Just after midnight on Christmas Eve 1945, Jennie Sodder woke up to the smell of smoke. The home she shared with her husband, George, and nine of their children, was going up in flames. It would be over seven hours before the fire department arrived. By then, the two-story house had burned to the ground — and five of the Sodder children were missing. In fact, to this day, no one knows what happened to the Sodder children. Their family never saw them again and their remains were never found.

Join us at the quiet end for The Missing Sodder Children. Although authorities determined that the children — Maurice, 14; Martha, 12; Louis, 10; Jennie Irene, 8; and Betty, 5 — had died in the fire, their family was not convinced. How could they have perished in the fire without any bones being found? Because of the strange events before, during, and after the tragic fire as well as a stunningly incompetent investigation, the case continues to be one of history’s most disturbing and intriguing unsolved mysteries.

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Sources

The Children Who Went Up in Smoke, Smithsonian, Karen Abbott, 12/25/2012

Long, Long, Long Sodder Post, Stacy Horn, 12/28/2005

Mystery of Missing Children Haunts W.Va. Town, National Public Radio, 12/23/2005

No Direct Evidence: The Story of the Missing Sodder Children by Bob Lane Bragg