Decades after their terrifying ordeal, the event still haunts the survivors. They share their struggles as well as their victories in the years that followed.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

Nightmare in Chowchilla: The School Bus Kidnapping

"Hope Beyond Pain" - Ep. 5

It was one the largest abductions in U.S. history. On July 15, 1976, a school bus carrying 26 schoolchildren ages 5 to 14 and their driver vanished without a trace in the tiny farming community of Chowchilla, California. As a frantic search for them began, the young, terrified hostages and their 55-year-old bus driver found themselves trapped in a scene that seemed like something straight out of a horror movie.Their unlikely captors, three directionless young men from affluent families, planned the kidnapping for more than 18 months in the hopes of getting “easy money.”In “Nightmare in Chowchilla,” we untangle a controversy that has dogged th...