Remembering the Chowchilla Kidnapping | Full Episode | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Music] at six years old I had never been in darkness like that before
it was just pitch black like the dark was touching me engulfing me like I was actually inhaling the darkness
oh Chowchilla in 1976 was a Cow Town you could drive through the heart of town in about 30 seconds
[Music] thank you very close-knit community everybody looked out for each other people didn't lock their doors
there was nothing to fear I didn't know what fear was I still have a hard time grasping the
way that my life changed on July 15th it's another average summer day very hot going to summer school and that day we
got to go to the town swimming pool got back on the bus ready to go home the bus driver was Ed Ray he was a
strong Quiet Man everybody liked Edward and respected him the buses had the windows down the Hot
Summer Breeze the kids were laughing and singing happy and just glad to be going
home [Music] what I remember was her traveling he just left off two kids all of a sudden
he said what the heck is this and then I can remember the bus stopping at a stop sign Edward went to go around
a white van that was parked in the road and then this man came up with a stocking over his head with a gun and
said open the door foreign the first man came on the bus and he had a gun Ed Ray said what's
going on and he said shut up and move to the back I remember telling him that if
he didn't get me home on time my dad would be on him like stink on skunk you know I wasn't afraid of anything I
didn't know I needed to be and then another man came on the bus and he had a sawed off double barrel shotgun
the shotgun filled me with Terror the masked men had pantyhose pulled over their face it was a very distorted look
where their eyes were it almost looked Hollow it was like looking at death one of the kidnappers got into the
driver's seat and the bus started moving again I started to think I wonder where
they're taking us 26 school children and their bus driver have vanished anguish parents President
Ford hundreds of searching police are asking the question where are the children
foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] just outside Chowchilla on July 15 1976.
[Music] frightening Journey began we started driving down the road I was wondering how it was going to feel
to die I was too scared to move [Music] 26 terrified children some as young as five were staring down the barrel of a
sawed-off shotgun three masked men had hijacked the Dairyland Elementary School Bus one had
the shotgun one drove the bus and one followed behind in the white van they'd used to block the road
it's a hard thing to explain because I'd never been around guns you only seen bad
guys in the movies with stockings on you know so I knew it wasn't good [Music] Edward kept telling us kids just to be
quiet sit down do what they say Edward was speaking in a harsh tone and that normally was not the Edward that we
knew and loved eventually the bus went off the road down into a dry riverbed this this big Grove of bamboo that were
polar actually than the bus and then as I looked out one of the side windows I saw that there was another van
that was parked there they parked the bus and there was a green band down there waiting for us even at the age of
nine little Jennifer Brown seemed to know the horror of that day should be documented she later made this recording
with her mom and there was two guys standing from the bus door to the van door with guns
um with pantyhose over their heads so we wouldn't run out and then see they pulled the van right up to the um bus
door the kidnappers herded the stun children from the bus into those two Vans we had to jump from the bus to the
van so I wouldn't see any feet brands [Music] it's my turn to get on the van he stopped me
he held a shotgun to my stomach I said I was doing what you said and I had to stand there with this gun
in my gut until the one van drove away and made back the second van up it felt like forever
I thought he was going to shoot me I actually did Jennifer Larry and the rest of the
children followed Jody into the second van along with the bus driver ed Ray then the kidnappers closed the doors
it was pitch dark the Vans had been converted into makeshift jail cells by installing wood paneling and even
painting the windows no one could see in or out [Music] the kidnappers sped off with the
children caged in those mobile prisons felt like I was an slaughterhouse around that time Jennifer's mom Joan
Brown came home from work the house was empty the children were not there no peanut
butter on the counter no chairs out there well they just weren't there [Music] as one hour turned to two worried
parents began helping the police retrace the school buses route crisscrossing dozens of rural roads
where were those children 20 of them and a bus driver nowhere and then just Before Sunset
a police pilot spotted the big bus about seven miles outside Chowchilla hidden in
the dry riverbed you would only see it from the air Madera County Sheriff Ed Bates rushed to
the scene we found a higher impressions in the sand that led straight to the front door of the bus obviously someone
had backed their vehicle up to the doors of the bus Sheriff Bates was convinced I
called the governor I said I need some help down here the children of Chowchilla had become the victims of a
Brazen and bizarre mass kidnapping I had the parents all assembled there in the fire station
