Teresa Larson
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WV - Sodder Family - 5 children, Christmas eve 1945 - #3
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Thanks for the info on the discussion boards. I spoke with my brother last night, and he eliminated the forums. Neither he nor I had checked the website for a while and weren't aware of the problem.
Granddaughter
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Also, my dad found some papers from when my grandfather was still alive. One is a simple sketch of the house before it burned. It's not very legible, but we can make out the handwriting. I'll re-draw it over the weekend and scan both versions and post them.
christine2448
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Awesome!
Thanks for your concern. Have been on vacation for a few weeks to Georgia. You are doing good work, Birdie.
I am still reading through the threads since I last posted-To bad about Catsy-she worked hard to find answers and the board has certainly slowed down since she has been gone.
I emailed someone at the Fayette Co. Sheriff's office to see if he can tell me the name of the man arrested from stealing from the Sodders that night. I have no idea whether they have those records or are allowed to give out that info in emails, but it's worth a try.
I just read an article from 1949 that listed the members of the coroner's inquest jury. It was C.G. Janutolo, F.C. Shuck, J.D. Shultz, F.J. Morris, Lacy Neely, and J.T. Jennings.
We know who Janutolo and Morris are, but I'll try to find out more about the other 4.
We know who Janutolo and Morris are, but I'll try to find out more about the other 4.
I think Lacy Neely was Fayette Co. Clerk or held some office in the county at that time.
Good work Fox.
I found a Floyd C. Shuck in Fayette Co. He was born around Sept. 1907, and in 1930 he was a bank bookkeeper. His parents were George (a coal miner) and Hattie, and his brother was Delbert. It's too bad I couldn't find him in the WWII Draft Reg. That would have said where he worked in '42.
I found a Floyd C. Shuck in Fayette Co. He was born around Sept. 1907, and in 1930 he was a bank bookkeeper. His parents were George (a coal miner) and Hattie, and his brother was Delbert. It's too bad I couldn't find him in the WWII Draft Reg. That would have said where he worked in '42.
Floyd was actually b. 05 Jul 1907 and d. Nov 1970 in Oak Hill, Fayetteville, WV.
There was a John Duval Shultz b. 08 Jan 1897 and d. Dec 1982. In 1930 he was a superintendant for coal miners' housing and living with his mother Carrie, mother-in-law Victoria Fulks, and William (a lawyer) and Mary Thompson, 2 boarders. In 1942 John worked for Fayetteville Federal Savings and Loan Assn.
There was a John Duval Shultz b. 08 Jan 1897 and d. Dec 1982. In 1930 he was a superintendant for coal miners' housing and living with his mother Carrie, mother-in-law Victoria Fulks, and William (a lawyer) and Mary Thompson, 2 boarders. In 1942 John worked for Fayetteville Federal Savings and Loan Assn.
There's a Jackson Theodore Jennings (coal miner) who lived in Fayetteville with his wife Gertrude and 4 kids in 1930. At first I thought it probably wasn't him because of his skin color. I doubt they would have let someone who's black on a jury like that back then... but he and his family are listed as black through the 1910 census records. His dad's name is also listed as Andrew until then. Then in 1920 they started listing his family white and his father as Charles M., so it's probably the right J.T. Jennings.
<LI style="WIDTH: 545px" about="r5">RootsWeb: WVFAYETT-L [WVFAYETT] 1963 Fayette Tribune (Articl... This well can still be seen in a small park on the road near Janutolo and Company, on the property of C. G. Janutolo. "It was also in this home where the ...
archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WVFAYETT/... - 16k - Similar pages
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WVFAYETT/2003-03/1048743089
Catsy brought up the idea of wells. Read the 4th or 5th para down.
archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WVFAYETT/... - 16k - Similar pages
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WVFAYETT/2003-03/1048743089
Catsy brought up the idea of wells. Read the 4th or 5th para down.
Found this interesting story about Betty Sodder & siblings what really happened to them? Everyting they knew at the time has been refuted.
& the Mystery remains alive today.
