The Chowchilla school bus kidnapping took place on July 15, 1976, when three young men from wealthy Bay Area families hijacked a Dairyland Union School District bus in rural Madera County, California, forced 26 children and their driver Ed Ray into vans, and buried them alive in a moving van at a rock quarry roughly 100 miles away. The victims, ages 5 to 14, were trapped underground for 16 hours before Ray and 14-year-old Michael Marshall dug them out. All three kidnappers were caught within two weeks, pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to life in prison. All three have since been paroled.
The Hijacking
The children were returning from a swim outing on the last day of a summer school program that included arts and crafts, woodwork, ceramics, and outdoor games.1CNN. Rewind: Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping2People. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Around 4:00 p.m., a van blocked the bus on a narrow country road. Three gunmen in pantyhose masks boarded, took the wheel, and drove the bus into a dry riverbed, where they concealed it in brush and bamboo. It was later found nine miles west of Chowchilla.3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping4CNN. Chowchilla Kidnapping Escape
The 26 children and their 55-year-old driver were herded into two waiting vans fitted with windowless cells and no ventilation, food, water, or toilets.5CBS News. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Rare Photos They were driven for about 11 hours to a rock and gravel quarry near Livermore, California.
Sixteen Hours Buried Alive
The quarry belonged to the father of one of the kidnappers. Months earlier, in November 1975, the three had buried an old tractor-trailer roughly 12 feet underground on the property.3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping5CBS News. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Rare Photos4CNN. Chowchilla Kidnapping Escape
Twenty-seven people were crammed inside: 19 girls, 7 boys, and Ed Ray. There was no light. After roughly 12 hours underground, the roof of the trailer began to cave in.5CBS News. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Rare Photos
The Escape
Ray kept the children calm. Survivor Lynda Carrejo-Labendeira later credited him with “setting the tone of the whole ordeal.”6NPR. School Bus Driver Who Saved Students Was a Hero When the ceiling started collapsing, Ray and 14-year-old Michael Marshall, the oldest child on the bus, decided to try to break out. Marshall stacked mattresses to reach the trailer roof and dismantled a box spring to use as a tool to wedge up the iron manhole cover.7Las Vegas Sun. Las Vegan Mike Marshall Remembers His Role
They took turns pushing against the cover. Once they forced it aside, Marshall still had to dig through the plywood box and roughly two feet of dirt and rock. Ray doused the boys with water to keep them cool while they dug.8Los Angeles Times. Frank Edward Ray Obituary After 16 hours underground, Marshall broke through. All 27 hostages climbed out and were found at the quarry, near Shadow Cliffs East Bay Regional Park. The group was taken to the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center for medical exams and police interviews, then transported back to Chowchilla before dawn on July 17.3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping
Marshall later described his thinking as he dug: “If we’re going to die, we’re going to die getting the hell out of here.”9People. Chowchilla CNN Documentary Hero Teenager
The Kidnappers and a Ransom That Never Happened
The three men were Frederick Newhall Woods IV, 24; James Leonard Schoenfeld, 24; and Richard Allen Schoenfeld, 22. All came from wealthy Bay Area families. Woods was the son of the quarry owner and lived on a 79-acre family estate in Portola Valley. The Schoenfeld brothers were the sons of a prosperous podiatrist.3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping2People. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping They had spent 18 months planning the crime.10KQED. James Schoenfeld, One of Chowchilla School Bus Kidnappers, To Go Free
Their plan was a $5 million ransom. It was never delivered. According to a presentencing report on James Schoenfeld, the phones at the Madera County Sheriff’s Office were either busy or went unanswered when the kidnappers tried to call.11New York Times. Kidnapper Explains Lack of Ransom Call Other reporting attributed the busy lines to frantic parents and media calls.5CBS News. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Rare Photos The victims escaped while the kidnappers were sleeping.10KQED. James Schoenfeld, One of Chowchilla School Bus Kidnappers, To Go Free
Arrests, Pleas, and Sentencing
Investigators traced the buried trailer to the quarry owned by Woods’ father and searched the family’s Portola Valley estate, where they found a draft of the ransom note. Ray also underwent hypnosis to help recall the license plate numbers of the kidnappers’ vans.8Los Angeles Times. Frank Edward Ray Obituary3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping
Richard Schoenfeld surrendered in Oakland on July 23, 1976. James Schoenfeld was arrested in Menlo Park on July 29, reportedly while preparing to turn himself in. Fred Woods was captured the same day in Vancouver, British Columbia; at the time of his arrest he was reportedly selling the movie rights to a Hollywood agent.3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping12ABC30. Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping Frederick Woods
The trial was moved from Madera County to Alameda County. On July 25, 1977, all three defendants pleaded guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping for ransom, and the prosecution dropped 18 counts of robbery. On December 15, 1977, a Superior Court judge found them guilty of three counts of kidnapping with bodily harm and sentenced each to life in prison without the possibility of parole.3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping
