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Just after midnight on Christmas Eve in 1945, Jennie Sodder awoke to the smell of smoke. She quickly discovered that the Fayetteville, West Virginia, home she shared with her husband, George, and nine of their children, was ablaze. When the fire department arrived seven hours later, the two-story framed house had burned to the ground and five Sodder children were missing.

No one can say for certain what happened to the Sodders five young children, but their family never saw them again, and their remains were not found in the ashes of their home.

Although authorities determined that the children Maurice, 14; Martha, 12; Louis, 10; Jennie Irene, 8; and Betty, 5 had died in the fire, their family disputed the finding and never gave up searching for them. Because of so many peculiar events surrounding the tragic fire, the case captured the public imagination and is one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.