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Forgive me, I may have already asked this, but who still lives in the area, if you don't mind saying?

I will know more over the next few weeks! Hopefully. I'm going down to West Virginia the first week in December.

Yes, I'm sure I read it wrong, or I remembered it wrong. I went back, and it looks like Giorgio and George are in fact the same person, and that descendents of George's brother are living in Italy, and are in touch with Jonathan, the great grandson. I am in regular touch with the State...

According to what I read, on RootsWeb I think it was, Giorgio Soddu came to the United States in 1900, when he was 16. If this information is true, it can't be the same guy. I have George Sodder's date of birth as 11/24/1894. On Ancestry.com, it says that George Sodder came to the United...

Shadow205, you are so nice. I was hoping my post didn't come off badly. I don't own this story, and I know that everyone just wants to find out what happened to those children, both for the family's sake and because we're human and when five children disappear we want to know why.

I am working with the West Virginia State Police. They have cold case guys who, as I said, are being very helpful. And everyone they contact in turn has also been very helpful. When I have information I will share it, but this is all going to take some time. Old files have to be dug up...

Ha! I will of course do whatever I can to help, but hang on. I hope to have new information which would have a bearing on what we do.

Oh no! Dateline and I are going to be competing for the same story. (I will lose, I'm the little guy.) The West Virginia State Police cold case guy is being EXTREMELY helpful, as is everyone else. I honestly think we might learn something, one way or another.

That's what the Gotti family says.

Great stuff! Thank you!! What I need is someone to say something like, "Oh yeah. Their cousins lived across the street and they ..." If in fact, they had any kind of presence in the town or any of the local businesses. I reached the West Virginia State Police Cold Case Squad and they...

The name of the mafia crime family that would have had control over West Virginia in 1945 was LaRocca. They were based in Pittsburgh. Does that name ring a bell for anyone?

Jonathan Bandy (a great grandson of George and Jennie Sodder) has started posting in the thread that Shadow205 started. He is being amazingly gracious.

A soon-to-be new member of this forum asked me to let everyone know that her husband, a professional photograper, is going to try to clean up the photograph! What a great place this is, that it brings all these people with so many different and useful skills together.

Okay, just heard from someone who would know, and he confirms that the mafia had a presence in West Virginia in 1945. I'll post more details when I have them.

I found that, too! I'm trying to get some definitive information about the mafia presence in West Virginia. I've reached out to a number of people, and am waiting to hear, but so far I haven't been able to confirm that there was organized crime in West Virginia in 1945. Someone suggested...

That thread that Shadow205 started is AMAZING. I'd love to hear anything your cousin has to say, if you don't mind sharing it!

I will call and see -- thank you!!

I was just coming back here to ask about George's trucking business. Does anyone have any specific information about it? What they hauled? The name of the business?

Shadowangel, you once mentioned selling the kids into adoption as a possible motive, and that this sort of thing wasn't unheard of in the area at the time. I wanted to ask you about that. It's always been my experience that older kids are difficult to adopt out. Who would buy them? The...

I'm not sure if I posted this, but I don't know about the Mafia angle either. I studied the Mafia for my last book, and it doesn't fit what I learned. But then again, I wasn't even aware that the Mafia was in West Virginia, so perhaps the culture of the Mafia in West Virginia is different than...