WEBVTT - Season 08 Episode 16: Nothing Beside Remains

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<v Speaker 1>Hello, it's Richard McLean Smith here, not the impostor you've

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<v Speaker 1>been listening to on the podcasts, the real one. Join

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<v Speaker 1>me for Unexplained TV at YouTube dot com forward Slash

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<v Speaker 1>Unexplained pod. In the early hours of Christmas Day nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>forty five, dawn breaks over the small town of Fayetteville,

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<v Speaker 1>West Virginia, in the United States. All across the county,

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<v Speaker 1>children arousing from sleep dreaming of reindeers and presents under

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<v Speaker 1>the tree. But as early rises sleepily draw back their curtains,

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<v Speaker 1>they're startled to find thick smoke hanging over the town.

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<v Speaker 1>This wasn't the festive haze of burning logs and roasting chestnuts.

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<v Speaker 1>Acrid and deadly. On Beckwith Road, in a quiet rural

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<v Speaker 1>district on the outskirts of town, people stepped out of

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<v Speaker 1>their houses to see thick, black plumes of smoke spiraling

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<v Speaker 1>upwards from number twenty sixty two. The house belonged to

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<v Speaker 1>George and Jenny Sodder. The couple had ten children, nine

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<v Speaker 1>of whom were home when the fire broke out. Like

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<v Speaker 1>most other kids, they had all gone to bed filled

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<v Speaker 1>with nothing but joy and excitement for the day to come. Instead,

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<v Speaker 1>they emerged into a nightmare. When fire services made it

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<v Speaker 1>to the property, they found George and Jenny huddled on

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<v Speaker 1>the lawn with four of their children. Five others had

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<v Speaker 1>yet to make it out. They could only watch in

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<v Speaker 1>desperation as the volunteer crew did their best to stem

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<v Speaker 1>the flames, hoping beyond hope for any sign of their

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<v Speaker 1>missing children, but none appeared. Hours later, with the blaze

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<v Speaker 1>having long since burned itself out, fire Chief F. J.

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<v Speaker 1>Morris took on the grim task of searching for the

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<v Speaker 1>bodies of the missing children. Black smoke hung thick in

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<v Speaker 1>the air, still billowing from the rubble as he stepped

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<v Speaker 1>from room to room, but the more he searched, the

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<v Speaker 1>more confused he became. The children's bodies weren't there. After

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<v Speaker 1>searching for more than an hour, Morris was exhausted and

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<v Speaker 1>light headed from the smoke. Forced to admit defeat, he

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<v Speaker 1>headed back outside into the chilly morning, Gulping in the

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<v Speaker 1>fresh air. Across the front yard, the remainings of family

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<v Speaker 1>members looked close to catatonic. Morris took a moment to

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<v Speaker 1>rehydrate and compose himself, then walked over to the sodders

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<v Speaker 1>told them that he'd searched the house from top to bottom,

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<v Speaker 1>but for some inexplicable reason, he'd found no trace of

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<v Speaker 1>Morris fourteen, Martha twelve, Louis nine, Jenny eight, and Betty five.

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<v Speaker 1>It was almost too much to wrap their heads around.

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<v Speaker 1>It wasn't the awful news they'd been bracing themselves for,

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<v Speaker 1>but in ways they had yet to understand, it was

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps even worse. Their five children, it seemed, hadn't burned

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<v Speaker 1>to death in their beds, they'd completely vanished. You're listening

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<v Speaker 1>to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Giorgio Sodou was

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<v Speaker 1>born on the Italian island of Sardinia, but in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>oh eight, when he was just US thirteen, he and

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<v Speaker 1>his brother boarded a ship bound for America with the

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<v Speaker 1>intention of immigrating. It isn't known why exactly, but shortly

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<v Speaker 1>after their arrival at New York's Ellis Island, a tearful

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<v Speaker 1>Georgio was given the crushing news by his brother that

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<v Speaker 1>he would be continuing his journey on his own. Georgio's

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<v Speaker 1>brother gave Georgio one final hug, then got straight back

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<v Speaker 1>on their ship and sailed back to Italy. Georgio's only

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<v Speaker 1>option was to assimilate as quickly as possible. By his

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<v Speaker 1>mid twenties, the industrious Georgio Sodu had changed his name

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<v Speaker 1>to George Soder in reaction to the anti Italian sentiment

