Today I Learned about the
1976 Chowchilla Kidnapping, in which 26 school children and their bus driver were kidnapped from Chowchilla, CA, and held in a quarry in an underground moving van after being driven around in two vans for 11 hours. After several hours, the bus driver and several of the children escaped and found a quarry security guard, who called police.
Most interesting to me, was the observed impact of the event on the children:
Quote:
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A study found that the kidnapped children suffered from panic attacks, nightmares involving kidnappings and death, and personality changes. Many developed fears of such things as "cars, the dark, the wind, the kitchen, mice, dogs and hippies,"[18] and one shot a Japanese tourist with a BB gun when the tourist's car broke down in front of his home.[19] Many of the children continued to report symptoms of trauma at least 25 years after the kidnapping, including substance abuse and depression, and a number have been imprisoned for "doing something controlling to somebody else."
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