Here's How The FBI Finally Rescued A Child From A Bunker In Alabama

The boy's 65-year-old captor, Jimmy Lee Dykes, who snatched the boy from a school bus, was dead when authorities rescued the boy.

Dykes held the boy, identified only as "Ethan," in a 6-by-8-foot bunker, and the situation was obviously untenable. But how did the authorities finally rescue the young boy?

ABC News reports that officials put a high-tech camera into the bunker to track Dykes' movements. Meanwhile, they had a "mock bunker" nearby to train FBI agents on different ways they might be able to rescue the boy, sources told ABC.

After officials saw that Dykes had a gun, FBI agents positioned near the entrance of the bunker used a "diversionary device" to get into the bunker, an FBI source told NBC News.

While the seven-day ordeal seemed like it was never going to end, former FBI hostage negotiator Clint Van Zandt told NBC's "The Today Show" that patience was actually the key to achieving a positive outcome.

"Eighty-five percent or more of standoff situations end nonviolently," he said on Saturday, according to NBC. "Law enforcement doesn't want to do anything precipitously that could cause anybody to be hurt at this time when the talking cure will likely work in this situation."