Christmas Eve 1945. Fayetteville, West Virginia. George and Jenny Sodder are preparing to celebrate the holidays with nine of their children, but shortly after they go to bed, their home burns completely to the ground. When the smoke clears, five of the Sodder children – whose ages range from five to fourteen years old – are nowhere to be found and a search of the rubble fails to turn up any trace of their remains. Due to a number of suspicious events surrounding the fire, the Sodders begin to suspect their five missing children were the victims of a bizarre kidnapping. Did the Sodder children really die in the fire that night or did they somehow survive and remain hidden from their family for the rest of their lives? And if the children did perish in the fire, who was responsible for starting it? In this week’s special holiday-themed episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle one of the most infamous Christmas mysteries of all time.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodder_children_disappearance

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/

http://charleyproject.org/case/jennie-irene-sodder

http://charleyproject.org/case/maurice-antonio-sodder

http://charleyproject.org/case/louis-erico-sodder

http://charleyproject.org/case/betty-dolly-sodder

http://charleyproject.org/case/martha-lee-sodder

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.