin and Sybil continued to cooperate with authorities, with Sybil even passing a lie detector test.

Given the new detail that Virginia had been found on her face, investigators re-examined the details of the case. They noticed that Virginia’s sitting room had thick shag carpet.

As former Baytown Police Detective Richard Reff explained, “It’s possible that Virginia fell face first into carpet and she just asphyxiated.”

Detectives took what they’d learned back to the medical examiner, who revised his autopsy report to conclude that she’d fallen face first onto the floor, giving her the injuries to her face, and then asphyxiated before help could arrive. As a result, the manner of death was changed to accidental and Sybil and Melvin were officially cleared.

“Melvin and Sybil, to feel like everybody’s watching you and suspecting you, it was very very difficult,“ remembered their granddaughter Vickie Williams. “You’ve lost someone you care so deeply about and you don’t even have time to mourn because you have this microscope on you, but it was a huge relief for all of us when they were exonerated because we knew that the truth had to come out.” 

New Review Leads to New Manner of Death

For decades, the manner of death stood, until Accident, Suicide, or Murder began to look into the case in 2025. 

Dr. Gumpeni took a new look into the case, studying both autopsy reports, photographs from the scene and microscope slides stored of Virginia’s tissues, He found she had an enlarged heart and large amounts of calcification in the vessels in her body and concluded that she died as the result of long-standing heart disease.

“I believe she had a sudden cardiac event, which can cause sudden death,” he explained. “That easily then could have put her in a position on the ground in which she was pretty much already deceased.”

As a result, he changed her manner death to natural causes, giving the complicated case it’s final twist.