The mysterious Sodder children disappearance | Forensic Files

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children it may not be suitable for all listeners [Music] there was excitement in the air as
marion soda returned home following her shift at the local dollar store on christmas eve in 1945
seventeen-year-old marion handed out gifts she had bought from work to her younger siblings who persuaded their
parents george and jenny to let them open a few early the family of 12 had an extra reason to
celebrate christmas that year world war ii had ended only three months prior it wouldn't be long before the sodder's
second oldest son joseph who had been serving in the u.s army returned home to fayetteville west
virginia as the night wore on two of the older soda sons john and george jr retired to
bed they had spent the day helping their father with work and were tired the pair headed up into the attic which
was used as a space for the many soda children to sleep the attic was divided into two rooms and
accessible via a set of stairs george senior also went to bed at this time in the master bedroom on the main
floor his wife followed shortly thereafter at around 10 30 p.m taking their three-year-old daughter
sylvia with her the other soda children maurice martha lewis jenny and betty continued to play
with their new toys marion lay on the couch keeping an eye on the youngsters who ranged from 5 to
14 years old at about 12 30 am jenny woke to the sound of the telephone ringing in her husband's study next to
the master bedroom she got up to answer it and was met on the line by a woman whose voice she didn't recognize
in the background were the sounds of laughing and chatter and of glass clinking the caller asked for someone who didn't
reside at the soto residence when jenny told her she had the wrong number the woman laughed strangely
before hanging up as she left the study jenny realised the lights were still on in the family room
where the children had been playing the front door was also unlocked usually the job of the last family
member to go to bed jenny walked past marion who was sleeping on the sofa and locked the door and turned off the
lights assuming all her other children were asleep in the attic jenny went back to
bed a light sleeper jenny was disrupted again 30 minutes later at around 1am on christmas morning
what sounded like a hard rubber ball landed on the tar and wood roof of the family's cottage
it rolled down the roof then there was silence exhausted jenny ignored the noise
rolling over and going back to sleep [Music] 30 minutes later at 1 30 a.m jenny woke
to the smell of smoke she followed the trail and found it was coming from george's study which was on
fire she raced back to her room and roused to george he in turn woke marion who was still
sleeping on the sofa she took three-year-old sylvia outside to safety jenny yelled frantically at the bottom
of the attic stairs for the seven children above to come down the fire was moving quickly and was
already starting to take hold of the stairs after what seemed an eternity jon and
george jr made their way down their hair was singed from the flames meanwhile george senior attempted to
call the local fire department only to find the phone line to the soda house was dead
marion sprinted to their closest neighbor who also tried to call but the phone went unanswered by the operator
another neighbor who was still awake saw the sodder house going up in flames and
also attempted to phone the fire department but again there was no operator response
george senior was forced to retreat from the house when the flames and smoke became too intense
four of his children and his wife were safe outside in the freezing winter night
but his five children who had been up late playing with their toys remained in the attic
attempts to control the fire with water from the outside rain barrel proved fruitless
it was frozen solid instead george senior realised he might be able to climb up to the exterior attic window
he ran around to the side of the house where he always kept his trusty ladder it was gone
george had another idea he jumped into one of his two coal trucks thinking he could reverse it up
to the house and climb on top to reach the attic window he inserted the key into the ignition
but the truck wouldn't start he tried his second coal truck it wouldn't start either
both had been working perfectly fine the previous day meanwhile one of the neighbors
frustrated and not being able to reach an operator drove into the town of fayetteville and attracted down f j
morris the fire chief he alerted his volunteer fire team using a commonplace practice at the time
one fireman would call another who would in turn call another until a team was assembled
unfortunately many of the volunteer firefighters had yet to return from war the department was severely understaffed
although the fire station was just over two miles from the sodder family home fire chief fj morris could not attend
alone as he couldn't drive the fire truck george and jenny soder could do nothing
more than watch the inferno helplessly within 45 minutes the roof crashed down to the basement level
their house was completely destroyed as daylight broke on christmas day 1945 all that was left of the sodder house
was ash and ruins the fayetteville fire department arrived at six and a 8am hours after the fire started
long after anything could be done to rescue the children or salvage the property
george soda senior was treated at the local hospital for lacerations to his arm sustained while trying to reach his
