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Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences.

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Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host Mark and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain State Mysteries.

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Today we want to tell you about one of West Virginia's most infamous cases, a case that has left

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everyone around the world scratching their head. This is the story of the Sotter children. George

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Sotter was born with the name Giorgio Sardu in Sardinia, Italy in 1895. He immigrated to the

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United States 13 years later with one older brother who were going to call Leo who went back home as

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soon as both of the boys cleared customs at Ellis Island. For the rest of George's life,

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as he came to be known, he would not talk much about why he left his homeland. George would

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eventually find work on the railroads in Pennsylvania, carrying water and other supplies to workers in

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1912. When George was 22, he registered for the Selective Service for the First World War,

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listing Michigan as his home. This record shows him working as a plumber's helper in Detroit.

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His draft record also documented that he would send money back to his family in Italy. After a few

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years in the 1920s, he would move to West Virginia where he took a more permanent job as a driver in

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Smithers, West Virginia. He then started his own trucking company, initially hauling field dirt to

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construction sites and later hauling coal mined in the region. Ginny Lourdesse Sipriani was born

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on March 2, 1903 in Foggia, Italy. The second child of Joseph Giuseppe and Martha Martini Sipriani,

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the family migrated to the United States in 1904. They also ended up spending some time in Pennsylvania

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before in Incap in West Virginia. George and Ginny first met when he came into her father's

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store for some supplies in Smithers, West Virginia on November 4, 1922. They married in Charleston

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and lived in Smithers. There are some reports that Ginny was supposed to marry someone else

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as a part of a deal among Italian families, but the details of the story are very slim to none.

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The Sotters would settle in Fayetteville, West Virginia, an Appalachian town which had a small

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but active population of Italian immigrants in a two-story timber frame house two miles north

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of town. In 1923, they had the first of their 10 children. George's business prospered and they

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became one of the most respected middle-class families around in the words of one of the

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local official. However, George had strong opinions about many subjects and he was not shy about

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expressing them. Sometimes alienating people, in particular his strident opposition to Italian

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dictator Benito Mussolini, had led to some strong arguments with other members of the immigrant community.

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The last of the Sotter Children's Sylvia was born in 1942. By then, their second oldest son Joe,

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who was 21, had left to serve in the military during World War II. The following year Mussolini

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was deposed and executed. However, George's criticism of the late dictator had left some

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hard feelings in town. There was a stranger who appeared at the home a few months before the fire.

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Back in the fall, asking George if he had any hauling work, George would tell him to hold on

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and he noticed that the man followed him to the back of the house. Pointed to two separate

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fused boxes and said this is going to cause a fire someday. George thought that that was very strange,

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especially since he had just had the wiring checked by the local power company, which said it was in

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fine condition. Around the same time, there was a knock at the door and there was another man trying

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to sell the family life insurance and he became irate when George declined. Quote, your damn house

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is going up in smoke and your children are going to be destroyed. You are going to be paid for the

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dirty remarks you have been making about Mussolini. End quote. George brushed this off at the time and

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really didn't think anything about it. According to the Smithsonian magazine, one of the last

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strange things that happened before the fire is that one of the solders' older sons recalled

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something weird. Just before Christmas, they noticed a man parked along US Highway 21,

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intently watching the younger soldered kids as they came home from school. Christmas of 1945

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was going to be the first time the soldered family would be together since World War II. John Soder

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arrived back in Fayetteville the week before. However, Joe was held up at an army base in

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North Carolina and ended up missing Christmas. The oldest daughter, Mary Ann, had been working at the

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Walsdam store in downtown Fayetteville and she surprised the younger soldered kids with new

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toys she had bought for them as Christmas gifts. The younger soldered kids were so excited that

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they begged their mother to stay up past their bedtime and play with them. Around 10pm, Jenny

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told them that they could stay up a little later. As long as 14-year-old Maurice and 9-year-old Louis

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remembered to put the cows in and feed their chickens before going to bed. George and the

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oldest boys, John and George Jr., were already in bed because they had been working all day.

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After the kids told her they would take care of everything, Jenny took 3-year-old Sylvia to bed with her.

