The Mystery of the Sodder Kids

Image Source.

     In 1945, Christmas Eve, tragedy struck Fayetteville.  The Sodder family was asleep in their beds completely unaware of the tragedy that was to come.  

     George and Jennie Sodder had 10 children in all, the oldest of which was away in the army.  At around 1am a fire broke out and the parents frantically tried to save their children.  They only managed to get four of them out.  The remaining five children were never seen again. 

From shadplay.blogspot.com

This is an account written in 1968 by the oldest sister of the missing children, Mary Ann: 

     The following is the story of the tragedy which occurred twenty three years ago.  The injustice and unfairness of this crime remains to this day.  Please be kind enough to read the following account of the events concerning this tragedy.

     On Christmas Eve night during the year 1945, our home was set afire.  There were nine children in the house at the time, four escaped from the burning building.  My parents also escaped.  I ran to a neighbor's house to have her call the fire department.  A passing motorist called the Fayetteville Fire Department.  Fayetteville is the nearest small town to our former residence.  The fire chief answered the telephone.  When he was told that our house was burning, he said,  "We know it."  This was at two o'clock A.M.  He and the rest of the fire department arrived at the scene of the fire at 8 o'clock A.M., that same morning.  The fire dept in the town of Fayetteville is located only two and one half miles away.

     That same morning the Fire Chief and eight other men searched the ashes remaining.  The fire had burned out completely hours before.  We asked the Fire Chief if there were any traces left of the bodies of the children presumably still in the remains of the burned house.  He said, "We searched as if with a fine tooth comb and we could not find a thing."  However a few days later he produced a piece of flesh saying that it was a part of a human body.  We could not understand how this soft piece of flesh could have survived the fire, yet there was no trace of bones or teeth.  Another thing that puzzled us was that there was no scent of burning flesh during the time the house was burning, nor was there any scent in the ashes afterward.  I was there and all I could smell was the scent of burning wood.

     We had the spot where the house had been, covered over with soil thinking that since it was impossible to find any trace of the bodies, we would make it into a burial spot.  In this place, the Fire Chief buried the piece of flesh he claimed was part of a human body.  Later when we recovered enough from the shock to be more rational, we began to doubt the Fire Chief and became suspicious of all the circumstances concerning the fire.  The Fire Chief had never shown this piece of flesh to the Coroner. --  Why?  We decided to check this item out with the local Mortician.  We had this object removed (from the place where it had been buried), by excavation.  The Mortician swears on an affidavit that this object was a large piece of beef liver and had never been touched by fire.  There was nothing of this kind in our home at the time of the fire.

     We asked the Prosecuting Attorney to call in some people who were considered suspects in the case.  He said he could not question theses people because they were personal friends of his.  At another time he said, "Today they burned your house, but tomorrow they may burn mine and I have children too."

     The telephone wires had been cut during the fire.  The person who cut the wires had stolen during the time the house was burning, a pair of chain blocks.  These are used to hoist automobiles or motors, etc. to be repaired.  They were attached to the ceiling of the garage.  To steal them and carry them away would have required advance planning.  Since they had to be taken down from the ceiling of the garage it would have to started (the process of removing them) either before or during the fire.  Also the person who stole them had a taxi cab waiting to haul them away.  Evidently this person either set the house afire himself or knew someone else was supposed to do so.  He was supposed to appear in court.  He never appeared.  They fined him a small amount of money and forgot the whole thing.

     I, being the oldest daughter, usually saw that the children went upstairs to bed, before going to sleep myself.  The night of the fire I fell asleep downstairs and the last time I saw the children they were still up playing.  It's our belief that they were kidnapped before the fire or possibly at the beginning of the fire.

     Mrs. Ida Crutchfield of Charleston, West Virginia, owner of the Alderson Hotel, claims to have seen four of the children at her hotel three or four nights after the fire.  She has signed an affidavit to this fact.

     We asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for help.  They said they would step in if they could get the permission of the county authorities to investigate the case.  The local authorities refused to sign anything giving them their permission.  They certainly did not do anything themselves to solve this crime, why then would they refuse help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation?  Is it because some of them may be involved in this crime? 

     We have written to each president in turn.  Each one refers the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (The Justice Dept), then the Federal Bureau requires the permission of the local authorities.  They refuse permission, so it has become a useless cycle, leaving this crime unsolved for the last twenty-three years.

     My father has hired private detectives and they have turned up some very good evidence that this whole thing was planned.  But what is the use?  They are warned by certain people to stay off the case.  Even some of the state police have admitted that "their hands are tied."

     If this had not happened to my family, I would have said that such a heinous crime as this, could not have been committed in the United States of America, without some justice being done.  But here it is and it almost seems fantastic.

