The disappearance of the Sodder children who went missing on Christmas Eve as their house went up in flames and their remains were never found, has to be one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in history.
On Christmas Eve in 1945, a furious fire at a home in West Virginia engulfed the happiness and joy of the Sodder family and devastated their hope for a lifetime.
The failure of authorities to find a concrete answer of either disappearance, coupled with a series of bizarre occurrences in the aftermath of the incident ultimately posed the question, what happened to the Sodder Children?
Background of the Sodder Family
Related article:- Spooky disappearance and chilling discovery of Kris and Lisanne
George Sodder was born as Giorgio Soddu in Tula, Sardinia, Italy in 1895. When George was 13 years old, accompanied by his older brother, emigrated to the United States.
However, he was deserted in America shortly after arriving, as his brother swiftly returned to Italy. Interestingly, George never spoke about the reason why he left his native Italy.
George took on several jobs whilst adjusting to American life, working on railroads, becoming a truck driver, and later owning his own hauling company.
In Smithers, West Virginia, George Sodder met a young woman named Jennie Cipriani, who went on to become his wife.
George and Jennie moved to Fayetteville, in a two-story timber-framed dwelling, 3 kilometers north of the town and over the years had ten children.
Prior Incidents
Related article:- The Lawson family murders – Why Charlie, Why?
George’s business prospered, however, he was known for being very open about his strong and perhaps controversial views, especially regarding fascism and Benito Mussolini and he had been involved in arguments about the subject.
Even after Mussolini’s execution, it appeared bad blood was still present between George and those he had disagreed with. Despite this, however, the family was highly respected by the community.
In October of 1945, George showed no desire for a life insurance salesman’s offer and reported that the man had said to him that the house would ‘go up in smoke and your children are going to be destroyed’.
George understandably was angry about this and asked the man why he would say something so horrible, to which he replied ‘The dirty remarks you have been making about Mussolini’.
Another incident involved a stranger saying to George that the pair of fuse boxes ‘would cause a fire someday’. George was puzzled by this remark as he had just had the house rewired and checked by an electric company.
Following this, an electrician checked the wiring once again and told George that everything was in tip-top shape and safe.
It is worth noting that the eldest boys of George and Jennie noticed an unusual car, the occupants watching them as they returned from school one day as the Christmas break beckoned.
The Christmas Eve
Related article:- Joyce Vincent – The tragic death that went unnoticed for 2 years
Christmas Eve 1945, George and Jennie shared festivities and merriment with nine of their ten children, their son, Joe, having been dispatched to the army.
With the night aging, George retired to bed, as did his sons John, 23, and George Junior, 16. The younger children begged Jennie to stay up a little longer as her 17-year-old sister, Marion, had purchased new toys for them.
Jennie agreed as long as the children carried out all of their duties before heading to bed. Jennie departed for bed, taking her youngest child Sylvia, who was three at a time, with her.
Soon after midnight, Jennie woke from her sleep to hear the phone ringing. Picking up, she heard a voice she did not recognize. It was a female who reportedly had a ‘strange laugh’.
Jennie hung up believing it to be a wrong number or possibly just a prank call. Checking on the children, Marion was asleep on the couch, however, the lights were still on and all the doors were still unlocked, which Jennie found unusual as it was part of their routine.
She turned the lights off, locked the doors, and climbed back into bed. Moments after closing her eyes, Jennie heard a loud bang on the roof of the property followed by the sound of something rolling.
Originally, she didn’t believe it to be anything worth worrying about. At 1:30 a.m. she woke to the smell of smoke. It was then she discovered that the home was aflame.
House Fire
Related article:- Spring-heeled Jack – Terror of London
Jennie screamed for her children and husband to escape the house. John and George Jr made it out of the house, with Jennie, George, and little Sylvia. Outside, George realized that five of his children were missing.
George desperately tried with all of his might to save them. He climbed the wall to the attic and cut himself as he broke a window in an attempt to climb through.
He wanted to use the ladder which usually lay propped up against the wall, however on that fateful night it had mysteriously vanished.
