Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping: Friday Marks 45th Anniversary

LIVERMORE, CA — Forty-five years ago, on July 15, 1976, masked gunmen kidnapped 26 schoolchildren from the Central Valley community of Chowchilla and buried them in a moving van 100 miles away in Livermore's California Rock and Gravel Quarry.

The victims dug their way out after spending 16 hours underground with only a few minor injuries before the kidnappers made any ransom demands. Bus driver Ed Ray and two of the oldest children aboard piled mattresses on top of the van and forced their way out.

The kidnappers — Frederick Woods and brothers James and Richard Schoenfeld — schemed for a year before kidnapping the children in hopes of a $5 million ransom from the state, despite coming from wealthy families in the Atherton and Portola Valley communities of the San Francisco Peninsula. They pleaded guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping a year later and received life sentences.

The Schoenfeld brothers have long since been released on parole. Woods was denied parole for the 17th time in 2019, The Associated Press reported. He may try again in 2024.

ABC posted archival footage on the anniversary of the kidnapping. View the clip below and watch additional coverage of the Chowchilla kidnapping here.

— Bay City News contributed to this report