#21: The Sodder Children

It is every parent’s worst nightmare to lose their children somehow, but for the Sodder family, that nightmare came to life one night. George and Jennie Sodder were of Italian descent and emigrated to the US. They had 9 children and lived in a nice part of town in Fayetteville, West Virginia. For most families, the night before Christmas is meant to be one of hot cocoa and sitting around the fire, but it was anything but pleasant for the Sodder family in 1945. George and Jennie woke up in the middle of the night on December 24th, 1945, to their house engulfed in flames and smoke. They rushed to wake the children up but only managed to get to 4 out of the 9.

When George went back inside to get his children, the staircase was completely alight, but his ladder wasn’t where he had left it for some odd reason… He tried to start their two cars, but they wouldn’t start. Something was off, and he wasn’t able to save his children. It was believed that their 5 other kids perished in the fire, but no human remains were found. George was a very outspoken Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, and was thought to have been targeted by the Sicilian mafia. A travel insurance salesman told Sodder that he will “[Go] up in smoke” and that “your children are going to be destroyed” for his comments against Mussolini. Many people, including the Sodder family, believe that the 5 children didn’t die in the fire and are still alive.