"48 Hours" Live to Tell: The Chowchilla Kidnapping
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(upbeat music) (tense music) (tense music) (tense music) - Six years old, I had never been in darkness like that before. It was just pitch black, like the dark was touching me and golfing me like I was actually inhaling the darkness. (tense music) - Cauchila in 1976 was a cow town. You could drive through the heart of town in about 30 seconds. Very close-knit community. - Everybody looked out for each other. People didn't lock their doors. - There was nothing to fear. I didn't know what fear was. - I still have a hard time grasping the way that my life changed on July 15th. Just another average summer day. Very hot, going to summer school, and that day we got to go to the town swimming pool. Got back on the bus, ready to go home. Our bus driver was Ed Ray. We all called him Edward. - He was just, you know, a really nice man. (tense music) - The buses had the windows down, the hot summer breeze, the kids were laughing and singing. We dropped a few kids off at their normal stops. And then I can remember the bus stopping at a stop sign. Edward went to go around a white van that was parked in the road. We just assumed that that van was broke down until Edward opened the bus door and mass men jumped on with guns. - The first man came on the bus and he had a gun. Ed Ray said, "What's going on?" And he said, "Shut up and move to the back." I remember telling him that if he didn't get me home on time, my dad would be on him like stink on skunk. You know, I wasn't afraid of anything. I didn't know I needed to be. And then another man came on the bus and he had a sawed-off double barrel shotgun. The shotgun filled me with terror. - The mass men had pantyhose pulled over their face. It was a very distorted look.
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Twenty-six school children abducted and buried alive in a truck trailer by three young men. An incredible survival story. CBS News' David Begnaud reports.