The Cokeville Miracle

On May 16, 1986, around 1:30 p.m., David Young and his wife, Doris, quietly took control of Cokeville Elementary. Wielding a homemade bomb and several guns, the Youngs took staff hostage as they made their way to the first-grade classroom. Students and teachers throughout the school were unknowingly drawn into the crisis when Doris Young went from room to room, instructing them to gather.

Slowly they filed into the 30-by-32-foot room where the rest of the school was being held—154 people in ...