Episode 359:
We Wish You A Merry Criminal
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Karen
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Georgia
... Notes:
Header Image Source: Photo by Kieran White on Unsplash
Other Photos:
1. Phoebe Judge (Criminal Podcast on Instagram: @criminal_podcast and Twitter: @CriminalShow)
2. Billboard put up by the Sodder family to seek information on their children they believed to be missing
"For nearly four decades, anyone driving down Route 16 near Fayetteville, West Virginia, could see a billboard bearing the grainy images of five children, all dark-haired and solemn-eyed, their names and ages—Maurice, 14; Martha 12; Louis, 9; Jennie, 8; Betty, 5—stenciled beneath, along with speculation about what happened to them. Fayetteville was and is a small town, with a main street that doesn’t run longer than a hundred yards, and rumors always played a larger role in the case than evidence; no one even agreed on whether the children were dead or alive. What everyone knew for certain was this: On the night before Christmas 1945, George and Jennie Sodder and nine of their 10 children went to sleep (one son was away in the Army). Around 1 a.m., a fire broke out. George and Jennie and four of their children escaped, but the other five were never seen again..."
- Source: “The Children Who Went Up In Smoke” by Karen Abbott (Smithsonian Magazine)
The Sodder Children's Disappearance on Christmas Eve
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