On Christmas Eve of 1945, a fire tragically destroyed the Sodder family home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, leading to the disappearance of five of their ten children: Maurice, 14; Martha, 12; Louis, 9; Jennie, 8; and Betty, 5. While the parents, George and Jennie Sodder, and four of their other children escaped the blaze, the fate of the five missing children remains a mystery to this day.
Initially, it was believed the children perished in the fire, which was officially attributed to faulty wiring. However, the Sodders soon began to question this conclusion, pointing to a series of strange events that occurred before and during the fire that suggested a more sinister explanation.
The night of the fire was punctuated by unusual occurrences. Around midnight, Jennie Sodder was awakened by a phone call from an unknown woman asking for someone she didn't know, followed by a strange laugh. Later, she heard a loud thud on the roof. When the fire broke out around 1:30 a.m., George Sodder's attempts to rescue the children were thwarted as a ladder that was always kept by the house was missing. His two trucks, which he intended to use to climb to the children's window, would not start. The telephone line to the house was also discovered to have been cut, not burned through. The fire department's response was delayed, and by the time they arrived, the house had been reduced to ashes. A subsequent, brief search of the rubble yielded no human remains, which the fire chief suggested was due to the fire being hot enough to completely cremate the bodies.
In the months and years that followed, George and Jennie Sodder became convinced their children had been abducted. This belief was fueled by several factors, including the lack of remains found at the scene and reported sightings of the children after the fire. One woman claimed to have seen the children in a passing car as the house burned, while another reported serving them breakfast the next morning at a rest stop fifty miles away. A woman at a Charleston hotel also claimed to have seen four of the five children a week after the fire in the company of two men and two women of Italian descent. George Sodder's outspoken criticism of the fascist government in his native Italy led to theories that the children were taken in retaliation. The Sodders hired a private investigator and, in 1952, erected a billboard along Route 16 with the children's pictures and a reward for information.
A particularly enigmatic piece of evidence emerged in 1968 when the Sodders received a photograph in the mail of a young man in his mid-twenties who bore a striking resemblance to their son Louis. On the back of the photo was a cryptic message: "Louis Sodder. I love brother Frankie. ilil Boys. A90132" or "A90135". The family hired another private detective to investigate the letter, which was postmarked in Kentucky, but he was never heard from again. George and Jennie Sodder continued their search for the rest of their lives, passing away in 1969 and 1989, respectively. The billboard they erected was taken down after Jennie's death, but the mystery of what happened to Martha and her siblings endures, with their youngest sibling, Sylvia, and other family members continuing to seek answers.Last Seen: Dec 24, 1945