trapped children fire marshals and local police combed the wreckage for an hour fire chief fj morris and his team failed
to find any human remains explaining to george and jenny that their children's bones must have completely disintegrated
from the heat and intensity of the fire newspapers throughout the united states reported on the tragedy
the fayetteville county prosecutor announced there would be an investigation into the deaths of
fourteen-year-old morris twelve-year-old martha nine-year-old lewis eight-year-old jenny and five-year-old
betty a coroner's jury was assembled who concluded the cause of the fire to be faulty electrical wiring likely
originating in the home study at the rear of the house strong winds were blamed for causing the
quick acceleration of the fire on december 30 1945 george and jenny soda were issued five death certificates
for each of their deceased children their cause of death was listed as quote death by suffocation or fire which
completely destroyed the home in which they were sleeping as no remains had been found the
fayetteville county prosecutor assured the sodders a more thorough investigation would be completed in the
new year once the festive season had ended a week later and against the wishes of
authorities george went to work to cover the side of their former home unable to look at the
wreckage any longer using a bulldozer george emptied five feet of dirt on top of the ashes to fill
what once was the basement the sodders then created a memorial garden and shrine at the site
george built another house on his property but in a new location the surviving sodders tried to move on
with their lives however as the shock wore off george and jenny were left with an
uneasy feeling they were certain that the fire that destroyed their house and killed their
children was not an accident there were others in the community who felt that way too
one such person was a local bus driver he described what he called balls of fire being thrown by a group of people
at the sodder house whether or not this lead was followed up by authorities is not known
a few months after the blaze the snow blanketing the region began to thaw three-year-old sylvia was playing near
the side of her former home when she found something that had previously been concealed by the snow
about the size of a baseball and made of dark green hard rubber the object was hollow with a screw cap
silvia showed it to her parents george thought he recognized the object and took it to a military official to
confirm his belief the object was a type of grenade sometimes referred to as a pineapple
bomb george was certain this was the noise jenny heard on the roof just before the
fire broke out he also concluded that the unknown woman who phoned the sodder house earlier that
night was calling to make sure they were home before the fire was lit adding to george and jenny's speculation
that the fire was a deliberate act was the ladder that was always kept by the side of the house
it was later found thrown down an embankment approximately 80 feet away seemingly discarded by someone so it
couldn't be found [Music] on the night of the fire but before it was set a man had been witnessed
stealing a block and tackle from george's shed on the property george used the items as a pulley system
to work on his coal trucks he speculated that his trucks might have been tampered with by the man causing
them not to work during the blaze no investigation was conducted on the tracks to see if they had been tampered
with or if it was simply the cold night air that caused them not to start however the thief a local man named
lonnie johnson was later arrested and charged for the theft of the block and tackle
while being questioned by police he also admitted to cutting the sodders electric
line despite the claims by george and jenny sotter who said the electricity was on as the house burnt down
jenny later said we would never have gotten out of there alive if the lights had been cut
after the fire a telephone repairman was called out to attend to a hanging telephone line
they informed the sodders that the phone line had been cut explaining why george
and jenny couldn't call for the fire department during the blaze to cause this damage someone had
declined the telegraph pole which was over 14 feet high the sodas believed that lonnie johnson
had cut the phone lines by accident thinking it was the electric line johnson pleaded guilty to cutting the
line but denied stealing the block and tackle nevertheless he was fined 25 dollars
even though the sodders were convinced their house was intentionally set alight they were uncertain as to who might be
responsible as far as they were aware their middle class family was well respected within
their close-knit community both the george and jenny were italian immigrants who wound up in fayetteville
where they met and fell in love they had their first child john in 1923 before going on to have another nine
children george was an intelligent man unafraid of a hard day's work from the moment he arrived in the u.s at
age 13 he labored to build his own american dream he worked in pennsylvania on the railway
before moving to west virginia where he began his own trucking business moving dirt and other construction materials
around various sites he settled in fayetteville drawn in by its large population of italian
immigrants although theirs was a happy life the soda family still faced the difficulties
this led them to question if anyone around them might have reason to hurt them weeks before the fire on a cool fall day
