Delia D'Ambra

The kidnappers transferred her into that car and ditched her car at a popular tourist attraction in Virginia known as Dixie Caverns.

During the ordeal, Betty Ann tried to convince Larry and Bonnie to let her go, but Larry explained that some people who were upset with her husband Frank had paid him $2,500 to do the abduction, and he said if they delivered her to the people who were employing them, they'd get even more money.

Later that day, the Coles contacted Frank and told him they wanted $25,000 ransom in exchange for Betty Ann.

Throughout the afternoon, they provided him with instructions on when to drop off the money and where.

After going to his bank to retrieve the funds, Frank called the FBI and did as his wife's kidnappers asked.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, March 7th, he drove to an abandoned railroad station near Anstead with a bag full of cash to barter for his wife.

The FBI was aware of what was going on, but had been instructed to hang back from the exchange or else Larry and Bonnie claimed they would harm Betty Ann.

When Frank arrived at the rendezvous point alone, Larry and Bonnie were waiting for him, and when they got the ransom money, they let Betty Ann go.

Together, the Van Balens were forced to face away from the Coles and walk down the railroad tracks without looking back.

They walked and then ran for a mile and a half or so before eventually turning around and going back to where the ransom exchange took place.

When they arrived, an FBI agent was there and took them to safety.

Meanwhile, Larry and Bonnie, who'd hopped into Frank's car and taken off about an hour earlier, were in the wind.

That vehicle was later discovered abandoned at an area bowling alley.

After the crime, the FBI issued kidnapping arrest warrants for Larry and Bonnie, but the criminal couple had a considerable head start.

In early April, 1974, so almost a month after the incident, the feds were still unable to pin them down.

So they added Larry's photo and information to their 10 most wanted fugitives list.

About a day later, state police in Buffalo, New York, spotted a sedan Larry and Bonnie were suspected of driving, and they quickly took the couple into custody.

Inside the car with them was $10,000 in cash, more than $8,000 of which had serial numbers that matched the bills Frank Van Balen had withdrawn for his wife's ransom.

At an arraignment hearing following the couple's arrests in New York, a magistrate there ordered they be held under $100,000 bond each, while authorities in Virginia worked to extradite them so they could face the charges against them there.

At the time of the kidnapping, Larry had prior convictions dating back to 1968 for everything from burglary to receiving stolen property to interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.