This case is literally one of the strangest ones I've ever read and researched (so far). A lot of stuff doesn't make sense and there's also a lot of speculation as to what could have happened to the children. This will be a long one since there is so much information and weird, little details that may make a difference. In the end, I'll let you guys decide and come to your own conclusions.
In 1905 at the age of 13, Giorgio Soddu (aka George Sodder) immigrated from his home in Tula, Sardinia (Italy) to live in the United States. A short time later, he found work in Pennsylvania on the railroads carrying water and other supplies to workers. After a few more years, he relocated to Smithers, West Virginia to work as a driver which would later result in him starting his own trucking business first hauling dirt and later coal. It would be there that he would also meet his wife, Jennie Cipriani, who as it turns out, had also immigrated from Italy.
After they got married, George and Jennie settled down in the nearby town of Fayetville. The town actually had a high number of Italian immigrants which made them feel right at home. George's business was doing well and his family became pretty well respected among his community. The only issue was that he seemed to have very strong opinions regarding the Italian government and did not have a filter when it came to speaking badly about Mussolini. This caused arguments among the community as some of the other Italian families did not share his sentiments.
In October of 1943, weird things began to happen.
For one, a life insurance salesman came to the Sodder home and warned George that his 'home would go up in flames and that all of his children would be destroyed'. He made a point to tell him that it was due to the way he spoke about Mussolini. As odd as that was, I don't believe that George really thought anything of it. Later on, another random man walked to the back of the home and later told George that the fuse box would one day cause a fire. This really confused Mr. Sodder since he had made sure to have all of the wiring re-done when he installed an electric stove in the home and the work had been given the okay by an electric company. During this time, one of the oldest Sodder children also noticed that there was a weird car parked along the main highway and that the occupants of the car would watch as the younger children walked home from school. For the next 2 years, things seemed to go back to normal. There are no reports of anything strange happening in that time. Unfortunately, this would all change on Christmas eve in 1945.
Now, before I continue with the events of the night of the fire, It's important for you to know the names of the children. John (23), Marion (Age unknown), George Jr. (16), Maurice (14), Martha (12), Louis (9), Jennie (8), Betty (4) & Sylvia (2). This is because once I explain what occurred, you will be very confused without this information. The ages aren't really that relevant to the story, but I decided to include them as well.
On Dec 24th, 1945 the Sodder home was completely destroyed by a fire. The events that led to that moment are quite odd to say the least.
Just before 10pm, Marion came home from work and presented her younger sisters with gifts she had bought for them at her workplace. The kids were so excited and they decided to ask their mother if it would be okay for them to stay up to play with their new toys. Their mother agreed to let them stay up but only if the boys remembered to tend to their cows and bring them into their barn and then feed the chickens before they went to bed. Once that was agreed upon, Jennie took her youngest daughter, Sylvia, upstairs and headed to bed. At this point, only 6 of the 9 children were awake since George and the 2 oldest boys, John and George Jr. had been asleep for quite some time after having worked all day.
This leaves Marion, Martha, Jennie, Betty, Maurice and Louis awake.
At 12:30am Jennie is awakened by the sound of the phone. She gets up and hears a woman on the other line laughing as the sound of glasses clinking filled the background. The woman was asking to speak to someone but Jennie did not recognize the voice, nor did she know who the woman was looking for. She told the woman she had the wrong number and hung up the phone. She later said she had found the call odd and recalled that the woman had a "weird" laugh. As she was headed to bed, she noticed that the lights were still on and that the curtains were not drawn. She thought it strange since the children knew to do that before they headed to bed. She also noticed that Marion had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room so she assumed that all of the other children had gone upstairs to the attic where they all shared a room. Jennie closed the curtains, turned out the lights and headed back upstairs.