george soder was suddenly disrupted by the sound of knocking it was coming from the front door
at his doorstep was a young man he didn't recognise the stranger asked if there was any
worker going at george's coal trucking business george regretfully told him no instead of leaving the man meandered
towards the rear of the sodder's farmhouse george followed close behind keeping an
eye on him the man then stopped where the building's two fuse boxes were located
george had just had a new wiring installed to fit an electric stove for his family
the local power company had recently given the setup the once over telling him the wiring was installed correctly
and functioning properly the man turned to george and said this is going to cause a fire one day
without offering any further explanation the stranger went on his way [Music] in retrospect george considered this
unknown man could be the arsonist seeking revenge for not being given work but this was not the only strange
encounter at the sodder's house prior to the fire a short time after this incident another
man showed up on the sodder doorstep named armstead rossa long jr he was trying to sell family life
insurance when george declined to take out a policy long junior became furious yelling at
george your goddamn house is going up in smoke and your children are going to be
destroyed you are going to pay for the dirty remarks you have been making about mussolini
this comment took george by surprise but his views on the italian fascist leader benito mussolini were well known
throughout the italian community in fayetteville although mussolini was admired by some
george soder went out of his way to make known his view that he despised the former dictator who had been executed
nine months before the fire it was a subject that divided his neighbors and george was sure it made
him some local enemies armstead rossa long jr the man who had threatened george later
served on the coroner's jury who determined the cause of the fire to be faulty wiring
he was never investigated as a suspect nor was his appearance on the jury with two of his close acquaintances regarded
as a conflict of interest in addition in the weeks prior to christmas as the school-aged children
finished up for the year they approached george and jenny with a concern they had seen a man watching them
intently from his car that was pulled up alongside the highway as they got off the school bus and walked to their home
initially dismissing their children the sodas now wondered if this had anything to do with the fire
one issue that lingered in the minds of this sod appearance was the lack of human remains uncovered in the aftermath
of the fire one day jenny soder was reading a newspaper when she came across an article detailing the deaths of a local
family of seven in a house fire all skeletons had been recovered including that of a three-month-old baby
according to the sunday gazette mail jenny soda began to experiment she wanted to see if a fire could
completely disintegrate bones as she had been told by the fire chief following her own tragedy
jenny took leftovers from dinner chicken bones pork chop bones and beef joints and placed them in a wood burning stove
to see what would happen after each time she was left with a pile of burnt but still visibly intact bones
[Music] jenny visited a crematorium to discuss her findings an employee told her that even after
burning a human body for two hours at 2000 degrees skeletal remains were still present
the fire that consumed the soda household did not reach nearly as high a temperature or burn intensely for as
long it left a major question for the sodders if the children were in the fire then where were their remains
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episode's ads by supporting our sponsors you support case file [Music] 50 miles north of fayetteville in the
town of charleston a woman was reading the local newspaper when she saw an article detailing the fire that killed
the soda children accompanying the piece were the photographs of the five deceased
children the woman recognized four of the five children immediately having seen them at
the hotel where she worked a week after the fire she contacted authorities and assigned
an affidavit which read the children were accompanied by two women and two men all of italian
extraction i do not remember the exact date however the entire party did register at
the hotel and stayed in a large room with several beds they registered about midnight
i tried to talk to the children in a friendly manner but the men appeared hostile and refused to allow me to talk
to these children one of the men looked at me in a hostile manner he turned around and began
talking rapidly in italian immediately the whole party stopped talking to me i sensed that i was being frozen out and
so i said nothing more they left early the next morning this was not the only alleged sighting
that made its way back to george and jenny soda another woman came forward to say she
served the children breakfast at a tourist stop outside of fayetteville on the morning of the fire
she also noticed a car with florida license plates parked outside this coincided with a later sighting in
the commercial fishing village of cortez florida the local police followed up the leads
but they didn't get far in 1947 the sodders certain that their children had been kidnapped and a fire
lit to cover the tracks wrote to the fbi they received a reply from director j edgar
hoover in the letter he told the sodders he would like to be of assistance but it
seemed like a local matter not within the jurisdiction of the fbi however they agreed to help if
