The Disappearance of the Sodder Children
4.3.18
Today we'll be discussing the disappearance of the Sodder children.
The time is December 24, 1945, in Fayetteville, West Virginia. George and Jennie Sodder, along with nine of their ten children were asleep when a fire broke out. The children in the home at the time were Sylvia (2), Marion (17), John (23), George Jr. (16), Maurice (14), Martha (12), Louis (9), Jennie (8), and Betty (5).
The fire started around 1 am. George, Jennie, Sylvia, Marion, John, and George Jr. escaped. The remaining children shared two bedrooms between them, both rooms upstairs. George broke back into the home to save the rest of his children, but the staircase was on fire. George went to retrieve his ladder, which curiously was missing from its usual spot. As a last resort, he decided to park one of his two coal trucks beside the house, intending to climb on top of it to get into the house. However, neither of his trucks would start.
Marion, one of the children who escaped, ran to a neighbors house and called the fire department. However, the operator did not respond. Another neighbor attempted calling but did not get a response either. That same neighbor drove into town and found the fire chief, F.J. Morris, in person.
The fire department was only 2.5 miles from the location, but the firefighters did not arrive at the Sodder home until 8 am, nearly seven hours after the fire broke out. By the time they arrived, the house was in ashes.
The authorities searched the ash for the remains of the missing children, but nothing was found. The children were presumed dead due to the fire. F.J. Morris suggested that the fire may have been so hot that it cremated the children's bodies, including the bones. While this sounds reasonable, it's not entirely accurate. When flesh is burned away, typically there are bones left behind, usually in fragmented form. Furthermore, there was no report of the smell of burning flesh during or after the fire.
The cause of the fire was deemed to be faulty wiring in the house. In the week after, the Fayetteville coroners office issued death certificates for the five Sodder children.
Soon after the fire, George and Jennie began to suspect that their children were kidnapped- not dead. They believed the fire was set as a diversion, and not due to bad wiring. George had had the wiring checked earlier that fall by the power company, who deemed it in safe working order. Around this time, a life insurance agent tried to sell the Sodder family life insurance. He became irate when George declined, saying, "Your Goddamn house is going up in smoke and your children are going to be destroyed are going to be destroyed. You're going to be paid for the dirty remarks you have been making about Mussolini."
Now let me provide a few details about George Sodder to provide context. George Sodder immigrated to West Virginia from Italy. Fayetteville had a small, but engaged Italian community. George was very vocal in this community, especially about his dislike of Mussolini, which often caused heated debates. Additionally, George never revealed to anyone why he left Italy, which leads some to believe he was involved in shady business. Many credit this to be motive of a possible kidnapping.
Now that we've covered the basics, let's get into some interesting occurrences that support the kidnapping theory.
In the days leading up to the fire, two of the surviving children report witnessing a man watching the youngest Sodder children coming home from school on highway 21.
Around 12:30 am, Christmas morning, the children had opened a few presents, and everyone had gone to sleep, the phone rang, disturbing the silence. Jennie answered it. She reported it to be an unfamiliar woman asking for an unfamiliar name. Jennie told the woman, "You have the wrong number." And hung up. Jennie also noticed that all the lights downstairs were on, the door was unlocked, the curtains were open, and her son, Marion was asleep on the couch. So, she locked the door, shut the curtains, and turned off the lights. Just as she was about to fall asleep, Jennie reported hearing a loud bang on the roof, followed by the sound of something rolling. An hour later, she was awakened again. But this time, by the smell of smoke seeping beneath her bedroom door.
This account leaves many questions, but the most important detail to gather was the lights. Jennie and George figured that if the fire was due to faulty wiring, the lights shouldn't have been working. And later, the surviving Sodders would claim that they saw the lights on as their home was burning.
After the fire had died and the rubble was cleared, the basement of the home still remained. George Sodder used a bulldozer and filled in the basement with dirt to create a memorial for his children. Later, when the Sodders were visiting the memorial, Sylvia, the youngest, found a hard rubber object in the yard. Jennie believed that it could be the source of the loud bang that had woken her. After further inspection, George determined it could be a Napalm 'Pineapple bomb'.
With not believing the fire killed her children, Jennie began experimenting burning different kinds of animal bones. Which all left remains. She also spoke to a cremation employee who told her that bones were left behind after burning at 2,000 degrees for two hours.The Sodder home only burned for approximately 45 minutes.
