Haunted American History

The Disappearance of the Sodder Children (West Virginia)

Haunted American History

Show Notes

On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, burned to the ground. George and Jennie Sodder escaped with four of their children, but five others were supposedly trapped upstairs. When the ashes cooled, however, investigators found something the family couldn't understand: no identifiable remains of the missing children. Then came the questions. A missing ladder. Trucks that mysteriously wouldn't start. A telephone line that had apparently been cut. Strange threats before the fire. And, decades later, a photograph that George and Jennie believed showed one of their missing sons as an adult.

Tonight, we explore the disappearance of the Sodder children and the mystery that left one West Virginia family asking the same question for the rest of their lives: did five children really die in that fire?

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