Buried Alive
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/19/us/rewind-chowchilla-school-bus-kidnapping/index.html
Traditionally one would be buried in a casket and well…deceased, but not Lynda Carrejo Labendeira and her classmates who were forced by gunmen into a moving van buried six feet underground.
This had become the largest mass kidnapping in the United States.
As a fourth-grader, Labendeira and 25 other children waited for 16 hours buried alive for either rescue or death.
All of them were buried in their ‘coffin’; the younger ones cried while the older ones tried to comfort them as the stench of rot intensified in the California sun.
This was 39 years ago, however now, the victims said they are reliving this nightmare.
Since yesterday, November 19th, the last kidnapper in prison, Fred Woods, could be paroled, though his sentence had been life without the possibility of parole.
“I just get nauseous at the very thought of it,” Carrejo Labendeira said.
The days leading up to yesterday had been fear-stricken and nauseous.
“[I am] living the whole ordeal all over again … the whole kidnapping, just the buried alive, just the flashes of everything that has happened.” Labendeira said.
July 15, 1976, the second-to-last day of summer school for the kids at Dairyland Elementary School in Chowchilla, was a beautiful day.
“We loved summer school. It was such a good time,” Carrejo Labendeira said. “We did arts and crafts, woodwork, ceramics. I just remember doing water balloon tosses, and we’d play fun games like truth and dare out in the park.”
They had so much fun that Carrejo Labendeira’s “little boyfriend” ,Jeff Brown, even started a petition, wanting two more weeks of summer school, that everyone, including the teachers and the bus driver, Edward Ray, signed.
So now, children between the ages 5 and 14 hopped on the bus absolutely delighted with the youngest ones still in their swimsuits after a visit to the community pool.
Driving down the narrow Avenue 21, they saw a van in the middle of the rural road, blocking the bus.
“Its hood was up, and Edward, our driver, couldn’t do anything but slow down and try to go around it,” Carrejo Labendeira said.
“But being the gentleman farmer that he was, he started to offer help. And as quick as his words were coming out, they jumped on the bus with their guns pointed at us. And the rifle. And told Edward to go to the back of the bus.”
The gunmen’s faces were concealed with pantyhose, so no one could see them.
That is when Carrejo Labendeira hid under her seat, only inches away from the barrels of the guns, while her three sisters panicked at the back of the bus.
Taking control, the gunmen drove the bus through a thicket, jostling the students with each stalk the bus hit.
“The bamboo was as high as the bus, and we were just being shaken all over,” Carrejo Labendeira said.
This fleet did not stop until they arrived at a concealed ditch where two vans were waiting. Outside stood the gunmen, telling the children to get inside.
“It was dark, the windows were painted in. No one could see in, and no one could see out,” she said.
Nine-year-old Jennifer Brown Hyde said the conditions were miserable.
“It was hot. It was over 100 degrees,” Brown Hyde said. “No water. No bathroom.”
At nightfall, they stopped at a rocky place near Livermore– about 100 miles northwest of their original location.
Carrejo Labendeira thinks she knows why they drove around for so long.
“I’m sure they had to (wait) until a time when they knew no one would be able to be around, no workers, to see 26 children get buried.”
The California Rock & Gravel Quarry, where they stopped, was owned by the father of one of the kidnappers, Fred Woods.
But at this time, only the gunman and hostages were around.
The kidnappers then asked every child for their name, age, address and phone number, and also took a piece of clothing or a belonging from each student.
However, they never explained why they had took the children, shushing them every time they asked.
“I only recall them ever telling us to shut up and be quiet,” Carrejo Labendeira said.
With only construction lights very dimly lighting up the quarry, the kidnappers ordered the captives into a massive grave where the moving band was hidden underground.
“It was buried into the earth. It was like a tomb,” Carrejo Labendeira said. “It was like a coffin. It was like a giant coffin for all of us.”
They children then climbed down a ladder into a van, which was then covered by several layers of dirt. When the last kid entered, they removed the ladder.
Enough food for one meal, several dirty mattresses, and a makeshift toilet were the onlt thing found in their prison.
“There were times we all thought we were dying.” Labenderia said.
Brown Hyde thought she was about to die, especially because the ventilation system stopped.
“The fans that they put in … the batteries had died,” Hyde said. “In my small mind, you think, ‘That’s it.'”
The little ones screamed and cried for their parents and God.
“I promised God if I survived this, I would be the best little girl … I’d be the best little girl my whole entire life.” Hyde said.
Finally when hope was little to none, some students and bus driver decided to try to stack mattresses to escape through a metal plate in the roof.
“If we’re going to die, we’re going to die doing something,” Brown Hyde recalled. “We’re not going to die sitting here.”
However, the plate was covered by a huge truck battery followed by several feet of dirt but the driver and older boys struggled to move it.
“Edward’s digging up and out, Mike’s digging, Jeff’s digging, Robert’s digging,” Labendeira said.
She, on the other hand, hid the whole time because she didn’t know where the kidnappers were.\
“Are they up there waiting for us? And are we going to get shot for coming out? Because all you saw with them were the guns.” Labendeira said.
Eventually, their efforts payed off, cleared an escape path and they managed to flee.
They couldn’t have picked a better time–the kidnappers were asleep. They then began looking for help.
“There was a man up above, one man, and he knew exactly who we were before we even said anything,” Carrejo Labendeira said.
“The gentleman came down and said, ‘This world’s been looking for you.’ He knew exactly who we were.”
When trialed, Woods, along with his brothers, pleaded guilty and each were given 27 life sentences without chance of parole.\
That brought some comfort to Carrejo Labendeira’s childhood.
“We felt safe in Chowchilla. We felt safe growing up knowing we were assured that they would never get out,” she said. “Knowing that the kidnappers were in prison, we weren’t scared they were going to come get us. They said, ‘They’ll never get out, you’ll never have to worry.'”
Now, she says, she has to.
Because, the appellate court has now stated since the men caused no serious bodily injury, they should have the chance for parole.
Richard Schoenfeld was paroled in 2012, his brother James was released earlier this year, and now Woods paroled yesterday.
“Mr. Woods has no animosity toward any of them,” Handleman said. “He is absolutely apologetic and recognizes he committed a horrible crime.”
This affects both me and the world because the court and jail are being wishy-washy in their decisions, which could cause other people to see this, causing more crime. Also, the whole town of Chowchilla was affected by this kidnapping, but now, the kidnappers are being let free, back into society, to do as they please.