Falcon500
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You are correct. For some reason I thought that the fire happened in 1944. Either way this area had very poor fire protection.
WV WV - Sodder Family - 5 children, Christmas eve 1945 - #4
- Thread starter Cubby
- Start date
You are correct. For some reason I thought that the fire happened in 1944. Either way this area had very poor fire protection.
Laura_Bean
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Do you realize you aren't helping here at all? The idea I thought, behind websleuths, was to keep interest in these cases so they aren't forgotten, not to traumatize members asking simple questions.
Laura_Bean
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Now for Falcon. Yes, people in the town who were around often wonder and talk about this case. Every Christmas, in this town, people talk about what might have happened to the children. Some people from what I read were scared to talk about it for years, thinking the mafia or some other group had killed the family. From the way it sounds, the fire department even seemed to be in on something. They tried to pass a beef liver off as a body part from one of the children. But I think it was the coroner who said that it was a beef liver, someone correct me there if I am wrong. I have been through all of these threads but I can't remember for 100% positive. But I do know SOMEONE disputed it and told the family what it was. One interesting thing was that a beef liver used to be a calling card of the mafia, and they would sometimes leave it at sites they had been at so people know who did it. I think the reason, the main reason, no one went to the site and excavated the site, was because a lot of neighbors were fearful. Another person who may have had something to do with it was an insurance salesman who had attempted to get Mr. Sodder to buy insurance and Mr. Sodder said no. And people in town were scared of him and perhaps with good reason. Not long before the big fire, this man had told Mr. Sodder that because he would not buy insurance his house would burn and his children would pay. And after the fire, what do you think people thought? if they helped Mr. Sodder I am sure they believed they would be next. Now, whether this was just a strange and scary coincidence, or he had something to do with it, I am sure the townsfolk did not think it was simply a coincidence and were terrified to help in any way. The further you look into this mystery the deeper it gets. The children had told their father someone was watching them on their way to and from school, people in a black car. This could have just been a fluke, and maybe just innocent people in a car watching something else but when you combine it it seems scary right? The fact that the night of the fire, the Sodder's cars (both of them) wouldn't start, the ladder was missing from the shed, the phone lines had been cut after Mrs. Sodder got a strange phone call where a woman asked for someone who did not live there, and than laughed like a lunatic is also strange. The children always did their chores never missed a day, but that night when the mother got up to check on them, (and she did not see them) their chores were not done, and the door which was ALWAYS kept locked was unlocked.
Another strange fact is the older sister had fallen asleep on the couch, yet if the children went missing it had to be during the time they were being watched by the sister. So the kids had to go missing AFTER she fell asleep. I tend to believe that had there been screaming, or a loud bang, or gunshots, or something from right outside, or even inside the home, she would have woken up. Yet she reported no such sounds, no such sudden waking up, nothing. So what happened between the time the parents went to bed, and the children were up playing? A timeline would be helpful. If we knew what time the sister fell asleep, and what time she was again awakened we would at least have a window of time but we do not. Than we have a mysterious magazine with an article that has yet to be found even by the librarian at the library of congress, and seems to have never existed at all, we have a strange photograph with a cryptic message on the back, we have testimony from a woman who owned an inn who swears to her dying day that the children showed up Christmas night and stayed with two Italian speaking gentlemen until the next day. How strange can you get?
Another strange fact is the older sister had fallen asleep on the couch, yet if the children went missing it had to be during the time they were being watched by the sister. So the kids had to go missing AFTER she fell asleep. I tend to believe that had there been screaming, or a loud bang, or gunshots, or something from right outside, or even inside the home, she would have woken up. Yet she reported no such sounds, no such sudden waking up, nothing. So what happened between the time the parents went to bed, and the children were up playing? A timeline would be helpful. If we knew what time the sister fell asleep, and what time she was again awakened we would at least have a window of time but we do not. Than we have a mysterious magazine with an article that has yet to be found even by the librarian at the library of congress, and seems to have never existed at all, we have a strange photograph with a cryptic message on the back, we have testimony from a woman who owned an inn who swears to her dying day that the children showed up Christmas night and stayed with two Italian speaking gentlemen until the next day. How strange can you get?
laverite27
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Laura, can you send the link or do you remember where you got the information regarding the innkeeper's testimony that she saw the kids with two Italian speaking people?