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Around 12.30am, Christmas morning, Jenny woke up to the telephone ringing. She rushed into the

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office to answer it. There are a few different accounts of this call but it is usually said

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that the caller was a woman who the solders did not know. The other account is that the woman

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asked for someone who had no reason whatsoever to be there, implying that the solders may have known

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this person. Jenny told the woman that she had the wrong number. The woman who called and apologized

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for disrupting them. Jenny accepted her apology and went to hang up. Just before she did, she

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heard a man let out a peculiar laugh or sound. Other accounts said that the woman laughed.

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Others will say that she heard a party in the background with glasses clinking. She hung up

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and was returning to bed. She noticed all the downstairs lights were turned on and all the

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curtains were open. The front door was unlocked. She saw Mary Ann asleep on the couch in the living

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room and assumed that the other kids were upstairs in bed. She turned off the lights, closed the curtain

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and locked the front door and returned to bed. As Jenny started to dose off around 1 a.m. she heard

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one loud bang on the roof and then a rolling noise. An hour later she was awoke again this time

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by the heavy smoke coming into her room. When she woke up and saw Georgia's office on fire

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around the telephone line and fuse box, the lights were still on when both parents ordered

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their children to leave the house and then ran out the front door. Mary Ann woke up and ran to

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her parents room where she found three-year-old Sylvia and picked her up. They made it outside

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and met their parents. At this point, John and George Jr woke up and realized what was going on.

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Both parents and four of their children, Mary Ann, Sylvia, John and George Jr, escaped the house.

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They tried to yell for the younger children upstairs but heard no response. They tried to

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reach them in the stairwell but it was impassable. John said in his first police interview after the

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fire that he went upstairs to alert his brothers and sisters sleeping there. Though later he changed

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his story and said that he only called up there and did not actually see them. In efforts to save

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the rest of the soldered children, George climbed up the wall of the house and broke open a window

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cutting his arm in the process. He and his sons intended to use a ladder to get upstairs to rescue

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the other children but for some reason the ladder was not in its normal spot and they couldn't find

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it. They noticed a barrel of water and wanted to use it to try to extinguish the fire but the water

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was frozen solid. George then tried to pull both of his trucks that he used for his business up to

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the house so he could climb upstairs but neither of the trucks would start even though they worked

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perfectly fine the day before. They ran back inside to use a phone however this time the phone would

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not work so Mary Ann ran to a neighbor's house to call the fire department. She ran to the house of

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Mr. and Mrs. Garfield Davis. Ms. Davis attempted to call the Fayetteville fire department but she

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couldn't get the switchboard operator to respond. Around 1 a.m. Thomas E. Smith of Beckwith was

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driving from Beckley and drove past the solder home while it was burning. Smith drove by around the

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same time Jenny smelled smoke. Smith drove on searching for her phone to call the fire department.

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He stopped at a local place called Crassus Park and attempted to call but he was told the phone was

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out of order. During the fire someone noticed Lonnie Johnson in their garage which was separate

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from the house. He was stealing a set of chain hoist from the ceiling of the building. It was

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later said that Johnson had assistance from Dave Atkins. Johnson would later admit to taking the

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hoist and tossing them over an embankment so he could return to pick them up later. A few days

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after the fire, George obtained warrants for the Johnson and Atkins accusing them of larency.

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Johnson failed to appear for his hearing and was later arrested. He played guilty to the

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charges and paid a $25 fine. Atkins fled the area and shortly joined the army to avoid criminal

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charges. He spent two years in the army just so he wouldn't have to pay the $25 fine.

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The Sotters had no choice but to watch the house burn down and collapse over the next 30 to 45

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minutes. They assumed the other five children had perished in the fire. Some reports say that at least

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five different vehicles drove past the Sotters home while it was on fire. There honestly could have

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been more. The reason we were telling you this, that it plays a big factor in the story later on.

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Many of Fayetteville's volunteer firemen were still away at war. Others was out of town because

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of the holiday. The firemen who were in town were asleep so it was hard to get a hold of them.

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Once they were finally reached, the fire department took eight hours to get to the Sotter home.

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Reports state that when the fire department got there, they hooked a pump up to a nearby creek

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and extinguished the remaining parts of the embers in the basement until the fire was fully put out.