permission to investigate was received from the fayetteville police and fire departments
for reasons unknown the police and fire departments refused to cooperate george soder followed up the alleged
sightings of his children traveling to the various locations where they were reportedly spotted
but he returned home each time no closer to finding them in 1949 he traveled to manhattan in new york
city after seeing a photograph of some school children in the local newspaper he became convinced that one of them was
his missing daughter betty george tracked down the family but they refused to talk to him
in order to help chase up leeds george hired private investigator cece tinsley tinsley interviewed members of the
fayetteville community upon speaking with a local minister a strange story emerged
the minister reported that the fire chief fj morris who investigated the ruins of the sodder house on christmas
morning had visited him with a confession morris said he had found the remains of
a human heart in the ashes that morning but instead of notifying anyone he took the heart placed it inside a box and
buried it underneath the rubble of the former soda house cece tinsley confronted the fire chief
who admitted burying the box together they went to the scene and dug around until they located it
tinsley sent the box and its contents to a mortician he examined the specimen and sent a
letter summarizing his findings to george soder it wasn't a human heart but a piece of
beef liver it hadn't even been in a fire the findings added more confusion to the
case jenny sotto revealed that the family hadn't been eating beef liver nor was there any in their house on the night of
the fire tinsley returned to fire chief f.j morris and told him of the findings he confessed to burying the liver in the
hope that it would be found and put to rest the soda family's concerns that their children were still alive
somewhere when word of the bizarre actor got out others speculated that he buried the
organ to put a stop to the investigation the specimen was never sent back to the
sodders and disappeared presumably discarded so no further testing was ever completed
why he buried the liver in a box was never ascertained fire chief fj morris maintained that
other human remains were found on the morning of the fire however the sodders refuted this claim
telling the media that they were informed that nothing was found writer stacey horn reported on her
website that eldest son john allegedly told police in a statement that he tried to rouse the missing soda children who
he initially claimed were asleep in the attic when the fire took hold however george and jenny soda later
disputed this assertion saying that jon reported this out of guilt for running down the attic stairs
to escape the blaze without alerting his siblings as the three-year anniversary of the
blaze approached the rally register printed an article about the sodder children and their possible
disappearance titled mysterious fade of five children pondered it listed further evidence that
the children might still be alive evidence included a girl who came forward to say she had seen one of the
supposedly dead children looking out a car window while the fire was in progress
another private detective hired by the sodders named george swain theorised in the article that the children might have
been lured from the house under the pretense of attending a christmas party they were then kidnapped for sale on the
black market he added that he had interviewed witnesses who were at the fire on whether they smelled burning flesh or
heard screams coming from the house all those he interviewed said they hadn't however the strong winds that
night may have accounted for this the article ended with a quote from the editor
it is the truth not sympathy that mr and mrs soder seek they want to know whether their children
are living or dead the parents shall believe their lost ones are alive until proven dead
this story is published in the hope that somewhere somehow it will bring forth information that will end the agonising
doubts for the parents either through a happy reunion with their children or definite establishment that the
children did meet death in the fire after three years working on the soda case private investigator george swain
announced in september 1949 that he was stepping down from the case he told the beckley post-herald that he
had nowhere left to turn he said my three years work on this mystery leaves the matter unsolved in spite of
the fact i worked diligently in probing every known lead in the face of utter frustration met at every turn
many mysterious circumstances will puzzle me forever my efforts in a large measure were
prompted by sympathy for the bereaved parents and i regret that i was unable to bring
them even a crumb of solace in the bereavement my heart goes out to the soda family
i have been guided by advice from some of the nation's most noted experts on arson pathologists and criminologists
and i feel that many of the mysteries surrounding the fire never will be solved i believe it is utterly foolish to spend
any more money on a search that is bound to prove fruitless as i see it now the question is not whether the children
perished in the flames but what became of the bones following the fire despite the resignation of the lead
investigator on the case the sodders refused to give up searching for their children
on september 11 1953 nearly eight years after the fire george and jenny put up a billboard on
