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The Sodder Family Mystery: Five Children Vanished on Christmas Eve · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: On Christmas Eve 1945, in the quiet town of Fayetteville,
0:04
Speaker 1: West Virginia, the Sauter family home was filled with the
0:07
Speaker 1: warmth of holiday cheer. George and Jenny Sauter, along with
0:11
Speaker 1: nine of their ten children, celebrated together, exchanging gifts and laughter.
0:16
Speaker 1: as the cold Appalachian winter settled in outside. As midnight
0:20
Speaker 1: passed and the family retired for the night, they had
0:23
Speaker 1: no way of knowing that these peaceful moments would soon
0:26
Speaker 1: give way to a nightmare that would haunt them for
0:29
Speaker 1: the rest of their lives. In the early hours of
0:31
Speaker 1: Christmas morning, a devastating fire engulfed their home. George, Jenny,
0:36
Speaker 1: and four of their children escaped in the freezing night.
0:39
Speaker 1: But five of the Sauter children, Maurice, Martha, Louis, Jenny,
0:44
Speaker 1: and Betty, were trapped inside, or so everyone thought. Despite
0:49
Speaker 1: exhaustive searches of the charred ruins, no trace of the
0:52
Speaker 1: five children was ever found. No bones, no remains, Nothing.
0:57
Speaker 1: So was it a tragic accident, or was something far
1:01
Speaker 1: more sinister at play? Had the children perished in the fire,
1:04
Speaker 1: or had they been kidnapped and whisked away in the
1:07
Speaker 1: dead of the night? This is not just a story
1:09
Speaker 1: of a fire, but a tale of a family's relentless
1:12
Speaker 1: quest for the truth. So prepare to journey into one
1:15
Speaker 1: of the most haunted cold cases of the 20th century
1:18
Speaker 1: with me, where tragedy and mystery intertwine, and where the
1:22
Speaker 1: search for answers still burns bright. Climb! conspiracy, serial killers, cults,
1:27
Speaker 1: and murder. All things that I love to consume and
1:30
Speaker 1: I know you do too, you sick, beautiful, intellectual-minded freak.
1:34
Speaker 1: And we're gonna do just that today, so let's unbuckle
1:37
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1:40
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1:43
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1:57
Speaker 1: apologize because I'm sick. I'm sick right now. My whole
2:01
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2:04
Speaker 1: got me sick. So I sent them right back up.
2:05
Speaker 1: Just kidding. So if I sound a little weird, that's why.
2:08
Speaker 1: And I apologize, but I will do my best. Let's
2:11
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4:02
Speaker 1: to it. So like I said, we're talking about the
4:04
Speaker 1: Sauter family today, specifically the Sauter children that went missing,
4:08
Speaker 1: the five, five Sauter children that went missing on Christmas Eve, 1945.
4:15
Speaker 1: And the incident would involve a devastating house fire in Fayetteville,
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Speaker 1: West Virginia, which destroyed the Sauter family home and allegedly
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Speaker 1: claimed the lives of five of their children. Sounds pretty
4:25
Speaker 1: open-shut case, right? No! And that's why you're watching this video.
4:28
Speaker 1: There is a lot of conspiracy and theories around this case.
4:32
Speaker 1: It's extremely interesting, and I think you guys will be
4:36
Speaker 1: very interested to hear about it. I'm very curious what
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Speaker 1: you guys think down below, so let's get into it.
4:41
Speaker 1: So let's start out with the Sauter family background. The
4:44
Speaker 1: Sauter family was composed of Italian immigrants, George Sauter and
4:48
Speaker 1: his wife, Jenny, along with their 10 children. That's a
4:52
Speaker 1: lot of children. I know it was way back when,
4:54
Speaker 1: but my God, I couldn't even imagine. Having one gives
4:58
Speaker 1: me anxiety. I don't have one. The idea of having
5:01
Speaker 1: one gives me anxiety. I digress. So George Sauter, originally
5:04
Speaker 1: named Giorgio Sadu, was born in Tula, Sardinia in 1895.
5:10
Speaker 1: He would emigrate to the United States in 1908 at
5:13
Speaker 1: the age of 13, escaping poverty in Italy to seek
5:16
Speaker 1: a better life in America, like many other immigrants at
5:18
Speaker 1: the time. And he would eventually find work in the
5:20
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania coal mines. And after several years, he would work
5:23
Speaker 1: many different jobs. But he would settle in Fayetteville, West Virginia.
5:27
Speaker 1: And Fayetteville, a small coal mining town, had a significant
5:30
Speaker 1: population of Italian immigrants. And George would quickly establish himself
5:34
Speaker 1: as a successful businessman in the community. And by 1945,
5:37
Speaker 1: George had now owned a trucking company that transported goods,
5:40
Speaker 1: including coal, throughout the region. He was known for his
5:43
Speaker 1: strong opinions, particularly about Benito Mussolini. Have you heard of him?
5:47
Speaker 1: Great guy. But my great, he's not. He was the
5:50
Speaker 1: fascist leader of Italy, whom George vocally criticized even before
5:54
Speaker 1: Mussolini's downfall in 1943. And his outspoken views on Italian
5:58
Speaker 1: politics were a source of tension in the Italian-American community,
6:02
Speaker 1: many of whom were still loyal to Mussolini, for reasons
6:05
Speaker 1: I'll never understand. And Jenny Sauter, who was born in 1899,
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Speaker 1: was also an Italian immigrant. She would manage the household
6:12
Speaker 1: and take care of the 10 children. John... Joseph, Marion,
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Speaker 1: George Jr., Maurice, Martha, Louis, Jenny, Betty, and Sylvia. And
6:21
Speaker 1: the Sodders were generally considered well-respected within their community. And
6:25
Speaker 1: George's business provided a very comfortable life for the large family,
6:29
Speaker 1: which is crazy because supporting 10 kids, I can't even
6:31
Speaker 1: think about how much that would cost nowadays, like maybe
6:33
Speaker 1: $ 2 back then. I don't know, just kidding. But that's crazy.
