Mystery Haunts Fayetteville, West Virginia, 62 Years After Sodder Children Disappeared

Christmas has come to Fayetteville once again. With the coming season, the memories of a cold, wintry Christmas in 1945 begin to surface once again. According to reports in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, in a tight-knit community nestled in the Appalachian mountains, five children disappeared in the wee hours of Christmas morning. Since that fateful day, they have never been heard from, although numerous sightings were reported at first.

A huge billboard with haunting pictures of the five, and a $10,000 reward put up by the parents, stands for all to see. The billboard is old and faded like that Christmas day when a mother lost five of her children, never to see them again. Where are the children? A question that has been asked for 62 years remains a mystery.

The Sodder family was a large family. In addition to the mother and father, there were 9 children, ranging in ages from 23 to 3. The family lived in the small coal mining town of Fayetteville, WV. Mr. Sodder owned a small coal trucking business. Mrs. Sodder, as was typical in that day, was a mother and housewife

After a busy day the Sodders decided to turn in early that night, taking 3 year old Sylvia with them. Two of the older boys who worked with their father went to bed early also. The two youngest boys and 3 of their sisters begged to stay up a little later and play. Consenting and reminding them to finish their chores, Mrs. Sodder went to bed.

Shortly after midnight the telephone rang. When Mrs. Sodder answered, a woman asked for someone whom she had never heard of. Dismissing it as a prank, Mrs. Sodder later recalled the woman had a really strange laugh. Before returning to bed she noticed that the lights were all still on and the shades were not drawn. This was one of the chores the children always took care of before going to bed.

Drifting off to sleep again, a noise that sounded like a ball hitting the roof and rolling off to the ground startled her for a moment. Being tired she didn't give it a second thought and went back to sleep. Approximately a half an hour later, she was awakened by smoke that was working it's way into the bedroom. When she jumped up and opened the door, the adjoining room was in flames.

Running downstairs and screaming her children's names, she saw the two oldest boys come down and her oldest daughter Marian, who had been sleeping on the couch, took 3 year old Sarah out into the bitter cold.

Her husband and sons, realizing that 5 of the children were not outside, tried to get water from the water barrel. It was frozen solid. They looked for the ladder that was always standing in the same place. It was nowhere to be found. Trying to start the trucks to use them to climb to the windows to rescue the children, they found that the engines would not turn over, it was too cold.

Forty-five minutes after Mrs. Sodder had been awakened by the smoke, their home was burned to the ground. Firemen arrived early in the morning and doused the ashes. After an investigation state police came to the conclusion that the fire was caused by faulty wiring. Mrs. Sodder doubted this theory as the house had been newly wired. This cause for the fire was later withdrawn by the authorities.

Looking for remains in the charred mess, firemen and the state fire marshal found nothing. No bones, nothing that would indicate that the missing children had burned up in the fire. It was determined that the fire had started on the roof.

Mrs. Sodder began to doubt that her children had died in the fire and set about investigating other fires. In each one, when there were deaths, the bones of the dead were found in the rubble and ashes. She found it hard to believe that out of five children who were believed to have died, that not a single bone was found.

Strange things began to surface after the fire. The ladder which could not be found during the fire although it was always kept in the same place was found over the side of a hill beside the road. This was over 75 feet away from the house. Sightings of the children were called in.

Some said they were in the company of 4 Italian speaking men. A picture was received in the mail some 23 years later of a young man who looked remarkably like their son, Louis with writing on the back that said Louis Sodder, I love brother Frankie.

Private investigators were hired by the family. Leads were turned up but none brought about any results. Mrs. Sodder refused to believe her children had died in the Christmas morning fire. She believed they were kidnapped and possibly told that the rest of the family had perished in the fire.

Mr. Sodder died in 1969 and his wife died 20 years later, still waiting for word of their children. A handmade sign stood for years, pleading in it's simple wording and pictures of the precious children who disappeared, to no avail. Every lead was followed by the grieving parents who had the worst living nightmare a parent can conceivably have. Haunting pictures stood on the lonely highway waiting for someone to come forward and answer the questions of a mother who never believed her children were dead.

Sources:
The Charleston Gazette-Mail, author Niles Jackson
http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Ewvrcbiog/WhatReallyHappenedToChildrena.html