Background Info
Maurice, 14; Martha 12; Louis, 9; Jennie, 8; Betty, 5 these were the names of the 5 Sodder children who disappeared in Fayetteville on Christmas Eve in 1945. On that night The two parents George and Jennie and 9 kids went to sleep, but in the middle of the night the family home caught fire. 5 of the children never made it out, the weird part is no body’s were ever found. Its pretty much unanimously agreed that no fire like that would ever cremate a body completely. There was an extensive search, billboards, and other attempts to find leads, or any information on what happened to the 5 children. As of now we have no leads, theory’s or any possible ideas to what actually happened that night.
My Thoughts
This on puzzles me, it seems like there is no scientific or reasonable explanation for what happen on that night. If I had to guess I would say that they just got lost somehow running away from the fire, although there are flaws with that theory as well. After all these years we still have no idea and probably never will have any idea what happened. This is one of my favorite cases just because nobody at all has any sort of idea what happened to these kids.
Sources
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/
- https://thetruecrimefiles.com/sodder-children-disappearance/
Hello Matt,
I didn’t realize that this was a mystery blog, otherwise I would’ve been looking at more of your content sooner. The entire idea for the blog is really cool. I wish there was a little more back story on this particular mystery, as I feel the details are the most interesting in cases like these. This is the first I’ve heard of this incident, but it is still thought-provoking. The fire could have burned the children alive, but there would have been some kind of remains that would have been left behind. Maybe one day we will know the truth about what happened that fateful night. Great post! I look forward to seeing what you post in the future!
I find it very scary and sad that these children were never found. I can imagine that something must have happened before hand and that the children escaped before the fire or were taken before the fire, but the fact that they never came forth years later or their bodies were never found years later is sad. I think the family was probably devastated for a long time.