6:37
Speaker 1: George was doing real good. However, this outward success may
6:40
Speaker 1: have masked the underlying tensions that played a critical role
6:44
Speaker 1: in the events that unfolded in December, 1945. So let's
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Speaker 1: talk about the infamous Night of the Fire. So on
6:51
Speaker 1: the evening of December 24th, 1945, the family would celebrate
6:55
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve together. One of the sons would be away
6:58
Speaker 1: in the army, but the rest of them were able
7:00
Speaker 1: to spend Christmas together. Marion, the eldest daughter, had bought
7:03
Speaker 1: toys for the younger children as Christmas presents, and they
7:06
Speaker 1: begged to stay up late to play with their new
7:08
Speaker 1: Christmas presents. And Jenny would eventually allow Maurice, who was 14,
7:11
Speaker 1: and Martha, who was 12, and Louis, who was 9,
7:14
Speaker 1: and Jenny, who was 8, and Betty, who was 5,
7:17
Speaker 1: to remain awake after the rest of the family went
7:19
Speaker 1: to bed to play with their new toys. And the
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Speaker 1: events of the night would unfold in an extremely chaotic manner.
7:25
Speaker 1: At around 1 a.m., Jenny would be awakened by a
7:28
Speaker 1: very strange phone call from a woman asking for a
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Speaker 1: name Jenny did not recognize. Jenny could hear laughter and
7:35
Speaker 1: clinking glasses in the background. Jenny would tell the caller
7:38
Speaker 1: that she had the wrong number though, and she would
7:40
Speaker 1: hang up the phone. And that's when she would notice
7:42
Speaker 1: that the lights downstairs were still on, and the curtains
7:45
Speaker 1: were open also. And this was very unusual for the
7:47
Speaker 1: household because the children were continuously told to close the
7:50
Speaker 1: curtains before going to bed. And Jenny, just assuming that
7:53
Speaker 1: the kids had forgotten, went downstairs to close the curtains
7:56
Speaker 1: and also check to lock the door and also turn
7:58
Speaker 1: off the lights before going back to bed. And then
8:00
Speaker 1: about 30 minutes later, Jenny was startled awake again. This time,
8:04
Speaker 1: a loud bang on the roof that was followed by
8:06
Speaker 1: a rolling noise. However, the noise would subside and she
8:09
Speaker 1: would just fall back to sleep thinking nothing of it.
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Speaker 1: And not long afterward, at about 1.30 a.m., Jenny awoke
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Speaker 1: once more, and this time to the smell of smoke.
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Speaker 1: She would rush to find the source of the smoke,
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Speaker 1: and she would discover that it was coming from George's office.
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Speaker 1: And where the fuse box and telephone wires were located
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Speaker 1: was the fire to which the smoke was emitting from.
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Speaker 1: So Jenny, in a panic, would go over and wake
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Speaker 1: George and try to scramble all of their kids together
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Speaker 1: to get out of the house that was currently on fire.
8:34
Speaker 1: And they would manage to wake up Marion, George Jr., John,
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Speaker 1: and Sylvia, who were all sleeping upstairs. And they would
8:41
Speaker 1: then flee outside. However, the five younger children, who had
8:44
Speaker 1: stayed up late, remained, unfortunately, trapped inside. And the house
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Speaker 1: would be rapidly consumed by flames, preventing George from entering
8:52
Speaker 1: and rescuing the rest of his children. They would frantically
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Speaker 1: yell to the children upstairs, but they heard no response.
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Speaker 1: And they couldn't go up there because the stairway itself
9:00
Speaker 1: was already aflame. And John would say in his first
9:02
Speaker 1: police interview after the fire that he went up to
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Speaker 1: the attic to alert his siblings who were sleeping there.
9:08
Speaker 1: Though he would later change his story and say that
9:10
Speaker 1: he only called up there and he didn't actually see them.
9:12
Speaker 1: And any other of George's and Jenny's desperate attempts to
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Speaker 1: save their children were just met with frustration. George barefoot,
9:19
Speaker 1: attempted to actually climb the outside of the house, and
9:22
Speaker 1: he would break a window, but then he would get
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Speaker 1: a brutal cut on his arm in the process, and
9:26
Speaker 1: the fire would prevent him from getting in. So then
9:28
Speaker 1: he and his sons intended to use a ladder to
9:30
Speaker 1: the attic to rescue the other children, but it wasn't
9:33
Speaker 1: in the usual spot where they always left it, and
9:36
Speaker 1: they couldn't find it anywhere else nearby. So then their
9:39
Speaker 1: next idea was to get the water barrel that could
9:41
Speaker 1: have been used to extinguish some of the fire, but
9:43
Speaker 1: it was frozen solid, unfortunately. So in a last ditch effort,
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Speaker 1: George would then try to pull both of the trucks
9:48
Speaker 1: he used for his business up to the house to
9:50
Speaker 1: use them to climb up to the attic window. But
9:53
Speaker 1: neither of them would start despite having them worked perfectly
9:56
Speaker 1: the day previous. So every attempt that they made was
9:59
Speaker 1: completely futile and they were just completely frustrated and with
10:03
Speaker 1: nothing else to do, one of the kids, Marion, would
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Speaker 1: run to the neighbor's house to call the Fayetteville Fire Department.