well you could just look at their faces and the anxiety and the fear was there I told him I called the FBI all of a
sudden I had 30 FBI agents there as Sheriff Bates continued to widen the investigation
the children continued to suffer inside the sweltering pitch black vans we'd bang on why the driver's panel would be
like let us out let us out and they would just say shut up [Music] and we drove what seemed like for hours
upon hours upon hours and I remembered that I kept falling asleep and coming back awake I would
dream about being [Music] I would dream about being up in the forest where my family would go camping
we all tried to comfort each other and a few of my own little friends that are five and six I came over and started
laying on me and crying and I told them be brave because everything's gonna be all right
then the van started to slow down the kids could feel it pulling off the road lurching from side to side on rough
terrain before coming to a stop after nearly 12 unbearable hours they opened up the door and they took Ed
Ray out first they shut the doors back and we're like where's Edward now what were they doing and I remember they
would just grab the first kid that was inside the door and they just kept doing that they opened the door and they
grabbed somebody else open up the door they take the next kid out and they close the doors but when they open the
doors you don't see them I thought they were basically killing us each one at a time
I kept scooting to the back of the van and I thought maybe if I just hide in the corner they won't come for me
but they did [Music] I didn't know if it was in the desert at the beach in the side of a mountain I had no idea
where we were I didn't even know if we were in California [Music] after almost 12 hours in darkness
ten-year-old Jody Heffington was the last to be taken out of the first fan being the last one you don't know what's
gonna happen because you don't see nobody else what happened to them if you didn't kill him where are they at
they had flashlights kind of like shining in their faces and then one shining on your face and they said
what's your name and I actually I have a little bit of a smart ass in me and I said pudding Tang ask me again
I'll tell you the same I was pissed I was scared at the same time they said if you don't tell us your name
you're never going to see your mom and dad again do you understand and they took all my belongings and then
they said you're going to go down in this hole right here the hole led to an old truck trailer
buried underground Ed Ray and the children from the first fan were there up in the back
it was surrounded with jugs of brinky water on some of the mattresses they had some cereal a loaf of bread and some
peanut butter in the wheel wells they had cut holes in them for toilets we could hear fans so
we knew that there was some sort of ventilation fourteen-year-old Michael Marshall was
still in the other van with some of the youngest children [Music] the kids got a hold of me and were
holding on to me and scared out of there you know we're all just scared of them which
as they did before the kidnappers removed the children one by one Michael and the youngest five-year-old
Monica artery were the last ones left in the van it was just me and her not knowing what had happened to the other
children or if they were even alive Michael says he couldn't bear to hand Monica over to the kidnappers so when
they opened the doors again he went first had to take her hands from mine and rip
and take them apart so it would be okay and go with them and leave her that was hard
as soon as I got on that ladder and took a step down and I heard the rest of the kids say
it's Mike it's my feet Michael and and I realized that everybody was alive [Music]
and to his relief not long after Monica came climbing down that ladder they were all together again we're okay
we're okay we're okay so right now so far we're all right but the sense of relief was short-lived
before I knew it the ladder was gone they threw a rolled toilet paper down and said we'll be back for you
and that was it the kidnappers then covered the opening with a manhole cover I knew it just went dark
you just hear the material getting throwed on us we've been buried alive buried 12 feet underground
I just remember looking up at that hole I wanted to stay close I wanted to be like right there because that was the
way out Ed Ray and Mike Marshall they looked at every corner every wall for an Escape
Route got underneath the manhole cover pushed up on it they couldn't move it so Ed Ray determined that it was time
for everyone to get some rest the minutes and hours ticked by it would be silent and then somebody
would bust out crying and oh we just erupt every cry [Music] the thing that made me cry was
not being able to say goodbye to my mom and I'm remembering the last time that I
saw her and [Music] wishing I could have told her goodbye throughout much of this day parents
another family of the missing children came to the command to post set up in downtown Chowchilla to try desperately
to Fathom some reason out of this madness Carol Marshall's 14 year old son Mike was another on the bus any chance
at all this could be some kind of terrible hoax or joke that someone is playing I imagine there's a chance
I hope that's all it is It is believed to be the largest kidnapping in U.S history so far there's been no word from
any abductors they had been in the hole for almost 12 hours and the conditions were deteriorating
we had eaten the food the fans on the ventilator stopped my little brain started to grasp the
