Your Name Ms Villarreal English III 2 DISAPPEARANCE

Your Name Ms. Villarreal English III -2 DISAPPEARANCE OF THE SODDER CHILDREN

BACKGROUND • 1 n 1945, a Christmas Eve fire destroyed a home in Fayetteville, West Virginia. • George and Jennie Sodder lived in the home with 9 of their 10 children (their oldest son, Joe, was overseas fighting in WWII). • That night George and Jennie Sodder were able to escape the burning house with 4 of their children. • The remaining 5 Sodder children were never accounted for. • Source: Kelly

12: 30 am: Jennie Sodder answered the phone to an unfamiliar woman on the line. She heard other voices in the background along with clinking glasses and “weird laughter. ” TIMELINE OF THE FIRE 1: 00 am on Christmas, Jennie Sodder woke up again to the sound of “an object hitting the house’s roof with a loud bang, then a rolling noise. ” She went back to sleep. SOURCE: KELLY 1: 30 am : Jennie Sodder woke up again to the smell of smoke. The family yelled at the house, assuming they would wake the other children who, Jennie believed, had fallen asleep in the attic.

STRANGE EVENTS DURING THE FIRE SOURCE: MCGOWAN COULD NOT HEAR FROM THE OTHER CHILDREN. STAIRCASE WAS AFLAME. ATTEMPTED TO CALL FOR HELP BUT THE PHONES DID NOT WORK. A LADDER, WHICH WAS ALWAYS OUTSIDE THEIR HOME, WAS NOW MISSING. ATTEMPTED TO USE THEIR TRUCKS TO GET NEAR THE HOUSE AND CLIMB INTO THE ATTIC BUT THE VEHICLES DID NOT START. NO BONES WERE FOUND IN THE FIRE.

MYSTERIOUS LETTER • In 1968, twenty-three years after the fire, Jennie got an envelope in the mail from Kentucky. There was no return address. Inside was a photograph of a young man. On the back was written: Louis Sodder I love brother Frankie Ilil Boys A 90132 (or possibly A 90135) • Authorities thought it was some kind of cruel hoax, but George and Jennie thought the photograph looked exactly how Louis would have looked as an adult. There were multiple similarities. • No leads ever came from this event. • Source: Mc. Gowan

SUSPECTS 1 2 3 4 Two months before the fire in October 1945 a traveling life insurance salesman tried to sell George Sodder a policy. When Sodder declined, the salesman told him his house would go “up in smoke … and your children are going to be destroyed. ” Someone in town had been trying to find work George Sodder could pay him to do and told George that he could fix his fuse boxes, warning him that they needed to be fixed or they would catch fire. George opted not to hire him. The month of the fire (December 1945), some of the Sodder children noticed two people in a car that would watch them on their way home from school. The family, along with some other town residence believe the Sicilian Mafia may have taken the children and started the fire in an attempt to extort money from the Sodders. SOURCE: ABBOTT

BIBLIOGRAPHY • Abbott, Karen. “The Children Who Went Up In Smoke. ” Smithsonian. com, Smithsonian Institution, 25 Dec. 2012, www. smithsonianmag. com/history/the-children-whowent-up-in-smoke-172429802/. • Kelly, Jennifer“ 35 Puzzling Facts About The Sodder Children Disappearance. ” Thought Catalog, 23 Sept. 2018, thoughtcatalog. com/emily-madriga/2018/03/35 -puzzling-facts-about-the sodderchildren-disappearance/. • Mc. Gowan, Doug. “The Sodder Children Mystery. ” Historic Mysteries, 17 Oct. 2016, www. historicmysteries. com/sodder-children -mystery/.