I wanted to answer someone's questions regarding the children speaking Italian. Back then, while most children of immigrants would speak only Italian in the household, if the children went to school, they learned English. So there is no way that they spoke only Italian and no English at the time that would prohibit them from asking people for help. They would also be in the age to remember and understand Italian if they were taken to Italy. So the language problem is not an issue...
I wanted to answer someone's questions regarding the children speaking Italian. Back then, while most children of immigrants would speak only Italian in the household, if the children went to school, they learned English. So there is no way that they spoke only Italian and no English at the time that would prohibit them from asking people for help. They would also be in the age to remember and understand Italian if they were taken to Italy. So the language problem is not an issue...
laverite27
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TallMan didn't traumatize anyone, just responded to Falcon who basically said numerous times that nobody cares what happened and then acted as if he knows for fact that they all died.
Not a very kind move being that Granddaughter posted soon afterwards to clear the record. Let's not make a site meant to HELP into a site that HURTS morale and remaining family members! please?
I'm interested in the Mafia and the Klan connections. My grandfather from West Virginia said the KKK would exact social vengeance and hurt men who were abusive to their wives or didn't pay loans, etc. It's true that they were racist against Italians, but I'm not sure if they would have NOT killed Mr. Sodder.
The Mafia angle though is interesting since I read they were from Palermo in Sicily, where the Mafia has (and still is) powerful. I'm interested in this beef heart found...I'm going to look that up and see what I can find.
Not a very kind move being that Granddaughter posted soon afterwards to clear the record. Let's not make a site meant to HELP into a site that HURTS morale and remaining family members! please?
I'm interested in the Mafia and the Klan connections. My grandfather from West Virginia said the KKK would exact social vengeance and hurt men who were abusive to their wives or didn't pay loans, etc. It's true that they were racist against Italians, but I'm not sure if they would have NOT killed Mr. Sodder.
The Mafia angle though is interesting since I read they were from Palermo in Sicily, where the Mafia has (and still is) powerful. I'm interested in this beef heart found...I'm going to look that up and see what I can find.
Laura_Bean
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laverite27 -
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Local News
December 24, 2006
Where are the children?
Internet sleuths awaken 61-year-old Christmas mystery
Audrey Stanton
The Sodder children were excited on Christmas Eve 1945. After all, their 17-year-old sister, Marian, had just given them new toys from her dime-store job.
Three of her sisters, Martha Lee, 12, Jennie, 8, and Betty, 6, and two of their brothers, Maurice, 14, and Louis, 10, didn’t want to go to bed. They begged their mother, Jeannie, to let them stay up a little longer and play with their new toys. It was already 10 p.m.
Their mother told them they could, but she reminded Louis and Maurice to feed the cows and close the chicken coop before they settled in for the night.
Her oldest boys, John, 23, and George Jr., 16, had already gone to their beds in the attic. They had worked hard that day with their father, George, a 50-year-old Italian immigrant who ran a small coal trucking business near the family’s home just outside Fayetteville. He had retired early that night, too.
Jeannie Sodder told her children good night, scooped up 2-year-old Sylvia and took her to bed with her. It’s likely the mother fell asleep peacefully that Christmas Eve, thankful for so much: It looked like they had made the right decision moving from Italy to the United States. They’d built a fine home for themselves and their 10 children, and George’s young businesses were doing well. Even the war had ended. Peace had been declared.
But the rest of the night would prove to be far from peaceful. Three hours later, flames would engulf the house, and two horrified parents would wonder what had become of five of their 10 children.
Fire consumes house
Jeannie Sodder woke for the first time that night shortly after midnight when the phone in her husband’s downstairs office rang. It was a woman with the wrong number. She walked back to the bedroom, climbed back into bed with her husband and drifted back to sleep. Thirty minutes later, she was awakened again by something that sounded like a thump on the roof. She listened for it to happen again, but when it did not, she went back to sleep.
Another half hour later, Jeannie Sodder woke a third time — this time because she smelled smoke.
She ran from the room in search of the source and found flames spreading from a corner of her husband’s office. The fire prevented her from reaching the telephone.
She ran back toward the bedroom, calling to her husband. She woke Marian, who had fallen asleep on the downstairs couch, and told her to get Sylvia out of the house. Then she went to the stairway and shouted to wake the rest of the family.