10:08
Speaker 1: And a driver on the nearby road also had seen
10:11
Speaker 1: the flames and called from a nearby tavern, but they
10:13
Speaker 1: too were unsuccessful either because they could not reach the
10:16
Speaker 1: operator or because the phone there was also broken for
10:19
Speaker 1: some reason. But either the neighbor or the passing motorist
10:22
Speaker 1: was eventually successful in reaching the fire department from another
10:26
Speaker 1: phone in the center of town. But the Sodders were
10:28
Speaker 1: just left in front of their home that was on fire,
10:30
Speaker 1: just feeling completely useless. And all they could do for
10:33
Speaker 1: the next 45 minutes was watch their house completely collapse
10:37
Speaker 1: from the flames. And assuming that their other five children
10:40
Speaker 1: had collapsed in the flames alongside the house. So let's
10:44
Speaker 1: go into the investigation and the aftermath of the fire.
10:50
Speaker 1: So the fire department, who was currently very low on
10:52
Speaker 1: manpower due to the war, were relying on individual firefighters
10:56
Speaker 1: to literally call each other when there was a fire.
10:59
Speaker 1: And they wouldn't respond until later that morning from when
11:02
Speaker 1: the fire happened that evening. So there was like eight
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Speaker 1: hours between the time the firefighters actually got to the house.
11:09
Speaker 1: And the chief of the fire department, Chief F.J. Morris,
11:12
Speaker 1: said that the next day, the already slow response was
11:15
Speaker 1: further hampered by his inability to drive the fire truck.
11:20
Speaker 1: How are you the chief and you can't drive a
11:23
Speaker 1: fire truck? Sorry. Requiring that he wait until someone else
11:27
Speaker 1: that could drive the fire truck to show up to
11:29
Speaker 1: drive the fire truck. Did that make sense? Probably not.
11:31
Speaker 1: Nothing makes sense to me right now. But anyway, they
11:33
Speaker 1: would arrive the next morning. Or I guess later that
11:36
Speaker 1: morning because the fire happened around one o'clock, so. And
11:39
Speaker 1: the firefighters, one of whom was actually Jenny's brother, could
11:42
Speaker 1: do little but to look through the ashes that were
11:44
Speaker 1: left in the Sodder's basement. And they would conclude there
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Speaker 1: that the remaining five Sodder children had perished in the fire.
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Speaker 1: And the fire chief, F.J. Morris, initially suggested that the
11:55
Speaker 1: intensity of the flames had been so great that it
11:57
Speaker 1: had completely incinerated their bodies. So there was... no evidence
12:02
Speaker 1: at this point. And this explanation, however, was immediately met
12:05
Speaker 1: with skepticism by George and Jenny, naturally. They could not
12:09
Speaker 1: understand how a fire hot enough to completely destroy the
12:13
Speaker 1: bodies of their children couldn't destroy things like their appliances
12:18
Speaker 1: in the house who were that were still partially intact
12:22
Speaker 1: after the fire had completely dissipated. Additionally, like I said,
12:25
Speaker 1: no human remains were actually found in the ashes at
12:28
Speaker 1: this point. And even under intense heat, it is highly
12:31
Speaker 1: unusual for a fire to obliterate all traces of bone. Dr.
12:35
Speaker 1: Charles F. Kennedy, the county coroner, supported the theory that
12:38
Speaker 1: the fire's heat was sufficient to reduce the bodies into ashes.
12:41
Speaker 1: But this conclusion contradicted expert opinions later gathered by the
12:45
Speaker 1: Sodders themselves. And according to pathologists, even in cremation, which
12:49
Speaker 1: occurs at a lot higher temperatures than house fires, bones
12:53
Speaker 1: will still remain. But Chief Morris would tell George to
12:56
Speaker 1: leave the site undisturbed so that the state fire marshal's
12:59
Speaker 1: office could conduct a more thorough investigation. However, after only
13:03
Speaker 1: four days, George and his wife just couldn't bear to
13:05
Speaker 1: see the site anymore. So he would bulldoze five feet
13:08
Speaker 1: of dirt over the site with the intention of converting
13:11
Speaker 1: it into a memorial garden for their lost children. Which
13:14
Speaker 1: is like, I understand, but also, there's an investigation going on,
13:18
Speaker 1: and there's evidence in there, so like, I don't know.
13:21
Speaker 1: It's like, there's no winning in that situation. It's very sad. But,
13:26
Speaker 1: There's a lot more to go through, so let's go through.
13:27
Speaker 1: And death certificates for the five children were issued on
13:30
Speaker 1: December 30th. And the local newspaper would actually contradict itself,
13:34
Speaker 1: saying that the bodies had been found in the fire,
13:36
Speaker 1: but then later in the same story, reporting that only
13:39
Speaker 1: a part of the bodies were discovered. And George and
13:42
Speaker 1: Jenny would just be too grief-stricken to even attend their
13:45
Speaker 1: children's funeral on January 2nd, 1946, but their surviving children would.
13:49
Speaker 1: So the official cause of the fire would be determined
13:52
Speaker 1: to be faulty wiring. But George would dispute this. He
13:55
Speaker 1: had actually recently had the house rewired, and an electrician
13:59
Speaker 1: would declare it completely safe. Additionally, George would notice that
14:02
Speaker 1: the Christmas lights had stayed on during the first part
14:06
Speaker 1: of when the fire was happening. So if it was
14:08
Speaker 1: because of faulty wiring, the Christmas lights wouldn't be on
14:10
Speaker 1: at all because the electricity would be completely out in
14:13
Speaker 1: the house. So it was basically impossible for it to
14:16
Speaker 1: be an electrical fault. And suspicions would grow when the
14:18
Speaker 1: Sodders recalled several strange incidences in the months leading up
14:22
Speaker 1: to the fire. Like in the fall in 1945, a
14:25
Speaker 1: man would come up to the house asking about George's
14:27
Speaker 1: work and had pointedly commented that the house's wiring was
14:30
Speaker 1: likely to cause a fire one day. Also a bit
14:33
Speaker 1: suspicious and coincidental, isn't it? And around the same time,
14:37
Speaker 1: another man approached George offering to sell him insurance, specifically
14:41
Speaker 1: life insurance. Weird. And when George would decline this man,
14:46
Speaker 1: the man would reportedly become enraged at him and tell him,
14:50
Speaker 1: quote unquote, your house is going to go up in
14:52
Speaker 1: smoke and your children are going to be destroyed. What?