A water barrel that could have aided in extinguishing the fire was frozen solid and despite working the previous day, George could not get either of his trucks to work.
Marion tried to alert the police, however, the phone line appeared to have been cut. She fled to a neighbor’s house to raise the alarm.
A driver on a nearby road witnessed the flames and called police from a local tavern, however, the call was unsuccessful and appeared not to connect to the operator.
The emergency services were eventually contacted through a source, either the neighbor or motorist as they had managed to finally get through.
The Ashes
Related article:- The wolves of Pavagada – Disappeared children
Over the next 45 minutes, the remaining Sodders could do nothing but watch as their family home burned to the ground and believed in their hearts that 14-year-old Maurice, 12-year-old Martha, 9-year-old Louis, 8-year-old Jennie and 5-year-old Betty had perished in the fire.
The fire department was low on numbers due to the war and relied on each firefighter to call each other so they did not arrive on the scene until much later in the morning.
There were only ashes remaining in the basement and there was no indication of any bones of the missing children. Chief Morris said that his inability to drive that night further hindered their efforts.
He also said after investigating the scene that he would have expected to find some form of remains of the missing children, however, there were none.
Jennie asked a local crematorium worker whether the fire could burn bone away as she had already tried to burn animal bones in her grief, desperate to seek answers.
Another account, however, says that internal organs and skeletal fragments were found however authorities had allegedly kept this from George and Jennie Sodder.
The Memorial
Related article:- The carbon copy murders that are 157 years apart
The chief had wished to investigate the scene further, but four days after the fire, Jennie and George could not bear the sight of the place any longer and George bulldozed the site to make way for a memorial.
The coroner conducted an inquest and concluded that the fire began due to faulty wiring, which both George and Jennie refused to believe.
In another cruel twist of fate, among the jurors was the man who had said to George that his children ‘would be destroyed’ in retribution for his anti-Mussolini remarks.
Death certificates were issued on the 30th of December and a funeral was held for the children on January 2nd, 1946, however, George and Jennie were too grief-stricken to attend. The surviving children did, however, pay their respects.
Bizarre Occurrences
Related article:-Â The Greenbrier ghost who solved her own murder mystery in the court
In the following years, Jennie and George Sodder continued to search for answers for the disappearance of their children. Jennie had noted that on Christmas Eve, the lights had been working flawlessly, therefore an electrical fault seemed most unlikely.
The ladder which had gone missing that night was actually found on an embankment 75 feet away from the house.
A man who had been arrested for stealing a block and tackle from the house around the time of the fire admitted to cutting the phone wire, however, he believed it was the power line.
Jennie Sodder said if the power line had been cut, she along with her husband and children would never have survived. It was also discovered that the call made to Jennie that night was genuinely a mistake.
Throughout the years, numerous sightings and tips were reported, George investigated each one personally and hoped to find a lead. In 1967, the family received a photograph, apparently of an adult Louis and indeed George and Jennie believed it was him.
On the back written was, ‘Louis Sodder, I love brother Frankie I lil boys A 9 0 1 3 2 or 3 5. The Sodders hired a private investigator to travel to Central City but he was never heard from again and he could not be located.
George Sodder passed away in 1969 and Jennie Sodder tended to the memorial garden every day and wore black mourning clothes until she died in 1989.
Aftermath
Related article:-Â The haunting body stain of Margaret Schilling in the lunatic asylum
The famous billboard along State Route 16, which showed pictures of the missing Sodder children and the $10,000 reward notice for information was taken down.
The remaining surviving Sodder children and their families to this day continue to find answers for their disappearance. They theorize that there was foul play involving George and the Sicilian Mafia.
They believe their siblings simply did not perish in the fire, even though the police concluded that this was most likely the case. Most disregarded their disappearance and believe that the Sodder children perished in the fire on Christmas Eve in 1945 and the family was just in denial.
However, it seems like the case of their disappearance will never truly be solved and sadly the couple passed away without ever knowing what happened to the Sodder children.