Only George and John, the two oldest boys, came down. John had yelled toward the next room, where the other children would have normally been, and he thought he heard them answer. He and George started helping their father battle the fire, and Jeannie, Marian and young Sylvia stood helplessly outside, watching the blaze spread quickly throughout their home.
Flames encircled the foot of the stairway, making it impossible for anyone to go back up the stairs to see why the other children had not come down.
George and his boys ran outside, desperate to reach the children upstairs. He tried to scale the wall. They broke a window and went to get the ladder they always kept leaning against the house. It wasn’t there.
They ran to the truck, planning to back it up to the house, climb on top of it and reach the children upstairs through the broken window. The truck, which had worked fine only a day sooner, wouldn’t start. Neither would a second one.
As her father and brothers tried in vain to battle the flames, Marian ran to a neighbor’s house and asked them to phone the Fayetteville Fire Department. The neighbor was not able to get the operator on the line.
By 1 a.m., another neighbor passing by spotted the fire. He drove to a nearby tavern and tried, unsuccessfully, to reach the fire department. The phone at the tavern was out of order. He drove to Fayetteville, where he finally reached the fire chief by phone.
The chief was no help.
Not only had the staff of the town fire department been depleted by the war, the chief admitted the next day he could not drive the fire truck and had to wait for someone who could.
The fire department did not reach the scene until after sunup — some reports say 7 a.m., others say 9 a.m.
It may not have mattered. It took only 30 minutes for the home to be reduced to a pile of smoldering ashes.
ABOVE In red PROVES the house burned very HOT and very FAST which COULD potentially reduce the bodies to mostly ash and a few scattered bones.
On Christmas Day, grief-stricken and injured by the fire, George Sodder and his two oldest sons, also injured, joined firefighters and neighbors in a search for any sign of the five children. At 10 a.m., the fire chief informed the Sodders there were no remains of the children, that the fire had consumed their bodies completely.
On Dec. 29, four days after the fire, the Sodders used bulldozers to fill in the area. They planned to fence in the lot and plant flowers as a memorial to the children they believed rested there.
By Dec. 30, death certificates for the five children were filed at the Fayette County Courthouse. A coroner’s inquest had been held, and the fire had been ruled accidental as the result of faulty wiring.
A mystery develops
But in the days that followed, questions arose.
- There were no bones, no remains. Experts later told the Sodders the short fire never burned hot enough to completely destroy bone. Even some household items suffered damage, but remained identifiable.
- A telephone repair man who came to fix the lines told the Sodders the lines had been cut, not burned. Besides, electrical Christmas lights in the home had continued to shine even as the fire consumed the house. Would they have done so if the fire had been electrical in origin?
- Then there was the man who witnesses at the fire said they saw take from the scene a block and tackle used for removing car engines. Later, that same man would plead guilty to stealing the block and tackle, but he said he knew nothing of the fire. He did admit, however, to cutting wires to the house, believing them to be power lines. Yet the telephone lines had been cut 14 feet above the ground and two feet from the utility pole.
- The ladder was discovered down an embankment more than 75 feet away from its usual resting place.
- A late-night bus driver reported seeing “balls of fire” being tossed onto the roof of the Sodder home.
- Young Sylvia, three months after the fire, found a dark green, hard rubber object near the burned home. Some believed it to be a sort of bomb. The Sodders would later find the fire had started on the roof.
- A Charleston resident reported seeing the four youngest of the missing children with four Italian-speaking adults a week after the fire.
- A motel operator halfway between Fayetteville and Charleston said he saw the children the morning after the fire.
Above in red they say was a man here, but there is notes I have found that the woman who owned the inn was the one who said she saw these children and she swore to it on more than 1 occasion.
- C.C. Tinsley, a private detective from Gauley Bridge who was hired when the Sodders began to suspect their children had been kidnapped from the house before the fire, found that about two months before the fire, the Sodders had an argument with another Fayetteville resident because they refused to buy life insurance from him. The man told them their house would go up in smoke and their children would be destroyed because of the “dirty remarks” Mr. Sodder had made about Mussolini. That same man was a member of the coroner’s jury which ruled the fire accidental.
- In 1947, a local minister told the family the fire chief had told other residents he had found a heart in the debris of the fire. When the minister approached the chief, the chief said it was true that he had placed the heart in a box and buried it at the scene, but he would not say why he never told the Sodders of his find. When the Sodders asked the chief to help them locate the box, he was reluctant to do so but finally agreed to come. When family members, the private detective and others dug up a sealed dynamite box the chief identified as the one he had used to contain heart, they had the contents examined by a funeral director in Montgomery. He identified the contents as a beef liver, a fresh one that had never been exposed to fire.
