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U.S. NEWSMonday 16 November 2015
Last convict in mass school bus kidnapping seeks parole
DON THOMPSON Backers, including a con- Some thought they must Lynda Carrejo Labendeira that is nothing compared
Associated Press gresswoman and a retired have been taken by space remembers being so fright- to the emotional scars I’ve
SACRAMENTO, California state appellate judge, ar- aliens, so completely did ened that she crawled un- had to live with and still live
(AP) — Three young men gue that he has served they vanish, recalled Hef- der her seat. Now a teach- with,” she said.
from wealthy San Francis- Now 48, she is married with
co Bay Area families spent This 1976 photo shows the inside of the van that was used as a prison for the 26 kidnapped two teenage sons and
more than a year working works as a secretary at a
on their perfect crime. Chowchilla school children and their bus driver in Livermore, Calif. The van was being shown university in Tennessee. Yet
They converted three pris- until recently she couldn’t
oner transport vans, built to members of the media after it was unearthed. James Schoenfeld is one of the three men sleep without a nightlight.
an underground bunker to “I’m still scared of the dark,”
hold their hostages, even convicted in the kidnapping of 26 children and their school bus driver nearly 40 years ago she said. “You have a way
made a lead box to hold of looking at life differently.
the $5 million in ransom in Chowchilla, Calif. California Gov. Jerry Brown has until midnight Thursday, July 30, 2015 to ... I know what crazy peo-
they expected to collect ple are out there.”
to block radio signals if au- decide to allow the recommended parole to go forward after parole officials recommended in The children and driver
thorities inserted tracking were ferried more than 100
devices. April that he grant parole to the 63-year-old Schoenfeld. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer) miles (160 kilometers) to a
Then they kidnapped a quarry in Livermore owned
school bus full of children enough time and should fington-Medrano, now a er herself, she also was 10 by Woods’ father. There the
and buried them under be released. 50-year-old beauty salon at the time. driver and children, ages
mounds of dirt in a crime Yet what an appeals court owner still living in Chow- Near the ambush site, the 5 to 14, were forced into
that haunts the victims called “the unprecedent- chilla. Frantic parents, kidnappers concealed the a buried moving van that
nearly 40 years later. ed mass kidnapping” still school officials and police bus and told the children had been outfitted with
“They basically stole our resonates in Chowchilla, a scoured the countryside to leap from the bus to mattresses, water contain-
whole youth. Our child- town of fewer than 19,000 in vain. The children’s lives the transport vans so they ers and some snacks. The
hood was completely residents in the San Joa- changed in an instant wouldn’t leave footprints. roof had partly collapsed
turned upside down,” said quin Valley. when three masked men Jennifer Brown, who was from the weight of the dirt,
Jodi Heffington-Medrano, The nation’s attention was carrying sawed-off shot- 9 years old. She slipped as forcing the kidnappers to
who was 10 at the time. drawn to the central Cali- guns boarded the Dairy- she jumped and cut her shore it up.
Brothers James and Rich- fornia dairy region in July land Union School Dis- knee, leaving a 1 ½-inch The children, famished after
ard Schoenfeld were con- 1976, when 26 children and trict bus as driver Ed Ray (4-centimeter) scar. hours on the road, quickly
victed along with their their school bus driver dis- brought them home from “It’s still there, almost 40 ate most of the snacks.
friend Frederick Newhall appeared. summer school. years later, on my knee. But The flashlight and candles
Woods in the kidnapping, soon sputtered out, leaving
which lasted more than a them in darkness in what
day before the children Heffington-Medrano called
were able to dig their way a collapsing tomb.
out. Now, only Woods re- The air soon reeked of urine
mains behind bars, and and vomit.
he is asking a state parole Brown remembers lying on
board to free him. a mattress and crying for
An appeals court ordered hours.
Richard Schoenfeld re- “I literally said my prayers
leased in 2012, and Gov. and said I would quit fight-
Jerry Brown paroled James ing with my brother and go
Schoenfeld in August. to church every Sunday
Woods, now 64, is set for if He would get me out of
a parole hearing Nov. 19. there,” she said.q