their property which was visible to those driving along highway route 16. adorning the billboard were the black
and white photos of morris martha lewis jenny and betty sotter above the five photos in large capitals
was the question what was their fate kidnapped murdered or are they still alive alongside was the announcement of a five
thousand dollar reward in addition the sodas printed out flyers with the children's photos and
information hoping to circulate the images as far as possible [Music] the billboard made local news with the
beckley post-herald reporting soda says he cannot understand the lack of interest shown by authorities in the
case he has had to pay for and push what investigating has been done however the family has pledged all in
its power to solve this mystery the family is not particularly interested in punishing anyone if there
was foul play they state they would be glad to wave charges or to sign any kind of release
asked for if they could only regain their children or learn what happened to them
over the years the billboard was carefully maintained by george and jenny sotter and repainted with new messages
now and again each time pleading for information on their children one tip came in from a woman in houston
texas who sent a letter to the sodders according to medium.com she maintained an acquaintance of hers
had confessed to being louis soder and told her he was living with his brother morris both of whom were listed as
deceased in the fire george travelled to the area but was unable to locate the woman who sent the
letter local police managed to help george find the man who confessed to being lewis
but he denied ever making the confession one day in 1968 22 years after the fire
jenny soder went to collect her mail rummaging through the various letters one envelope caught her eye
it had her name on it but no return address a postmark revealed it had been sent
from central city kentucky [Music] when jenny opened the letter she realised it had already been opened and
resealed similar to previous letters she had received in the past inside was a single black and white
photograph showing the upper body and face of a man in his late twenties to early thirties
on the back someone had scrawled louis sodder i love brother frankie l-l-i-l-boys
a90-132 or 35 the cryptic message meant nothing to the sodders and there was no child named
frankie in their family however from the moment they laid eyes on the photo george and jenny were convinced that
they were looking at their son lewis who was nine years old at the time of the fire
he bore a striking similarity to the photo of louis as a child that was still situated on the billboard
the sodders made a copy of the photograph to add onto the billboard and another which they framed and hung in
pride of place in their home they hired a private investigator to follow the lead to central city kentucky
paying him up front for his services george and jenny never heard from him again
as 1968 drew to a close the sodders had spent over fifteen thousand dollars of their own money to
chase up leads pay private investigators and promote their children's disappearance
they increased the reward for information to ten thousand dollars george told the sunday gazette
it's hard sometimes to get to sleep at night just wondering about them after all if someone wanted to get me
why did they get my family too but as long as we live we will dig into it to come out with an explanation on
what really happened 23 years ago in that fire george sodder died a year later on
august 16 1969 at age 73 after his death jenny continued to display the billboard at the soda
property over the years it became weathered and run down jenny who had worn black exclusively
ever since the fire as a sign of mourning to her five children became more reclusive
as reported in the smithsonian magazine she began to have more and more rooms built on the existing soda house in an
attempt to distance herself further from the outside world jenny tended the memorial garden planted
at the side of their former home ensuring that the flowers thrived jenny soda died in 1989 at the age of
85. she was buried next to george at highland memorial park in fayette county george sodder's headstone reads
who believed in justice for everyone but was denied justice by the law when his five children were kidnapped christmas
eve 1945 at fayetteville west virginia in the years following their mother's death the remaining soda children
continued to follow up leads and promote the story of the fire that changed their
lives forever some developed the theory that the fire was orchestrated by the italian mafia
who were supportive of benito mussolini or that the local mafia had tried to recruit george and he had declined
prompting them to seek revenge according to the smithsonian magazine another theory was that the five missing
sodder children had been kidnapped by someone they knew who told them of the fire and offered to take them somewhere
safe they speculated that perhaps they were alive and had not contacted their siblings in order to protect them
sylvia soda the youngest surviving sodder child is now in her late 70s she is the only known soda child still
alive according to medium.com silvia is certain that her siblings did not perish in the fire
she still browses online blogs dedicated to finding out what happened to her family in the hope of getting some
answers before she passes although sylvia was only three at the time of the fire she can still remember
her father's bleeding arm she has also never forgotten the screams of those who escaped the inferno
