The Missing Children of West Virginia

As a firefighter, all I’ll say is it doesn’t matter which way the wind blows-you can always smell burning flesh.

The part that always gets me with this case is that even modern crematoriums that specialize in turning bodies to ash often leave identifiable pieces behind. Either they never looked through the rubble carefully enough or the kids weren't there because they did not get turned entirely to ash.

If the kids were stolen it would have been pretty easy at that time to make them believe that oh, were cops your house was on fire the rest of your family died, we’re taking you somewhere safe. And then sold them to different families as ‘adopted’

I think the next best thing to do is if the descendants of the remaining kids did 23 and me and used the family finding feature. They could possibly find descendants of the missing children to find out if they lived. It worked with Augustus.

Listening to the history of Christmas and getting hit with the phrase "holy bitch slap at nicaea" is one of the reasons I love this channel so much.

A 45min house fire is not enough to brake down bone, I’m a funeral director, and cremated remains are bones pulverized after the the cremation. It doesn’t naturally become a powder

The most bizarre part of this for me is the liver in a box. The only possible reason to put it there would be to trick them into thinking it was one of their kids', but like...did they not think theyd be suspicious over how one of their kids' organs went from their body into a box? Forget the fact that it wasn't burnt, it was too fresh, and also how it even would have got seperated from a body; it was in a box. Obviously they were gunna have it tested because of that alone. Who thought that was a good idea??

"if you don't want me to pronounce that letter don't put it there" 😂

I appreciate how well you did telling this story, George and Jenny are my great great grandparents so I’ve been around the sodder fire stuff my whole life, and you were pretty spot on with everything.

My grandfather was a "Fire Chief" after WW2 in a small town. He was there when they set up the first actual dispatch system in the region, and when they hired paramedics for the first time. The amount of training then vs. now is insane, they really were just volunteers doing their best a lot of the time. That's not to minimize it of course, they did amazing work with what they had, but I could see this particular example being one of incompetence instead of malice. Even today there are incompetent and dismissive investigators and departments, back then with minimal to no real training? Yeah.

I work next to a pet crematory, and you can smell it for half a mile in every direction, the smell of burning flesh and hair is indistinguishable from anything, you can even smell it indoors.

The grenade mentioned almost spunds like a No. 76 special incendiary grenade. They were made by the UK, and there were quite a few built for the war. It was a white phosphorus based grenade that ignited on impact.

I am married to a retired fireman/EMT. He says your facts about housefires is pretty close to right, for homes of that vintage. Great story, thank you for the video.

"That wiring was brand new" Homie, we have a hotel that was first wired for electricity back in 1935. It passed muster but five weeks after it was wired for electricity, it caught fire durle to faulty wiring. It's a well documented fact that electrical wiring in the U.S. pre-1960, especially in the more rural parts of the country was sub pare and prone to causing electrical fires.

I’m from WV and this case has interested (haunted) me for decades. I wish that family could find some closure but at-least they know people still care. We’re looking forward to this episode.

One thing to keep in mind. The phonecall from an unkown someone before the line was cut and fire started was propbably someone confirming that they were at home. If the mother picks up the phone, atleast some of the many many children will be home. Always be wary of strange phonecalls. Also the man coming in looking for work was pretty sus. He could be mapping the house trying to get an idea of the layout. Also the men watching kids. It is possible the kids went out at night and were just abducted and the fire then started or something. I do believe that a mixture of rubber and gasoline was used as a crude incendiary mixture during ww. Also the term pineapple bomb has been used for various kinds of bombs over time. The greande shown in the video here but also for cluster bombs at one point and also for chemical bombs including but not limited to those containing napalm. You do kind of have to look into the history of all countries and not just USA. In the vein of it possibly being a homemade chemical bomb, it would be useful to know where in the house the kids were. Because the fire can be very hot at the place the bomb is but not so hot elsewhere. Would be useful to study the workings of chemical bombs for that. As for remains. we could argue that the fire was hotter and started with something else. Which would make sense. but that is the wrong question. what would be helpful to know what other things in the house were destroyed. Cetain metals and stuff only burn at a temp where bones are destroyed. SO If they were destroyed then the fire ran hotter than normal housefires. If they didnt then the children werent there. Also would be useful to know if everything in the house was ash or were there remains of things left behind, And if things from like one room or area were burtn more than others. Butofcourse they didnt properly do the dig...so. Also I have never heard of a fire that will cmpletely burn the bones but not touch the liver. Also you have to consider the job he was doing - truck driver. Could be totally possible that he was himself involved in smuggling or trafficking things for the mafia here (not in italy). Maybe he got involved with them early on and why his brother ran back immediately. He might have seen or done something he shouldnt have which is why the mafia might have been involved. Alternatively, he could have been doing shady things for the government and seen or done something he shouldnt have and lets be honest, they arent much different from the mafia either.

What this and other missing kids videos confirms for me is that trafficking of kids has been going on longer than what folks realize. Stay vigilant parents!

I have a hard time believing that 5 kids just docilely went along with strangers leaving the rest of their family behind. The younger ones I’m sure would have been crying, screaming for mom, etc., so, it would have taken quite a few people to control them. I tend to think the kids were still downstairs and were taken because they could identify the culprits.😊

I think some family members should submit their DNA to see if there are any unknown matches out there. If those kids survived, then one or more had children of their own.

My mother is from Vicenza (Northern Italy), and came to the US in 1980. While I was growing up, I asked for her thoughts on Mussolini more than once, but she usually responded by first cursing his name and then warning me to not mention him around my nonna. When I visit family in Italy today, I always get the impression that the general populace hates Mussolini.