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Parole Denied For School Bus Kidnapper

MADERA – Kidnapper Frederick Woods will not be getting out of prison any time soon. Madera County District Attorney Michael R. Keitz has announced that the Board of Parole Hearings has denied Woods parole for the next 3 years.Woods, together with brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, kidnapped a school bus full of children, and the bus driver, from Dairyland Union School in Chowchilla on July 15, 1976, and buried them alive in a rock quarry near Livermore. The trio demanded a $5 million ransom for the return of the victims, who ultimately escaped their captors.

All three of the kidnappers received life sentences, without the possibility of parole, in 1977 for the horrific crime. However, in 1980, an appellate court ruled they would be eligible for parole.

On Wednesday, Nov. 28, after a day long session, prosecutors Linda Dunn of the Madera County District Attorney’s Office and Jill Klinge of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, were able to convince the Board of Parole Hearings that Frederick Woods was still too dangerous to be released into society.

The Board of Parole Hearings ordered that Woods is to remain in prison and his suitability for parole will be reexamined in three years.

“I am pleased the Board of Parole Hearings could understand and appreciate the unsuitability of Mr. Woods for release into the public.” said District Attorney Keitz.

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