On Christmas Eve of 1945 in Fayetteville, West Virginia, George and Jennie Sodder had been celebrating the Christmas season with nine of their ten children.  Their son, Joe, was away in the Army.  As the night grew later George retired for the night to bed followed shortly after by his sons John (23) and George Jr. (16).  When Jennie decided it was time for the rest of the children to go to bed, they pleaded with her to stay up and play with their toys that their older sister, Marian (17), had gotten for them.  After her children promised her that they would get a few chores done before bed, Jennie agreed to let them continue playing and then took her youngest child, Sylvia (3) to bed with her.

The phone ringing awoke Jennie a little past midnight.  Jennie answered the phone and a woman asked to speak to someone Jennie didn’t know.  When Jennie told her she had the wrong number the woman laughed and hung up.  Jennie thought this was just a prank call and didn’t give it much thought.  She then noticed that the lights were still on in the house and the doors were unlocked.  She found this unusual because her kids were normally very good about attending to these things before bed.  She turned off the lights, locked the doors and went back to sleep.

Continue reading “What Was the Fate of the Five Sodder Children?” →