In 1980, a California appeals panel overturned the bodily harm findings, ruling that because the victims had not sustained serious physical injury, the defendants should be eligible for parole. The sentences were reduced to life with the possibility of parole.13CNN. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Victim Trauma Dr. Lenore Terr, the psychiatrist who studied the child victims, criticized the decision, arguing that the psychological trauma was as devastating as physical injury.14Washington Post. Children and the Aftermath of Trauma
Where the Kidnappers Are Now
The three men faced more than 60 parole hearings combined over the following decades.15CBS News. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Jodi Heffington Survivor Richard Schoenfeld was paroled in June 2012 after 36 years. James Schoenfeld was released in August 2015 after then-Governor Jerry Brown allowed the parole board’s decision to stand.10KQED. James Schoenfeld, One of Chowchilla School Bus Kidnappers, To Go Free
Frederick Woods remained incarcerated the longest. In March 2022, two parole commissioners recommended his release, but Governor Gavin Newsom asked the board to reconsider.16KCBD. Parole Granted for Last 1976 California School Bus Hijacker Woods was granted parole on August 17, 2022, at his 17th hearing and was released from the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.12ABC30. Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping Frederick Woods As of 2025, all three convicted kidnappers have been released.17Your Central Valley. It Has Been 49 Years Since the 1976 Chowchilla Kidnapping
The Long Shadow on the Survivors
In the 1970s, many psychologists believed children were inherently resilient and would simply get over frightening events. Chowchilla overturned that assumption. Dr. Lenore Terr, a San Francisco child psychiatrist, began interviewing 23 of the 26 victims five months after the abduction and found that 100 percent of the children had significant psychological problems.18CNN. Chowchilla Childhood Trauma
Twenty of the 23 feared being kidnapped again. Many developed phobias of the dark, of being alone, of strangers, and of loud noises. Children reported recurring nightmares about their own deaths, aggression, and sharply lower self-esteem.18CNN. Chowchilla Childhood Trauma19PubMed. Chowchilla Revisited: The Effects of Psychic Trauma Four Years After a School-Bus Kidnapping14Washington Post. Children and the Aftermath of Trauma
Terr documented trauma-related play years after the event. Some children repeatedly buried and reburied dolls in what she termed “Burying Barbie.” Compared with a control group of children from similar farming towns who feared large-scale dangers like earthquakes or nuclear war, the Chowchilla survivors narrowed their anxieties to immediate, personal threats.14Washington Post. Children and the Aftermath of Trauma Her Chowchilla research became foundational to the clinical understanding of childhood PTSD, and CBS News described the case as a “watershed event” in the study of childhood trauma. The practice of deploying mental health counselors quickly to the scene of mass tragedies involving children traces partly to lessons from Chowchilla.20CBS News. Little Heroes of Medicine Teach Experts To Treat Childhood Trauma
The trauma followed the survivors into adulthood. Michael Marshall said the ordeal “debilitated” him for years. By 19 or 20 he was “blackout drunk every single night” to forget what had happened, and he attended rehab at least seven times.18CNN. Chowchilla Childhood Trauma9People. Chowchilla CNN Documentary Hero Teenager Larry Park described a buildup of rage that “infested every aspect of my life.” He eventually went through a restorative justice process, publicly forgave the three men, and supported their parole.15CBS News. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Jodi Heffington Survivor Jennifer Brown Hyde, nine at the time, suffered sleepwalking and nightmares immediately after and decades later still could not enter an underground storm shelter.
Jodi Heffington Medrano became one of the most vocal opponents of the kidnappers’ release, attending nearly all of the parole hearings and calling the recurring cycle “excruciating.” She died in January 2021 at age 55, 14 months before Woods was granted parole. At that hearing, her son Matthew Medrano testified about how the trauma had transformed his mother before her death.21CBS News. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping Survivor Never-Before-Seen Interview22NBC Bay Area. He Kidnapped and Buried 26 Schoolchildren in the ’70s. Now He’s Up for Parole
In 2016, 25 surviving victims filed a civil lawsuit against the three kidnappers alleging false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, and battery. Under California law, victims could file such suits up to 10 years after the kidnappers were paroled. The survivors were awarded an undisclosed sum reportedly paid out of Woods’ trust fund.23ABC30. Chowchilla School Bus Kidnap Victims File Lawsuit2People. Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping
Ed Ray
Ray drove for the Dairyland Union School District for nearly 40 years and retired in 1988.8Los Angeles Times. Frank Edward Ray Obituary After the kidnapping, President Gerald Ford sent a letter praising him, Chowchilla held a parade and barbecue in his honor attended by 4,000 people, and Robert Goulet recorded a song called “Ballad of Chowchilla Ray.”24City of Chowchilla. Edward Ray – A Local Hero
Ray never viewed himself as a hero. His granddaughter Susan Ray said he “did not think of himself as a hero. It was just something that happened.” He once told reporters: “If it happened again, I’d do the same things again, except I wouldn’t stop for a van in the road.”8Los Angeles Times. Frank Edward Ray Obituary24City of Chowchilla. Edward Ray – A Local Hero3City of Chowchilla. 1976 Bus Kidnapping