The Sodder Children Mystery: 5 Siblings Vanished in Smoke (1945)
On Christmas Eve 1945, a fire destroyed the Sodder home. Five children disappeared, but no bones were ever found. Was it a fire, or a kidnapping?
The Sodder Children Mystery: 5 Siblings Vanished in Smoke (1945)
Smoke, Ash, and Silence: The Haunting Mystery of the Sodder Children By USA 360| True Crime & Cold Cases C hristmas Eve, 1945. In the small, quiet town of Fayetteville, West Virginia, the Sodder family was preparing for a night of celebration. George and Jennie Sodder, hardworking Italian immigrants, had created a good life for themselves and their ten children. The house was filled with laughter, the smell of holiday treats, and the anticipation of opening gifts the next morning. But that morning never came for five of the Sodder children By sunrise, the Sodder home was nothing but a pile of smoking ash. Five children—Maurice, Martha, Louis, Jennie, and Betty—were presumed dead. However, as the smoke cleared, a horrifying realization set in: there were no bodies. What started as a tragic house fire soon turned into one of the most perplexing missing children cases in American history. Did the children die in the fire? Or were they stolen in the dark of night? The Night the Lights Went …