Above - Possible calling card for the mafia?
- A second search of the scene in 1949 uncovered a partly burned dictionary that had been kept in the children’s bedroom and small section of human vertebrae. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., determined those bones showed no evidence of being exposed to fire and that they belonged to a man between 19 and 22. The Sodders and their detective later found the bones had been taken from a grave in Mount Hope.
“Since the house was stated to have burned for half an hour or so, one would expect to find the full skeletons of five children, rather than only four vertebrae,” the Smithsonian doctor wrote in his report.
- Twenty years after the tragedy, the Sodders received mail containing a picture of a young man they believed to be Louis. In fact, the back of the photograph said, “Louis Sodder. I love brother Frankie. ilil Boys. A90132 or 35.” They were certain it was a picture of Louis Sodder, who was supposed to have died in the fire at the age of 9. But they never found him
Above red - In italian Ilil means "About the" something I found out after tons of searching.
Hope lives on
There were many other questions and oddities surrounding the case.
Many dismissed the family’s claims as evidence of their refusal to accept the loss of their children. Local authorities considered the case closed after the inquest. And the FBI, after many requests from the Sodders, took the case in 1950, based on the strange evidence from the Smithsonian report. They withdrew from the case, a kidnapping investigation, in 1952, having followed multiple leads with no success.
In the early ’50s, the State Police and several detective agencies tried their hands at solving the mystery. Every lead came to a dead end. But Jeannie and George Sodder never gave up trying to find the truth. He died in 1969; she passed away in the 1980s.
For decades, the mystery lived on throughout the region, fueled by the large billboard fence the Sodders placed near Ansted. It offered $10,000 for information leading to the five children. The weathered sign has since been torn down, but the mystery did not die with it.
The popularity of the Internet has led a number of sleuths to try their hands at finding out what became of the Sodder children.
“My personal interest stems from seeing the Sodder billboard as a child. An image was etched in my mind that to this day remains with me, and just as strong, the desire to know what really happened to this family,” said Nancy Rust, a retired law enforcement officer who resides in Greenbrier County and participates in an Internet forum on the topic. “I believe the main thing that draws people to this particular case is the pure mystery of it, and also as with me, many saw the billboard and it just stayed with them.”
Rust is a member of Wewsleuths.com, where forums allow many hobbyist detectives to post their theories on a variety of unsolved events. Their theories on the Sodder case range from a fire caused by an angry World War II veteran seeking revenge on an Italian to the possibility that some of the children started the fire and fled. Some theorize about a vengeful kidnapping followed by a community-wide cover-up, not unheard of in the days of coal wars.
But none of them knows what happened to the children.
Neither does Sylvia (Sodder) Paxton, 64, who resides in St. Albans.
“We are touched deeply to know that people still care about the fate of our family after so many years,” she said. “Our parents hoped that some day their efforts would bring a resolution, even if it came after their lifetimes.”
Her daughter, Jennie Henthorn of Saint Albans, the granddaughter of Jeannie and George Sodder, still has hope answers can be found. She has also posted on websleuths.com.
“It was always a part of my life growing up,” she said. “It wasn’t until much later that I realized it was something more of a regional mystery and not just a family thing.”
Henthorn said the revival of the mystery among Internet sleuths has meant a great deal to her mother.
“She promised my grandparents she wouldn’t let the story die, that she would do everything she could,” Henthorn said.
Still, despite the sleuths’ collective resources, the family has seen no fruits from their efforts.
“It honestly is just a mystery still, for everyone,” Henthorn said. “Just to have some resolution for my mom would be a good thing.”
Rust, for one, has hope that could happen.
“Myself and fellow armchair sleuths have more than hope, we have determination and strong belief that if we continue to push on, and continue to get people ... getting this story back in the spotlight we will find the answers that the family has searched for 61 years to find,” she said.
— E-mail:
bnaudrey@register-herald.com
For more information on the Sodder children mystery, read “West Virginia Unsolved Murders,” a book by George and Melody Bragg.
The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia
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Local News
December 24, 2006
Where are the children?