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<v Speaker 1>that was rife at the time, and was running his

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<v Speaker 1>own trucking company in West Virginia. A short time later,

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<v Speaker 1>he met Jenny Cipriani, who had also emigrated to America

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<v Speaker 1>from Italy as a child. The connection was instant, and

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<v Speaker 1>within a year they were married. Together they moved to Fayetteville,

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<v Speaker 1>a town with a strong Italian American community where they

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<v Speaker 1>felt truly at home. It was the ideal place to

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<v Speaker 1>start their family. Over the next two decades, the Sodders

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<v Speaker 1>had a total of ten children. Their eldest, John, was

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<v Speaker 1>born in nineteen twenty two, and their youngest, Sylvia, in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty three. Jenny focused on raising the kids, and

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<v Speaker 1>George concentrated on expanding his trucking business. By the mid

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen forties, the Soders seemed to have firmly established their

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<v Speaker 1>reputation in the community as a respected middle class family,

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<v Speaker 1>but not everybody saw eye to eye with them. Although

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<v Speaker 1>George had left Italy behind. He was deeply invested in

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<v Speaker 1>his home country and had stronger peaions about the Fascist

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<v Speaker 1>government and Benito Mussolini. Even after Mussolini was overthrown in

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<v Speaker 1>forty three, this remained a controversial issue among the Italian

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<v Speaker 1>immigrant community. George wasn't afraid to share his views in public,

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<v Speaker 1>and his opposition to Mussolini led to some heated arguments

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<v Speaker 1>with his neighbors. Still, for the most part, the Soders

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<v Speaker 1>lived a quiet and uneventful life in Fayetteville. That was

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<v Speaker 1>until the autumn of nineteen forty five, when a series

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<v Speaker 1>of strange incidents occurred. One morning, a stranger knocked on

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<v Speaker 1>the Soders front door and asked to speak to George

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<v Speaker 1>about a possible job. When George invited the man in sight,

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<v Speaker 1>he began wandering around the house, then suddenly made a

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<v Speaker 1>beeline for the fuse box, pointing at the wiring with

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<v Speaker 1>an oddly knowing look. The man said, this is going

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<v Speaker 1>to cause a fire some day. The man lingered for

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<v Speaker 1>a little longer, making small talk, than eventually left. George

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<v Speaker 1>was confused. He'd only just had the houses wiring checked

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<v Speaker 1>by the power company, and according to them, everything was fine.

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<v Speaker 1>A couple of weeks later, a traveling salesman arrived at

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<v Speaker 1>the door attempting to sell life insurance. When George declined,

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<v Speaker 1>the man refused to take no for an answer. When

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<v Speaker 1>George then asked him to leave, the man grew angry

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<v Speaker 1>and said that George would pay for his opinions on Mussolini.

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<v Speaker 1>Just before George could shut the door in his face,

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<v Speaker 1>the salesman snarled, of final warning, your goddamn house is

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<v Speaker 1>going up in smoke and your children are going to

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<v Speaker 1>be destroyed. Though disturbed by the incident, George chalked it

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<v Speaker 1>down to the emotional turmoil of how things had unfolded

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<v Speaker 1>in Italy towards the end of the war. It was

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<v Speaker 1>a few weeks before the winter holidays of nineteen forty

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<v Speaker 1>five when the two oldest Otter sons, John and George Junior,

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<v Speaker 1>noticed that the same car kept parking across the street

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<v Speaker 1>from their house. It didn't belong to any of their neighbors.

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<v Speaker 1>The nearest house was several hundred feet down the road,

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<v Speaker 1>and they didn't recognize the man behind the wheel. Even

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<v Speaker 1>more unsettling, the car always seemed to be there When

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<v Speaker 1>the youngest children arrived home from school as if the

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<v Speaker 1>driver was keeping watch on them. Then just like that,

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<v Speaker 1>the car was gone. On Christmas Eve, the Sodder's house

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<v Speaker 1>was a twinkling haven of light on their dark rural road.

