The Sodders hired a private investigator named C.C. Tinsley from the nearby town of Gauley Bridge[1] to look into the case. He learned that the insurance salesman who had threatened them with a fire a year before over George's remarks about Mussolini had been on the coroner's jury that ruled the fire an accident, and told this to the Sodders. He also learned of rumors around Fayetteville that despite his report to the Sodders that no remains had been found in the ashes, Morris had found a heart, which he later packed into a metal box and secretly buried it.[1]