14:58
Speaker 1: Warning George that his anti-Mussolini sentiments would lead to tragedy.
15:03
Speaker 1: So then those sentiments that he said, like, way back when,
15:06
Speaker 1: were coming back for some reason. So... Very strange. And
15:11
Speaker 1: after the fire, the Sodders began receiving tips and information
15:15
Speaker 1: that seemed to point towards the possibility of a kidnapping
15:18
Speaker 1: rather than a fire-related death. A woman who had been
15:20
Speaker 1: watching the fire from a nearby road claimed that she
15:23
Speaker 1: actually saw the missing five Sodder children peering out from
15:27
Speaker 1: a passing car window and watching as the house burned.
15:30
Speaker 1: And another woman who worked at a tourist spot about
15:32
Speaker 1: 50 miles away reported that she had seen the children
15:35
Speaker 1: the morning after the fire and served them breakfast. And
15:38
Speaker 1: she said they were traveling in a car with Florida
15:41
Speaker 1: license plates. But these leads would end up not leading anywhere, unfortunately.
15:46
Speaker 1: And not long after, as the Sodder began to slowly
15:48
Speaker 1: rebuild their lives, the family started to question all the
15:51
Speaker 1: official findings about the fire. They wondered, Why? If it
15:55
Speaker 1: had been caused by an electrical problem, would the family's
15:58
Speaker 1: Christmas lights remain on throughout the early stages of the
16:01
Speaker 1: fire when the power should have gone out? And then
16:04
Speaker 1: they also found the ladder that was missing when the
16:06
Speaker 1: fire was ablaze and that was supposed to be on
16:09
Speaker 1: the side of the house at the bottom of an
16:11
Speaker 1: embankment 75 feet away from their house. And none of
16:15
Speaker 1: them claimed to have put it there either. And one
16:17
Speaker 1: of the most interesting things is that a telephone repairman
16:20
Speaker 1: told the Sodders that the house's phone line had not
16:23
Speaker 1: been burned, as they had initially thought, naturally, because there
16:26
Speaker 1: was a fire happening near a telephone in their home
16:28
Speaker 1: when it first sparked. But it had been cut by
16:31
Speaker 1: someone who had been willing to climb a 14-foot pole
16:35
Speaker 1: and then reach over two feet to cut the telephone wire.
16:38
Speaker 1: And a man who the Sodder neighbors had saw stealing
16:41
Speaker 1: a block and tackle from the property around the time
16:43
Speaker 1: of the fire was identified and arrested. He would admit
16:46
Speaker 1: to the theft, and he would also claim that he
16:49
Speaker 1: was the one to cut the phone wire, thinking that
16:51
Speaker 1: it was a power line, which I don't understand. If
16:53
Speaker 1: it was a power line, wouldn't you die if you
16:56
Speaker 1: cut it? I've seen videos of people doing that, I
17:00
Speaker 1: don't know. Anyway, but he also denied having anything to
17:03
Speaker 1: do with the fire itself. But no record identifying the
17:06
Speaker 1: suspect actually even exists. And like, what would be the
17:09
Speaker 1: purpose of cutting the utility lines and stealing the block
17:12
Speaker 1: and tackle? None of it's ever been explained. And Jenny
17:16
Speaker 1: said in 1968 that if he had cut the power line,
17:19
Speaker 1: she and her husband, along with their other four children,
17:22
Speaker 1: would have never been able to make it out of
17:24
Speaker 1: the house. And Jenny also had trouble accepting Morris's belief
17:27
Speaker 1: that all traces of the children's body had been burned
17:30
Speaker 1: completely in the fire. Because, like we said before, many
17:33
Speaker 1: of the household appliances had been found after the fire.
17:36
Speaker 1: Still recognizable and in the ash. along with fragments of
17:40
Speaker 1: the tin roof. And she would go like full science
17:42
Speaker 1: mode on this and badass. I love it. She would
17:44
Speaker 1: contrast the results of the fire with a newspaper account
17:47
Speaker 1: of a similar house fire that she read around the
17:50
Speaker 1: same time that had killed a family of seven. And
17:52
Speaker 1: she would see that skeletal remains of all the victims
17:55
Speaker 1: were reported to have been found in that case. Jenny
17:58
Speaker 1: would even go so far as to burn piles of
18:01
Speaker 1: animal bones to see if they would be completely consumed
18:04
Speaker 1: by the fire, but none ever were. And an employee
18:07
Speaker 1: at a local crematorium she contacted told her that human
18:10
Speaker 1: bones remain even after the bodies are burned at 2,000
18:13
Speaker 1: degrees Fahrenheit or 1,090 degrees Celsius. hot. For two hours,
18:21
Speaker 1: mind you, as well. Far longer and far hotter than
18:25
Speaker 1: the house fire that happened at the Sauter home. And
18:27
Speaker 1: the Sauter's truck's failure to start was also considered. George
18:30
Speaker 1: believed that they had been tampered with, perhaps by the
18:33
Speaker 1: same man who stole the tackle and block and cut
18:36
Speaker 1: the phone line. However, one of George's son-in-laws would say
18:39
Speaker 1: that he had come to believe that they may have
18:41
Speaker 1: flooded the trucks by trying to start them. So, That
18:44
Speaker 1: is a possibility, I guess. And the mysterious phone call
18:48
Speaker 1: that happened was explained away by the authorities reaching out
18:51
Speaker 1: to the woman that had called. And she just said
18:53
Speaker 1: she did have the wrong number. So who knows? So
18:56
Speaker 1: dissatisfied with the local authorities handling the case, the Sodders
19:00
Speaker 1: would launch their own investigation. George himself would comb the
19:03
Speaker 1: site of the fire, looking for any remains, and he
19:05
Speaker 1: would eventually hire Oscar B. Hunter, a Washington, D.C. pathologist,
19:10
Speaker 1: to examine the scene. And in 1949, four years after
19:13
Speaker 1: the fire, Hunter found several small bone fragments, which were
19:17
Speaker 1: sent to the Smithsonian Institution for Analysis, where Marshall T. Newman,
19:21
Speaker 1: who was a specialist at the Smithsonian... Sorry, I Smithsonian.
