rendezvous point by Holmes, and the group of three drove to the San Mateo Bridge. A mother and daughter on a farm immediately south of Milpitas had seen a dark, long-hooded sedan with three men stopped near their barn. A few minutes after it stopped, a convertible (presumably the Studebaker roadster) with three men two on the running boards and one driving stopped near the sedan. Their description of the man driving the convertible, slender with light colored hair, matched the description of Brooke, as did the convertible as his car. Brooke was driven away in the larger car. According to the farmers, one of the group followed in the Studebaker. The mother did not report the events until the following Monday (November 13), when she was visiting relatives and learned about the kidnapping. The investigators did not agree on the veracity of the story, because the number of kidnappers did not agree with the recorded confessions. On the bridge, the men ordered Brooke out of the car, and one of the kidnappers struck him twice on the head from behind with a concrete block until he was unconscious. They then bound his arms with baling wire and tied two concrete blocks to his feet before dumping him off the bridge into the bay. The tide was out and there were only a few feet of water at the base of the bridge; the kidnappers then shot Brooke, killing him. According to Thurmond's confession, Brooke struggled in the water for a few minutes and may have been able to free himself from his bonds; after they had tossed him over the north side of the bridge, he moved south under the bridge, against the prevailing current. Thurmond also stated Holmes was the first to shoot at Brooke, but Thurmond shot at him after he had drifted under the bridge. After leaving Brooke in the bay, they stopped approximately from the eastern end, where they discarded an extra concrete block and a roll of wire, which were recovered after the confessions. A few hours later, they placed the first telephone call to the Hart family demanding $40,000 for Hart's return. Two men scavenging for wood in the bay, Cal Coley and Vinton Ridley, heard screams for help at approximately 7:25 p.m. on the night of November 9, when Brooke was kidnapped, and tried to rescue him, but were hampered by muddy