Internet sleuths awaken 61-year-old Christmas mystery
Audrey Stanton
The Sodder children were excited on Christmas Eve 1945. After all, their 17-year-old sister, Marian, had just given them new toys from her dime-store job.
Three of her sisters, Martha Lee, 12, Jennie, 8, and Betty, 6, and two of their brothers, Maurice, 14, and Louis, 10, didn’t want to go to bed. They begged their mother, Jeannie, to let them stay up a little longer and play with their new toys. It was already 10 p.m.
Their mother told them they could, but she reminded Louis and Maurice to feed the cows and close the chicken coop before they settled in for the night.
Her oldest boys, John, 23, and George Jr., 16, had already gone to their beds in the attic. They had worked hard that day with their father, George, a 50-year-old Italian immigrant who ran a small coal trucking business near the family’s home just outside Fayetteville. He had retired early that night, too.
Jeannie Sodder told her children good night, scooped up 2-year-old Sylvia and took her to bed with her. It’s likely the mother fell asleep peacefully that Christmas Eve, thankful for so much: It looked like they had made the right decision moving from Italy to the United States. They’d built a fine home for themselves and their 10 children, and George’s young businesses were doing well. Even the war had ended. Peace had been declared.
But the rest of the night would prove to be far from peaceful. Three hours later, flames would engulf the house, and two horrified parents would wonder what had become of five of their 10 children.
Fire consumes house
Jeannie Sodder woke for the first time that night shortly after midnight when the phone in her husband’s downstairs office rang. It was a woman with the wrong number. She walked back to the bedroom, climbed back into bed with her husband and drifted back to sleep. Thirty minutes later, she was awakened again by something that sounded like a thump on the roof. She listened for it to happen again, but when it did not, she went back to sleep.
Another half hour later, Jeannie Sodder woke a third time — this time because she smelled smoke.
She ran from the room in search of the source and found flames spreading from a corner of her husband’s office. The fire prevented her from reaching the telephone.
She ran back toward the bedroom, calling to her husband. She woke Marian, who had fallen asleep on the downstairs couch, and told her to get Sylvia out of the house. Then she went to the stairway and shouted to wake the rest of the family.
Only George and John, the two oldest boys, came down. John had yelled toward the next room, where the other children would have normally been, and he thought he heard them answer. He and George started helping their father battle the fire, and Jeannie, Marian and young Sylvia stood helplessly outside, watching the blaze spread quickly throughout their home.
Flames encircled the foot of the stairway, making it impossible for anyone to go back up the stairs to see why the other children had not come down.
George and his boys ran outside, desperate to reach the children upstairs. He tried to scale the wall. They broke a window and went to get the ladder they always kept leaning against the house. It wasn’t there.
They ran to the truck, planning to back it up to the house, climb on top of it and reach the children upstairs through the broken window. The truck, which had worked fine only a day sooner, wouldn’t start. Neither would a second one.
As her father and brothers tried in vain to battle the flames, Marian ran to a neighbor’s house and asked them to phone the Fayetteville Fire Department. The neighbor was not able to get the operator on the line.
By 1 a.m., another neighbor passing by spotted the fire. He drove to a nearby tavern and tried, unsuccessfully, to reach the fire department. The phone at the tavern was out of order. He drove to Fayetteville, where he finally reached the fire chief by phone.
The chief was no help.
Not only had the staff of the town fire department been depleted by the war, the chief admitted the next day he could not drive the fire truck and had to wait for someone who could.
The fire department did not reach the scene until after sunup — some reports say 7 a.m., others say 9 a.m.
It may not have mattered. It took only 30 minutes for the home to be reduced to a pile of smoldering ashes.
ABOVE In red PROVES the house burned very HOT and very FAST which COULD potentially reduce the bodies to mostly ash and a few scattered bones.
On Christmas Day, grief-stricken and injured by the fire, George Sodder and his two oldest sons, also injured, joined firefighters and neighbors in a search for any sign of the five children. At 10 a.m., the fire chief informed the Sodders there were no remains of the children, that the fire had consumed their bodies completely.
On Dec. 29, four days after the fire, the Sodders used bulldozers to fill in the area. They planned to fence in the lot and plant flowers as a memorial to the children they believed rested there.
By Dec. 30, death certificates for the five children were filed at the Fayette County Courthouse. A coroner’s inquest had been held, and the fire had been ruled accidental as the result of faulty wiring.
