The Sodder Family Replay

Voices for Justice

Sarah Turney

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 9.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At around 1:00 am on December 25, 1945, Jennie Sodder woke up to smoke pouring into her bedroom. She woke up her husband, George, and they started evacuating the house of their nine children. By the time the fire took over the Sodder residence, only Jennie, George, and four of their children made it outside safely. George and two of his sons frantically tried to get into the house to save the remaining children, but they couldn’t. When George went to fill up a bucket with water to start extinguishing the flames, the water was frozen, when he went to grab their ladder to get his children from the top story, the ladder was missing; when he went to drive his trucks to the second story window, neither would start despite having worked just the day before. And when they tried to call the fire department for help, no one responded for hours. The only thing the family could do was watch as their home burned to the ground. Hours later, after the smoldering ashes were put out, a group of people began searching for the children’s remains, but nothing was found. Not a single bone was found in the ashes. The fire was quickly ruled an accident, and investigators told the family the children’s bodies had burned up completely in the fire, leaving nothing of them behind, not even their bones. But between the mishaps, while trying to put out the fire, threats made against the family before the fire, and the strange behavior of authorities throughout the investigation, Jennie and George Sodder refused to believe five of their children were killed in the home. They were convinced their children didn’t die in the fire, and they spent the rest of their lives trying to prove it. Anyone with information is urged to contact Miranda Weeks, great great granddaughter of Jennie and George Sodder at 5SodderKids@gmail.com Join Miranda's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/25548885931374708 Sign Miranda's petition to create a flowerbed for the Sodder children: https://www.change.org/p/create-a-flower-garden-for-the-sodder-children-in-fayetteville-wv For more information about the show, visit⁠ VoicesforJusticePodcast.com⁠. Follow us on social media: Twitter: ⁠@VFJPod⁠ Instagram: ⁠@VoicesforJusticePodcast⁠ TikTok: ⁠@VoicesforJusticePodcast⁠ Facebook: ⁠@VoicesforJusticePodcast⁠ Voices for Justice is hosted by Sarah Turney Twitter: ⁠@SarahETurney⁠ Instagram: ⁠@SarahETurney⁠ TikTok: ⁠@SarahETurney⁠ Facebook: ⁠@SarahETurney⁠ YouTube: ⁠@SarahTurney⁠ The introduction music used in Voices for Justice is Thread of Clouds by Blue Dot Sessions. Outro music is Melancholic Ending by Soft and Furious. The track used for ad transitions is Pinky by Blue Dot Sessions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.
0:11.3	This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
0:15.1	All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
0:18.4	Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety
0:21.8	purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.
0:34.4	Today I'm discussing the mysterious disappearance of the Sauter children.
0:39.3	At around 1 a.m. on December 25, 1945, Jenny Sotter woke up to smoke pouring into her bedroom.
0:46.3	She woke up her husband George and they started evacuating the house of their nine children.
0:51.3	By the time the fire took over the solder residence, only Jenny, George,
0:55.3	and four of their children made it out safely. George and two of his sons frantically tried to get
1:01.0	back into the house to save the remaining children, but they couldn't. When George went to fill
1:06.0	up a bucket with water to start extinguishing the flames, the water was frozen. When he went to grab their ladder
1:11.8	to get the children from the top story, the ladder was missing. And when he went to drive his
1:16.5	trucks to the second-story window, neither would start, despite having worked just the day before.
1:22.8	And when they tried to call the fire department for help, no one responded for hours.
1:31.8	The only thing the family could do was watch as their house burned to the ground.
1:37.7	Hours later, a group of people began searching for the children's remains, but nothing was found.
1:40.5	Not a single bone was found in the ashes.
1:45.7	The fire was quickly ruled an accident, and investigators told the family that the children's bodies had burned up completely in the fire, leaving nothing of them behind. But between
1:51.7	the mishaps while trying to put out the fire, threats made against the family before the fire,
1:56.4	and the strange behavior of authorities throughout the investigation, Jenny and George Sauter refused to believe that their children were killed in the home.
2:05.2	They were convinced that their children did not die in that fire,
	...

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