Description:
Maurice Antonio Sodder was born on July 8th, 1931 in Smithers, a small town located in Fayette County of West Virginia. His Father, George (born Giorgio Soddu) was the entrepreneur of a trucking company, and his Mother Jennie, presumably a stay at home Mother. He was their 5th of 11 children - preceded by his older siblings John, Joseph, Mary-Ann, and George; then furthermore succeeded by Martha, Louis, Jennie, Betty, and Sylvia. A boy named Michael died shortly after his birh.
Description upon the age of 14: A Caucasian male of Italian descent, with a scar on the back of his head hidden beneath his hair, near the top of his
Maurice Antonio Sodder was born on July 8th, 1931 in Smithers, a small town located in Fayette County of West Virginia. His Father, George (born Giorgio Soddu) was the entrepreneur of a trucking company, and his Mother Jennie, presumably a stay at home Mother. He was their 5th of 11 children - preceded by his older siblings John, Joseph, Mary-Ann, and George; then furthermore succeeded by Martha, Louis, Jennie, Betty, and Sylvia. A boy named Michael died shortly after his birh.
Description upon the age of 14: A Caucasian male of Italian descent, with a scar on the back of his head hidden beneath his hair, near the top of his head close to his forehead, and on the left side of his chin. Black hair, dark brown eyes, thick, bristly eyebrows, oblong face structure, and straight, median eyelashes.
Out of all his siblings, Maurice was closest to his younger brother Louis, whom he heavily doted on. They shared a room together upstairs on the 2nd level, directly above the dining room and right next to their sisters Martha, Jennie, and Betty's room. Louis' nickname for Maurice was 'Frankie', and the pair were often called 'llil boys' by immediate family. They were assigned chores just together, mainly without their beloved siblings.These included basic house work, taking care of the Sodder farm, and their farm animals.
The greatest enigma of the 5 siblings mentioned in the former paragraph is that of the 1945 house fire that destroyed their home, and supposedly them. On Christmas Eve, their sister Marion brought back from her job numerous gifts, and after receiving these presents the 5 siblings requested to George and Jennie if they could stay up a few hours longer to play with them. They agreed, as long as the 5 made sure to do their established chores, of which the children accepted and eventually completed. Whilst their sisters were instructed to do work inside, Maurice and Louis went over to the farm, where they had to feed the cow and close the chicken coop. The two older, present brothers George Jr (who Maurice, and the whole family knew as 'Ted') and John have no memory of whether or not Maurice was still awake once they themselves went to bed.
At around 1AM, a fire broke out in the house that burnt at 2,000 degrees celsius. Jennie, who smelt smoke, recognised the fire first at the corner of the office den, as it was burning so brightly and at scorching levels. She yelled for her children upstairs and husband before escaping through the kitchen to the back porch; attempting to go back in one more time but the flames were too hot by this point. George too bellowed to his children to get down hurriedly, but once he himself made it outside, he realised that his 5 children upstairs were missing. As for the two elder male siblings, as soon as John heard these yells from his Mother, he alerted Ted before evacuating their bedroom, John shaking their siblings rapidly to get up and then heading to the downstairs floor, where both boys had slight singes on their arms and hair. At this point the fire engulfed all around the upstairs and was too large for anyone to get through it, which brought down the siblings original ambition to venture and put the fire out. John reports that he is adamant he heard the reply of what was either Maurice or Louis once he yelled for the siblings again, Ted further stating he saw his siblings right before reaching the downstairs floor. This means Ted was the last Sodder to see Maurice before the house was completely consumed, but whether or not this is true is unknown, because Ted has since changed his report on what he saw that night.
George tried several attempts to rescue his children, yet each of his methods came to no avail. Once the fire department arrived, it was already 7 PM and many hours had passed since the house was finally burnt to a crisp. A death certificate was published for Maurice and his 4 younger siblings on Louis' birthday (December 30th) ,despite there being no bones, skeletons, or remains found in the ruins of the fire upon first search. A funeral was held around this time to celebrate the life of the 5 Sodder children. Though George and Jennie Sodder were not present, Sylvia, the youngest was. Her old siblings accompanied her to this memorial and held by her 4 older siblings. One of them being Joe Sodder, who had returned from his military duties just a few days prior.
