Jodi Heffington was 10 years old when kidnappers buried her and 25 other children alive in an underground truck trailer. She spoke to '48 Hours' about the lifelong psychological wounds from the kidnapping.
, California. 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.
The kidnappers then drove the frightened children and their bus driver Ed Ray in two locked and darkened vans for more than 100 miles before taking them out of the vans one by one. Although most of the children didn't have any physical injuries from the kidnapping, they all had been through an unimaginable emotional ordeal. At that time, sending them to the"Happiest Place on Earth" – Disneyland -- was a way many felt could help the children forget the trauma they endured.
The kidnappers, Fred Woods and brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were eventually sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. That meant, they would get a parole hearing every one or two years. Jill Klinge was an assistant district attorney for Alameda County. She told"48 Hours" the parole hearings were extremely painful for the survivors. She said,"Every time one of the kidnappers came up for parole, it triggered their fears and traumas.
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