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After this, Mr. Sotter was taken to the local hospital so they could tend to the cut on his arm.

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Mary Ann wrote an account of the night stating that the fire had completely burned out hours

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before and stated that some of the firemen did not arrive until 9am. Chief Morris told George to

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leave the site undisturbed so that the state fire marshal's office could conduct a more thorough

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investigation. However, just four days after the fire, George and his wife could not bear the

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site anymore. So George bulldozed 5 feet of dirt over the site where the fire happened,

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covering it so they could put a memorial garden for the lost children. The local coroner conveyed

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an inquest the next day, which hailed that the fire was an accident caused by faulty wiring.

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Among the jurors was a man who had threatened George that his house would burn down and his

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children would be destroyed in retribution for his anti-Musselemie remarks.

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Death certificate for the five children were issued on December 30th. The local newspaper

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contradicted itself, stating that all of the bodies had been found, but then later on in the same

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story that only one part of the body was recovered. On January 2nd, 1946, the Sotters held a funeral

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for the five children. George and Jenny were too grief-stricken to attend the funeral, although

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they're surviving children yet. In the spring of 1946, a few months after the fire, while Sylvia

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was playing outside, she found a small object that was green and described as possibly being a rubber

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or plastic with an end on it that seemed to be burned. The object was found on part of the property

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where it could have been rolled off the roof. If this is true, it matches up to some eyewitness

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reports of fireballs being thrown onto the roof. The object was shown to local military officials

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according to them. The object looked like it could possibly be a pineapple or napalm device.

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A pineapple or napalm device. One question that came to mind while doing the research on this case

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is that could this have been the loud noise on the roof that Jenny heard? Another theory that came

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to light throughout the years is that the rubber object could have been a part of one of the toys

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Mary Ann purchased for the kids as a Christmas present. The Sotters hired a private investigator

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named C. C. Tinsley from the town of Gully Bridge to look into the case. Tinsley informed the family

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that the insurance salesman who had threatened George over his anti-miscellaneous remarks

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had been on the coroner's jury that rolled the fire an accident. He also learned rumors around

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Fayetteville that despite his report to the Sotters that never remains have been found in the ashes.

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Morris had found a heart in which he later put into a metal box and buried it. Morris apparently

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confessed to his local minister who in turn confirmed to George. George and Tinsley went to Morris

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and confronted him with the news. Morris agreed to show the where he buried the box.

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They took what they found to a local funeral director who after examining it told them that

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it was just a fresh beef liver that had never been exposed to fire. Morris said that he did this

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in hopes that the Sotters would find it and be satisfied that the missing children had died in

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the fire. One year later Ginny Sotter was reading about a fire where seven people had died including

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small children. What caught her attention is that the bodies were burned severely. There were still

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skeletal remains of everyone including a three-month-old infant. Ginny shared the story to George

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and this is when he decided that the children did not die in the fire. Around this time Ginny would

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start doing some tests of her own. She began placing animal bones and meats in her kitchen stove

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to see if they would burn. She was always left with questions because the bones returned to ashes

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but there would still be remains left in the pile. In June of 1947 George and Ginny's oldest son

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John married 18 year old Margaret Meadows from High Cove. Later that year Joe Sotter married Clarice

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Louise Buckland from Harewood. Now we know you probably have questions on the fire. Some people

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believe that the children never went to bed. They were still on the first floor. They may have been

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lured out of the house by someone who entered the house through the unlocked doors perhaps

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promising them with the Christmas present or possibly telling them that the house was on fire.

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In the book No Direct Evidence the story of the missing Sotter children by author Bob Bragg

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created a modified theory that could explain this. One, Miss Sotter said none of the children's chores

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were completed. Two, the same five who stayed up playing were the same five who disappeared.

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Three, that only a few remains were found if there were actually any remains. Four, the bones that

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were found in the 1949 excavation were found on the opposite end of the house to the boy's bedroom.

