Frederick Woods was 24 years old in 1976 when he and two other men kidnapped a bus full of children in northern California in what would become the largest mass kidnapping in US history.
Twenty-six children ages 5 through 14 and their bus driver were on their way home from summer school when they were taken hostage at gunpoint. It is believed to be the largest kidnapping ever in the United States. Jodi Heffington was one of the kids on the bus.
On July 15, 1976, 26 school children and their bus driver from Chowchilla, California, were kidnapped and buried alive in this tractor trailer.
The kids, ages 5 to 14, and their bus driver were driven about 100 miles to a remote quarry near Livermore, California. With only some construction lights illuminating the dark quarry, the kidnappers ordered their 27 victims into what looked like a massive grave – a white moving van buried 6 feet underground.
Almost all kids kidnapped by strangers are taken by men, and about two thirds of stranger abductions involve female children. Most abducted kids are in their teens.
Frederick Newhall Woods was one of three gunmen who hijacked a school bus with 26 kids and their bus driver in Chowchilla, California, in 1976. The men transferred the driver and children to vans and drove them 12 hours before they were buried alive in an underground truck trailer, CBS News reported.
Larry Park | Survivor: I'm wondering how it was going to feel to die. Larry Park: I was too scared to move. Twenty-six terrified children – some as young as 5 – were staring down the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. Three masked men had hijacked the Dairyland Elementary school bus.
A nonfamily abduction occurs when a child is taken by someone known, but not related, to the child, such as a neighbor or an online acquaintance, or by someone unknown to the child. Nonfamily abductions are the rarest type of case and make up only 1% of the missing children cases reported to NCMEC.
To date, Sabrina has not been found and the search continues. Despite everything the Aisenberg family has been through for more than 25 years, they are not giving up. According to multiple articles, the family moved to Bethesda, Maryland. to raise their family and set up a bedroom for Sabrina.
Fortunately, kidnapping is a relatively rare occurrence in Australia. Most abductions of children in this country are by family members where there is no intention to harm the child, only to deprive the other parent of care of the child.
In 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) labelled New South Wales the Kidnapping Capital of Australia, reporting 225 victims, followed by Victoria with 158 and Queensland and South Australia 59 each; with very few in other States and Territories.
Jacob Erwin Wetterling (February 17, 1978 – October 22, 1989) was an American boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota, who was kidnapped from his hometown and murdered on October 22, 1989, at the age of 11. His abduction remained a mystery for nearly twenty-seven years. Long Prairie, Minnesota, U.S.
In a small California town, three young men decide to make money by hijacking a school bus full of children and demanding a ransom for the safe return of the kids.
The motive: "Multiple victims to get multiple millions"
In his successful parole hearing, James Schoenfeld became the first kidnapper to explain the motive for three rich kids to hijack a school bus. He said, despite their parents' wealth, that both he and Fred Woods had run up serious debts.
The bus was later found empty covered with bamboo and brush in a drainage ditch nine miles west of town. The victims, 19 girls and seven boys, along with Ray, were driven around for 11 hours in two vans before being entombed in a moving van buried in a Livermore rock quarry.
The group took the hostages 100 miles away to Livermore where they were placed into a moving truck and buried alive. Woods and the brothers demanded $5 million from the state Board of Education.
4) The Chowchilla kidnapping victims made a daring escape led by their bus driver Ed Ray. The bus driver and some of the older students concocted a plan to flee and bravely led all the captives in their daring escape.
Children under the age of 6 are most frequently targeted for family abductions and these often occur in the midst of bitter divorce or child custody battles between parents.
Out of all people getting kidnapped, 25% of them are children. Children are easier to traffic than adults because they are more susceptible to manipulation and brainwashing. Children from foster families are at greater risk of being stolen and trafficked.
The countries with the highest rates of kidnap are those with weak security infrastructures, high levels of impunity and economic disparity, such as Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria, and those experiencing prolonged conflicts, such as Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.