Disturbing New Details Revealed After Half Naked
And Chained Teen Wanders Into GymWednesday December 3, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
Photo: courtesy Tracy Police Dept.We now know a little more about what appears to have happened to a 17-year-old boy found half naked, bleeding and chained in a city near San Francisco.
We first told you about the teen on Tuesday, after the dazed youngster stumbled into a local gym wearing only boxer shorts, covered in sores and filth and sporting a padlocked chain around his ankle. He begged those inside to hide him, claiming someone was after him.
Now cops allege they know who that 'someone' was. They've charged the homeowners where the boy claims he was held captive for the past year. Authorities say the young man made his narrow escape not from a house but a car. They think he was chained to a seat in an automobile and that his alleged captors finally made a mistake.
When the youth spotted a dropped key on the floor of the vehicle, he picked it up, undid the locks he was shackled with, waited for the car to stop and then flung open the door and ran with what little strength he had left to the nearest sanctuary, which turned out to be the In-Shape Sports Club in Tracy, California.
"He said, 'Don't let them get me, don't let them get me,"' manager Chuck Ellis recalls. "He was totally terrified."
Police were called and quickly tracked down the address the boy claims was his prison for the last 365 days. He'd left his foster home in 2007 to hunt for his family and somehow wound up in that house.
Detectives searched the residence and say they found evidence to back the teen's claims, arresting homeowners Michael Schumacher, 34 (top left) and 30-year-old Kelly Layne Lau. But investigators have so far refused to discuss what they discovered inside that home, only that it implicates the couple.
They've now been charged with a host of terrible offences, including torture, kidnapping and child abuse. Each is being held on $1.2 million bail and both are due in court on Thursday.
Lau is a local Girl Scout leader and authorities with the group say nothing in the background check they performed on her showed anything out of the ordinary. Her MySpace page lists Schumacher's profession as a contractor.
Their four children have now been placed into protective custody.
But this strange tale doesn't end with the arrest. A third suspect is still being sought and she may be able to answer a lot of questions. She's 43-year-old Caren Ramirez, and she's believed to be the boy's aunt.
Cops want to find her to ask her how the teen wound up in the house and whether she participated in any of the alleged acts. Ramirez was known to frequently visit Schumacher and Lau and became the victim's guardian when he was removed from his abusive father's home three or four years ago. But when she was also arrested for abusing him, he was finally placed in foster care.
The youth had been missing since 2007 after vanishing from that safe haven without a trace. Neighbours in Tracy admit they'd seen him occasionally taking out the garbage but he never said anything and they didn't have any reason to think he was in trouble or there against his will.
Jennifer Foster lives next door and recalls asking Lau about the teen. "She told me that he was a nephew that was staying with them because he was having problems at home," she remembers.
Another area resident says the victim seemed unhealthy and looked closer to 10 or 12 than his actual age. "The last time I seen him, maybe two weeks ago, we were both taking our cans in from garbage days and he was really skinny and pale," Rachel Portillo recounts.
The boy continues to recover in hospital and police plan to interview him further when he feels a "little healthier."
They're still not sure exactly what they're dealing with here but cops think the case may be exactly what it looks like. "The victim says he was held against his will," outlines police spokesman Matt Robinson. "When you have a 17-year-old boy showing up with a bloody ankle from having a chain wrapped around it, it's one of those things for officers to put one and one together."