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Maurice may have been taken into another room and killed away from the other four so they would not

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panic and wake the others in the house. But this is countered by the fact that the bones found in

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1949 showed no evidence to ever being exposed to fire. Five, a woman in Fayetteville told Miss Sotter

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that four of the children were taken. Six, Miss Ina Crutchfield operator of the Alderson Hotel

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in Trilfton said only four of the children were in her hotel on Christmas morning. Seven, if the

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children went to bed why would they have not awakened Mary Ann from the sofa so she could have

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gone to bed as well. Eight, if someone came into the house they either lured the children

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out of the house or killed them in their beds then carried them out. How could that have been done

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if the children were upstairs and they had to walk past Mary Ann who was asleep downstairs on the sofa.

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One woman who had been watching the fire from the road said she has seen some of the

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impairment of a passing car while the house was burning. Another woman at a rest stop between

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Fayetteville and Charleston said she has served them breakfast the next morning and noted the

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presence of a car with a Florida license plate in the rest stops parking lot. In 1949 George Sala

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magazine photo of a group of young ballet dancers in New York City. One of them looked like his

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missing daughter Betty. Ginny saw the photo and said that's sis you can see the photo on our website

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MountStateMysteriesPodcast.com. It took us it looks like the girl they thought was Betty

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is in the front to the right. George drove all the way to New York where he asked to see the girl

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himself but his demands were refused. George also tried to get the FBI involved while he considered

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to be a kidnapping. FBI Director J Edgar Hoover personally responded to his letter quote although

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I would like to be of service the matter related appears to be local character and does not come

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within investigate it and does not come within investigative jurisdiction bureau in quote if

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the local authorities requested the bureau's assistant he added he would of course direct agents

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but the Fayetteville police and fire departments refused to do so during the spring of 1949

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several citizens wrote to the Charleston Gazette expressing their feelings towards the case and

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making small contributions Courtney do you care to read them quote let's solve this mystery by

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starting a fund for the solders to raise approximately fifteen hundred dollars which in 2023 would be

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nineteen thousand two hundred sixty six dollars and twenty four cents to finance a thorough

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investigation of the case by Thomas P. Brophy of New York City providing these children are living

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and can be found this idea is certainly worth a little consideration just try to imagine the joy

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which would be experienced this Christmas which has been missing for the past three if their children

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are recovered in quote Lawrence R. Smith quote I believe with all in my heart they need a helping

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hand from every citizen of West Virginia we don't have much at this world's good but we have our

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children that we love and we sympathize with the solder family so much that I'm sitting our contribution

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to the fund for the service of an able man like Mr. Brophy in quote Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Price

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quote I think that anyone in a position to help should do so I say that the anxious hearts of

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the solders might be relieved it is a burden hard for them to bear it is a fate worse than death and

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only hope and pray that everyone will help every donor will receive his reward from God

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in quote Mrs. George D. Miller by May 1949 the solder fund had only raised about 51 dollars

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the rest of the summer was spent by trying to raise additional funds but by August contributions

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had all but stopped in August of 1949 George was able to persuade Oscar Hunter a Washington D.C.

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pathologist to supervise a new search through the dirt at the house site after a third search artifacts

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including a dictionary that belonged to the children and some coins were found several small

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bone fragments were unearthed determined to have been human vertebrae often the same person

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quote since the transverse recesses refuse the age of the individual adept should have been

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14 to 15 years in quote Nimmin's report said quote conclusions from studying these phones it can be

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unequivocally stated that these bones are identical with known human bones of the age 14 to 15 years

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and is probable with room for very little doubt that they belong to a child of this age

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the bones shoe the bones show no evidence of the actual charring which would indicate that

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they were not free within the fire and subject to high temperature they of course could have been in

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the fire covered by flesh and consequently insulated from the higher temperatures associated with the

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fire the question immediately arises as to why these bones should be found without the associated

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bones of the remaining portions of the skeleton and consequently it would lead one to believe

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that the remaining portion of the skeletal necessitates the conclusion that they were

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forcibly removed from the remaining portion of the skeleton such a forceful dismemberment

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during life or even after a body has been subject to the fire of the intensity described would

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necessitate a considerable amount of force and dexterity on the part of an individual

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planting such a dismemberment it was seen more reasonable that the remaining bones have been

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removed from the skeleton subsequent to the death of the individual at a time that interlacing

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ligaments and fibrous tissue had undergone degeneration this feature therefore suggests

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that the bones were separated from the remaining portions of the skeleton at some time later and