In 1949, George hired a respected pathologist to conduct a thorough search of the fire. The pathologist managed to find coins, dictionaries, and unbowed small objects, yet the most significant discovery were several shards of vertebrae. How does this connect to Maurice? Once the pathologist sent the spinal pieces to the Smithsonian Institution, they issued the following report that:
The human bones consist of four lumbar vertebrae belonging to one individual. Since the transverse recesses are fused, the age of this individual at death should have been 16 or 17 years. The top limit of age should be about 22 since the centra, which normally fuse at 23, are still unfused. On this basis, the bones show greater skeletal maturation than one would expect for a 14-year-old boy (the oldest missing Sodder child). It is however possible, although not probable, for a boy 14 ½ years old to show 16-17 maturation.
Smithsonian also reported that the spinal cord showed no trace of being burnt or put into the fire; and with that vertebrae, there is only Ted's evidence to suggest that Maurice died in the fire. No sibling or parent reported the screams of their 5 loved ones, nor the smell of rotting flesh. Many years after the fire, Jennie tested bones of animals to see if they would burn to ash even at the highest temperatures. Once, Mrs Sodder even reportedly burnt these animal bones to the degree her home was burning. But these bones always seemed to come back with remains, even if the results were only mere. Jennie cites "I am still not convinced they are dead. Only three or four bones, which may or may not be human, were found even though the men had dug to the very floor of the basement. The pathologist tells me if the children had been caught in the fire at least their skulls should gave remained."
In 1952, George and Jennie set up a billboard on a highway in Fayette for those that would be in gleaned possession of any information regarding the whereabouts of Maurice, or his 4 siblings. The reward for the person that gave Jennie and George a lead useful enough to find one, to even 5 of their missing children would win a five-grand sum of cash, which was later lengthened to 10. Jennie explains in a CCNS interview that since the publication of this billboard, many people have shot at it. "The small ones had BBs in them. But about two feet under Maurice's picture was this large hole that could only have been made with a shotgun."
Initial sightings were of reports that they saw all children together accompanied by either a male or a group of men and women at restaurants, motels, and in the backseats of cars. As months elapsed into years, no sighting of all 5 children together were ever reported after that year.
Nevertheless, the parents traced every lead received to its capacity, yet the only one about Maurice specifically was in 1966, the lead claiming he and Louis were living together. A woman from Houston, Texas sent a letter of how she overheard a conversation between two men when one called the other 'Maurice Sodder'. With his son-in-law Grover Paxton, George ventures out to Houston where he is fortunately able to contact the men described in the woman's letter after being unable to find the lady herself. George asks his anticipated question of whether or not these men are Maurice and Louis, but both deny that they are his sons, regardless of what questions he asked.
A year later, an envelope addressed to Jennie only was found in the Sodder family's mailbox, and once opened, the letter contained a picture of what was supposedly Louis, with the back of this envelope reading:
Louis Sodder
I love brother Frankie.
Ilil Boys. A90132 (or 35)
How is this connected to Maurice again? Louis only called Maurice 'Frankie', and only did the immediate Sodder family know about the nickname 'Ilil Boys'.
After giving out several reports and interviews as witnesses' of the fire, John and Ted Sodder both refused to discuss what happened that morning to the public anymore. John also told the owners of the series 'Unsolved Mysteries' that he was not interested in them doing an episode around the fire and what happened to his siblings. Their sisters Marion and Sylvia gave their own statements with Marion's in the 60s, and Sylvia's with the Charleston Gazette Newspaper. All known surviving siblings of this house fire have since perished, with Sylvia passing away at the age of 79 in Bluefield.
With that letter as the last piece of evidence of Maurice's current whereabouts, Maurice is currently presumed to be dead, and a victim of the fire which took possibly took him and his siblings. As of 2022, Maurice would be 91-years-old, and if he is alive, it is probable that from sources Maurice could be living in St. Louis, Mexican border towns, or Italy, perhaps Sicily. The billboard was taken down after the death of Maurice's Mother Jennie in 1989, and no known leads on where Maurice is (or any of his siblings, for this matter), have been sent to the Sodder family. "They could have been shown a picture of the house and told everyone was killed." theorises his Father George Sodder, who passed away in 1969. "In any case we would certainly know them if they ever came around. The younger ones might not know us, but we would know them anywhere."
Editing this at school so will provide sources soon! xoxo c1n4m0ng1rl
New rendition of Maurice Sodder description published in 2022
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