watching helplessly as it destroyed their lives forever [Music] one event that came the closest to
solving the mystery of what happened to the soda children occurred in august 1949
nearly four years after the fire in desperation to find any evidence that would prove to him that his children
perished in the blaze george soder hired a small crew and excavated the site he had previously
filled over with dirt watching as george removed the soil with a bulldozer was a washington dc
pathologist named oscar b hunter whom the sodders had hired for his expert opinion
[Music] as printed in the raleigh register he told george that had the children perished in the fire
he expected their skulls would be located no fayetteville county officials attended the scene aside from a deputy
sheriff who watched on and didn't participate excavating to a depth of five feet the
crew combed through the dirt and rubble to find human remains they found several coins that had been
burned but were still recognizable a damaged dictionary bits of roofing and other small objects that had not been
impacted by the blaze then they uncovered some bones the skeletal remains which appeared to
be vertebrae were sent to the smithsonian institute for analysis the report which was sent to the sodders
concluded the human bones consist of four lumbar vertebrae belonging to one individual
since the transverse recesses are fused the age of this individual at death should have been 16 or 17 years
the top limit of age should be about 22 since the sentra which normally fused at
23 are still unfused the eldest soda child determined to have perished in the fire was 14 year old
morris the report continued on this basis the bones show greater skeletal maturation than one would
expect for a 14 year old boy the vertebrae showed no evidence that they had been exposed to fire and it is
very strange that no other bones were found in the allegedly careful excavation of the basement of the house
one would expect to find the full skeletons of the five children rather than only four vertebrae
this was a sentiment echoed by many professionals who were called upon to give their opinion over the years
following the fire in a 15-year anniversary article printed in the beckley post herald on christmas
day 1960 a pathologist said i wouldn't say it's impossible but it's highly improbable
i have seen about 120 burning deaths and there were always some remains left another pathologist who wished to remain
anonymous was quoted as saying no ordinary house fire could completely consume five bodies
the findings prompted two hearings about the soda case in the west virginian capital of charleston
however the governor and state police superintendent closed the case due to lack of evidence
the vertebrae were not returned to the sodders and the report concluded that the bones likely came from the dirt that
george soda used to cover over the rubble of the fire as the remains have long since
disappeared this raises another question that will forever be unanswered if the bones weren't from the soda
children then who did they belong to when jenny sodder died in 1989 her remaining children took down the
billboard she and george had erected in an effort to find out what exactly had happened to 14 year old morris
twelve-year-old martha nine-year-old lewis eight-year-old jenny and five-year-old betty
it had red on christmas eve 1945 our home was set a fire and five of our children ages 5 through 14 kidnapped
the officials blamed defective wiring although lights were still burning after the fire started
the official report stated that the children died in the fire however no bones were found in the
residue and there was no smell of burning flesh during or after the fire what was the motive of the law officers
involved what did they have to gain by making us suffer all these years of injustice
why did they lie and force us to accept those lies [Music] [Music] you

Case 192: The Sodder Children

On Christmas Eve 1945, while most citizens of the town of Fayetteville, West Virginia celebrated the end of World War Two, Italian immigrants - George and Jennie Sodder watched their house go up in flames...

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Jessica Forsayeth Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn

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RESOURCES

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Brief Summary

The Sodder family's Christmas fire in 1945 led to the mysterious disappearance of five children, sparking ongoing investigations and speculation about foul play.

Key points

The Soder Family Tragedy. On Christmas morning 1945, the Soder family's house caught fire, leading to a devastating loss.
Suspicious Circumstances. Strange encounters and threats before the fire raise questions about the cause of the tragedy.
The Missing Remains. Despite the fire's intensity, no human remains were found, leading to further speculation.
Confession of the Fire Chief. A fire chief's shocking confession about a buried heart adds to the mystery surrounding the Sodder case.
The Mysterious Disappearance of the Sodder Children. The Sodder family's search for their missing children after a tragic fire leads to bizarre discoveries and unanswered questions.
The Billboard of Hope. Nearly eight years after the fire, the Sodders put up a billboard seeking information about their missing children.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Did the criminal justice system work?

0:31WatchOct 16, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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