A CHRISTMAS EVE TRAGEDY

It was a cold Christmas Eve in 1945 when the Sodder family began their holiday festivities. The large, close-knit clan from West Virginia was enjoying their Christmas lights, food, and holiday cheer but in the early morning hours, tragedy struck. By 1am the better part of the family home was engulfed in flames. Parents George and Jennie, along with four of their nine children were able to escape but five of the Sodders other children, who were sleeping in the attic, weren’t so lucky. Maurice 14, Martha 12, Louis 9, Jennie 8, and Betty 5, were all initially presumed to have died in the fire despite their father’s multiple attempts to save them. It seemed every attempt the family made to rescue the kids in the attic during the fire was foiled. The ladder to access the attic was missing and later found in a ravine, phone cords were cut so they couldn’t call for help, even the family vehicles were inoperable. The fire department speculated the cause was faulty wiring, but Mr. and Mrs. Sodder never believed this, largely due to the sheer number of odd events prior to and after the fire. These ranged from run-ins with angry insurance salesmen to a homemade hand grenade being found in the family yard. Those events, and others, coupled with multiple sightings of the children lead one to believe there is certainly more to this story. Did I mention the fact that the children’s bones and/or cremains were never found in the ashes from the fire? Mr. and Mrs. Sodder spent the rest of their lives trying to find answers, hiring private detectives and even conducting some early forensic examinations of their own but, more than seventy years later, what still remains are those same unanswered questions.The story of the Sodder family is certainly worth a trip down the rabbit hole.💀🗝🖤