—u/bradp36
On December 24th, 1945, the Sodder family home caught on fire with ten members of the Sodder family inside. Jennie Sodder woke in the night to find her husband George’s office completely engulfed in flames, at which point she woke her husband and the two rushed to wake the children. Though four of the Sodder children and their parents managed to escape their home, five children were assumed to have perished in the fire.
In the years since, many have speculated on the strange circumstances surrounding this event, and have begun to formulate their own theories on what actually happened that night. Though the official cause of the fire was deemed to be faulty wiring, some have actually argued that the Sodder family was the target of arson led by the Sicilian Mafia. George Sodder, an Italian immigrant, had been vocal in his opposition to dictator Benito Mussolini, leading a traveling insurance salesman to tell Sodder that his home would go “up in smoke”, and that “your children are going to be destroyed” because of his comments.
Some, including the Sodder family, speculate that the missing children are actually still alive, due to the lack of human remains found in the rubble. Years after the fire, the Sodders received a photograph in the mail of a man, with the caption reading that it was their now-adult son, Louis, previously thought to have been dead.
You can learn more about the Sodder Children’s mystery here.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/mayaogolini/unsolved-mysteries-youll-never-forget