A mystery develops
But in the days that followed, questions arose.
- There were no bones, no remains. Experts later told the Sodders the short fire never burned hot enough to completely destroy bone. Even some household items suffered damage, but remained identifiable.
- A telephone repair man who came to fix the lines told the Sodders the lines had been cut, not burned. Besides, electrical Christmas lights in the home had continued to shine even as the fire consumed the house. Would they have done so if the fire had been electrical in origin?
- Then there was the man who witnesses at the fire said they saw take from the scene a block and tackle used for removing car engines. Later, that same man would plead guilty to stealing the block and tackle, but he said he knew nothing of the fire. He did admit, however, to cutting wires to the house, believing them to be power lines. Yet the telephone lines had been cut 14 feet above the ground and two feet from the utility pole.
- The ladder was discovered down an embankment more than 75 feet away from its usual resting place.
- A late-night bus driver reported seeing “balls of fire” being tossed onto the roof of the Sodder home.
- Young Sylvia, three months after the fire, found a dark green, hard rubber object near the burned home. Some believed it to be a sort of bomb. The Sodders would later find the fire had started on the roof.
- A Charleston resident reported seeing the four youngest of the missing children with four Italian-speaking adults a week after the fire.
- A motel operator halfway between Fayetteville and Charleston said he saw the children the morning after the fire.
Above in red they say was a man here, but there is notes I have found that the woman who owned the inn was the one who said she saw these children and she swore to it on more than 1 occasion.
- C.C. Tinsley, a private detective from Gauley Bridge who was hired when the Sodders began to suspect their children had been kidnapped from the house before the fire, found that about two months before the fire, the Sodders had an argument with another Fayetteville resident because they refused to buy life insurance from him. The man told them their house would go up in smoke and their children would be destroyed because of the “dirty remarks” Mr. Sodder had made about Mussolini. That same man was a member of the coroner’s jury which ruled the fire accidental.
- In 1947, a local minister told the family the fire chief had told other residents he had found a heart in the debris of the fire. When the minister approached the chief, the chief said it was true that he had placed the heart in a box and buried it at the scene, but he would not say why he never told the Sodders of his find. When the Sodders asked the chief to help them locate the box, he was reluctant to do so but finally agreed to come. When family members, the private detective and others dug up a sealed dynamite box the chief identified as the one he had used to contain heart, they had the contents examined by a funeral director in Montgomery. He identified the contents as a beef liver, a fresh one that had never been exposed to fire.
Above - Possible calling card for the mafia?
- A second search of the scene in 1949 uncovered a partly burned dictionary that had been kept in the children’s bedroom and small section of human vertebrae. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., determined those bones showed no evidence of being exposed to fire and that they belonged to a man between 19 and 22. The Sodders and their detective later found the bones had been taken from a grave in Mount Hope.
“Since the house was stated to have burned for half an hour or so, one would expect to find the full skeletons of five children, rather than only four vertebrae,” the Smithsonian doctor wrote in his report.
- Twenty years after the tragedy, the Sodders received mail containing a picture of a young man they believed to be Louis. In fact, the back of the photograph said, “Louis Sodder. I love brother Frankie. ilil Boys. A90132 or 35.” They were certain it was a picture of Louis Sodder, who was supposed to have died in the fire at the age of 9. But they never found him
Above red - In italian Ilil means "About the" something I found out after tons of searching.
Hope lives on
There were many other questions and oddities surrounding the case.
Many dismissed the family’s claims as evidence of their refusal to accept the loss of their children. Local authorities considered the case closed after the inquest. And the FBI, after many requests from the Sodders, took the case in 1950, based on the strange evidence from the Smithsonian report. They withdrew from the case, a kidnapping investigation, in 1952, having followed multiple leads with no success.
In the early ’50s, the State Police and several detective agencies tried their hands at solving the mystery. Every lead came to a dead end. But Jeannie and George Sodder never gave up trying to find the truth. He died in 1969; she passed away in the 1980s.
For decades, the mystery lived on throughout the region, fueled by the large billboard fence the Sodders placed near Ansted. It offered $10,000 for information leading to the five children. The weathered sign has since been torn down, but the mystery did not die with it.
The popularity of the Internet has led a number of sleuths to try their hands at finding out what became of the Sodder children.
