The torture they later had to endure was unfortunately just as terrible. According to CBS' '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours: '48 Hours:
Jodi Heffington, who was she?
Nina Jo "Jodi" was born on October 5, 1965, the youngest of three children to Nina Dixon and Billy Joe Heffington. Although Billy was in the Air Force, she later became adamant about being surrounded by close family like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The official bus carrying 26 children from Dairyland Elementary School home from a summer vacation to the Fairgrounds swimming pool was broken at approximately 4 pm on the fateful day. Jodi, 10, was sitting right there, so the thought of a van blocking the road before their quiet but kind bus driver, Frank Edward "Ed" Ray, was confronted with the door, "he said," she candidly admitted in the documentary "48 Hours."
Jodi continued, "You only see bad guys in movies with stockings on, so I knew it wasn't good," but she could've never imagined the firearm would soon be pointed directly at her stomach. The fact the trio then took their victims out of the vehicle one by one terrified her even more.
Jodi stated in the episode that they would take the next kid out. But when they opened the doors, you don't see them. I assumed they were just kidnapping us one at a time.” Fortunately, the victims were able to work together and manually dig their way out after nearly 16 hours in jail.
The authorities arrived as soon as possible to settle down and reflect on what had transpired. Instead, they loaded them all onto a bus and took them directly to a county jail, the only place nearby that was large enough to hold them for interrogations that lasted four to five hours.
Jodi admitted in the CBS original that she was affected every day in some way or another. “It just took something from me that I cannot ever get back,” she said. Yet by 2022, all three of them were given early release under supervision.
What Was the Death of Jodi Heffington?
Nina Jo "Jodi" Heffington-Medrano, 55, passed away on January 30, 2021, making us believe her death was accidental.
