#sodder family

[bergoozter]

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

Where are the Sodder children?

George and Jennie Sodder of West Virginia were forced to cope not only with the immeasurable loss of their children but also with the mysterious circumstances surrounding that loss. After the Sodder home burned to the ground on the night before Christmas in 1945, five of the ten Sodder children were still alive and accounted for. But what about the other five? From all accounts, it would seem that they had vanished into thin air.

In the ruins of the fire, zero physical evidence of the children could be found, which is virtually impossible from a scientific standpoint. But that wasn’t all that smelled off about the events of that night. Apparently George tried to save the children who he believed were still trapped inside by using his coal truck, which strangely, was inoperable; the phone lines to the house were found to have been cut; a woman claimed to have seen all five missing children peering from a passing car while the fire was in progress; and a woman at a Charleston hotel who saw the children’s photos in a newspaper said she had seen four of the five a week after the fire. “The children were accompanied by two women and two men, all of the Italian extraction,” she said in a statement. “I tried to talk to the children in a friendly manner, but the men appeared hostile… and wouldn’t allow it.”

The Sodder family theorized that the children had been kidnapped, perhaps in an attempt to extort money, perhaps to coerce George into joining the local mafia (the Sodders were Italian immigrants), or perhaps in retaliation for George’s outspoken criticism of Mussolini and Italy’s fascist government. From the 1950s until Jennie Sodder’s death in the late 1980s, the Sodder family maintained a billboard on State Route 16, with pictures of the five vanished children and offering a reward for information. The last (known) surviving Sodder child, Sylvia, 69, still doesn’t believe her siblings perished in the fire

[olishkas]

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.

[truhcrime]

The Sodder Family.

On Christmas Eve of 1945, the Sodder family home in Fayetteville, West Virginia went up in flames. While both parents and four of the children made it out, five children were still inside.

George tried to rescue his children, but was hindered at every turn. The phone wasn’t working, the ladder was missing from its normal spot, and George’s truck would not start. He tried breaking a window to re-enter the house, slicing a swath of skin from his arm. He could see nothing through the smoke and fire, which had swept through all of the downstairs rooms: living and dining room, kitchen, office, and his and Jennie’s bedroom.

His daughter Marion sprinted to a neighbor’s home to call the Fayetteville Fire Department but the fire department was low on able-bodied men due to WWII. They didn’t arrive until the following day, by which point the Sodder home was a smoldering wreck.

Authorities determined an electrical fire caused the blaze—despite George recently having the wiring re-done and the local electric company stating it was safe.  Strangely, the remains of the children did not turn up in wreckage; investigators suggested the fire was so hot, it burned up the bodies. Circumstances leading up the house fire only complicated the mystery. George was a vocal critic of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, to the distaste of local Italian community. In the days before the fire, the Sodders were visited by two men—a life insurance salesman and a man seeking work—both of whom warned Sodder to be careful of his home catching on fire.

In the wake of the fire, it was discovered the the Sodder family’s phone line had actually been cut, and the ladder was discarded at the base of a nearby embankment. Reports then came in of seeing the five Sodder children the next day at a diner. Years later, Sodder matriarch Jennie received a letter with no return address. Inside was a photo of a grown man who looked just like one of her missing sons with his name written on the back.

[morbidology]

The Disappearance of the Sodder Children -

A child going missing is arguably the worst thing that could happen to any parent. Now imagine the terror when five of your children go missing. This is exactly what happened to George and Jennie Sodder on Christmas Eve in 1945. The Sodder family had been celebrating the Christmas season in their Fayetteville, West Virginia, home, with 9 of their 10 children. After the family retreated to bed, Jennie was awoken by the phone ringing; it was somebody she didn’t know. She informed them that they had the wrong number and they manically laughed before hanging up. Assuming it was a prank, Jennie was ready to go back to bed when she noticed that the lights were still on and the doors were unlocked, something she had asked the children to attend to before they went to bed.

The family were awoken again at approximately 1:30AM, but this time, it was by something a lot more terrifying - a fire was rushing through their home. Tragically, not everybody managed to escape the burning house and five of the Sodder children, Betty, Jennie, Louis, Martha, and Maurice, remained inside. The family frantically tried to rescue the other children but the fire was raging, making returning to the house impossible. Within 45 minutes, the house was completely burned to the ground. Of course the immediate thought was that the children had perished in the fire. However, no remains of the children were ever found inside the house. In a bizarre and unexplainable twist, remains were discovered inside the house, but they showed no sign of fire damage, almost as if the remains had been stolen from a cemetery and planted inside the house.

One theory, and the theory that the Sodder family themselves believe, is that the chidren were abducted and the fire was set on purpose as a cover up. There is evidence that can back this theory up: In 1968, a photograph was mailed to the Sodder family; on the back was a message which read, “Louis Sodder, I love brother, Frankie. Ilil boys A90132 (or 90135).“ Witnesses also claim they saw a strange man stealing things from the Sodder’s garage as the fire was burning. A ladder, which usually resides in the garage, was nowhere to be found when George attempted to retrieve it in an attempt to climb on the roof to rescue his chidren. Regardless of this and the lack of bodies, the case was never investigated and the five children were declared legally dead. Sadly, both George and Jennie passed away without knowing the truth of what happened to their children.

[More Christmas Murders]

[morbidology]

It’s awful enough for a family to go through the horror of their child going missing, but in this case, five children of George and Jennie Sodder went missing on Christmas Eve in 1945. Their home in Fayetteville, West Viriginia, burned to the ground but mysteriously during this fire, five of their children - Betty, Jennie, Louis, Martha, and Maurice, disappeared. The immediate thought was that the children perished in the fire, but no remains of the children were found within the house. In a bizarre twist, remains were found but they showed no signs of fire damage, as if the remains were stolen from a cemetery and planted inside the house. One theory is that the children were abducted and the fire was set on purpose as a cover up and there is evidence to back this theory up - in 1968, a photograph was mailed to the Sodder family; on the back was a message “Louis Sodder, I love brother, Frankie. Ilil boys A90132 (or 90135)”. Regardless of this, the case was not investigated and the children were declared legally dead. Sadly, both George  and Jennie passed away without knowing the truth of what happened to their children.

[disastrid]

Fascinating story.