concept of we may really not go home there was this one boy and he kept kicking blocks out from underneath the
4x4 pillars and so the roof of the van was starting to cave in the seams were breaking dust was flowing through the
sides of the van were bowing in children just screaming and crying we thought if
we're gonna die we're gonna die trying to get out of here see more photos from the case at
48hours.com [Music] as a young kid you don't have a lot of sense of time there was no sunlight so you couldn't
tell if it was day or night we were out of food we were out of water the roof was caving in it just was a
desperate situation everybody got the mattresses and stacked them up as high as we could go right
underneath the manhole cover people started standing on each other's shoulders I was a very tall girl and
very strong so they stood on my shoulders when they didn't stand on Edwards they took turns pushing up on the
manhole cover I'm giving it everything I got and all the kids are cheering me on
you know come on you can do it you can do it then all of a sudden they said it moved it moved
but they were far from being free the kidnappers had put truck batteries and dirt on top of the manhole cover and had
constructed a wooden box around it once the manhole cover was moved that box was
just big enough for Michael to stand in it like Jennifer Michael Marshall made a
recording about his experience foreign he dug until he was exhausted and then he kept on digging there was no quit in
him [Music] then suddenly this Ray of sunlight oh [Music] this Rave sunlight came down into the
opening it was catching the Dust and the dust particles look like a bunch of shooting stars there was this airflow
that came out of the van and I knew we were free I need a minute the air and the light there was demon coming
through [Music] Mike Marshall actually Brave person that he is crawled out of the hole first and
I stuck my head out and there was nobody I didn't see anybody and I could see we
were in the Hills he said the coast is clear and so we started taking the little ones
and putting them up there and Mike grabbed them that part was kind of scary too because
we're out now we don't know who's out here it was approximately 8 P.M on July 16th
they had been in the hole for nearly 16 hours we all just scurried like a bunch of
little mice [Music] we saw conveyor belts excavators it looked like the Flintstones
and all these men with hard hats came to us and looked at us like who are you the kidnappers had buried them in a rock
quarry in Livermore California 100 miles away from Chowchilla foreign they took photos of every child
[Music] an Alameda County Jail bus came and he was like yeah they put us back on a bus
then they transported them to the closest place that could hold them the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center a local
jail I remember going in in the bus and you could see the prison wire and you thought well they're taking us
into jail they took us into what looked like classrooms they brought us apples and soda
they had these coveralls and all those little kids got into them and we had wolf pants about 10 feet and then we
rolled the arms up and we were all sitting there some of them didn't roll our arms up and we sitting there
flapping our arms we said hey we can fly over the next few hours Ed Ray and the children were examined by doctors
they were also questioned by police each one of us was interrogated by ourselves
to tell our story how do you describe somebody that has pantyhose over their face
after four hours of questioning they were finally allowed to go home they put us on a Greyhound
escorted a spect Chowchilla it was time for Mom and Dad I just wanted my Mom and Dad it was 4 AM when
the bus arrived at last it had been almost 36 hours since their traumatic ordeal began
the scene was like a mob scene news cameras and TV lights everybody started I'm saying are you all
right Jennifer and all this stuff they said yeah I'm fine then whenever we got into this room I found my mom and my dad
will start taking pictures [Applause] they just let us off the bus with all these people and you didn't know where
your parents were this man carried me off the bus and he put me in my mom's arms
and I said hi Mom and fell asleep on her shoulder I felt I felt like I was finally safe
nothing was ever the same nothing was ever the same after that we had no idea what our kids have been
through none whatsoever how does it feel to be a big movie star her nine-year-old Jennifer Brown the
experience has allowed her to still see the world with compassion why do you suppose if they would do something like
that no you didn't have enough love horrible night [Music] dreaming into our bedroom
and she wasn't even awake and she would tell us later that she dreamed that they were lined up
and shot one night I was dreaming that I was falling down this hole and I was trying
to get out I started screaming for my mom mom came in and all I could do was cry
and all she could do was hold me [Music] today in this rock quarry they Unearthed
the truck that was prison and very nearly a tomb for 26 children and their school bus driver unearthing The Who and
why of all this is much harder in the days following the kids Escape investigators searched the rock quarry
and the van that had been their underground tomb hoping they would find clues that would lead them to the
kidnappers they looked to see who would have keys to the Quarry in order to have
