Welp I think there are lots of possible explanations, and I don't know which is the right one.
Mafia Theory --- First off, the beef liver being left at the scene, makes me think the mafia was involved. My grandmother told me that the leaving a beef liver back than was a message that you were a rat and that they had gotten to you. But it seems like Mr. Sodder didn't know that, if he had known that wouldn't he have told someone? Even just family, if not the authorities? If he didn't know what it meant, why would they have left the beef liver? Some speculation has been that perhaps the mafia thought they were getting George Sodder's brother and HIS children, but would the mob actually make as huge a mistake as to get the wrong family? One odd thing thought, one of the children who died/were taken/ etc, had the exact same name as one of the kids his brother had, so two girls named Martha Lee... But would they mistake the family who lived in Florida, with the family who lived in WV? ---
Trans allegheny lunatic asylum theory - I have a theory about the trans allegheny lunatic asylum. I found that they used to pay parents to put their children there, weekly, per child. If someone wanted to make some quick cash off of the Sodder family, this would be the way to do it. George Sodder supposedly had debts, but when his house went up in flames no one bothered him about those, so why? Remorse for him and his family? I doubt it. So why did the debts disappear? Because they killed their kids, or because they used the kids to pay the debts? It would have been very easy to place the kids there, and to get checks for them every week. the place is located in WV and was the biggest thing WV was known for at the time. No one would ever think to look for these kids there. ----
Christmas theory - The Christmas theory is one I keep going back too. The second oldest son was supposed to be home from the military for Christmas but was unable to make it home. There was a great sadness over the whole family. What if the beef liver had something to do with a surprise for the parents and other siblings? There was no tree, no Christmas cheer because suddenly everyone was sad. What if the kids went outside to get a tree that night, to surprise their parents? Think about this, the kids see their parents are sad, go out to cut down a Christmas tree, it's cold, it's dark, they get lost and die of exposure or something else? In this instance, the fire is completely unrelated to the kid's disappearance. Which again, makes me think how can someone be that unlucky? But if you think about it, kind of fits in a way. They lived in a rural part of WV. I read about a little girl from a town away ten years before these kids died/went missing/ etc. She went into the woods in the winter to walk and play, disappeared, and a hunter found her bones years later. They knew it was her from a basket they found that she had been carrying. The weird part about this is that as soon as she went missing they hunted for her for weeks on end, people from town yelling for her, calling her name, no answer, nothing. And they find her when a hunter goes out and happens upon the bones. With it being such a rural area it's easy to get lost. And the Sodder children wouldn't have a bunch of people looking for them, they died in the fire, remember? Bones scattered by animals and winds, etc, it would be very lucky if anyone found them, the other girl's parents were lucky that most of her bones were there and her basket was still by the bones.
The "toy" theory --- Okay, no one seems to remember what kind of toys the kids recieved for Christmas from their older sister who worked at a five and dime. I was wondering if it is possible that the children got "war type toys". One weird thing was that the youngest daughter who survived the fire found what looked like a military pineapple in the rubble. It was partially melted. I wondered if the sister purchased military toys for the kids. Let's say one of two things, the kids get creative and set the toy on fire for real just to see what would happen and throw it, it lands on the roof, maybe they started the fire accidentally, and ran away, too scared to go back home. Or, if what the sister purchased was not actually a toy like she thought, and it was a real pineapple, the kids could have thrown it and started the fire again, accidentally. They could have become frightened and run into the woods and gotten lost, they could have run away thinking they killed their parents, etc...
The other family theory ---- Mrs. Sodder had the police go to Florida due to a report that family had her child. But they soon found out it was mistaken identity, another daughter, "Martha Lee", had the same name as George and Jennie's daughter, "Martha Lee". Some thoughts remain as to why Mrs. Sodder made the decision to point a finger, and why she might have reason to mistrust him in the first place.
I asked granddaughter about the fact that one of the boys had seen the children and tried to awaken them. She told us she had never heard that, and her mother said it wasn't true I am pretty sure. He never went into the room and tried to awaken the siblings. He ran from his own room that he shared with one brother, and they barely got out, their eyebrows had been badly singed. He didn't come out of the children's room, he came out of his own, and only had time to run down the stairs. His siblings, if they were indeed in the home, would have been in their own room.
I know some cases do have simple answers, but it doesn't feel right to me. When someone says just days before it happens, "your home will burn your kids will pay", it makes me thinks someone set this intentionally. Whether he took the kids away and did something with them remains to be seen. But surely, it shows someone caused the fire. When the cars won't start and the ladder is missing, it seems quite planned. So whether or not the kids died that night, to me, we are looking at kidnapping or murder. But not just an innocent fire that started on it's own.
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