“My personal interest stems from seeing the Sodder billboard as a child. An image was etched in my mind that to this day remains with me, and just as strong, the desire to know what really happened to this family,” said Nancy Rust, a retired law enforcement officer who resides in Greenbrier County and participates in an Internet forum on the topic. “I believe the main thing that draws people to this particular case is the pure mystery of it, and also as with me, many saw the billboard and it just stayed with them.”
Rust is a member of Wewsleuths.com, where forums allow many hobbyist detectives to post their theories on a variety of unsolved events. Their theories on the Sodder case range from a fire caused by an angry World War II veteran seeking revenge on an Italian to the possibility that some of the children started the fire and fled. Some theorize about a vengeful kidnapping followed by a community-wide cover-up, not unheard of in the days of coal wars.
But none of them knows what happened to the children.
Neither does Sylvia (Sodder) Paxton, 64, who resides in St. Albans.
“We are touched deeply to know that people still care about the fate of our family after so many years,” she said. “Our parents hoped that some day their efforts would bring a resolution, even if it came after their lifetimes.”
Her daughter, Jennie Henthorn of Saint Albans, the granddaughter of Jeannie and George Sodder, still has hope answers can be found. She has also posted on websleuths.com.
“It was always a part of my life growing up,” she said. “It wasn’t until much later that I realized it was something more of a regional mystery and not just a family thing.”
Henthorn said the revival of the mystery among Internet sleuths has meant a great deal to her mother.
“She promised my grandparents she wouldn’t let the story die, that she would do everything she could,” Henthorn said.
Still, despite the sleuths’ collective resources, the family has seen no fruits from their efforts.
“It honestly is just a mystery still, for everyone,” Henthorn said. “Just to have some resolution for my mom would be a good thing.”
Rust, for one, has hope that could happen.
“Myself and fellow armchair sleuths have more than hope, we have determination and strong belief that if we continue to push on, and continue to get people ... getting this story back in the spotlight we will find the answers that the family has searched for 61 years to find,” she said.
— E-mail:
bnaudrey@register-herald.com
For more information on the Sodder children mystery, read “West Virginia Unsolved Murders,” a book by George and Melody Bragg.
Laura_Bean
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A few things I do not understand. Why didn't George lift one of his sons up to the window? Were they just panicked by the time they realized the trucks would not start up and the ladder was gone? I can see perhaps in a state of panic no one was thinking as clearly as they should be. But I would think George COULD have lifted a son onto his shoulders or a son could lift the dad on shoulders to put him up to the window, or was the window much too high to try that?
If John had gone into the room and shook his siblings and they had not awakened, as stated in Stacy Horn's blog as being his story until he recanted, why had he not grabbed at least 1 child? Was he too panicked? Did he wait too long, for example shook the kids for too long trying to awaken them, and then realized he had no more time and run from the room? Did he think they were DEAD and there was no point because they weren't waking up? And if John really DID shake the children, why didn't he stick to the story? Were his parents so upset and freaked out and wanting that little hope that he recanted for their well being?
If John had gone into the room and shook his siblings and they had not awakened, as stated in Stacy Horn's blog as being his story until he recanted, why had he not grabbed at least 1 child? Was he too panicked? Did he wait too long, for example shook the kids for too long trying to awaken them, and then realized he had no more time and run from the room? Did he think they were DEAD and there was no point because they weren't waking up? And if John really DID shake the children, why didn't he stick to the story? Were his parents so upset and freaked out and wanting that little hope that he recanted for their well being?
DixieDawn84
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Won't post the pic, but there is one on the Fayetteville, WV City Data site.
leahmichal
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Hoping to breathe some new life into this forum. I'm a third generation Fayetteville-ian and a seventh generation Fayette County-ian from West Virginia. My dad grew up not too far from the sign, but until my Uncle posted a photo of it the other day I had never heard of it. It was torn down the year before my birth.
I spent the holiday 'weekend' reading through all of these threads and I can't help the horrible feeling in my gut that these poor parents never knew the truth.
I just called my 86 year old grandmother who had lived in Fayette County (Fayetteville, Smithers, Gauley Bridge) her whole life, and she immediately knew what I was talking about when I asked her if she remembered hearing about five kids disappeared after a fire in 1945. However, she was getting in her daily walk around "Walmarts," so she is going to call me later and tell me what she knows.
I probably should change my obvious username, but I also know someone who was intimately connected with the "mafia" in the Smithers area from the 1930's up to now, I suppose. I live in KY right now and would only be able to talk to him in person, so that is a long shot at the moment.
