FAN FAVORITE: Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping | Vanished | 1

Against The Odds

Wondery

Mike Corey, Dolby, Cassie De Pecol, Society & Culture, Dolby Atmos, Atmos, History

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the summer of 1976, three masked gunmen hijack a school bus full of children in rural Chowchilla, California. The twenty-six kids and their bus driver are driven to a quarry and buried alive. Back in town, no one has any idea where the children went, who took them, or why. The local sheriff and the FBI launch a massive manhunt to track down the kidnappers and locate the children, but the trail quickly runs cold.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now.
0:05.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:09.5	This series originally aired in 2022.
0:13.2	A listener note. This episode contains adult language.
0:16.5	Wondry. Ed Ray
0:27.6	steers his school bus down a lonely road
0:30.7	that runs between long rows of almond trees.
0:34.3	He squints as he adjusts his visor
0:36.7	to block the blazing afternoon sun.
0:39.0	It's July 15th, 1976. Ed is driving kids home from Derryland Elementary School in Chowchilla, California.
0:49.3	Summer school is in session. To Ed, that doesn't qualify as real school, as far as he's concerned.
0:57.6	Summer school is more like babysitting.
1:00.8	He glances in the rearview mirror.
1:03.0	There are a couple dozen kids he still needs to drop off, and all of them are hyped from
1:07.7	a field trip they took to a local pool. Ed shakes his head and smiles. He likes
1:13.3	the kids on his route, and he thinks they like him. Ed is 54, with a strong build, a stern face,
1:22.7	and sandy receding hair. He's been driving this bus for about 20 years now. Before that, he grew corn
1:30.3	and raised cattle. He didn't make it far in school and can't really read or write, but he's good
1:37.3	with numbers, and he can bail hay like nobody's business. He could never imagine leaving Chowchilla. It's a farming town in California's
1:47.6	San Joaquin Valley, about 100 miles east of San Jose. Ed's lived around here his entire life.
1:54.9	The population is around 5,000, and that suits Ed just fine. He likes the slow pace of living, having plenty of land to work,
2:03.5	and the god-fearing country folk that call Chowchilla home. He hangs a right onto Avenue 21,
	...

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