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perhaps these bones were overlooked at the time of the removal end quote reported oscar b hunter

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junior md pathologist the investigation and its findings attracted nation attention

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and the west virginia legislator held two hearings on the case in 1950 afterwards however

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governor okey l patterson and state police superintendent w e birchett ruled the solder's

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case was hopeless and closed it at the state level the fbi decided it has jurisdiction

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as a possible interstate kidnapping but dropped the case after two years of following fruitless

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leads with all official efforts to solve the case coming to an end the solder family did not

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give up hope they have flyers printed with pictures of the children offering a $5,000 reward for any

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information that would solve the case in 1952 the solders put up a billboard at the site of the house

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that read what was their fate kidnapped murdered or are they still alive $5,000 reward and another

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along us route 60 near endstead with the same information it would end up becoming a landmark

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for traffic through fayetteville on us route 19 known as today state route 16 now we know we dropped

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a bombshell siding of the kids earlier in the episode don't worry we are going to tell you about

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ita crutchfield siding of the children with the billboards being put up ita crutchfield came forward

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with her reported siding ita was working at the alderson hotel in troesson west virginia she

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claimed to have seen the children approximately a week after the fire in her statement she said quote

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i did see four of the soldered children in my hotel the immediate week following december 25th

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1945 the children were accompanied by two women and two men all of italian extraction to the best

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of my knowledge i do not remember the exact date however the entire party did register at the hotel

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and stay in room 25 which is a large room with several beds

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they registered between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. i tried to talk to the children in a friendly manner but

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the man appeared hostile and refused to allow me to talk to the children after registering the people

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i made a friendly remark to the small boy he answered me and one of the older women began

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to talk to me one of the men looked at me in a hostile manner he turned around and began talking

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rapidly in italian immediately the whole party stopped talking to me i sensed that i was being

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frozen out so i said nothing else they left early the next morning at the time i had not heard of

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the solder fire in august of 1946 a young man who seemed to be of italian origin came to the

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alderson hotel accompanied by a small boy whom he said was his ward he stayed in room eight for two

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days and three nights the child was not allowed out of his sight a reflection i realized that this

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was the same one that had been here in winter before i still did not connect those occurrences

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with the solder case until i saw the pictures in the paper i did see three solder girls and the

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young solder boy lewis once and i did see the youngest boy a second time i do not remember seeing

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the older boy end quote investigators still to this day do not consider her story credible

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as she had only first seen the photo of the children two years after the fire five years

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before she came forward seven months after ider crutchfield statement was taken jenny solder

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wrote a letter to governor wc marlon asking for more help from the state police now that

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superintendant birchett had resigned she said dear mr marlon after eight years of police service i see

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that mr w e birchett resigned for all that he has done for me i wish he had resigned seven years ago

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he said he wanted to stay on the job and stop crimes if he didn't stop crimes or investigate

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them better than he did my case we gave him because of arson and a kidnap case here in fayette county

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because some criminals set my house on fire then kidnapped five of my 10 children in the year 1945

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we have a sign affidavit that the immediate week following december 1945 my children were accompanied

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by two men and two women they stayed one night at a hotel in trostom west virginia in the month

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of august 1946 a young man accompanied my small son who he said was his ward stay in the same hotel

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the first time yes mr marlon the criminal sleep and rest right in our state capital three hearings

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have been forced in mr birchett's office but what has mr birchett done nothing he did not even try to

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investigate and as for mr paterson or our fire marshal mr rapor they have done no more than mr

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birchett why are they hiding from the truth they know very well this crime has been committed

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but we are not going to give up looking for them after all we should get some justice mr marlon

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you and mrs marlon have children and i know you love them more than anything in the world

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i hope you can understand how we feel there will be no rest until we find out what they did to my

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children i appreciate hearing from you thank you mr george solder as usual the response was the same

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dear mrs solder i have read your letter of february 13th in which you make charges relative

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to an action of certain law enforcement officials sometime in 1945 i'm sorry to advise that there

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is in no way in which i can help you in this matter but it is in my sincere hope that in time

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you will be reunited with your children with best wishes i am sincerely william c marlon governor

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with this letter i'll hope for the final chance at reopening the case for a formal investigation

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was over george solder never gave up hope on finding his children he would travel to wherever

