Maurice Antonio Sodder, a 14-year-old boy of Italian descent, was one of ten children residing with his parents in Fayetteville, West Virginia. On Christmas Eve of 1945, Maurice and four of his siblings—Louis, Martha, Jennie, and Betty—were granted permission to stay up late and play with their new Christmas toys. Their mother, Jennie Sodder, was later awoken twice; first by a strange phone call shortly after midnight from an unknown woman who laughed strangely before hanging up, and then
again by a noise on the roof. At approximately 1:30 a.m., she discovered the house was on fire.
The parents and four of their children managed to escape the blaze. However, Maurice and his four younger siblings remained missing. George Sodder, the children's father, desperately tried to rescue them by attempting to use a ladder that was normally kept near the house to reach their upstairs bedrooms, but the ladder was inexplicably missing. It was later discovered down an embankment away from the home. The family's house was completely destroyed by the fire in less than 45 minutes.
Initially, the fire was attributed to faulty wiring by the fire department, and a coroner's jury concluded that the five Sodder children had perished in the fire. Despite some reports of bone fragments and possible organs being found, one of which was identified as beef liver, officials were largely unable to find any definitive remains of the children in the ashes. Against the advice of the fire marshal, George Sodder later bulldozed the site of his former home and planted a flower garden in memory of his children. However, George and Jennie soon came to believe that their children had not died in the fire but were instead abducted, with the fire being a diversion. Supporting this theory was the discovery that the home's telephone line had been cut.
In the months and years that followed, the Sodders dedicated their lives to finding their missing children. They erected a billboard on Route 16 near Fayetteville with the children's pictures and offered a reward for information. In 1949, George Sodder excavated the site of the fire and discovered a few bone fragments, which were initially believed to belong to a 14 to 15-year-old, consistent with Maurice's age. However, a later analysis suggested the bones were from someone between 16 and 22 years old and showed no signs of fire damage, leading to speculation they may have been planted there. A significant and perplexing piece of potential evidence arrived in 1968 when the Sodders received a photograph in the mail of a young man in his mid-twenties who bore a resemblance to their son Louis. On the back was a cryptic message: "'Louis Sodder' 'I love brother Frankie.' 'ilil Boys' 'A90132' or possibly 'A90135.'" The identity of the man in the photograph and the sender remains unknown. George and Jennie Sodder passed away in 1969 and 1989, respectively, never knowing the true fate of their five missing children. The youngest Sodder child, who was an infant at the time of the fire, continues to seek answers about what happened to her siblings.Last Seen: Dec 24, 1945