19:27
Speaker 1: Smithsonian Institution would confirm, thank you, that those bones were
19:32
Speaker 1: a lumbar vertebrae, all from the same person though. And
19:36
Speaker 1: he would go on to say, quote unquote, since the
19:38
Speaker 1: transverse recesses are fused, whatever that means, the age of
19:42
Speaker 1: this individual at death should have been 16 or 17 years.
19:46
Speaker 1: Newman's report said the top limit of age should be
19:49
Speaker 1: about 20 since the centra, which normally fuse at 23,
19:54
Speaker 1: are still unfused. Thus, in layman's term, basically, given the
19:58
Speaker 1: age range, it was not very likely that these bones
20:01
Speaker 1: were from any of the five missing children, because the
20:04
Speaker 1: oldest of the five, which was Maurice, had been only
20:06
Speaker 1: 14 at the time. Furthermore, the bones showed zero signs
20:10
Speaker 1: of exposure to fire, raising further questions about their origin.
20:13
Speaker 1: And the Sodders would also hire a private investigator named C.C. Tinsley,
20:18
Speaker 1: Cool name. From a nearby town in Gully Bridge to
20:21
Speaker 1: look into the case. And Tinsley would inform the family
20:24
Speaker 1: that the insurance salesman that had initially threatened George for
20:27
Speaker 1: the anti-Mussolini sentiments had been on the coroner's jury that
20:32
Speaker 1: ruled the fire an accident, which is very interesting. And
20:35
Speaker 1: he had also learned that rumors around Fayetteville that despite
20:38
Speaker 1: his reports to the Sodders that no remains had been
20:40
Speaker 1: found in the ashes, Morris... Chief Morris, the firefighter, had
20:44
Speaker 1: found a heart, which he had later packed into a
20:47
Speaker 1: metal box and secretly buried. And Morris had apparently confessed
20:51
Speaker 1: to a local minister, who in turn confirmed it to George.
20:55
Speaker 1: So George and Tinsley would naturally go to Morris to
20:58
Speaker 1: confront him about this news. And Morris would agree to
21:00
Speaker 1: show the two where he had actually buried that metal box,
21:03
Speaker 1: and they dug it up. And they would take the
21:05
Speaker 1: box and give it to a funeral director to ask
21:07
Speaker 1: what exactly it was in the box. And after examining it,
21:11
Speaker 1: he would find that it was actually fresh beef liver
21:14
Speaker 1: that had never been exposed to fire. What the? And later,
21:17
Speaker 1: more rumors circulated around Fayetteville that Morris had afterwards admitted
21:22
Speaker 1: that the box with the liver had indeed not come
21:25
Speaker 1: from the fire originally. He had supposedly placed it in
21:28
Speaker 1: there in hopes that the Sodders would find it and
21:31
Speaker 1: be satisfied that it may have been one of the
21:34
Speaker 1: missing children's body parts. That's like, that's, I don't know.
21:39
Speaker 1: That's next. It's like equally lazy as it is trying
21:44
Speaker 1: too hard. Like just like being like, you cannot be
21:47
Speaker 1: a bigger POS in my opinion. Like just trying to
21:50
Speaker 1: like cover it up or not even cover it up.
21:52
Speaker 1: Just like insurance organs, which is weird. And after all that.
21:59
Speaker 1: George and Jenny reached out to the FBI for assistance,
22:02
Speaker 1: specifically J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at the time,
22:05
Speaker 1: who expressed interest in the case and agreed to investigate
22:08
Speaker 1: it if local authorities granted them permission. However, like all
22:12
Speaker 1: police departments, I swear, every police department I read about
22:16
Speaker 1: at least, I know some are good, lots are good, sorry,
22:19
Speaker 1: but the police and fire departments would decline the offer. Ooh,
22:24
Speaker 1: I smell... Cover up. That looks really bad. And I
22:28
Speaker 1: feel like that gives the FBI more reason to look
22:31
Speaker 1: into the case, especially since the police department and the
22:34
Speaker 1: fire department are like, I have, let me think about this. I, yes,
22:41
Speaker 1: I remember that fire. And I think, I think you
22:48
Speaker 1: should probably leave. I think you should probably leave. We
22:52
Speaker 1: got it solved. We got a heart in a box, liver.
22:54
Speaker 1: It didn't go on fire. We got some bones. It's fine.
22:57
Speaker 1: They're dead. See you. Like, just give you all the
22:59
Speaker 1: more reason. But one of the most tantalizing pieces of
23:02
Speaker 1: evidence came in 1967 when Jenny Sautter received a letter
23:07
Speaker 1: in the mail with an unknown sender. And the letter
23:09
Speaker 1: contained a photograph. And the photograph would be of a
23:11
Speaker 1: young man who bore a striking resemblance with Louis Sauter.
