An Escape from Being Buried Six Feet Down

[July 15, 1976 | Chowchilla, California]

They were just kids, looking forward to a day of fun at the swimming pool.

Aged between five and 14, the students of Dairyland Elementary School and their bus driver, Frank Edward Ray, set out on a day trip to a swimming pool in the nearby town of Santa Cruz. Little did they know that their lives were about to take a terrifying turn.

As the bus made its way back, it suddenly came to an abrupt stop. Three armed and masked men had blocked the road with a van, and they quickly boarded the bus, taking control of the vehicle and forcing Ray to the back at gunpoint.

It was a meticulously planned kidnapping.

One of the armed men took the wheel of the bus, while another kept control of Ray and the children. The third kidnapper drove the van. They abandoned the bus at a secluded area, where the second van was waiting. The children and Ray were herded into the two vans, which were reinforced from the inside, with blacked-out windows and door handles rigged with wire to prevent escape.

The kidnappers drove for 11 hours before arriving at a remote rock quarry. They were careful and only allowed one kid out, one by one to maintain control over them. Jodi Heffington, one of the kids recalled,

"They'd take the next kid out. And they would close the doors. But when they opened the doors, you don't see them. I thought they were basically killing us one at a time."

Ray and the kids were forced down a ladder, and into a hole underground which later will be revealed as a white van buried 6 feet underground.

Boxes of cereals, loaves of bread, peanut butter, and water were left in the underground van, but the conditions were unbearable. With only two pipes acting as small ventilation holes, the Californian heat became suffocating, and the smell of vomit and urine filled the air.

Food was running low. The ceiling was caving.

Survivor Jennifer Brown Hyde said,

"It was just a desperate situation … We thought … if we're going to die, were going to die trying to get out of here."

Ray and some of the older boys started stacking up mattresses and taking turns trying to open the metal plate that covered the hole, weighed down by two tractor batteries. Hours later, after a grueling effort, they were able to wedge open the metal plate and escape. It had been 16 hours since they were first trapped underground and found a quarry's guard shack and sought help.

Tracking the kidnappers

The investigators quickly focused their attention on the quarry owner and his son, Frederick Woods, as one of the primary suspects. After all, it would be difficult for anyone else to bury a van on the premises without access. With a warrant, the investigators raided Woods' house and found a gun and a draft of a ransom letter demanding $5 million, although the police never received a ransom call.

Eight days after the kidnapping, Richard Schoenfeld, aged 22, accompanied by his attorney and father, voluntarily turned himself in. Days later, Frederick Woods, aged 24, was arrested in Vancouver, Canada, and Richard's brother, James Schoenfeld, aged 24, was also arrested in Menlo Park, California. All three came from wealthy families, and it was later revealed that the Schoenfeld brothers were deeply in debt.

They were unable to make the ransom call as the phone lines to the Chowchilla Police Department were constantly busy with worried parents and media calls. They woke up from a nap to the news that the children had escaped.

All three pleaded guilty to kidnapping for ransom and robbery, but not to the infliction of bodily harm

Aftermath

Many of the children struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) even years later, and some fell into depression and substance abuse.

Richard was granted parole in 2012 at the age of 57, James in 2015 at the age of 63 and Frederick in August 2022 at the age of 70.

Source notes can be found here.

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