access to bury this moving container undetected you would have to have access assistant district attorney Jill klingey
Fred Woods had keys to that quarry 24 year old Frederick Newhall Woods the son of the owner of the Quarry immediately
became a person of interest they looked at The Ledger surveillance tapes and started to put put it all together at
that point security guards told investigators they had seen three young men digging a large
hole in the Quarry months before the kidnapping one of them they said was Fred Woods
and woods had a record two years earlier he had been charged with Grand Theft Auto
arrested with him were two of his friends James schoenfeld Fred's partner in a used car business
and James's younger brother Richard all three were from wealthy families who lived in San Francisco's nicest suburbs
they escaped with a fine and probation they're young they're wealthy I think it added a component of Fascination to the
story because it was so unlikely that three men such as these would commit such a atrocious crime
investigators executed a warrant to search Fred Woods's father's estate for the last two days the woods estate has
looked like an armed Camp dozens of officers looking for anything what they found there was a treasure Trove of
evidence we were able to recover one of the guns that was used during this kidnapping
crime was planned out for a year and a half in intricate detail you actually have a document
labeled plan and it sets out the way they were going to commit the kidnapping and then they on the right hand side how
they would compensate or deal with what could go wrong they also recovered the draft of a ransom note the draft of the
ransom note says 2.5 million dollars but in actuality they were going to ask for
five million dollars from the state of California but the kidnappers were never able to
deliver their demand when they tried to call the Chowchilla Police Department because of the number of calls that were
coming in worldwide the phone lines were jammed they couldn't get through so they
took a nap and by the time they woke up they saw in the news that the kids had been found so they were never able to
request their Ransom and so the search is on Nationwide for these three men in their arrest warrants were issued
Richard schoenfeld turned himself in Fred woods and James schoenfeld fled California
but not for long James schoenfeld was captured at dawn today police say he ran hard all over
the western United States but he did not run well Frederick Woods was arrested by the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police this afternoon just across the Washington state border in Vancouver
I remember being physically ill when I actually saw him after that you kind of did have a sense
of you can breathe they're behind bars so what drove these young men seemingly well off to kidnap young children for
money James schoenfeld eventually said despite their parents wealth he and Fred Woods were in serious debt he would
later tell the parole board we needed multiple victims to get multiple millions and we picked children because
children are precious the state would be willing to pay ransom for them and they
don't fight back I think that the two schoenfels did it just on pure persuasion by Fred Woods Fred woods and
my own personal opinion and I have a master's degree I think he was a sociopath some might call him a
psychopath with the overwhelming evidence against them woods and the schoenfels pleaded
guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping for ransom and robbery but they refused to plead guilty to
eight counts of bodily harm those charges would send them to prison for life without the possibility of parole
so 16 months after their abduction Jennifer Michael Jody and some of the other children
face the kidnappers in court you're in this little box and they're there looking at you just glaring at you and
staring you down they testified that in addition to the emotional trauma they had suffered
physical wounds like cuts and bruises and I looked over at them and I just broke down
that was the first time I cried so they allowed my father to come sit by me and that made me feel
a lot safer the kidnappers were sitting to my left at a table I remember giving my dad my
gum because I told him I was going to spit my gum at him you say they would give you this funny look what did that
make you feel scared I did my testimony I answered my questions and I left that courtroom with my head held high and
there was no way that I was going to let them see me cry a California judge today imposed
mandatory life prison sentences without parole on those three young men who kidnapped 26 chowchillas I remember
thinking they're going to go to jail they're not going to do this to anybody else that's all that I need to know
with the kidnapper sentenced to prison for the rest of their lives the survivors thought their nightmare
was finally over why but it was just beginning see more photos from the case at 48hours.com
just five weeks after being buried alive the gutsy children of Chowchilla and their bus driver ed Ray were hailed as
Heroes there was even a trip to Disneyland everyone thought that was great because
the good memories of Disneyland would overshadow the bad memories of the kidnapping
but it wasn't that simple in a way you try to be normal [Music] but when you've gone through something
that's so traumatic it's hard to go back and be a normal kid again sometimes it's like life is an act
you try to be good for everybody else so they don't worry but they worry anyway so I advise everybody else not to