30 minutes later, at 1am, Jennie again is awakened by the sound of an object hitting the roof and causing a loud bang and then a rolling noise. After she doesn't hear another sound, she falls back asleep. Another 30 minutes later, she wakes up again to the smell of smoke. She quickly got up and noticed that George's office room was on fire and that it seemed to be coming from either the phone line or the fuse box. She ran to wake up George who then woke up John and George Jr. At this point, both parents, Sylvia, John, George Jr. and Marion were awake and were downstairs. They called out for the children upstairs but they didn't hear a response. Unfortunately, they were unable to go upstairs because the staircase was engulfed in flames. George, Jennie and 4 of their kids quickly escaped the home.
Once outside the home, things seemed to get stranger and a lot more complicated. Marion tried calling the fire department but the phone was not working. She then ran to a neighbor's house and they also tried calling but for some reason the call wasn't going through. A random driver who was at a nearby tavern had also seen the fire and smoke so he tried calling as well but again, there seemed to be something wrong with either the phone line, or the calls weren't getting through to the operator. Finally, someone was able to report the fire though it's unclear as to who it was or how long it took.
Understandably, George was consumed with worry. He was barefoot but still managed to climb the brick wall and break open the attic window. They had originally planned to use a ladder which they always kept nearby, but it wasn't in it's usual place. Also, the water barrel they kept for their animals was frozen solid, so there was no possible way they could use that. After realizing he couldn't help by climbing in, George climbed down and tried to use 2 of his work trucks but they mysteriously would not work even though they had worked perfectly fine the day before. Having run out of options, they had no choice but to sit by and watch as their house burned to the ground.
Naturally, the Sodder's assumed that their 5 other children had died in the fire. When the fire department finally showed up early that morning (apparently, the fire chief couldn't drive the fire truck and due to the war, they were severely understaffed) there was nothing left of the home. One of the fire fighters, who happened to be Jennie's brother, helped investigate the fire. According to accounts, around 10am, the fire chief concluded his investigation and reported that there was NO evidence of human remains. None whatsoever. Although there are some conflicting statements in which supposedly they did find some bone fragments and internal organs but they decided not to disclose that information? Honestly, that doesn't make sense to me. Especially because Jennie's brother was part of the fire squad. Why wouldn't he want to provide closure to his sister? Nevertheless, the fire captain came to the conclusion that the fire had burned hot enough to actually dispose of the bodies completely.
After all was said and done, the fire chief advised the Sodder's that they should leave the site undisturbed so the fire marshall could come in and due a final inspection. After 4 days, Jennie could no longer bare the sight so she had George cover the ashes with about 5ft (1.5m) of dirt. The plan was to create a memorial garden for the children.
Meanwhile, the local corner ruled that the fire had been an 'accident' caused by faulty wiring. The craziest part was that among the jurors was none other than the insane insurance guy who 2 years before, had actually threatened George with the fire and the death of his children. Tell me that's not suspicious...
On Dec. 30th 1945, just a few days after the fire, Martha, Jennie, Betty, Maurice and Louis were declared legally dead. The Sodder's were handed death certificates for their children and they decided to hold a funeral although they had no bodies. On Jan 2nd, the day of the funeral, George and Jennie Sodder were too distraught to attend, but the remaining children were there.
As time went by, the Sodder's began trying to rebuild their lives, but the more they thought about it, the less things made sense. They began to question the marshall's findings. The marshall had concluded that the fire had been caused by electrical issues due to "faulty wiring" yet Jennie and George both recall seeing their Christmas lights still working during the early stages of the fire. Also, the ladder that had been missing that night was later found at the bottom of an embankment about 75ft (23m) from the home. A telephone repairman who came out to fix the lines had also told the Sodder's that the line had not actually burned out but in fact, had been cut by someone who was actually willing to climb 14ft (4.3m) and then reach out about 2ft (61cm) to cut the line. So in other words, it wasn't an accident.
Due to this information, a man that had been seen walking around that night and who had actually been caught stealing a block and tackle from someone's home was actually arrested. When he was questioned, he was quick to confess to cutting the wire but claimed that he actually thought that he was cutting the power line instead. When police asked him about the fire, he denied having any involvement.
The strange thing is.. there is absolutely no proof of this man's existence. It also doesn't explain why, if he really did exist, he would want to cut the power lines in the first place.