Soon after, sightings of the children were reported. On December 24, a woman claimed to see the children in a car when the fire was in progress. Another woman came forward saying that on December 25, she served them at a tourist court. She told police, "I served them breakfast. There was a car with Florida license plates at the tourist court, too." A woman working at a hotel near Charleston reported seeing four of the five children a week after the fire. "The children were accompanied by two women and two men, all of Italian extraction," she said in a statement, "I do not remember the exact date. I tried to talk to the children in a friendly manner, but the men appeared hostile and refused to let me talk to these children. I sensed that I was being frozen out, and so I said nothing more. They left early the next morning."
A few years after the fire, George saw a photo of three New York City schoolchildren in a newspaper. One of the kids looked like their daughter, Betty. George drove all the way up to New York City and tracked down the girl's parents, but they refused to speak to him.
Desperate, Geroge and Jennie sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1947. They received a reply from J. Edgar Hoover, "Although I would like to be of service, the matter related appears to be of a local character and does not come within the investigative jurisdiction of the bureau." Hoover's agents offered to help with the permission from local authorities, but the Fayetteville police department and fire department declined the offer.
Without many options left, Geroge and Jennie hired a private investigator by the name of Cece Tinsley. Tinsley found that a member of the coroner's jury, who determined the fire was an accident, was the same insurance agent who threatened George Sodder in the fall. Insely also interviewed the townspeople. The local minister told Tinsley a rumor that F.J. Morris was telling people he found a heart in the fire. Morris hid it in a dynamite box and buried it where the home once stood.
Tinsley persuaded the fire chief to show him where it was buried. Once dug up, it was actually a beef liver and had never been in a fire. When asked why he did this, Morris claimed it was to provide the family with some closure.
In August of 1949, the Sodders hired a pathologist named Oscar B. Hunter, who excavated the dirt that covered the Sodder basement. The excavation was thorough and came up with damaged coins, a partly burned dictionary, and several shards of human vertebrae. The bones were sent to the Smithsonian Institute, which issued the following report, "The human bones consist of four lumbar vertebrae belonging to one individual. Since the transverse recesses are fused, the age of this individual at death should have been 16 or 17 years. The top limit of age should be about 22 since the center, which normally fuse at 23, are still unfused. On the basis, the bones show greater skeletal maturation than one would expect for a 14-year-old boy (the oldest missing Sodder child). It is, however, possible, although not probable, for a 14 1/2-year-old to show 16-17 maturation."
Along with this report, the Smithsonian determined the bones had never been exposed to a fire. According to the Smithsonian, the bones were returned to George Sodder, but the exact location of the bones are unknown to this day.
After the Smithsonian revealed it's findings, West Virginia governor, Okey L. Patterson, called a hearing in the state capitol building in Charleston, West Virginia. He officially declared the Sodder case closed. He told George and Jennie their search was "hopeless".
George and Jennie were determined to not allow the case to die. They set up a billboard on route 16, advertising their missing children, where it remained for 40 years. The billboard mentioned details such as the kids being kidnapped, the fire not being due to faulty wiring, the fact that no boned or remains of the children were found, as well as accusing the law officers involved of a cover-up.
The townspeople had theorized that the mafia was involved and that the children were perhaps taken to Italy. Others believed that the children may have been sold to orphanages.
Years later, the family received a letter from a woman in St. Louis saying that Martha was in a convent there. Someone in Florida had said that the children were living with one of Jennie's distant relative. Of course, George investigated all of these leads, but all of the tips came up empty.
In 1968, a letter addressed specifically to Jennie was delivered to the Sodder family. There was no return address but was postmarked in Kentucky. The letter contained a photo of a man in his 20s, and it was believed that the man in the photo was their son Louis, who was 9 at the time of the fire. On the back of the photo was a handwritten note saying, "Louis Sodder. I love brother Frankie. Lil boys. A90132 or 35"
George and Jennie hired a private detective to go to Kentucky to find the man in the photo, but the detective was never heard from again. Some theorize the detective took the money and ran, but no one knows for sure.
In 1979, George Sodder dies at the age of 74. In 1989, Jennie Sodder died at the age of 85. Sylvia, who was 2 at the time of the fire, is the last Sodder alive and maintains that her siblings did not die in the fire.
Sylvia's daughter, Jennie Henthorn, told Times West Virginian to post any information at websleuths.com. "My mom promised my grandmother she would never let the story die. That's what my brother and I are doing now."
The case remains unsolved.
Information gathered from:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0AKoCMydkc
https://www.historicmysteries.com/sodder-children-mystery/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5067563
https://historichorrors.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/what-was-the-fate-of-the-five-sodder-children/
Photo Gallery
The billboard George and Jennie Sodder set up on route 16.
Today we'll be discussing the disappearance of the Sodder children.
