Transporting ten firearms and an improvised gasoline bomb, the couple entered the school and corralled students and faculty into a single classroom to hold them for ransom.
[2] After a two-and-a-half hour standoff, David became increasingly agitated and decided to leave the room, transferring the trigger string to his wife Doris' wrist.
[5] Prior to the hostage crisis, David had tested a similar bomb in a sealed school bus in Arizona, destroying it.
[2] Vengeance for having been fired did not seem to have been the motive, but rather a philosophy recorded in journal entries referring to a Brave New World where he wanted to reign over intelligent children.
David Young had initially planned to involve longtime friends Gerald Deppe and Doyle Mendenhall, who had invested money with him in a get-rich-quick scheme that he had called "The Biggie.
Below the jug in the bottom basket were two tuna fish cans filled with a mixture of aluminum powder and flour meant to aerosolize and deflagrate following detonation, each with its own blasting cap.
[8] The mechanism was triggered by a dead man's switch, consisting of a wooden piece separating two metal connectors within the jaws of a clothespin, forming an incomplete circuit.
[6] The leaking gasoline's fumes prompted teachers to open the classroom windows, unknowingly creating vents for the impending explosion.
Many children showed signs of distress with sobs, complaining of headaches from the smell of gasoline from the bomb, or simply wanting to go home.
The mood did not lift with the singing and teachers quickly negotiated with the hostage takers to get items from the library to help the kids get their minds off the siege,[9] and help to pass the time.
"About 2 ½ hours into the standoff, David transferred the triggering mechanism of the bomb to Doris' wrist, and went to a small bathroom that connected the first and second grade rooms.
[9] This unintentionally activated the triggering mechanism and the bomb exploded, severely injuring Doris, and filling the room with black smoke and pockets of fire.
Immediately following the detonation, the teachers started to shove children into the hallway, and through two open windows onto the grass outside the school, causing chaos as panicked parents tried to break through police lines.
[6][11][9] When the bomb detonated, substantial force was channeled through loose ceiling tiles into the roof and open windows acting as vents.
[3][4][12][13] The incident was detailed in the book The Cokeville Miracle: When Angels Intervene[14] by Hartt Wixom and his wife Judene, published by Cedar Fort, Inc., which formed the basis for a CBS made-for-TV movie titled To Save the Children.