23:16
Speaker 1: Or Louis Sauter. There's two ways to pronounce it. I'm
23:18
Speaker 1: sorry if I pronounced it wrong. I read it as Louis.
23:21
Speaker 1: Louis or Louis Sauter was one of the missing children.
23:24
Speaker 1: And the photograph would be accompanied by a very cryptic
23:26
Speaker 1: letter that would read, Louis Sauter. I love brother Frankie.
23:30
Speaker 1: And that's illilboys A90132 or 35. I don't know. And
23:39
Speaker 1: the meaning of the note has literally never been deciphered.
23:41
Speaker 1: And the identity of the sender remains unknown. Because despite
23:44
Speaker 1: the tantalizing lead, the Sauter family could not confirm the
23:47
Speaker 1: authenticity of the photograph or the photograph of the photograph
23:51
Speaker 1: or track down the sender. However, convinced that the man
23:54
Speaker 1: in the photograph was indeed their son, Jenny Sauter would
23:56
Speaker 1: hire another private investigator to travel to Kentucky where the
23:59
Speaker 1: letter was postmarked in hopes of finding more information. But unfortunately,
24:03
Speaker 1: the investigator would never return because he's a piece of shit.
24:06
Speaker 1: And the Sodders were left with no further leads. So
24:09
Speaker 1: despite the frustration and the lack of resolution, Jenny kept
24:12
Speaker 1: the photograph, displaying it in her home, alongside other family photos,
24:16
Speaker 1: maintaining her belief that Lewis might still be alive. And
24:19
Speaker 1: the photo, while tantalizing, like we said, was just one
24:22
Speaker 1: of the many very strange occurrences that kept the Sodders'
24:25
Speaker 1: hope alive over the years. Numerous tips and alleged sightings
24:29
Speaker 1: of the children were reported, though none could be substantiated.
24:32
Speaker 1: For example, a woman in St. Louis claimed that Martha
24:35
Speaker 1: was staying in a convent. And another tip came from
24:38
Speaker 1: a bar patron in Texas who claimed that he overheard
24:41
Speaker 1: incriminating conversations about the children. But every lead, however, just
24:45
Speaker 1: proved to be a dead end. But George and Jenny
24:47
Speaker 1: Sautter never gave up the search for their children. And
24:49
Speaker 1: for the remainder of their lives, they actively investigated all
24:52
Speaker 1: of the potential leads. They quite literally just poured their
24:55
Speaker 1: life into finding their children. They would even put up
24:57
Speaker 1: a billboard along Route 16 near Fayetteville, which featured pictures
25:02
Speaker 1: of the missing children and detailed that a $ 10, 000 reward
25:05
Speaker 1: they were offering for any information leading to their recovery.
25:08
Speaker 1: And the billboard would remain a haunting fixture along the
25:11
Speaker 1: highway for decades and would become a symbol of their
25:14
Speaker 1: relentless pursuit for answers. And their message on the billboard
25:17
Speaker 1: basically outlined their belief that the children had been kidnapped,
25:20
Speaker 1: detailing key suspicions surrounding the fire and the failed investigation.
25:24
Speaker 1: And a year later, in 1968, George admitted to the
25:28
Speaker 1: Charleston Gazette Mail that the lack of information had been
25:32
Speaker 1: like hitting a rock wall, we can't go any further.
25:35
Speaker 1: He nevertheless vowed to continue though, quote unquote saying, time
25:39
Speaker 1: is running out for us. And he admitted in another
25:41
Speaker 1: interview around that time, but we only want to know
25:44
Speaker 1: if they did die in the fire, we want to
25:46
Speaker 1: be convinced. Otherwise we want to know what happened to them.
25:49
Speaker 1: But unfortunately he would never find out what happened to
25:52
Speaker 1: his children because he would pass away in 1969, still
25:55
Speaker 1: holding onto the belief that his children were alive somewhere.
25:58
Speaker 1: And after George's death, Jenny stayed in her family home,
26:01
Speaker 1: putting up fencing around it and adding additional rooms. And
26:04
Speaker 1: for the rest of her life, she wore black clothes
26:07
Speaker 1: in mourning and tended to the garden at the site
26:10
Speaker 1: of the fire. And Jenny too would continue the investigation
26:12
Speaker 1: until her death in 1989. And after Jenny's passing, the
26:16
Speaker 1: surviving Sauter children would take down that billboard that they
26:19
Speaker 1: put up at Fayetteville. And the family's search for their
26:21
Speaker 1: missing siblings now had slowed down, though their memories and
26:24
Speaker 1: questions persisted. So let's get into the theories and conspiracies.
