The worst nightmare for any parent is a child going missing, and it's unimaginable to think about what George and Jennie Sodder went through on Christmas Eve in 1945. The Sodders, a family of 12 from Fayetteville, West Virginia, were celebrating Christmas with 9 of their children when an unknown caller disturbed Jennie's sleep. After the call, she discovered that the lights were still on and the doors unlocked, even though she had asked the children to take care of it before going to bed.
Later that night, the family was awakened by a fire that was consuming their home. Tragically, 5 of the children, Betty, Jennie, Louis, Martha, and Maurice, couldn't make it out of the house, and the family's attempts to rescue them were thwarted by the intense flames. After the fire was put out, no remains of the children were found inside the house. Instead, human remains that showed no signs of fire damage were discovered, suggesting that they had been placed there.
The Sodders believe that the children were abducted and the fire was set to cover it up. There is some evidence to support this theory, including a photograph that was mailed to the family in 1968 with a message on the back that read, "Louis Sodder, I love brother, Frankie. Ilil boys A90132 (or 90135)." Witnesses also reported seeing a man stealing items from the Sodders' garage as the fire raged. A ladder that could have been used to climb on the roof and rescue the children was missing, and it was never found.
Despite the evidence, the case was never investigated thoroughly, and the five children were declared legally dead. George and Jennie both passed away without knowing what happened to their children, leaving this bizarre and unexplainable case unsolved.
On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family home caught fire in the middle of the night with George, Jennie, and nine of their ten children sleeping inside. The couple and four of the children escaped the fire but the remaining five did not. It was believed that the five children died in the flames but remains were never found. It was believed that the fire had not burned hot or long enough to turn the bones to ash leaving George and Jennie to believe that their children had been kidnapped. They believed that the fire was a coverup for the kidnapping and that the police were a part of said coverup. For the rest of their lives, George and Jennie searched for their children. Pictured above from left to right: Jennie, Martha, Maurice, Betty, and Louis.
The Mysterious Disappearance of the Sodder Children: Uncovering New Evidence 95 Years Later
The Mysterious Disappearance of the Sodder Children: An IntroductionAs the 95th anniversary of the Sodder children's disappearance approaches, new evidence has surfaced that could finally unravel the mystery, but time is running out to uncover the truth behind this decades-old enigma. Will Dr. Fernández's team be able to crack the case before it's too late? The Sodder children disappearance occurred on December 24, 1928, in Fayetteville, West Virginia, and it has been a baffling case for nearly a century. Five of the nine Sodder children were missing after the fire: Maurice, Martha, Louis, Jennie, and Betty.A Brief History of the Sodder Children DisappearanceThe fire that destroyed the Sodder family's home on Christmas Eve in 1928 was a devastating event that left the community in shock. Despite a thorough search and investigation, no bodies were ever recovered, leading to speculation and theories about the children's fate. The case has been reopened several times over the years, with ...
this is completely unrelated to pjo so if you don't want to read it it's totally okay to skip it but i have been on a true crime kick lately and one story that has baffled me for YEARS that i just cannot wrap my head around is the story of the sodder family. like, so many things about it are just so confusing, it's borderline cartoonish.
TW: murder, arson, kidnapping
okay so first, a fire breaks out in the sodder house, supposedly killing five of their ten children, after a family friend and business partner they had a falling out with says, quote, "your house is going up in smoke and your children will be destroyed" like WHAT?? that's a little on the nose, don't you think? case closed boys, slap the cuffs on him.
they try to call for help, but the phone that had worked in the middle of the night (more on that later) suddenly isn't working, so the oldest daughter runs to a nearby neighbor's house to call the fire chief, who doesn't pick up. the neighbor then drives into town to wake up the chief, who then alerts the town's other volunteer firefighters.
the fire department takes SEVEN HOURS to get to the house, 2.5 miles away. by the time they arrive, the sun is up, and the house is gone. george, jennie, and five of their children stand there, staring at what used to be their home, with five of their family member supposedly still in it.
it's ruled an accident by "faulty wiring", which doesn't explain the strange noises on the roof heard by jennie sodder. it doesn't explain why their ladder by their house is missing, or why the lights were still working after the fire started. it doesn't explain why they received a strange call in the middle of the night from a wrong number before the phone lines had been cut, or why neither of the family trucks would start. most of all, it doesn't explain why the bodies of their five missing children were never recovered, not so much as a bone fragment.
so the sodder family hires a PI, who discovers a few things.
the fire chief plants a beef liver in the yard and spreads the rumor of it in the hopes that the family will go back to the site and dig it up after hearing it (which they DID) and find it, and think it's a human organ, hopefully taking it as evidence that their children died in the fire after all and give up hope. then, said beef liver disappears from the coroner's office.
they then find out that the family friend who had threatened them was also a member of the coroner's jury, which had ruled the fire an accident. the fact that he was even on this jury at all was a conflict of interest in so many ways, firstly because he had been close to the family, and secondly because he was a literal suspect.
said friend also went in on an insurance policy with george sodder as a cosigner, and had increased the amount on the sodder family's house right before the fire without telling george. meaning if the whole family died in, say, a house fire, this friend would get a massive insurance payout. idk guys it seems pretty open and shut if you ask me
but when they demand that this guy be investigated, they're laughed at by the local legal system.
the reason george sodder had a falling out with this family friend was political. george sodder and his family lived in fayetteville, west virginia, which had a deep italian heritage, and george was very open about his distaste for mussolini. the family friend had said that george sodder would "pay for his remarks about mussolini" just before the fire.
eyewitnesses in the following years claimed to see the sodder children alive, with "unfriendly looking" italian men.
it's cartoonish how big of a goose chase this case was, and just how many people seemed to be in on it. the fire chief, the coroner and the coroner's jury, the local police and prosecutors, the family's own friends and neighbors.
if you want my thoughts and opinions, i believe that the fire was arson, to cover up a seemingly professional kidnapping. i believe that the sodder children did not die in the fire, and that the family friend was in on a bigger scheme to punish george for his outspoken distaste for mussolini. like i said, this story has been living in my mind for years, and it's so frustrating because it feels like everybody in their community was against them, and had things been handled properly from the start, it would be clear what happened, and justice would have been served.
today, maurice sodder would be 91. martha sodder would be 89. louis sodder would be 87. jennie irene sodder would be 85. betty sodder would be 83. the last remaining sodder, sylvia ann sodder paxton, died in 2021, without ever knowing what happened to her siblings that night.
