From The Vault- Up In Smoke: The Missing Sodder Children Mystery

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

Society & Culture, Science, True Crime

4.0 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Strange And Unexplained is dark this week, but enjoy this episode from the vault.

On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family home went up in flames. Parents George and Jennie escaped the blaze with four of their children, only to realize that five of their remaining children were missing. The problem was, no trace of their remains was found anywhere in the rubble. As time went by, curious details led some to believe they may have made it out alive. But where could they have gone? More than 60 years later, this tragic mystery remains unsolved.

Strange and Unexplained is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab & Three Goose Entertainment and is a journey into the uncomfortable and the unknowable that will leave you both laughing and sleeping with the lights on. You can get early and ad-free episodes and much more over at www.grabbagcollab.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What would be worse? Losing a loved one in a horrific accident in which they definitely suffered a lot before dying?
0:12.7	Or literally losing a loved one and never knowing where they went or with whom?
0:18.3	Now multiply that by five. Five missing loved ones, all gone, presumably the same way.
0:25.6	But to this day, it's not clear exactly which way that was.
0:30.9	Welcome to Strange and Unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. I'm a parent who knows my family should
0:37.0	have a disaster preparedness plan,
0:39.1	but hasn't gotten around to making one. Of course, now that I've said that out loud, I have to do
0:44.4	it because now it's like out in the universe or something. The family in today's story also
0:50.9	clearly did not have a disaster preparedness plan, although with the way the disaster
0:55.8	struck and the string of what can only be called extremely bad luck, a plan might not have done much
1:02.5	anyway. And just a quick note up top, if you don't like stories where children get hurt,
1:08.9	maybe skip this one. Instead, you can go over to
1:12.2	patreon.com slash strange and unexplained and sign up for three bonus episodes a month about
1:17.8	lighter fare such as fairies and killer clowns, plus ad-free versions of all the weekly
1:24.2	episodes and exclusive access to other goodies. There is lots over there that has nothing to do with children.
1:36.3	Giorgio Sadoo came to America by himself from Sardinia in 1908 when he was just 13 years old.
1:48.8	At Ellis Island, most likely, his name was changed to George Soder because of racism.
1:55.3	By the way, I found out recently I'm 1% Sardinian, so George could have totally been my distant cousin or something
2:03.2	within that 1%. But can you imagine a 13-year-old moving to a whole new country where they
2:10.2	can't speak the language and they don't know anyone? I don't know about you, but when I was 13,
2:15.6	I was crying about River Phoenix, using a buff,
2:18.4	puff, and coveting Monica Lipschitz Sony Walkman, not exactly solo immigration material.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.