Interestingly, in 1968 Jennie Sodder said that if the power lines had been cut, there is absolutely no way that her, her husband and her surviving children would have been able to escape the fire.
The Sodder's doubts only grew when new developments surfaced. For one, Jennie started to question the fire itself. She recalled having read of similar fires where the people had died in the home and there had been skeletons left behind. She tried this theory out using animal bones and burned them for hours but each time, there was still fragments left behind. Later, a crematorium employee confirmed that in order for bones to completely vanish, the fire had to have burned at least 2,000 degrees F and she knew there was no way the fire would have been that hot. On top of that, when the fire was finally put out, there was still some appliances left behind and were pretty intact. So much so that they were still recognizable. Things just were not adding up.
In 1946, Jennie had started the memorial garden for her kids, but she couldn't help but think that maybe her kids were out there somewhere. Both George and Jennie had a feeling that the fire had started in the roof. Their suspicions were later fueled by a witness who came forward to say that he had seen some people throwing "balls of fire" at their roof the night of the fire. Also, when the snow melted in the spring, Jennie had found a small, green rubbery object that George later said looked eerily similar to a 'pineapple hand grenade'. Not only that, but people later started coming forward claiming to have actually seen the children.
A woman stated that the night of the fire, as she was looking out her window, she actually saw the children peering from inside a vehicle as it drove by. Then another woman claimed to have seen the children at a rest stop in Charleston and then again, eating breakfast the next morning with 2 men and 2 women who drove a vehicle with Florida Plates. Due to all of these sightings, the Sodder's decided to hire a private investigator in hopes that they would be able to locate their missing children or to possibly find closure. Unfortunately, things just got weirder and weirder with the information provided by the PI. Sometime after the fire, Morris (the fire chief) had actually confessed to a local minister that he had actually found a human heart in the ashes and decided to put it in a wooden box and bury it. When this information came out, the Sodder's and the PI rushed to confront the fire chief and demanded to be taken to the place where he claimed to have taken the heart. Once the box had been located, the Sodder's took the heart to a local coroner who later determined that the specimen was in fact not human but a beef liver. It is also worth noting that the liver was pretty fresh and it had absolutely no sign of having been in the fire. Morris later confessed that he lied about it in hopes that the Sodder's would take his word and move on.
With time, things just kind of became more and more frustrating for the family. George Sodder would see girls in magazines who looked like his daughters and would actually travel to the place where the photo was taken hoping to find his children. Both him and Jennie never gave up hope that they would once day be reunited with their lost children.
They even offered a $5,000 reward (later $10,000) for anyone who could provide information that would lead them to any one of their children. In 1952, they also posted a billboard with the children's picture and the following message:
On Christmas eve 1945 our home was set afire and five of our children ages five through fourteen 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?
Also underneath was a message in smaller writing describing the fact that the Sodder's had actually received a picture in 1967 with what looked to be their son Louis, now an adult. The picture came with the following message "Louis Sodder I love brother Frankie Ilil boys A90132 or 35 "
Unfortunately, nothing else ever came of this. George Sodder passed away in 1969 without ever knowing what truly happened. After his death, Jennie moved into the home and built additional rooms. She also tended to the memorial garden and wore black every day until her death in 1989. After her death, the remaining family took down the billboard but continued to look for answers quietly. As it stands, Sylvia Sodder is the only remaining Sodder alive (from those who escaped the fire) but no further information has been provided.
With all of the strange details, there is so many different theories as to what may have happened, but most people choose the believe the children died in the fire. Although there are wild conspiracy theories. From it being an inside job, to it being a hit by the Sicilian Mafia due to George's remarks about Mussolini. Regardless, it's heartbreaking to think we may never know the truth.
Personally, I believe the children may have been taken since there is absolutely no evidence that they died in the home and due to the fact that there was threats previously from random men, I think it's quite possible that they were taken as a form of revenge for speaking ill of the Italian government.
What do you guys think? What happened to the children?
Do you think this case will ever be solved?
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