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<v Speaker 1>Festive fairy lights adorned the front porch. Inside, tinsel and

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<v Speaker 1>mistletoe hung from every available surface. A huge tree stood

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<v Speaker 1>proudly in the living room with an array of colorfully

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<v Speaker 1>wrapped presents laid out beneath. That night, George and his

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<v Speaker 1>two eldest sons, John and George Junior, who'd been at

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<v Speaker 1>work all day together, decided to get an early night,

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<v Speaker 1>but for the rest of the kids, the night was

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<v Speaker 1>only just getting started. It was a sod of family

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<v Speaker 1>tradition that the younger children be allowed to open one

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<v Speaker 1>present each on Christmas Eve. This year, they all chose

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<v Speaker 1>to open their gifts from Marian, their seventeen year old sister,

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<v Speaker 1>who'd bought toys from the dime store where she worked.

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<v Speaker 1>By ten pm, the children were all excitedly playing with

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<v Speaker 1>their new toys and begged their mother to let them

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<v Speaker 1>stay up a little while longer, since it was Christmas

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<v Speaker 1>after all. Jenny was happy to agree on the one

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<v Speaker 1>condition that Marian keep watch over them. Then she scooped

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<v Speaker 1>up her youngest, two year old, Sylvia, and went upstairs

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<v Speaker 1>to bed. A few hours later, Jenny was woken by

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<v Speaker 1>the sound of something ringing. As she roused from sleep,

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<v Speaker 1>she realized it was the phone. Squinting at the clock,

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<v Speaker 1>she saw, to her confusion that it had just gone

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<v Speaker 1>past midnight. Grabbing her nightgown, she shuffled into the hallway

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<v Speaker 1>and made her way to the phone downstairs. Hello, she said,

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<v Speaker 1>answering the call. For a moment. On the other end,

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<v Speaker 1>she heard only the muffled noise of what sounded like

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<v Speaker 1>a party, glasses clinking, and indistinct chatter. Then a man

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<v Speaker 1>asked to speak to someone whose name Jenny didn't recognize.

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<v Speaker 1>She replied that they must have the wrong number. Then

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<v Speaker 1>the caller let out a strange laugh and hung up.

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<v Speaker 1>Jenny stared at the phone in disbelief, then replaced the receiver.

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<v Speaker 1>Turning around, she saw Mario fast asleep on the sofa,

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<v Speaker 1>but no sign of the other five children. They must

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<v Speaker 1>have finally gone upstairs to bed, she thought. Then she

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<v Speaker 1>noticed something strange. The living room curtains were wide open,

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<v Speaker 1>and all the downstairs lights were still on and the

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<v Speaker 1>front door was unbolted. Now she was annoyed. She'd specifically

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<v Speaker 1>told Marian to make sure everything was off and the

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<v Speaker 1>house secured before going to bed. Too tired to dwell

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<v Speaker 1>on it, Jenny drew the curtains, locked the door, and

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<v Speaker 1>turned off all the lights. Then she walked back upstairs

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<v Speaker 1>to bed and fell back to sleep. Jenny had only

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<v Speaker 1>been sleeping for half an hour when she was startled

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<v Speaker 1>awake again, this time by a loud bang, like something

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<v Speaker 1>had just hit the roof of the house and rolled

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<v Speaker 1>off it. Still half asleep, she figured it was just

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<v Speaker 1>an animal, or maybe a tree branch. After a few

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<v Speaker 1>moments of silence, she dozed off again. It was thirty

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<v Speaker 1>minutes later when she woke again, coughing violently. The air

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<v Speaker 1>was thick with suffocating smoke. The smoke seemed to be

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<v Speaker 1>snaking into the bedroom from the hallway. Disorientated, she staggered

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<v Speaker 1>out of the bed and followed it to George's office,

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<v Speaker 1>where a blaze had broken out in the corner of

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<v Speaker 1>the room. She watched in horror as the flames began

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<v Speaker 1>to spread outwards at terrifying speed. Jenny screamed for George,

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<v Speaker 1>who emerged from the bedroom seconds later, holding their two

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<v Speaker 1>year old Sylvia. With Marion now awake too, the couple

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<v Speaker 1>handed Sylvia to her and told her to get to

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<v Speaker 1>safety while they concentrated on getting the rest of the

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<v Speaker 1>children out of the house. John and George Junior appeared

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<v Speaker 1>sprinting down the stairs. Together with their father. They began

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<v Speaker 1>to try and fight the fire. They ran outside to

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<v Speaker 1>the well to fetch water, but the water was frozen solid.