26:30
Speaker 1: First off, the fire and accidental death theory. So the
26:34
Speaker 1: most straightforward theory about the Sauter children's disappearance is the
26:37
Speaker 1: official explanation provided by the local authorities. The children perished
26:42
Speaker 1: in the fire. According to this theory, the house fire
26:44
Speaker 1: that was attributed to faulty wiring caused the death of
26:46
Speaker 1: the five missing children. And proponents argue that the intense
26:49
Speaker 1: heat of the fire may have completely incinerated the children's bodies,
26:52
Speaker 1: leaving no remains behind. which would explain why there was
26:55
Speaker 1: no bones or any evidence that the deaths happened in
26:58
Speaker 1: the aftermath of the blaze. And supporters of this theory
27:01
Speaker 1: often point to the events that took place before the
27:03
Speaker 1: fire took place. With the difficulty in reaching the fire department,
27:06
Speaker 1: the missing ladder, the failure of George Sauter's trucks, and
27:09
Speaker 1: each of these incidents, in their opinions, suggest that they
27:12
Speaker 1: could just be chalked up to a combination of bad luck. However,
27:16
Speaker 1: in my opinion and a lot of other people's opinion,
27:18
Speaker 1: This theory is riddled with inconsistencies. And one of the
27:21
Speaker 1: strongest arguments against it is that even in the most
27:24
Speaker 1: extreme cases of house fires, bones or other remains are
27:28
Speaker 1: typically found. And cremation, which burns at much higher temperatures
27:32
Speaker 1: than house fires, does not even destroy bones entirely. It
27:35
Speaker 1: usually will leave fragments behind that usually need to be
27:38
Speaker 1: pulverized or completely reduced to ash manually. On top of that, obviously,
27:42
Speaker 1: the lack of human remains at the site of the fire,
27:45
Speaker 1: combined with the fact that there were household appliances that
27:47
Speaker 1: survived the fire, cast doubt on the idea that the
27:49
Speaker 1: fire alone could have accounted for all the children's disappearances
27:53
Speaker 1: and deaths. And another key issue with this theory is
27:56
Speaker 1: the condition of the house's wiring. George Sautter had recently
27:58
Speaker 1: had his house rewired and the wiring was inspected not
28:01
Speaker 1: too long before the fire happened. Furthermore, during the fire,
28:04
Speaker 1: the family noted that the house lights and the Christmas
28:07
Speaker 1: lights remained on during the first stretch of the fire.
28:10
Speaker 1: And it's extremely likely that the power would have completely
28:13
Speaker 1: shorted out early on, making this explanation even less plausible.
28:17
Speaker 1: So I'm throwing that theory out the window. The next
28:20
Speaker 1: theory is the kidnapping theory. So one of the more
28:23
Speaker 1: compelling theories and one that is strongly believed by the
28:26
Speaker 1: Sauter family is that the children were kidnapped and that
28:29
Speaker 1: the fire was set deliberately as a diversion. And the
28:31
Speaker 1: Sauters maintain that the children were taken before or during
28:35
Speaker 1: the house fire and that the fire was meant to
28:37
Speaker 1: be a coverup. And according to this theory, the five
28:40
Speaker 1: children did not die in the blaze and were abducted
28:43
Speaker 1: and taken elsewhere. And several strange occurrences leading up to
28:45
Speaker 1: the fire lead credence to this theory. In the months
28:48
Speaker 1: leading up to the fire, George had been visited by
28:50
Speaker 1: several suspicious individuals. The insurance guy who threatened George, telling
28:55
Speaker 1: him his house was literally gonna go up in smoke
28:57
Speaker 1: and that his children would be destroyed. And then the
28:59
Speaker 1: man also talked about George's outspoken political views, particularly his
29:04
Speaker 1: criticism of Mussolini. And this would lead to the Sodders
29:06
Speaker 1: wondering if the family had been targeted by individuals within
29:09
Speaker 1: the local Italian American community who had still harbored loyalty
29:13
Speaker 1: to Mussolini. And adding weight to the kidnapping theories were
29:16
Speaker 1: also the numerous sightings of the children after the fire.
29:19
Speaker 1: The woman who had been watching the blaze from across
29:21
Speaker 1: the road, seeing the children peering from the car window,
29:24
Speaker 1: the woman who worked at the tourist spot in Charleston,
29:26
Speaker 1: West Virginia, who had said to have served the children
29:28
Speaker 1: breakfast at a stop, two of which she said spoke Italian,
29:32
Speaker 1: and the car that they were traveling in had Florida
29:34
Speaker 1: license plates, further suggesting that the children may have been
29:36
Speaker 1: taken further out of Fayetteville, possibly to Florida, and in 1967,
29:41
Speaker 1: Jenny received a potential breakthrough in the case when she
29:44
Speaker 1: received that photograph in the mail, the one that bore
29:46
Speaker 1: striking resemblance to one of her sons that had gone missing.
29:48
Speaker 1: The kidnapping theory, while compelling, also raises several questions. If
29:52
Speaker 1: the children were kidnapped, why was there never a ransom demand?
29:56
Speaker 1: Kidnapping for financial gain wasn't uncommon during this era, yet
30:00
Speaker 1: no one ever came forward to ask the Sodders for
30:02
Speaker 1: money in exchange for their children. Furthermore, if the children
30:05
Speaker 1: had been abducted, why were none of the leads or
30:08
Speaker 1: sightings definitively confirmed? So that's the kidnapping theory. Next theory,
30:12
Speaker 1: which is interesting, is the mafia and organized crime theory.
30:16
Speaker 1: So the mafia had been a notable presence in the
30:19
Speaker 1: region during the mid 20th century. And their speculation that
30:22
Speaker 1: George's successful business or his outspoken political views might have
30:26
Speaker 1: made him a potential target. As a vocal critic of Mussolini,
30:30
Speaker 1: George Sauter had made enemies among certain factions of the
30:34
Speaker 1: Italian American community in Fayetteville. So his refusal to align
30:37
Speaker 1: with pro-Mussolini elements may have sparked retaliation in the form
30:41
Speaker 1: of a deadly arson attack intended to silence or punish him.
