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Early Christmas morning, December 25, 1945, a fire destroyed the Sodder residence in Fayetteville, West Virginia, United States.

At the time, it was occupied by George Sodder, his wife Jennie, and nine of their ten children. During the fire, George, Jennie, and four of the nine children escaped. The bodies of the other five children have never been found. The surviving Sodder family believed for the rest of their lives that the five missing children survived. The Sodders never rebuilt the house, instead converting the site into a memorial garden to the lost children. In the 1950s, as they came to doubt that the children had perished, the family put up a billboard at the site along State Route 16 with pictures of the five, offering a reward for information that would bring closure to the case. It remained standing until shortly after Jennie Sodder's death in 1989. In support of their belief that the children survived, the Sodders had pointed to a number of unusual circumstances before and during the fire. George disputed the Fayetteville fire department's finding that the blaze was electrical in origin, noting that he had recently had the house rewired and inspected. George and his wife suspected arson, leading to theories that the children had been taken by the Sicilian Mafia, perhaps in retaliation for George's outspoken criticism of the fascist government of his native Italy. State and federal efforts to investigate the case further in the early 1950s yielded no new information. The family did, however, later receive what may have been a picture of one of the boys as an adult during the 1960s. Their last surviving daughter, Sylvia, along with their grandchildren, continued to publicize the case in the 21st century in the media and online.

George Sodder was born with the name Giorgio Soddu in Tula, Sardinia, Italy, in 1895. The last of the Sodder children, Sylvia, was born in 1942. In the weeks before Christmas that year, George's older sons had also noticed a strange car parked along the main highway through town, its occupants watching the younger Sodder children as they returned from school.

Both parents and four of their children—Marion, Sylvia, John, and George Jr.—escaped the house. By 10 a.m., Morris told the Sodders that they had not found any bones, as might have been expected if the other children had been in the house as it burned.

Jennie said in 1968 that if he had cut the power line, she and her husband, along with their other four children, would never have been able to make it out of the house.

Other witnesses claimed to have seen the missing Sodder children themselves. Later, more rumors circulated around Fayetteville—that Morris had afterwards admitted the box with the liver had indeed not come from the fire originally; he had supposedly placed it there in the hope that the Sodders would find it and be satisfied that the missing children had indeed died in the fire.

The family's efforts soon brought another reported sighting of the children after the fire. When George heard later that a relative of Jennie's in Florida had children that looked similar to his, the relative had to prove the children were his own before George was satisfied.

The surviving Sodder children, joined by their own children, continued to publicize the case and investigate leads. They, along with older Fayetteville residents, have theorized that the Sicilian Mafia was trying to extort money from George and the children may have been taken by someone who knew about the planned arson and said they would be safe if they left the house. Sylvia Sodder Paxton, the youngest of the surviving Sodder siblings, died in 2021. Beaumont children disappearance, in Adelaide, Australia, 1966; three children disappeared while walking together in a beach town.

Quick Facts

• The surviving Sodder family believed for the rest of their lives that the five missing children survived.
• At the time, it was occupied by George Sodder, his wife Jennie, and nine of their ten children.
• During the fire, George, Jennie, and four of the nine children escaped.
• The bodies of the other five children have never been found.
• The Sodders never rebuilt the house, instead converting the site into a memorial garden to the lost children.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Sodder children disappearance". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.