The time is December 24, 1945, in Fayetteville, West Virginia. George and Jennie Sodder, along with nine of their ten children were asleep when a fire broke out. The children in the home at the time were Sylvia (2), Marion (17), John (23), George Jr. (16), Maurice (14), Martha (12), Louis (9), Jennie (8), and Betty (5).
The fire started around 1 am. George, Jennie, Sylvia, Marion, John, and George Jr. escaped. The remaining children shared two bedrooms between them, both rooms upstairs. George broke back into the home to save the rest of his children, but the staircase was on fire. George went to retrieve his ladder, which curiously was missing from its usual spot. As a last resort, he decided to park one of his two coal trucks beside the house, intending to climb on top of it to get into the house. However, neither of his trucks would start.
Marion, one of the children who escaped, ran to a neighbors house and called the fire department. However, the operator did not respond. Another neighbor attempted calling but did not get a response either. That same neighbor drove into town and found the fire chief, F.J. Morris, in person.
The fire department was only 2.5 miles from the location, but the firefighters did not arrive at the Sodder home until 8 am, nearly seven hours after the fire broke out. By the time they arrived, the house was in ashes.
The authorities searched the ash for the remains of the missing children, but nothing was found. The children were presumed dead due to the fire. F.J. Morris suggested that the fire may have been so hot that it cremated the children's bodies, including the bones. While this sounds reasonable, it's not entirely accurate. When flesh is burned away, typically there are bones left behind, usually in fragmented form. Furthermore, there was no report of the smell of burning flesh during or after the fire.
The cause of the fire was deemed to be faulty wiring in the house. In the week after, the Fayetteville coroners office issued death certificates for the five Sodder children.
Soon after the fire, George and Jennie began to suspect that their children were kidnapped- not dead. They believed the fire was set as a diversion, and not due to bad wiring. George had had the wiring checked earlier that fall by the power company, who deemed it in safe working order. Around this time, a life insurance agent tried to sell the Sodder family life insurance. He became irate when George declined, saying, "Your Goddamn house is going up in smoke and your children are going to be destroyed are going to be destroyed. You're going to be paid for the dirty remarks you have been making about Mussolini."
Now let me provide a few details about George Sodder to provide context. George Sodder immigrated to West Virginia from Italy. Fayetteville had a small, but engaged Italian community. George was very vocal in this community, especially about his dislike of Mussolini, which often caused heated debates. Additionally, George never revealed to anyone why he left Italy, which leads some to believe he was involved in shady business. Many credit this to be motive of a possible kidnapping.
Now that we've covered the basics, let's get into some interesting occurrences that support the kidnapping theory.
In the days leading up to the fire, two of the surviving children report witnessing a man watching the youngest Sodder children coming home from school on highway 21.
Around 12:30 am, Christmas morning, the children had opened a few presents, and everyone had gone to sleep, the phone rang, disturbing the silence. Jennie answered it. She reported it to be an unfamiliar woman asking for an unfamiliar name. Jennie told the woman, "You have the wrong number." And hung up. Jennie also noticed that all the lights downstairs were on, the door was unlocked, the curtains were open, and her son, Marion was asleep on the couch. So, she locked the door, shut the curtains, and turned off the lights. Just as she was about to fall asleep, Jennie reported hearing a loud bang on the roof, followed by the sound of something rolling. An hour later, she was awakened again. But this time, by the smell of smoke seeping beneath her bedroom door.
This account leaves many questions, but the most important detail to gather was the lights. Jennie and George figured that if the fire was due to faulty wiring, the lights shouldn't have been working. And later, the surviving Sodders would claim that they saw the lights on as their home was burning.
After the fire had died and the rubble was cleared, the basement of the home still remained. George Sodder used a bulldozer and filled in the basement with dirt to create a memorial for his children. Later, when the Sodders were visiting the memorial, Sylvia, the youngest, found a hard rubber object in the yard. Jennie believed that it could be the source of the loud bang that had woken her. After further inspection, George determined it could be a Napalm 'Pineapple bomb'.
With not believing the fire killed her children, Jennie began experimenting burning different kinds of animal bones. Which all left remains. She also spoke to a cremation employee who told her that bones were left behind after burning at 2,000 degrees for two hours.The Sodder home only burned for approximately 45 minutes.
Soon after, sightings of the children were reported. On December 24, a woman claimed to see the children in a car when the fire was in progress. Another woman came forward saying that on December 25, she served them at a tourist court. She told police, "I served them breakfast. There was a car with Florida license plates at the tourist court, too." A woman working at a hotel near Charleston reported seeing four of the five children a week after the fire. "The children were accompanied by two women and two men, all of Italian extraction," she said in a statement, "I do not remember the exact date. I tried to talk to the children in a friendly manner, but the men appeared hostile and refused to let me talk to these children. I sensed that I was being frozen out, and so I said nothing more. They left early the next morning."
