Tuesday, July 8, 2025

"No Direct Evidence: The Story of the Missing Sodder Children" by Bob Lane Bragg









I have brought up the recent "West Virginia Bigfoot Festival" in Sutton a couple of times recently.  The place was a goldmine for people like me who enjoy reading books on the weird and unexplained.

I came across Bob Lane Bragg while I was there.  Bob had a booth selling all sorts of books like this (he was representing the West Virginia Book Company).  AND, Bob himself had written a book, "No Direct Evidence:  The Story of the Missing Sodder Children".

This is probably West Virginia's most famous unsolved mystery/possible crime.  Briefly, Christmas, 1945, the Sodder family experienced a house fire.  The two parents and nine children were home that night.  After the house was evacuated, only four of the children seemed to have escaped the fire.

Oddly, no remains of the other five kids could be found.

Bragg covers the details of the family and the fire.  Some odd events are noted around the time of the fire- including a phone call that night, a ladder that could have been helpful had been moved away from the house, phone lines were cut, among other issues.  The family starts to believe the house fire was arson, and the other children were taken.

At first, this almost comes off as a situation where the family cannot accept the obvious, but.....

Bob Lane Bragg, through various sources and research, shows that there could have been much more to this case, and the strange events occurring around the time of the tragedy.  The family's Italian background, the father's business dealings, and many other factors could lead in another direction.  I'm not going to say Bragg solves the case- he clearly doesn't.  He DOES show that some small almost forgettable events could have had a lot of meaning.  My mind was blown at the end.

This might be one of the more perfect true crime books out there.  Bragg discusses the case thoroughly.  He talks about why some of the family members to this day may be reluctant to discuss it.  He offers a very logical potential conclusion to the case.  This book gets my highest possible recommendation.



 

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