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<v Speaker 1>By the time they got back to the house, the

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<v Speaker 1>entire staircase and foyer was engulfed in flames. With five

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<v Speaker 1>children still inside the property, George smashed a window in

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<v Speaker 1>the side of the house, cutting himself badly. Pushed back

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<v Speaker 1>by the heat from inside, he yelled for his children

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<v Speaker 1>to get out, over and over again until his voice

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<v Speaker 1>was hoarse, but the children, whose bedrooms were on the

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<v Speaker 1>second floor did not appear. Now Frantic, George, John and

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<v Speaker 1>George Junior rushed to the other side of the house,

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<v Speaker 1>where they kept a step ladder. Perhaps they could reach

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<v Speaker 1>the upstairs window and get to the children that way,

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<v Speaker 1>they thought, but the ladder was missing. George sprinted to

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<v Speaker 1>his truck and jumped into the driver's seat. His plan

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<v Speaker 1>was to back it up to the house, then he

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<v Speaker 1>and the boys could climb on top of it, but

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<v Speaker 1>the truck wouldn't start, and neither would his spare truck

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<v Speaker 1>that he kept on hand for emergencies. Paralyzed by horror,

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<v Speaker 1>George and Ja had no choice but to simply stand

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<v Speaker 1>on the front lawn and watch helplessly as the flames

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<v Speaker 1>engulfed their entire home. They screamed and screamed for the

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<v Speaker 1>missing children, Morris, Martha, Lee, Louis, Jenny and Betty. If

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<v Speaker 1>one of them could just make it to the window,

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<v Speaker 1>they begged, they'd find a way to get them down,

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<v Speaker 1>But there was still no movement from inside, and within

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<v Speaker 1>minutes the entire house was a raging inferno. As the

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<v Speaker 1>situation became increasingly helpless, Marion handed Sylvia to her mother

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<v Speaker 1>and ran as fast as she could to the nearest

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<v Speaker 1>house to call the local fire department. With so many

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<v Speaker 1>able bodied men still posted overseas for the war effort,

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<v Speaker 1>the emergency services were stretched dangerously thin, with only a

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<v Speaker 1>handful of volunteers left to sustain it. When the neighbor

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<v Speaker 1>failed to raise anyone on the phone, he drove to

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<v Speaker 1>the home of fire Chief Morris and hammered on his

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<v Speaker 1>door to wake him up. By the time Marian returned home,

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<v Speaker 1>the house had burned completely to the ground. When Chief

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<v Speaker 1>Morris and the rest of his team finally arrived at

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<v Speaker 1>the scene several hours later, there was little left for

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<v Speaker 1>them to do except surveyed the damage and recover the

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<v Speaker 1>bodies of the missing children. But after several hours of searching,

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<v Speaker 1>he had to tell the sodders that he couldn't find

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<v Speaker 1>any sign of them. With the remaining family inconsolable, Morris

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<v Speaker 1>tried to make sense of it all. He explained the

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<v Speaker 1>most likely theory that the fire had been so hot

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<v Speaker 1>it had simply left no trace of the bodies. There

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<v Speaker 1>were tanks of fuel stored in the basement, which could

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<v Speaker 1>potentially have intensified the flames enough to make this possible.

0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Deep down, however, this explanation didn't make sense to him,

0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.960
<v Speaker 1>the family had little choice but to accept it. A

0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:17.280
<v Speaker 1>few days later, the missing children were officially declared dead

0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.720
<v Speaker 1>by fire or suffocation, But as the days went by,

0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.679
<v Speaker 1>Jenny couldn't help but dwell on the strange events that

0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:32.040
<v Speaker 1>preceded the blades. Having found Marion asleep but all the

0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:36.560
<v Speaker 1>lights on the curtains wide open and the front door unbolted.

0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.440
<v Speaker 1>At the time, she naturally assumed that all the other

0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:45.600
<v Speaker 1>children were upstairs in bed, But now an alternative theory

0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.440
<v Speaker 1>took shape in her mind. What if the children had

0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.720
<v Speaker 1>never made it to bed at all, but had instead

0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.400
<v Speaker 1>been abducted, And if that was the case, then they

0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:03.600
<v Speaker 1>were possibly still out there somewhere alive. After the worst

0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.520
<v Speaker 1>night of their lives, Jenny and George now had a

0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.920
<v Speaker 1>shred of hope to cling to, and cling to it

0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:26.360
<v Speaker 1>they did. Losing five children is a horror beyond words,