     If you wish to print this, you have my parents' permission.  If you wish to communicate with them, their address is (Mr and Mrs George Sodder, Route 2, Fayetteville, West Virginia).  Their telephone number is 1-304-574-1678

     Perhaps publicity on this case would cause some interest in someone who would try to help solve this crime.

     Yours Sincerely  

 

        

The Flatwoods Monster

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Flatwoods_monster_newspaper1.png

       Seven Braxton County residents Saturday reporting seeing a 10 foot Frankenstein-like monster in the hills above Flatwood.

     They said they saw the monster Friday night when they climbed a wooded hill to investigate reports that a flying saucer had landed.

     Mrs. Kathlyn May, Flatwood, said she and six boys, including a 17-year-old member of the national guard, started to search for a bright object which her two small sons said they had seen come down.

     However, State Police laughed the reports off as hysteria.  They said the so-called monster had grown from seven to 17 feet in 24 hours.

     The National Guard member, Gene Lemon, was leading the group when he said he saw what appeared to be a pair of bright eyes in a tree.  At first he thought it was an oppossum or a raccoon but when he shone his flashlight on it, he said, he saw a 10-foot monster with a blood-red face and a green body that seemed to glow.  Mrs. May said Lemon let out a terrified scream and fell over backwards.  She said the monster started toward them with a bounding motion. 

     All of the party agreed that there was an overpowering smell that burned the nostrils and made them sick.  Several of the party fainted and vomited for several hours after returning to town.

     A. Lee Stewart, co-publisher of the Braxton County Democrat, said he and several men armed with shotguns returned with Lemon about half-hour to an hour later, and reported a sickening odor still present.  He said there were also slight heat waved in the air.

     "Those people were the most scared people I've ever seen,"  Stewart said, "People don't make up that kind of story quickly."  Both Mrs. May and Lemon described the thing as having the shape of a man, blood-red face, bright green body, protruding eyes, and hand extended forward and appeared to give off an eerie light.  They said it had a black shield affair in the shape of an ace of spades behind it and wore what looked like a pleated metallic shirt.

     "It looked worse than Frankenstein," Mrs. May said.

Image Source:  here.

     

     Those who saw the monster:

1. Edward May - 13
2. Fred May - 12
3. Tommy Hyer - 10
4. Kathlyn May
5. Neil Nunley - 14
6. Ronnie Shaver - 10
7. Eugene 'Gene' Lemon - 17

      The "Braxton County Monster" has been described by a local insurance man and amateur astronomer as an illusion created by the remains of a gaseous meteor.
     He is Earl Stephens of nearby Belle, whose theory is one of the best offered here on the origin of "the thing" that scared the daylights out of a Braxton County family.
     His theory was advanced after Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon of Flatwoods returned from New York where they described their experience before a nation-wide television audience.
     It is Stephens' opinion that the meteor, commonly called a fire ball, originated from an electrical discharge in the outer atmosphere, forming the shape of a gaseous ball.

Odor of Sulphur

     "The odor of sulphur was the tip-off," declared Stephens.  "It burns with a green flame accounting for the apparition the people saw."
     Stephens said one of the party apparently flashed their light on the gas ball just the instant before it disintegrated into thin air.  The reflection of the light on the gases gave it the shape the people described, he said.
     The " monster" story came to light a week ago after reports that Mrs. May, Lemon and four youths ran smack into the thing while searching for a strange object they saw floating into the woods near their home.
     They described the monster as about eight feet tall, with red eyes and a green body, topped by a strange pointed mantle.
     However, during a thorough search of the area by county officials the next day only the sulphurous odor remained.
Facts Support Theory
     Stephens said his theory is backed up by the fact the earth entered a meteorite stream on Aug. 24.  He believes the gaseous body may have been ripped from Biela's Comet which has been splitting up during recent years, showering the earth with its fragments.
     During the same period several local residents observed a strange luminous body that was believed to have fallen within a 50-mile radius of Charleston.
     The gaseous theory is further bolstered by the stories of two residents of rural St. Albans, who declared they saw a lighted object float lazily to the ground and disappear.
     A search of that area by two Gazette reporters failed to turn up any....

 [Caption under the picture]   

     THE MONSTER which prowled the hills of Braxton County on Friday, Sept. 12, was drawn by a New York artist from descriptions given him by Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon, Flatwoods residents who said they saw the "thing."  The two witnesses, with A. Lee Stewart, Jr., Sutton publisher, told their experience on "We The People" television show in New York Friday night.  [The artist's?] conception was featured on the program with a background of weird [music?].  Lemon and Mrs. May hold the portrait which they say is "quite accurate."  The [picture?] was taken in Charleston at the Greyhound bus terminal.