Betty Dolly Sodder
Missing since December 24, 1945 from Fayetteville, Fayette County, West Virginia
Classification: Lost, Injured, Missing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: 1940
Age at Time of Disappearance: 5 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female of Italian decent. Black/brown hair; dark eyes.
Pix of all 5 children-.... Below: mystery surrounding them.
http://www.echonyc.com/~horn/restless/000247.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Circumstances of their disappearence:
Sodder was last seen with her siblings and their parents, on December 24, 1945 in Fayetteville, West Virginia.
On Christmas Eve in 1945, the Sodders and nine of their ten children settled in for the evening. Betty, and four of her siblings - Jennie, Maurice, Louis and Martha Lee pleaded to be allowed to stay up and play with their new toys. Mrs. Sodder relented after the children promised to take care of their chores before coming to bed.
Shortly after midnight Mrs. Sodder was awakened by the phone ringing. A female caller asked for a man whose name Mrs. Sodder didn't recognize. The caller gave a weird laugh before hanging up. Dismissing the call as a prank, Mrs. Sodder went to return back to bed but noticed the lights were still on, the shades werent drawn and the doors hadnt been locked. Believing the children forgot to do these things before going to bed, she went back to sleep. She was awakened again by a noise on the roof that sounded "like a rubber ball."
About a half-hour later, smoke began pouring into the bedroom. She yelled for her husband and children. Once outside, Mr. Sodder noticed that Betty, Jennie, Louis, Martha Lee, and Maurice were nowhere to be found. He went to grab the ladder, which was kept near the house, to reach the windows of the room where the children slept. The ladder was missing. Less than forty-five minutes after the fire started, the house was consumed.
Firefighters and state police arrived later that morning and placed the cause of the fire on faulty wiring. State police later withdrew their statement. The fire chief and state fire marshal sifted through the ashes and told the Sodders that they couldnt find any remains. Another report states that the firefighters found a few bones and pieces of internal organs in the ashes, but the family was never told of these findings. Some time after the fire, the fire chief informed the Sodders that he had recovered a body part, probably an organ, from the ashes and buried it in a box on the site. The box was dug up and its contents taken to the funeral home for examination, while a small piece was sent elsewhere for examination. The piece sent off elsewhere was deemed to be beef liver. When the detective went back to the funeral home to find the results of their analysis on the contents he left in their care he was told that they couldnt be located The acting coroner impaneled a jury of six local citizens who returned a verdict that the five children had died due to suffocation and flames.
Within a few months, the Sodders became convinced that their children did not die in the fire. Information began to surface to support their beliefs. An investigation revealed that the telephone line had been cut shortly before or during the fire. A late-night bus driver reported seeing "balls of fire" being tossed upon the roof of the Sodder home. An operator of a motel located halfway between Fayetteville and Charleston reported seeing the children Christmas morning. A Charleston hotel owner reported seeing four of the children in the company of four Italian speaking adults a week later. Three months after the fire, the youngest child found a hard rubber object that was hollow with a twist-off cap. It was identified by Army authorities as an incendiary or napalm bomb called a "pine-apple." It was later discovered that the fire had started on the roof. During the fire, a man was seen stealing a block and chain from the Sodder's garage. He admitted to cutting the "electric line" to the Sodder home. The ladder, which couldn't be found during the fire, was found down an embankment away from the house.
A couple of years after the tragedy, Mr. Sodder saw a photo of school children in New York and was certain that Betty was one of the children in the photograph. He drove to Manhattan to see for himself but was never allowed to see the child. Sightings of the children came in from all over the country. Every lead proved fruitless. In 1952, the Sodders purchased a billboard displaying photos of their missing children and offering a reward for the recovery of any or all of the children. The publicity fed rumors that the children had been sold to an orphanage or taken to Italy.
The Sodders tried in vain to get their case re-opened, even writing to the FBI. State police and local authorities wouldnt reactivate the investigation without any evidence of a kidnapping or murder. The investigating fire marshal admitted years later that he did not search through the ashes as thoroughly as he would have liked. Mr. Sodder, initially believing his children had died, bulldozed the site and covered it with four to five feet of dirt, planting flowers in memory of the children.
