The kidnappers intended to use ransom money from the kidnapping to restore the Victorian Rengstorff House in Mountain View, California.

Both vans had been modified by the kidnappers to transport their victims: the rear windows had been painted black, and the interiors were insulated with soundproof paneling.

The kidnappers ordered Ray and the children into the vans, then drove them to the California Rock & Gravel quarry (37°39′47.3″N 121°48′32.8″W / 37.663139°N 121.809111°W / 37.663139; -121.809111) in Livermore,[3] roughly 110 miles (180 km) from the fairgrounds.

In the early morning hours of July 16, the victims were forced at gunpoint to climb down a ladder, through a hatch, and into an underground bunker.

The kidnappers had buried a truck trailer and converted it into a bunker equipped with ventilation and a pit toilet, and stocked with several mattresses and a small amount of food and water.

[5] As the victims climbed from the van into the bunker, the kidnappers wrote the name and age of each child on a Jack in the Box hamburger wrapper.

Once the victims were inside, the kidnappers removed the ladder, covered the hatch with a heavy piece of sheet metal, weighted it with two 100-pound (45-kilogram) industrial batteries, and buried the opening.

As Ray lifted the hatch, 14-year-old Michael Marshall wedged a piece of wood into the opening, moved the sheet metal and batteries, and dug away the remainder of the debris covering the entrance.

[5] Sixteen hours after being imprisoned, Ray and the children climbed out of the bunker and walked to the quarry guard's shack, near Shadow Cliffs Regional Park.

Additionally, Woods and two friends, brothers James and Richard Schoenfeld (aged 24 and 22, respectively), had been previously convicted of motor vehicle theft, for which they were sentenced to probation.

[5] The notes outlined plans to have the ransom money dropped from a plane into the Santa Cruz Mountains at night and retrieve it under cover of darkness.

There, the vans used to transport the victims were found, as well as a getaway vehicle, a Cadillac spray-painted with flat black night camouflage.

[10][11][12] In 2016, a worker's compensation lawsuit filed against Woods revealed that he had been running several businesses, including a gold mine and a car dealership, from behind bars without notifying prison authorities.

[13][14] Over the years, reasons given for the denials included his continued minimization of the crime as well as disciplinary infractions for possession of contraband pornography and cellphones.

[26] 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.

[35] "Buried Alive" first aired on April 21, 2015, and is told from the point of view of Marshall, the oldest of the children, who was instrumental in their escape.