Why Did 3 Wealthy Heirs Abduct 26 Young Children and Bury Them Alive in California? By Chris Spargo

What started out as a day of celebration for 26 children in California ended in terror when they and their bus driver found themselves buried alive in the middle of a remote rock quarry.

The youths, all between the ages of 5 and 14, were leaving the local fairgrounds in Chowchilla, a city located approximately 150 miles southeast of San Francisco, after a swim outing to mark the final day of summer school.

As they journeyed home on July 15, 1976, the bus encountered a van in the middle of the road, forcing bus driver Ed Ray, then 55, to slow down.

That is when a man with a gun approached Ray while his two accomplices ordered all of the children off the bus and into two waiting vans.

The bus was abandoned in a ditch, covered with bamboo and brush to avoid detection while the vehicles carrying the children and Ray — which were soundproofed with blacked-out windows — were driven around for 11 hours before arriving at a gravel quarry some 100 miles away.

Public records state that the children and Ray were then ordered to travel down a shaft and into a tractor-trailer, and then they were buried alive.

A massive search and rescue got underway but the bus appeared to have just disappeared along with all the children.

Concerns became even more heightened when police located the abandoned school bus but no sign of the children, leading many parents to start fearing the worst.

Unbeknownst to them, the 19 girls, 7 boys and Ray were busy plotting their escape.

The kidnappers had left mattresses for the group, which they stacked up, allowing one boy to wedge open the hatch at the top of the tractor trailer.

They then began to dig through the dirt and debris covering the van, and after 16 hours in the 108-square-foot space, two of the children and Ray were able to actually get themselves out of the tomb.

Once free, they managed to find the security guard at the quarry and deputies with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office were able to safely evacuate all the children.

Law enforcement quickly identified Frederick Newhall Woods IV, then 24, as a person of interest in the case since his father owned the quarry.

Also suspected were his two friends, 24-year-old James Schoenfeld and 22-year-old Richard Schoenfeld.

It was then revealed that the men had planned to demand a $5 million ransom for the safe return of the children, despite the fact that Woods lived with his family on a 79-acre estate while the Schoenfelds were the sons of a wealthy podiatrist.

They had attempted to make that request after returning from burying the children alive, but news of the missing children had left all phone lines tied up and made it impossible for them to get through the police.

The men would later say they even took a nap only to wake up and learn that the children had made their way out of the trailer.

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Richard voluntarily surrendered to authorities eight days after the kidnapping while his brother James was arrested a week after that in Menlo Park.

On that same day, members of the Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver located Woods hiding out at an unassuming hotel.

A search of his family’s estate also turned up a gun used in the crime and a draft of the ransom note demanding $5 million.

Woods and his co-conspirators eventually struck a deal with prosecutors that dropped all robbery charges against them in exchange for their guilty pleas to all counts of kidnapping.

The three men were sentenced to life in prison but successfully appealed the court’s decision, reducing their punishment to eight years to life in prison.

Richard would eventually be released on parole in 2012, while his brother James was released three years later in 2015.

Woods walked free in 2022.

Lynda Carrejo-Labendeira, who was 10 when she was buried alive, spoke with PEOPLE following James’ 2015 release.

“We fought at every hearing and thought our voices would make a difference, that being there meant something to the parole board, but it didn’t,” she said, making no secret of her anger at the decision to let him walk free.

In 2016 the 25 surviving victims successfully filed a lawsuit against their kidnappers and received an undisclosed sum.

The money was paid out of Woods’ trust fund.