In 1949, Mr. Sodder decided to excavate the site in order to search for human remains. The assistant chief of Naval Ordinance in Charleston and a noted pathologist from Washington, D.C. were among those helping. Four pieces of vertebrae and two small bones that could have come from a childs hand were located. The pathologist noted that he was amazed at the scarcity of bones recovered after the thorough search, claiming it was unusual that no skulls or pelvic bones were found in a fire that was quick burning and not so intense as to destroy cloth, flooring and other debris found.
Back in Washington, D.C., the pathologist determined the bones to be human, having come from a person 14 to 15 years of age. Due to the location where the bones were found within the floor plan of the house, Mr. Sodder didnt believe the remains to be of his 14-year-old son, Maurice. Another analysis of the bones conducted years later by the Smithsonian Institute determined that the bones came from someone 16 to 22 years of age. It was also noted that the bones bore no evidence of having been subjected to fire. A letter would arrive on a detectives desk claiming that the bones had been removed from a nearby cemetery and planted at the scene.
Many believe the children died that night in the fire and the family was never able to accept the loss. Others believe the children were taken and are still alive somewhere, believing the fire killed their parents and siblings. Mr. Sodder died in 1969, his wife twenty years later. The billboard no longer stands. The youngest of the Sodder children keeps her parents quest alive to find out what really happened that night.
Kidnapped- murdered- or are they still alive??
& the Mystery remains alive today.
Betty Dolly Sodder
Missing since December 24, 1945 from Fayetteville, Fayette County, West Virginia
Classification: Lost, Injured, Missing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: 1940
Age at Time of Disappearance: 5 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female of Italian decent. Black/brown hair; dark eyes.
Pix of all 5 children-.... Below: mystery surrounding them.
http://www.echonyc.com/~horn/restless/000247.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Circumstances of their disappearence:
Sodder was last seen with her siblings and their parents, on December 24, 1945 in Fayetteville, West Virginia.
On Christmas Eve in 1945, the Sodders and nine of their ten children settled in for the evening. Betty, and four of her siblings - Jennie, Maurice, Louis and Martha Lee pleaded to be allowed to stay up and play with their new toys. Mrs. Sodder relented after the children promised to take care of their chores before coming to bed.
Shortly after midnight Mrs. Sodder was awakened by the phone ringing. A female caller asked for a man whose name Mrs. Sodder didn't recognize. The caller gave a weird laugh before hanging up. Dismissing the call as a prank, Mrs. Sodder went to return back to bed but noticed the lights were still on, the shades werent drawn and the doors hadnt been locked. Believing the children forgot to do these things before going to bed, she went back to sleep. She was awakened again by a noise on the roof that sounded "like a rubber ball."
About a half-hour later, smoke began pouring into the bedroom. She yelled for her husband and children. Once outside, Mr. Sodder noticed that Betty, Jennie, Louis, Martha Lee, and Maurice were nowhere to be found. He went to grab the ladder, which was kept near the house, to reach the windows of the room where the children slept. The ladder was missing. Less than forty-five minutes after the fire started, the house was consumed.
Firefighters and state police arrived later that morning and placed the cause of the fire on faulty wiring. State police later withdrew their statement. The fire chief and state fire marshal sifted through the ashes and told the Sodders that they couldnt find any remains. Another report states that the firefighters found a few bones and pieces of internal organs in the ashes, but the family was never told of these findings. Some time after the fire, the fire chief informed the Sodders that he had recovered a body part, probably an organ, from the ashes and buried it in a box on the site. The box was dug up and its contents taken to the funeral home for examination, while a small piece was sent elsewhere for examination. The piece sent off elsewhere was deemed to be beef liver. When the detective went back to the funeral home to find the results of their analysis on the contents he left in their care he was told that they couldnt be located The acting coroner impaneled a jury of six local citizens who returned a verdict that the five children had died due to suffocation and flames.
