My Intentions of Telling the Sodder Tradegy of 1945

My intentions to tell the Sodder Family story (my family’s story) are two-fold.

1. My first goal is to spread knowledge. The more people that know about the story - the more likely it will never die. It would be my greatest desire to find out what actully happened to my family members. I know that this was a major pain in my grandfather's life and I think it is important to never let this story die.

2. I am co-writing and editing a publication about this story in hopes to achieve goal no. 1 and will lead into the second goal which is to take ALL funds from the publication and donate it to the Amber Alert System of WV. I believe that if such a system and the technology existed in the 1940's the children would have been found if they were kidnapped.

Link to Amber Alert System of WV- http://www.wvstatepolice.com/amber.htm.
Link to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - http://www.missingkids.com.

If you would like to help with in researching this story, please contact me at jbandytips@yahoo.com.

In Memory

This Blog is dedicated to my Great-Aunts and Great-Uncles which I will probably never meet. They are either missing, died in a fire in 1945, or murdered. The following posts will be a journey of telling the story of West Virginia's most famous unsolved mystery...The Sodder Family Tragedy.

The billboard that gave my Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother hope that they would find their children.

Maurice Sodder, 14 years old on December 25, 1945.

Martha Lee Sodder, 12 years old on December 25, 1945.

Louis Sodder, 9 years old on December 25, 1945.

Jennie Sodder, 8 years old on December 25, 1945.

Betty Sodder, 5 years old on December 25, 1945.

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I will be working on writing the story of the fire and the theories of what happened to the children. I will post interesting facts about the case here and my experience through the process.