One of the all-time great mysteries in Appalachian history comes from the little town of Fayetteville, WV. The story of the Sodder family has drawn a massive amount of scrutiny, yet has bamboozled investigators and researchers for almost 80 years now. What began as a simple Christmas holiday became a never-ending nightmare for a family of Italian immigrants.

George and Jennie Sodder, along with nine of their children (only a son in the military was absent), went to bed on Christmas Eve, 1944. 

At approximately 1 a.m. on Christmas morning, Jennie Sodder awoke to find their house had caught on fire. Jennie frantically roused her husband. Together, they attempted to round up their children to get to safety. 

George, Jennie, and four of their children made it out. George charged back into the house to save the other five missing children when he couldn’t find them outside.

George entered the house and encountered a cloud of flames and smoke. Knowing the children were likely upstairs, George went outside to where he kept a ladder, but it was missing. He then thought to use one of his two coal trucks to back them up the upstairs window, but neither would start despite firing up the day before. 

He tried to get water from a rain barrel to throw on the fire, but found it frozen.

A billowing cloud of smoke engulfed the house with, presumably, the missing Sodder children inside. The Sodder’s oldest daughter ran to a neighbor’s house to call the fire department, but there was no operator. Another neighbor who saw the flames also tried to dial the fire department, but to no avail. 

Despite the fire station being only 2 1/2 miles away, it was 8 a.m. on Christmas Day before the fire truck made it to the Sodder’s home some 7 hours after the fire began.

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George and Jeannie Sodder were despondent, thinking five of their children had perished in the fire. The Fire Chief said the fire wasn’t hot enough to incinerate the children, yet they couldn’t find any remains.. They deemed the cause of the fire to be faulty electrical wiring. The local authorities looked to close the books on the case quickly, as it appeared to have just been a tragic accident.

After the initial shock passed, the Sodders doubted their children had died in the fire. They began piecing together all the loose ends that had occurred before the fire. A series of odd events had preceded the fire that the Sodders questioned:

• A few months before the fire, a stranger had come to their home looking for work as a coal hauler for the Sodder’s trucking company. Looking at their fuse box, he remarked, “This is going to cause a fire someday.” It struck the Sodders as odd because their system had just satisfactorily passed an inspection by the power company.
• During that same time frame, an insurance agent had attempted to persuade them to buy life insurance. After they declined, the agent became angry. He declared that their house “is going to go up in smoke” and “your children are going to be destroyed” due to George Sodder’s outspoken criticism of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Fayetteville had a strong Italian community at the time and George Sodder’s harsh comments hadn’t made him popular in the neighborhood.
• Just a few days before the fire, the older Sodder boys had spotted a strange man sitting in a car watching the children come home after school.
• An odd phone call had come through just after midnight, shortly before the fire broke out. It turned out to be a wrong number as a female voice asked to speak with someone Jennie had never heard of. Jennie noted the sound of laughter and commotion in the background.
• Soon after getting into bed from the phone call, Jennie heard a loud thud on the roof, followed by the sound of something rolling off. It wasn’t long after this noise that Jennie discovered the smoke in the house.

All of these strange events made strong doubts creep into the minds of the Sodders about the fate of their children. 

A series of curious happenings continued following the fire.

• The rescue team did not find any trace of the five missing children in the rubble.
• A follow-up inspection led a telephone repairman to tell the Sodders that it appeared someone had cut the wiring rather than it burning. They then realized that the power should have been off throughout their house if it had been faulty wiring, yet that wasn’t the case.
• The Sodders discovered a strange object made of rubber in their yard in the days after the fire. George strongly suspected that it was the encasement of an explosive device used to start the fire.

Soon after, reported sightings poured in:

• A witness claimed to have seen a man fleeing the scene of the fire with a block and tackle device used to remove engines from vehicles. Just the type of device that could have disabled the two coal trucks from starting.
• A witness stated she saw the missing children in a car that passed by while the fire burned.
• Another lady claimed to have spotted the children around 50 miles west of Fayetteville in the company of two men and two women – all Italian.

The Sodders became increasingly desperate to get answers to what became of their children. They chased every lead and hired a private investigator to assist in the search. They wrote a letter to the FBI but could not secure assistance, reportedly due to a lack of cooperation from the Fayetteville police and fire departments. 

The Sodders had the site excavated and went through the debris looking for any sign of the children – but nothing turned up. 

George and Jennie Sodder offered a reward of $5,000 for information. They erected an enormous billboard along Route 16 that stood for years.

The last major development occurred in 1968 when Jennie Sodder received a letter postmarked in Kentucky with just a picture inside. The back of the photo read, “Louis Sodder. I love brother Frankie. Ilil Boys. A90132 or 35.” The photo bore an uncanny resemblance to their son Louis, who was 9-years-old at the time of the fire. 

The Sodders once again hired a private investigator to follow up on the letter to see if anything would come of it. They once again came up empty-handed.

George Sodder passed away not long after they received the letter. He left behind Jennie and numerous unresolved questions about his children. Jennie became more and more withdrawn as she secluded herself inside their home. She wore only black clothes in a show of continued mourning.

She kept up the billboard until she finally passed away in 1989. The remaining Sodder children and grandchildren continued to investigate the circumstances of the fire. 

The mystery continues to this day as questions about what happened still far outweigh answers.

Theories abound as many think the children perished in the fire and that it completely incinerated their remains. Several people believe the children were kidnapped by someone they knew, which explains why they didn’t put up a struggle. 

Some think the Sodders were victims of arson and that the children were taken to Italy or sold into slavery – perhaps by someone with ties to the mafia. 

The real truth may never be known, but one sad truth cannot be changed – George and Jennie Sodder both left this world without ever having closure about the fate of their five precious children. The torment and nightmare of their lives following the fire is an unspeakable tragedy that no one should ever have to face. 

What do you think happened?