0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.359
<v Speaker 1>and it was a relief to Jenny Soder, especially that

0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:37.479
<v Speaker 1>she had something else to focus on. Morris, Martha, Lee, Louis, Jenny,

0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.680
<v Speaker 1>and Betty were all she could think about. The pain

0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.480
<v Speaker 1>of their absence, like a black hole of anguish inside her,

0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:50.479
<v Speaker 1>forever on the verge of consuming her entire being, and

0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.959
<v Speaker 1>so to try and satiate it, she looked for proof

0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.280
<v Speaker 1>that they were still alive. She sifted through the ashes

0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.480
<v Speaker 1>of her home and found remnence of household appliances that

0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:07.000
<v Speaker 1>survived the fire. This in itself made the official explanation

0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:11.920
<v Speaker 1>seem ridiculous. How could a toaster survive, she thought if

0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:18.159
<v Speaker 1>human bone could not, She began experimenting burning various kinds

0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:23.280
<v Speaker 1>of animal bones chicken, cow, pig, to see if she

0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.800
<v Speaker 1>could reduce them to ash. In every case, fragments of

0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:31.600
<v Speaker 1>bone remained, even when she let the fire burn for

0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:37.600
<v Speaker 1>hours on end. Seeing his wife's desperation, George felt it

0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:42.200
<v Speaker 1>important to share what he knew too. He told her

0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:46.080
<v Speaker 1>about the bizarre incidents he'd experienced in the lead up

0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.719
<v Speaker 1>to the fire, the stranger who warned him that the

0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.280
<v Speaker 1>fuse box might burn the house down, and the insurance

0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:59.199
<v Speaker 1>salesman who'd made that chilling and seemingly prophetic threat. And

0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:04.040
<v Speaker 1>from these settling pieces, the Sodders began to put together

0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:09.639
<v Speaker 1>a picture of what they think happened. Somebody had targeted

0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.840
<v Speaker 1>their family with a view to burning them alive in

0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:17.000
<v Speaker 1>their beds. But what if their real plan was actually

0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.440
<v Speaker 1>to kidnap the children and the fire was merely a distraction.

0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:27.440
<v Speaker 1>As unlikely as it might seem, the theory gained credibility

0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.520
<v Speaker 1>when a neighbor of the Sodders claimed to have seen

0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.639
<v Speaker 1>one of the children being driven away in a car

0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:38.680
<v Speaker 1>just after the house caught fire. A bus driver also

0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.280
<v Speaker 1>reported seeing what looked like a ball of fire being

0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:46.920
<v Speaker 1>thrown onto their roof around one a m. Then, Jenny

0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.640
<v Speaker 1>later found a rubber looking object in the back yard

0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.840
<v Speaker 1>of the house, which George identified as a hand grenade.

0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.600
<v Speaker 1>The couple tried their best to convince the state police.

0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:05.080
<v Speaker 1>They described the threats, the apparent prank call, and the

0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:09.840
<v Speaker 1>mounting evidence that this was arson. They begged them to

0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.640
<v Speaker 1>look into the possibility that whoever was responsible for it

0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:19.600
<v Speaker 1>might still have their children. Though the police seemed sympathetic enough,

0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.960
<v Speaker 1>they simply wouldn't get on board with what they saw

0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:28.880
<v Speaker 1>as the couple's outlandish theory. At a coroner's inquest, the

0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.600
<v Speaker 1>fire was eventually ruled to be an accident caused by

0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:38.119
<v Speaker 1>faulty wiring. Exhausted and defeated, the Sodders felt they had

0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.080
<v Speaker 1>little choice but to give up and try to move

0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:45.720
<v Speaker 1>on for the sake of their remaining children. The remains

0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:49.880
<v Speaker 1>at the house were bulldozed away completely and the ashes

0:21:50.000 --> 0:22:01.119
<v Speaker 1>covered over with fresh dirt. Despite their best efforts to

0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.760
<v Speaker 1>move on, not a day went by that Jenny and

0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:09.280
<v Speaker 1>George Sodder didn't think about their missing children. They were

0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:14.160
<v Speaker 1>haunted by possibilities, unable to stop imagining what they might

0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:18.920
<v Speaker 1>be going through if they were still alive. Finally, they

0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.919
<v Speaker 1>decided to hire a private investigator, who soon turned up