do it that way the survivors struggled to move forward but just four years after the
kidnappings a critical Turning Point the kidnappers lawyers appealed the finding
of bodily harm prosecutor Jill clingy and the Appellate Court overturned it and while acknowledging the horrific
nature of the crime stated that the injury suffered did not rise to the level of bodily harm under the law
so Fred woods and the schoenfeld brothers were re-sentenced to life with the possibility of parole they would get
a parole hearing every one or two years I felt like I had been betrayed by the justice system
just six years after the kidnappings the parade of parole hearings began every time one of the kidnappers came up for
parole it triggered all their fears and Trauma the hearings took place inside the prison they sit in the same room and
it's not a large room with the kidnapper the first time I was terrified for all three kidnappers there had been
more than 60 parole hearings to date Jody Heffington went to nearly all of them it just seems like every three
years I go and I go three times every time it's excruciating in the aftermath is never good
Jody and the other survivors watched helplessly as Richard schoenfeld was the first to be granted parole in June 2012
36 years after the kidnappings three years later James schoenfeld was paroled too as far as I know they have
not been in any kind of trouble the same could not be said for Fred Woods he repeatedly broke prison rules he was
caught with pornography and cell phones hello my name is Jody madrondo I was Jody Heffington in 2018 48 Hours was at
Fred Woods's 15th parole hearing and recorded audio of Jody's testimony to listen to him talk about his poor
childhood I don't know if I want to laugh cry cuss him or what because um where did my childhood go
like I told him Mr Woods you're not a kidnapper you're a thief you're a thief of lives not just the the
kids that were in the bus but they stoled our family's lives and what we all had
before that after that hearing Woods was again denied parole it was 28 hours of Terror that will
always be with Michael Jennifer Jody and Larry all who have managed to find ways
to get on with living healing continues if you allow it Larry Park who spent his 20s and 30s
abusing drugs now owns a handyman business and volunteers as a pastor at a local church his nightmares have finally
stopped and he is sober I have nine years sober his sobriety was motivated by an epiphany about the kidnappers my
resentment for them was killing me one night I was laying in bed and I said God help me to forgive them
Larry met the men shook their hands and did forgive them here he is with Richard schoenfeld it
changed my life something washed over me and there was peace like I had never known
and I knew that day that I would be okay Jennifer Brown Hyde a wife mother and executive assistant says it took her
decades before she could even sleep without a nightlight and I've had family and church family
and co-workers that have piece by piece helped put me back together and I want people to know that that little girl
that was kidnapped and buried alive has managed to live a Wonderful Life Michael Marshall had lost his way after
the kidnapping I went to bed at 18 drunk and hung over and blacked out and woke up about 48 you know with a hangover
blurry he is sober and has found happiness as a father and a long-distance trucker
he tries not to think about those kidnappers would they put my mom and dad through
is something I cannot forgive [Music] Jody Heffington never left the Chowchilla area
she opened her own hair salon and raised a son but she struggled to find peace of mind
how that day affected me has affected me every day in some way or another I think it made me not a good daughter
not a good sister not a good aunt especially not a good mother and probably not a a good friend
I try to be those things but it seems like it um it just took something from me that I
can't ever get back and I can't tear it down no matter how hard I try and no matter
what I do [Music] a young mother found dead in her car where's the gun sir it's right here in
her hands it appears she took her own life but could she have shot herself twice it just seems like something out
of a movie instead of real life 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus

Twenty-six school children were abducted by three men and buried alive in a trailer. Inside their daring escape. "48 Hours" contributor David Begnaud reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

The episode recounts the 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping of 26 children and their harrowing escape after being buried alive.

Key points

The Horrifying Encounter. Masked men hijack the school bus, instilling terror in the children.
The Day of the Kidnapping. On July 15, 1976, 26 children and their bus driver were kidnapped in Chowchilla.
Buried Alive. The children were buried underground in a truck trailer, fearing for their lives.
The Rescue. After nearly 16 hours, the children were discovered in a rock quarry.
The Aftermath. The children were reunited with their families, but the trauma lingered.
Kidnappers' Capture. The kidnappers were never able to request their ransom due to a jammed phone line.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I didn't know what fear was.

Reflecting on childhood innocence before the kidnapping.

1:18WatchMar 24, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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