Genesis of a Nemesis Who Takes a Toll Similar to Burning Coal: The Sodder Children

Cold Case Murder Mysteries

True Crime

3.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2020

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the night of December 24, 1945, the Sodder family of Fayetteville, WV went to bed in preparation for Christmas the next morning. But as they closed their eyes, they never could have imagined the nightmare that was about to ensue. A fire would break out in the upper level of their home, which contained two bedrooms thought to have held a total of five children at the time, ranging in ages from 5 to 14. Yet, as the remaining family members escaped, and the home burned to the ground, what seemed to be the imminent death of five young people as the result of a vicious arson soon proved to offer no evidence they succumbed in the fire. Despite an endless search for truth, their parents died never knowing what happened that fateful night. Did the kids perish in the fire, or were they already gone?

Join host Ryan Kraus for an examination of this enduring mystery in an effort to uncover the truth about the disappearance of the Sodder children.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody welcome back to Cold Case Murder Mysteries. I'm your host Ryan Kraus aiming
0:10.7	this ship directly into the storm as we explore one of the most enduring and perplexing
0:15.6	mysteries that arose from 20th century true crime lore, the disappearance of the solder children.
0:23.0	On the evening of December 24, 1945 in Fayetteville, West Virginia,
0:29.0	11 of the 12 members of the solder family went to bed in their two-story home, all of them
0:35.4	anticipating the Christmas holiday on the horizon the next day. But at some point during
0:41.1	the night, their worst fears came to fruition.
0:45.0	A fire had started in their ignorance, and by the time it was detected, they had no choice
0:51.0	but to simply flee the home and watch it burn desperately hoping help
0:56.4	might arrive there in time.
0:59.2	But it didn't.
1:00.5	And what's worse is that five of the solder children never made it out of the home alive.
1:06.0	However, in the aftermath, not only were there signs of foul play present at the scene, indicating this was an act of sabotage
1:15.4	leading to murder. But stranger still, there were no remains found linked to the children.
1:24.0	To this day, it's a mystery who set this devastating fire that changed the course of the
1:29.9	solder family forever.
1:32.2	But looming over that is the fate of the missing kids. Rumors persist that
1:38.2	perhaps the children did not die in the fire and had been removed from the house prior to the setting of the blaze.
1:46.2	The truth is unknown.
1:48.6	So we need to ask who set the fire, why it happened, and by extension of that and the accompanying circumstances
1:57.1	decide what most likely transpired here in relation to the five missing kids.
2:05.2	How could there be no trace of any of them?
	...

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