0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:27.840
<v Speaker 1>some interesting clues. They learned that the insurance salesman who

0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:33.040
<v Speaker 1>threatened George later served on the jury during the coroner's inquest,

0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:38.080
<v Speaker 1>where the fire was ruled accidental. Then came a much

0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:43.960
<v Speaker 1>more bizarre discovery. The investigator uncovered that while fire Chief

0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:48.200
<v Speaker 1>Morris was scarring the ashes for signs of human remains,

0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:53.440
<v Speaker 1>he had in fact found a human heart. For reasons unknown,

0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.720
<v Speaker 1>Morris decided to bury it in a box in the

0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:02.040
<v Speaker 1>backyard without ever revealing it to the family. The investigator

0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:06.120
<v Speaker 1>successfully lobbied for the heart to be dug up and analyzed,

0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:09.320
<v Speaker 1>only for it to turn out to have actually been

0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:14.680
<v Speaker 1>a cow's liver that had somehow survived the inferno. After

0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:18.879
<v Speaker 1>this strange red herring, the PI hired a pathologist to

0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.359
<v Speaker 1>excavate the site at the sodders Old home just to

0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:27.280
<v Speaker 1>make sure there were no more surprises hidden in the ashes. Incredibly,

0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:32.879
<v Speaker 1>there were several shards of human vertebrae that looked to

0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:37.680
<v Speaker 1>be from a teenager, probably around sixteen or seventeen years old.

0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:44.400
<v Speaker 1>The Sodders were devastated. For the first time, it seemed

0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:48.280
<v Speaker 1>they had concrete evidence that their rather children did in

0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:52.720
<v Speaker 1>fact perish in the fire. A later analysis of the

0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:56.280
<v Speaker 1>bone showed that it had never been exposed to fire

0:23:56.760 --> 0:24:01.160
<v Speaker 1>or significant heat. Most likely, it did actually come from

0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:04.520
<v Speaker 1>the supply of dirt which the Sodders had used to

0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:10.119
<v Speaker 1>cover up the ashes after bulldozing the property. Despite the

0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:14.520
<v Speaker 1>disappointment of these dead ends, the private investigator did turn

0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:18.800
<v Speaker 1>up plenty of tips from people across multiple states who

0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:22.800
<v Speaker 1>all claimed to have seen the missing children in various locations.

0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:27.080
<v Speaker 1>One woman who worked at a hotel in Charleston, a

0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:31.119
<v Speaker 1>city fifty miles north of Fayetteville, said that she'd seen

0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:35.000
<v Speaker 1>four of the five missing children at her hotel the

0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:39.680
<v Speaker 1>week after the fire. They were apparently accompanied by four

0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:44.359
<v Speaker 1>Italian adults who seemed tense. She said. When she tried

0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:47.160
<v Speaker 1>to talk to the children, the adults snapped at her

0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:51.720
<v Speaker 1>and ushered them away. The whole thing had left her

0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:55.480
<v Speaker 1>with a bad feeling, she said, but no further information

0:24:56.240 --> 0:25:06.520
<v Speaker 1>was found to substantiate the claim. In the end, the

0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:10.160
<v Speaker 1>Soders were left with a huge pile of possible clues

0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:15.800
<v Speaker 1>that could have been something, but equally nothing. Overwhelmed, they

0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:19.280
<v Speaker 1>wrote a letter to the FBI asking for help, and

0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:22.719
<v Speaker 1>were thrilled to receive a reply from the bureau's director,

0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:28.080
<v Speaker 1>j Edgar Hoover. Having been dismissed by law enforcement for

0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:33.680
<v Speaker 1>so long, this validation was much needed. However, Hoover told

0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:37.200
<v Speaker 1>them that although he'd like to help, the FBI didn't

0:25:37.240 --> 0:25:41.720
<v Speaker 1>have jurisdiction over state matters. The Bureau would be more

0:25:41.720 --> 0:25:44.679
<v Speaker 1>than happy to assist with the case if the local

0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:49.200
<v Speaker 1>authorities gave their permission, but for some reason, the Fayetteville

0:25:49.280 --> 0:25:56.240
<v Speaker 1>police declined. In nineteen fifty, they officially declared the case closed.

0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:00.399
<v Speaker 1>By now, it was clear to the Soders that the

0:26:00.480 --> 0:26:05.200
<v Speaker 1>authorities in Fayetteville wanted to put the whole thing behind them.