A few years after the fire, George saw a photo of three New York City schoolchildren in a newspaper. One of the kids looked like their daughter, Betty. George drove all the way up to New York City and tracked down the girl's parents, but they refused to speak to him.
Desperate, Geroge and Jennie sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1947. They received a reply from J. Edgar Hoover, "Although I would like to be of service, the matter related appears to be of a local character and does not come within the investigative jurisdiction of the bureau." Hoover's agents offered to help with the permission from local authorities, but the Fayetteville police department and fire department declined the offer.
Without many options left, Geroge and Jennie hired a private investigator by the name of Cece Tinsley. Tinsley found that a member of the coroner's jury, who determined the fire was an accident, was the same insurance agent who threatened George Sodder in the fall. Insely also interviewed the townspeople. The local minister told Tinsley a rumor that F.J. Morris was telling people he found a heart in the fire. Morris hid it in a dynamite box and buried it where the home once stood.
Tinsley persuaded the fire chief to show him where it was buried. Once dug up, it was actually a beef liver and had never been in a fire. When asked why he did this, Morris claimed it was to provide the family with some closure.
In August of 1949, the Sodders hired a pathologist named Oscar B. Hunter, who excavated the dirt that covered the Sodder basement. The excavation was thorough and came up with damaged coins, a partly burned dictionary, and several shards of human vertebrae. The bones were sent to the Smithsonian Institute, which issued the following report, "The human bones consist of four lumbar vertebrae belonging to one individual. Since the transverse recesses are fused, the age of this individual at death should have been 16 or 17 years. The top limit of age should be about 22 since the center, which normally fuse at 23, are still unfused. On the basis, the bones show greater skeletal maturation than one would expect for a 14-year-old boy (the oldest missing Sodder child). It is, however, possible, although not probable, for a 14 1/2-year-old to show 16-17 maturation."
Along with this report, the Smithsonian determined the bones had never been exposed to a fire. According to the Smithsonian, the bones were returned to George Sodder, but the exact location of the bones are unknown to this day.
After the Smithsonian revealed it's findings, West Virginia governor, Okey L. Patterson, called a hearing in the state capitol building in Charleston, West Virginia. He officially declared the Sodder case closed. He told George and Jennie their search was "hopeless".
George and Jennie were determined to not allow the case to die. They set up a billboard on route 16, advertising their missing children, where it remained for 40 years. The billboard mentioned details such as the kids being kidnapped, the fire not being due to faulty wiring, the fact that no boned or remains of the children were found, as well as accusing the law officers involved of a cover-up.
The townspeople had theorized that the mafia was involved and that the children were perhaps taken to Italy. Others believed that the children may have been sold to orphanages.
Years later, the family received a letter from a woman in St. Louis saying that Martha was in a convent there. Someone in Florida had said that the children were living with one of Jennie's distant relative. Of course, George investigated all of these leads, but all of the tips came up empty.
In 1968, a letter addressed specifically to Jennie was delivered to the Sodder family. There was no return address but was postmarked in Kentucky. The letter contained a photo of a man in his 20s, and it was believed that the man in the photo was their son Louis, who was 9 at the time of the fire. On the back of the photo was a handwritten note saying, "Louis Sodder. I love brother Frankie. Lil boys. A90132 or 35"
George and Jennie hired a private detective to go to Kentucky to find the man in the photo, but the detective was never heard from again. Some theorize the detective took the money and ran, but no one knows for sure.
In 1979, George Sodder dies at the age of 74. In 1989, Jennie Sodder died at the age of 85. Sylvia, who was 2 at the time of the fire, is the last Sodder alive and maintains that her siblings did not die in the fire.
Sylvia's daughter, Jennie Henthorn, told Times West Virginian to post any information at websleuths.com. "My mom promised my grandmother she would never let the story die. That's what my brother and I are doing now."
The case remains unsolved.
Information gathered from:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0AKoCMydkc
https://www.historicmysteries.com/sodder-children-mystery/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5067563
https://historichorrors.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/what-was-the-fate-of-the-five-sodder-children/
Photo Gallery
The missing Sodder children. From left to right, Maurice (14), Martha (12), Louis (9), Jennie (8), and Betty (6)
The billboard George and Jennie Sodder set up on route 16.
1967 photograph sent to Jennie Sodder of alleged Louis Sodder.
Jennie and Geroge Sodder
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