In 2019, we covered the Sodder children, five siblings who vanished after their family’s home burned down on Christmas morning in 1945. Officials said they died in the fire, but no bodies were ever found. And now, with new information from a family descendant, we’re taking another look at what happened when their parents started asking questions, and why the family spent decades believing the children may have survived.
Duration
33m
Broadcast on
07 Sep 2026
Audio Format
other
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In 2019, we covered the Sodder children, five siblings who vanished after their family’s home burned down on Christmas morning in 1945. Officials said they died in the fire, but no bodies were ever found. And now, with new information from a family descendant, we’re taking another look at what happened when their parents started asking questions, and why the family spent decades believing the children may have survived.
If you have information that you believe could be related to the disappearance of the Sodder children, please contact us at [email protected] or Miranda Weeks at [email protected].
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High-crime junkies, it's Brit. And back in 2019, we covered the solder children. Five kids who vanished on Christmas morning, 1945, during a house fire. It's one of those cold cases that crime junkies and Reddit have debated for years. But it's not just an infamous story. For Miranda Weeks, it's family history that she's just always known about. She's the great-great-granddaughter of one of the older solder kids. And this mystery has haunted her family for as long as she can remember. In 2024, she got sick of waiting for answers. So she spent the last two years talking to family members, chasing down records and case files, and digging through the archives. Then she got in touch with us. Because her search unearthed dozens of pages of case records that have never been published before. And now, more than ever, she believes someone out there might have answers. So we're bringing this case out of the archives with brand new information. This is the updated story of Maurice, Martha, Lewis, Jenny, and Betty Solder. [Music] So let's go back to Christmas Eve 1945 in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Jenny and George Solder were both born in Italy, but ended up in the same small corner of West Virginia. And they've built a nice life. George runs his own trucking company, Jenny keeps the books, and they have 10 kids together. One is away in the army, but the other nine kids, ranging from 23 to 3, are still at home. So this is a busy, crowded house. Downstairs, there's Jenny and George's bedroom, a living room, kitchen, dining room, and a little office. And the kids' bedrooms, one for the boys, one for the girls, are upstairs on the second floor, not in the attic as it was originally reported. On Christmas Eve, the house is still buzzing around 10.30 pm, because younger kids are excited to play with their new Christmas gifts. They want to stay up past their bedtime to play a little longer. And Jenny says yes, as long as they finish up some tours too, like locking the doors, turning off the lights, closing the blinds, the kids obviously agree. So Jenny heads to bed with George and their three-year-old Sylvia in their first floor bedroom by 11 pm. The eldest daughter, Marion, falls asleep on the living room couch. And around 11.15, a couple of the older boys head upstairs to bed. But at around 12.30 in the morning, the phone ranks. Jenny gets out of bed, goes to the office and picks up. And a woman on the other end asks for somebody Jenny's never heard of. Jenny tells her she's got the wrong number and hangs up. She checks the house before heading back to bed, all's quiet. But it seems like the kids didn't finish up their chores. Like the lights are still on, the doors still unlocked. So Jenny locks up, closes up the house, and goes back to bed. And a little later, as she's falling back asleep,
Transcription truncated.
In 2019, we covered the Sodder children, five siblings who vanished after their family’s home burned down on Christmas morning in 1945. Officials said they died in the fire, but no bodies were ever found. And now, with new information from a family descendant, we’re taking another look at what happened when their parents started asking questions, and why the family spent decades believing the children may have survived.