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a lead would come from traveling to st louis missouri where a woman claimed martha was being held

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in a convient to texas where a bar patron claimed to have ever heard two other people making

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incriminating statements about a fire that happened on christmas eve in west virginia some years before

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george even traveled to florida where he heard that a relative at jenny's had children that looked

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similar to his the relative had to prove that the children were his own before george was satisfied

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in 1967 george traveled to the houston area to investigate another tip a woman there had

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written a letter to the solders saying that louis had revealed his true identity to her one night

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after having too much to drink she believed that he and morris were both living somewhere in texas

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however george and his son-in-law graver paxton were unable to speak to the woman police in the

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houston area were able to help them find these two men she had indicated but they denied being

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missing sons paxton said years later that the doubts about the denial lingered in george's mind

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for the rest of his life another letter that they received that year brought the solders to

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believe the most credible evidence that at least louis was still alive one day jenny found a letter

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in the mail addressed to her postmarked in central kentucky with no return address inside was a picture

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of a young man around 30 with features strongly resembling louis who would have been in his 30s

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if he had survived on the back was written louis solder i love brother frankie little boys a none

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zero one three two or three five two six three to us and everyone else the picture of the man

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in his 30s does look like the grown version of louis you can see the images on our website to make

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your own decision the family hired another private investigator to go to central city and look into

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this but he never reported back to the solders and they were unable to locate him afterwards

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george told the charleston gazette mail late the next year quote that the lack of information

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had been like hitting a rock wall we can't go any further in quote he said in another

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interview around the same time quote but we only want to know if they did die on the fire

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we want to be convinced otherwise we want to know what happened to them in quote

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on august 16th 1969 george solder passed away jenny and her surviving children except john

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who never talked about that night of the fire except to say that the family should accept

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what happened and move on with their lives continued to seek answers to their questions

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about the missing children after george's death jenny stayed in the family home putting up a fence

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around it and adding additional rooms for the rest of her life she wore black in mourning

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intended to the garden at the site of the former home on february 15th 1989 jenny solder passed away

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after her death the family finally took down the weathered warren billboards

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their surviving solder children joined by their own children continued to publicize the case and

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investigate leads along with older residents of feyville they theorize that the cecilia mafia

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was trying to extort money from george and the children may have been taken by someone who knew

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about the planned arson and said that they would be safe if they left the house they could have

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possibly been taken back to italy if the children did survive all those years and were aware that

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their parents and family were looking for them they may have avoided contact to keep the family safe

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in 2021 silvia solder paxton the youngest of their surviving solder children

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passed away she was in the house the night of the fire which she said is her earliest memory

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quote i was the last one of the kids to leave home in quote she said in an interview with the

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gazette male in 2013 that her and her father would often stay up late talking about what might have

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happened quote i experienced their grief for a long time in quote she believed that her siblings

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survived that night and assisted with efforts to find them and publicize the case her daughter janey

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said in 2006 quote she promised my grandparents she wouldn't let the story die though she would

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do everything she could in quote if you visit george and jenny's grave at the high lawn memorial

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park in oka west virginia you will notice another name on the grave in 1950 jenny had a stillborn

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birth to michael solder on the grave you will also see quote who believes injustice for everyone

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but was did not justice by the law when his five children were kidnapped christmas eve 1945

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at feville west virginia in 2023 the story of the solders has not faded out for anyone in west

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virginia or the world everyone still has their own theories some of those theories go to the mafia

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the tennessee children's home society which we will be doing a future episode on human trafficking

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the bubble theory the list can go on and on no matter who you talk to everyone knows the case

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of the soldered children if you have any information on the case of the soldered children

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email us at mountain state mysteries 304 at gmail.com next time on mountain state mysteries

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we're going to tell you the story of a woman who went missing in trofton west virginia in 1979

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if you find yourself enjoying mountain state mysteries take a second to follow download and

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rate it on your favorite podcasting service it helps others find mountain state mysteries

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00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:46,240
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if you follow us on instagram, facebook and tick tock comment and let us know what you think of

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the solder case if you follow us on spotify we will have a comment section on this episode

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for the show notes check out our website mountainstate mysteries podcast.com

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so

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you