I'll update with what my grandma has to say later, if anyone else would like to know.
Oh, and this is my first post, so hi to all that have kept this thriving on WS since 2005. Kudos.
I spent the holiday 'weekend' reading through all of these threads and I can't help the horrible feeling in my gut that these poor parents never knew the truth.
I just called my 86 year old grandmother who had lived in Fayette County (Fayetteville, Smithers, Gauley Bridge) her whole life, and she immediately knew what I was talking about when I asked her if she remembered hearing about five kids disappeared after a fire in 1945. However, she was getting in her daily walk around "Walmarts," so she is going to call me later and tell me what she knows.
I probably should change my obvious username, but I also know someone who was intimately connected with the "mafia" in the Smithers area from the 1930's up to now, I suppose. I live in KY right now and would only be able to talk to him in person, so that is a long shot at the moment.
I'll update with what my grandma has to say later, if anyone else would like to know.
Oh, and this is my first post, so hi to all that have kept this thriving on WS since 2005. Kudos.
Hilda Swenson
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Would this be the sign people refer to?
leahmichal
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Hi all. That is the sign they were referring to. My grandma said that after the fire there were a lot of rumors about kidnapping, Italian mafia, etc., most of which were rooted in the fact that they didn't find any teeth or bones. Interestingly, she told me that my grandfather (who passed away years before I came along) used to work with the Sodder sons through his job at the Alloy Plant. As far as she knew they always expressed that they had no idea what had happened.
Also, I just want to note that I use the terms 'mafia' and 'mob' lightly, because I am not sure what exactly they imply.
Also, I just want to note that I use the terms 'mafia' and 'mob' lightly, because I am not sure what exactly they imply.
leahmichal
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I'm sure that this has been discussed multiple times before, but... Just how would you go about kidnapping five children of varying ages, who are all wound up for Christmas, in the middle of the night, without alerting anyone?
I do think that this scenario is more plausible than five bodies turning entirely to ash.
Just trying to better understand the means behind the 'crime.'
I do think that this scenario is more plausible than five bodies turning entirely to ash.
Just trying to better understand the means behind the 'crime.'
wfgodot
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I've always thought that too.
rosesfromangels
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This is a very interesting case. Such beautiful children. My first impression without knowing all the facts, is that the children perished in the fire. So grief stricken and suffering from survivors guilt, the father refused to accept their tragic death. Human nature, with our love of a mystery, has perpetuated this tragic tale. Thats my first take on this. God bless them.
Ontflwrgrl
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Wow, just spent a few days catching up on the 4 discussion threads.
What a mystery...
I was excited to see the website that Granddaughter created for the family, but it seems to be gone without a trace. Any explainations? I would love to see the site.
Also where did JBandy go to ? Did he get the excavation done?
I hope that your family can find answers and peace for your missing family members and yourselves
What a mystery...
I was excited to see the website that Granddaughter created for the family, but it seems to be gone without a trace. Any explainations? I would love to see the site.
Also where did JBandy go to ? Did he get the excavation done?
I hope that your family can find answers and peace for your missing family members and yourselves
Tulessa
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When my grandmother was living (an evil grandmother ) she often threatened my mother and siblings with the evil sodder man with a threatening warning for being good. Has anyone heard of the Burkes, Johnson's,or Tacketts associated with this case? My uncle Is going to try to find out tomorrow If there is a connection. He remembers vividly the threats Of the Sodder man, coming to get them, if they had not behaved. 
He also remembers the mention of a fire, and the children going missing, hence the threats of being good. I live in the Southeastern Part of Ky, Pike County.
He also remembers the mention of a fire, and the children going missing, hence the threats of being good. I live in the Southeastern Part of Ky, Pike County.
When my grandmother was living (an evil grandmother ) she often threatened my mother and siblings with the evil sodder man with a threatening warning for being good. Has anyone heard of the Burkes, Johnson's,or Tacketts associated with this case? My uncle Is going to try to find out tomorrow If there is a connection. He remembers vividly the threats Of the Sodder man, coming to get them, if they had not behaved.
He also remembers the mention of a fire, and the children going missing, hence the threats of being good. I live in the Southeastern Part of Ky, Pike County.
Maybe you could expound on the "evil Sodder man", and the rest of the names?