Within a few months, the Sodders became convinced that their children did not die in the fire. Information began to surface to support their beliefs. An investigation revealed that the telephone line had been cut shortly before or during the fire. A late-night bus driver reported seeing "balls of fire" being tossed upon the roof of the Sodder home. An operator of a motel located halfway between Fayetteville and Charleston reported seeing the children Christmas morning. A Charleston hotel owner reported seeing four of the children in the company of four Italian speaking adults a week later. Three months after the fire, the youngest child found a hard rubber object that was hollow with a twist-off cap. It was identified by Army authorities as an incendiary or napalm bomb called a "pine-apple." It was later discovered that the fire had started on the roof. During the fire, a man was seen stealing a block and chain from the Sodder's garage. He admitted to cutting the "electric line" to the Sodder home. The ladder, which couldn't be found during the fire, was found down an embankment away from the house.
A couple of years after the tragedy, Mr. Sodder saw a photo of school children in New York and was certain that Betty was one of the children in the photograph. He drove to Manhattan to see for himself but was never allowed to see the child. Sightings of the children came in from all over the country. Every lead proved fruitless. In 1952, the Sodders purchased a billboard displaying photos of their missing children and offering a reward for the recovery of any or all of the children. The publicity fed rumors that the children had been sold to an orphanage or taken to Italy.
The Sodders tried in vain to get their case re-opened, even writing to the FBI. State police and local authorities wouldnt reactivate the investigation without any evidence of a kidnapping or murder. The investigating fire marshal admitted years later that he did not search through the ashes as thoroughly as he would have liked. Mr. Sodder, initially believing his children had died, bulldozed the site and covered it with four to five feet of dirt, planting flowers in memory of the children.
In 1949, Mr. Sodder decided to excavate the site in order to search for human remains. The assistant chief of Naval Ordinance in Charleston and a noted pathologist from Washington, D.C. were among those helping. Four pieces of vertebrae and two small bones that could have come from a childs hand were located. The pathologist noted that he was amazed at the scarcity of bones recovered after the thorough search, claiming it was unusual that no skulls or pelvic bones were found in a fire that was quick burning and not so intense as to destroy cloth, flooring and other debris found.
Back in Washington, D.C., the pathologist determined the bones to be human, having come from a person 14 to 15 years of age. Due to the location where the bones were found within the floor plan of the house, Mr. Sodder didnt believe the remains to be of his 14-year-old son, Maurice. Another analysis of the bones conducted years later by the Smithsonian Institute determined that the bones came from someone 16 to 22 years of age. It was also noted that the bones bore no evidence of having been subjected to fire. A letter would arrive on a detectives desk claiming that the bones had been removed from a nearby cemetery and planted at the scene.
Many believe the children died that night in the fire and the family was never able to accept the loss. Others believe the children were taken and are still alive somewhere, believing the fire killed their parents and siblings. Mr. Sodder died in 1969, his wife twenty years later. The billboard no longer stands. The youngest of the Sodder children keeps her parents quest alive to find out what really happened that night.
Kidnapped- murdered- or are they still alive??
Cubby
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Hi Sydangle2 & Welcome to WS.
there is a subforum in the cold case section for the Sodder family here
http://websleuths.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=149
there is a subforum in the cold case section for the Sodder family here
http://websleuths.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=149
I just read a Charleston Gazette article from 11/01/49 that said they would probably arrest suspects in the case in the next few days. They thought the children were murdered in revenge killings.
They said they had already searched 10 to 12 area mines and would also search a huge water well that was used by a nearby sawmill.
They said they had already searched 10 to 12 area mines and would also search a huge water well that was used by a nearby sawmill.
There was also an article in the same paper 5/5/1950 that said the police had 5 suspects in the conspiracy, and Det. Troy C. Simmons thought they could get convictions. He, another detective, and George Sodders would be going a couple of days later to Havre de Grace, Md to question a man and his wife who were visiting Christmas '45.
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