She recognised the young man in the photo straightaway. The dark, curly hair, the handsome eyes.
And on the back was scrawled his name.
Louis Sodder.
The man was in his 20s. The last time Jennie had seen her son was 23 years before, when he was 9.
But it looked like him.
On Christmas Eve 23 years earlier, in 1945, Louis Sodder had disappeared. Along with his brother Maurice, 14, and sisters, Martha, 12, Jennie, 8, and Betty, 5.
They’d spent the day at home in rural Fayetteville, West Virginia, wrapping presents and putting them under the tree.
Later, Jennie, her husband George and their youngest child Sylvia, 2, went to bed. Along with the couple’s oldest children, George Jnr, 16, Marion, 17, and John, 23.
But the five…