0:26:05.440 --> 0:26:08.919
<v Speaker 1>But was this merely down to complacency and a reluctance

0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:12.359
<v Speaker 1>to spend any more resources on a five year old case,

0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:18.879
<v Speaker 1>or something more sinister. Either way, Jenny and George refused

0:26:18.880 --> 0:26:23.000
<v Speaker 1>to give up. Shortly after the case was closed, the

0:26:23.080 --> 0:26:27.520
<v Speaker 1>Sodders paid to have a huge billboard erected along Route sixteen,

0:26:28.040 --> 0:26:31.280
<v Speaker 1>where it would be seen by anybody driving in or

0:26:31.359 --> 0:26:35.520
<v Speaker 1>out of Fayetteville. It showed a picture of their five

0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:40.359
<v Speaker 1>missing children above a caption which read, on Christmas Eve

0:26:40.760 --> 0:26:44.760
<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty five, our home was set on fire and

0:26:44.920 --> 0:26:49.800
<v Speaker 1>five of our children kidnapped. It went on to list

0:26:49.840 --> 0:26:54.160
<v Speaker 1>the inconsistencies in the official story, including the fact that

0:26:54.280 --> 0:26:59.159
<v Speaker 1>no bones were ever found. It ended, what was the

0:26:59.200 --> 0:27:02.560
<v Speaker 1>motive of the law officers involved? What did they have

0:27:02.680 --> 0:27:06.720
<v Speaker 1>to gain by making us suffer all these years of injustice?

0:27:07.359 --> 0:27:11.520
<v Speaker 1>Why did they lie and force us to accept those lights.

0:27:12.480 --> 0:27:16.239
<v Speaker 1>The billboard remained up for close to four decades, and

0:27:16.320 --> 0:27:20.640
<v Speaker 1>as a result, supposed sightings of the children rolled in

0:27:20.760 --> 0:27:24.760
<v Speaker 1>for years. There was even a man in Texas who

0:27:24.800 --> 0:27:28.520
<v Speaker 1>claimed to be Louis Sodder, who bore a striking resemblance

0:27:28.640 --> 0:27:33.240
<v Speaker 1>to the child they remembered. George spent years traveling the

0:27:33.280 --> 0:27:36.800
<v Speaker 1>country to follow up on these tips, but all came

0:27:36.880 --> 0:27:42.199
<v Speaker 1>to nothing. George died in nineteen sixty nine. For the

0:27:42.240 --> 0:27:46.480
<v Speaker 1>next twenty years, Jenny wore black every day as a

0:27:46.520 --> 0:27:49.720
<v Speaker 1>sign of her mourning for her husband and the children

0:27:49.800 --> 0:27:54.480
<v Speaker 1>they'd lost. Then, in nineteen eighty nine, at the age

0:27:54.520 --> 0:28:00.199
<v Speaker 1>of eighty six, Jenny also died. With her passing. The

0:28:00.240 --> 0:28:04.920
<v Speaker 1>families billboard was finally taken down, but the questions it

0:28:05.080 --> 0:28:15.359
<v Speaker 1>posed in bold black letters remain forever unanswered. This episode

0:28:15.680 --> 0:28:19.640
<v Speaker 1>was written by Emma Dibden and produced by me Richard

0:28:19.720 --> 0:28:23.840
<v Speaker 1>McLain Smith. Thank you as ever for listening to the show.

0:28:24.160 --> 0:28:27.119
<v Speaker 1>Please subscribe and rate it if you haven't already done so.

0:28:27.760 --> 0:28:30.440
<v Speaker 1>You can also now find us on TikTok at TikTok

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<v Speaker 1>dot com, Forward Slash at Unexplained Podcast. Unexplained as an

0:28:34.520 --> 0:28:39.640
<v Speaker 1>Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All

0:28:39.680 --> 0:28:43.040
<v Speaker 1>other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also

0:28:43.080 --> 0:28:47.520
<v Speaker 1>produced by me Richard mclin smith. Unexplained. The book and

0:28:47.560 --> 0:28:51.880
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0:29:00.880 --> 0:29:03.200
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0:29:03.280 --> 0:29:06.440
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0:29:06.760 --> 0:29:09.200
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0:29:09.280 --> 0:29:12.920
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