30:44
Speaker 1: And this theory is partly supported by the cryptic warning
30:47
Speaker 1: George received from that insurance salesman who told him his
30:50
Speaker 1: house would be destroyed because of the anti-Mussolini views. And
30:54
Speaker 1: in the years after the fire, George and Jenny would
30:56
Speaker 1: receive anonymous tips and letters suggesting that the children had
30:59
Speaker 1: actually been taken by the mafia or other criminal organizations
31:03
Speaker 1: involving human trafficking, possibly. And some have speculated that the
31:06
Speaker 1: children may have been abducted as part of a blackmail
31:08
Speaker 1: scheme or that they were sold into adoption or child labor,
31:12
Speaker 1: either domestically or abroad. And proponents to the mafia theory
31:15
Speaker 1: also point to the mysterious behavior within the local authorities
31:18
Speaker 1: and fire department. The delay in the fire department's response,
31:21
Speaker 1: the strange failure of Georgia's trucks and the absence of
31:25
Speaker 1: thorough investigation had led some people to wonder whether the
31:29
Speaker 1: local officials were involved in this coverup, which wasn't uncommon
31:34
Speaker 1: during this time either. Mafia had people on the inside
31:37
Speaker 1: as well. It was very common. And there are other
31:39
Speaker 1: suggestions that it's part of a broader criminal conspiracy, potentially
31:43
Speaker 1: involving the law enforcement officials had been bribed or coerced
31:47
Speaker 1: into obstructing the investigation, which we did see happen, especially
31:51
Speaker 1: with the guy burying the box and the bones being
31:53
Speaker 1: placed probably. It's just all very strange, which leads us
31:56
Speaker 1: into the second last theory, which is the human trafficking theory.
32:00
Speaker 1: and the adoption theory, which is basically that the children
32:02
Speaker 1: were kidnapped and sold into human trafficking or illegal adoption rings.
32:06
Speaker 1: During the 1940s and 1950s, human trafficking, while less discussed today,
32:11
Speaker 1: which is gross, because we need to talk about it,
32:13
Speaker 1: still occurred, particularly among immigrant families and marginalized communities. So
32:18
Speaker 1: according to this theory, the children could have been abducted
32:21
Speaker 1: in a network involved in selling children to wealthy families,
32:24
Speaker 1: unable to have their own children, or to institutions that
32:27
Speaker 1: exploited children for labor. And reports of unidentified children appearing
32:31
Speaker 1: in orphanages or private homes following the fire have fueled
32:34
Speaker 1: speculation that the Sauter children may have been taken into
32:37
Speaker 1: illegal adoption. While there is no concrete evidence supporting this necessarily,
32:41
Speaker 1: the theory still persists, especially considering the lack of ransom
32:45
Speaker 1: demands and financial motives typically seen in traditional kidnappings. So
32:48
Speaker 1: if the children were taken and sold, they could have
32:51
Speaker 1: been placed in homes where they grew up with completely
32:53
Speaker 1: different names, never knowing their true identities. And this theory
32:56
Speaker 1: is bolstered by the fact that Jenny And George received
32:59
Speaker 1: several tips over the years from people who claimed to
33:02
Speaker 1: have seen the children living with different families. However, like
33:05
Speaker 1: we said before, none of these sightings were actually ever
33:07
Speaker 1: conclusively verified. That brings us to our last theory, which
33:11
Speaker 1: is the government conspiracy theory. It's always the government. It's
33:15
Speaker 1: always the government. I'm just kidding. But also not. So
33:20
Speaker 1: one of the more far-fetched but persistent conspiracy theories is
33:23
Speaker 1: suggests that the Sauter children were taken by the government
33:26
Speaker 1: for reasons unknown, possibly related to intelligence or military purposes.
33:31
Speaker 1: This theory basically is about the children and how they
33:33
Speaker 1: had been abducted as part of a covert operation or experiment.
33:37
Speaker 1: And the fire was staged to erase any evidence that existed.
33:40
Speaker 1: And with literally zero concrete evidence to back this theory up.
33:44
Speaker 1: It just arises from, I think, the general distrust that
33:47
Speaker 1: many people have towards the government institutions, especially during this
33:51
Speaker 1: era immediately following World War II, a time marked by
33:54
Speaker 1: the rising Cold War tensions and secrecy in government operations.
33:58
Speaker 1: And some conspiracy theorists argue that the mafia or other
34:01
Speaker 1: organized crime syndicates may have worked in tandem with corrupt
34:05
Speaker 1: government officials to facilitate the abductions. making it completely impossible
34:09
Speaker 1: for the family to uncover the truth, which at this point,
34:11
Speaker 1: I believe basically anything but them dying in the fire.
34:16
Speaker 1: I don't think they died in the fire. I believe like,
34:18
Speaker 1: any of these are potentially true. And there is a
34:21
Speaker 1: theory that the internal family dynamics could have played a
34:24
Speaker 1: role in the disappearance of the Sauter children as well.
34:27
Speaker 1: But this theory is like not widely accepted at all.
34:29
Speaker 1: And it basically speculates that an extended member of the
34:32
Speaker 1: family may have been involved in the fire and the
34:34
Speaker 1: disappearance of the children due to familial disagreements or financial disputes.
34:38
Speaker 1: Maybe because of jealousy that George had a successful business
34:42
Speaker 1: or that he had a big happy family. We're not sure,
34:44
Speaker 1: but this theory has literally no evidence involved, so... I
34:48
Speaker 1: just brush it off. But essentially, that is the story
34:51
Speaker 1: of the Sauter children, and it's, I mean, horrible, and
34:56
Speaker 1: I mean, I hope that one day it can be solved,
34:58
Speaker 1: but at this point, we don't have any answers. It
35:01
Speaker 1: remains a very enduring mystery fraught with contradictions, strange occurrences,
35:07
Speaker 1: and frustrating lack of closure. So I'd love to hear
35:10
Speaker 1: some of your theories down below or what you think.
35:13
Speaker 1: And I mean, all we can do is hope that
35:15
Speaker 1: it can get solved one day. But I love shedding
35:17
Speaker 1: some light on these types of stories. So I hope
35:20
Speaker 1: you enjoyed it and can take something from it today.
35:23
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you liked the video, like the video.
35:26
Speaker 1: If you want to subscribe, subscribe. And also thank you
35:28
Speaker 1: to Vessi for sponsoring the video. Stay safe out there
35:30
Speaker 1: and I will see you beautiful face in the next video.
35:32
Speaker 1: All right, bye.