The Five Who Never Came Out — Level 2

Nothing in the Ashes

Five children were declared dead. Their mother wanted to know what proved it.

Nothing in the Ashes

Christmas morning brought an answer no parent should ever have to accept: Maurice, Martha, Louis, Jennie and Betty were presumed dead inside the ruins of their home.

But there was a problem.

The Official Explanation

The children were presumed to have died in the fire. One explanation offered to the family was that the intensity of the blaze could have destroyed their bodies.

Evidence

DOCUMENTED

The five missing children were legally treated as victims of the fire despite the absence of positively identified remains.

documented

Documented — Smithsonian Magazine

Jennie Did Not Believe It

Their mother began questioning whether a house fire could erase five human bodies so completely. She reportedly conducted her own crude experiments, burning animal bones and examining what survived.

Evidence

REPORTED

Later accounts describe Jennie Sodder burning animal bones in an attempt to understand whether the Christmas fire could truly have destroyed every trace of her children.

reported

Documented — Smithsonian Magazine

Other objects survived in the ruins. The family became increasingly convinced that the absence of confirmed remains mattered.

Then the Site Was Disturbed

Within days of the fire, George Sodder used a bulldozer to cover the ruined basement with several feet of dirt, intending the site to become a memorial to the children.

Whatever evidence remained beneath the house was now buried.

Years Passed

George and Jennie refused to stop asking questions. They challenged the assumption that their children had died in the house and pushed for the site to be examined again.

Eventually, the ground beneath the former Sodder home was opened.

Raleigh Register newspaper coverage of the 1949 excavation at the former Sodder home site.
Newspaper coverage of the 1949 excavation. The bones recovered from the site failed to convince George Sodder that his children had died in the fire.

This time, something was found.

After years of searching for proof that five children had died there, investigators finally had human remains.

For a moment, it looked like the mystery might finally have an answer.

Rabbit Hole

Then the bones were examined.

Source

Source

Level Cliffhanger

Years later, the ground beneath the house finally gave investigators something human.

The rabbit hole continues

Descend to Level 3 →
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