Five children vanish in a house fire… and no bodies are ever found.

On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family fire should have been a tragic accident. A home goes up in flames. Parents survive. Five of their children are presumed dead.

Except there’s one problem; there were no remains. No bones. No evidence they were ever in the fire at all.

What follows is decades of unanswered questions, strange sightings, and a family that refused to believe the official story. Were the children taken? Did they escape? Or is this a case where grief and belief reshaped reality?

In this episode, we break down what happened that night, the inconsistencies that still don’t make sense, and why this case continues to live at the intersection of mystery and myth.

Sources:

Abbott, Karen (December 25, 2012). "The Children Who Went Up In Smoke". Smithsonian. 

“Sodder children disappearance.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation