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<p>July 15, 1976 – It’s a day Jodi Heffington will never forget.</p><p>"I remember being buried alive, and being scared to death, and being one of the worst days of my life," Heffington said. </p><p>Jodi was one of 26 kids who were kidnapped from their bus in Chowchilla. Three men drove the children around for 11 hours then put them underground. There, they sat for another 16 hours until the bus driver, Ed ray, pushed his way out and pushed every child to safety.</p><p>"He is my hero. He is. He has a place in my heart that’s a hero. He will always be special in my heart," Heffington said. </p><p>Ed’s son Glen was 31 at the time his dad went missing.</p><p>"My mother called me and she said, ‘Dad’s gone. We don’t know where he’s at,’" Glen said. </p><p>Glen also calls his dad a hero, but if you were to ask Ed, he was just doing his job.</p><p>"His job was to protect those children in his custody, and that’s all he thought about was I got to get these kids home," Glen said. </p><p>Ed passed away in 2012. The bus now an artifact at a local museum.</p><p>And Thursday, on what would’ve been Ed Ray’s 94th birthday, a Chowchilla park became a memorial, one that will keep the memories of his heroic actions alive, just like he kept those 26 children.</p><p>"They’d still be underneath the ground over there. They were buried in such a way that, unless you completely turn it upside down, they’d never find that van," Glen said. </p><p>The three kidnappers were arrested. Two of them were brothers, Richard and James Schoenfeld, and the third was Frederick Woods. Richard Schoenfeld was released from prison in June of 2012, after 35 years in prison. The other two are still in prison. Richard Schoenfeld is eligible for parole April of 2015. Woods is eligible in 2016. </p></div>
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