GUILTY CA - Caren Ramirez & 3 others for imprisonment, torture of 16yo boy, Tracy, 2008

SuziQ

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I'm not sure if this should be in the missing threads or not. I'm not sure there is a thread for him. The poor kid's name has not been released yet.

http://www.kcra.com/news/18182970/detail.html

A missing teenager ran into a fitness center Monday with an inch-thick chain shackled to his ankle, and he may have been held captive, Tracy police said.

Wearing just boxer briefs, the 17-year-old burst into an InShape Fitness Center at about 4 p.m., said Chuck Ellis, who works at the gym.

Ellis said the boy looked scared and said, "Hide me, please hide me." (more at link)
 
http://cbs13.com/local/male.teen.chains.2.877592.html

(snip)

The teen said he escaped from a house, and police have arrested a man and a woman at a house on Tennis Lane. Two children inside the house have been taken into protective custody.

The Tracy Police Department says the boy ran away from a group home in Sacramento in 2007.
I'm glad they made arrests and I pray for this young boy as well as the two children who were taken into protective custody.
 
"We're not sure exactly how long the boy was there, and we're not sure exactly how he came to be there," city of Tracy spokesman Matt Robinson said. "It appears that this family lived their normal life but kept this child captive."
Robinson said officers found some evidence inside the home that the teen was held against his will but wouldn't elaborate on how the boy was held or provide further details pending an investigation. Police were awaiting a search warrant to begin an investigation at the house."
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081202/A_NEWS02/812020326/-1/A_NEWS

"Neighbors reportedly confirmed they knew the boy was there but failed to call authorities despite knowing some of the conditions he was living under."
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/main.asp?SectionID=28&SubSectionID=58&ArticleID=60470&TM=17655.95




"My grand kids say he has bruises, wore worn out clothes all the time. He was always doing chores for everybody, never really being a kid, like he's supposed to be," said Mike Portillo, a neighbor.

Portillo, the neighbor across the street, says the Schumachers told him the boy was the son of a friend and they were taking care of him.

They have two young daughters, and Portillo says his granddaughters occasionally played with them. The girls said the boy slept in the laundry room on a towel and said one time Mrs. Schumacher forced him to eat a dead fly."
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=6533842
 
I'm in tears. I hope and pray that this young man can get some psychological help after this. It's going to be so hard for him to trust anyone. As for the couple that held him, prison is too nice for them. They give you three square meals and a cot; they don't deserve it.
 
I don't get it? Why is there always some neighbor that comes forward that suspected something or saw something or knew something but failed to act? And they are proud to broadcast and claim their 15 minutes of fame. I would be ashamed that I didn't call CPS or the police. Not trying to grab the spotlight so I can be on the news. Did he not believe his grandkids?
 
<< snipped >>
"Neighbors reportedly confirmed they knew the boy was there but failed to call authorities despite knowing some of the conditions he was living under."
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/main.asp?SectionID=28&SubSectionID=58&ArticleID=60470&TM=17655.95


"My grand kids say he has bruises, wore worn out clothes all the time. He was always doing chores for everybody, never really being a kid, like he's supposed to be," said Mike Portillo, a neighbor.

Portillo, the neighbor across the street, says the Schumachers told him the boy was the son of a friend and they were taking care of him.

They have two young daughters, and Portillo says his granddaughters occasionally played with them. The girls said the boy slept in the laundry room on a towel and said one time Mrs. Schumacher forced him to eat a dead fly."
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=6533842
This infuriates me - I hope that the neighbors who admitted knowing about the treatment of this young boy can be charged with something (Good Samaritan Law, is there such a thing??). How could you know your neighbors were treating someone that way and NOT do anything about it?! Outrageous. :furious:
 
I don't understand people like this. How in the world could they hold another person against their will and make them do housework and abuse them in ways we won't even know? Seriously... I don't get how people could have such lack of compassion and outright sadistic behavior and try to get away with it! And why in the world would BOTH of them be willing to do this? You would think one of them would have some sort of conscience! And it says they had 4 children? Where were the other 4 children? Why didn't they say anything?

I am just disgusted that people like this exist... people that would take advantage of another life. :mad:
 
This story is absolutely HORRIFYING. I'm literally in tears also. Those parents need to be put away for life - they don't deserve to be in with the rest of society.

Absolutely unbelievable.
 
In one of the articles I came across, LE stated the 17 year old boy looked like a 10-12 year old.
 
18187045.jpg

Michael Luther Schumacher http://www.my58.com/news/18186249/detail.html#

MSNBC this morning said the family had been renting the house for about a year. That's about how long this boy had been missing. I wonder where this couple (Kelly Lau Schumacher and Michael Schumacher) came from. Could there have been a former captive somewhere?
 
I don't get it either. How can people live with themselves? There are so many cases of neighbors being aware of abuse going on and they just don't say anything. There was a famous case in NY in the 90's of a 6yr old girl who was horribly tortured and eventually died as a result and a neighbor in the apt building said they would put pillows over their head so they didn't have to hear the little girl screaming in pain........they put pillows over their head instead of calling the police.

This boy is very lucky that he got away. How did they get this boy - did they kidnap him, offer to help him and then ended up enslaving him? It will be interesting to hear the details as they come out.

This poor boy sounds like he has had a rough life. In the foster care system, no stable home, no family, somehow gets in this situation where he is tortured and abused. I hope he is able to receive the counseling and support he needs.
 
To the Tracy Neighbors! - You should all be ashamed of yourselves for failing to help this child and turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to what you were told and what you saw. Unbelievable and unexcusable!!!!! How could you be so uncaring about the life of a child? How?

Prayers to this young man and the other children in the home. I hope those other children did not learn to also be so sadistic.

Salem
 
To the Tracy Neighbors! - You should all be ashamed of yourselves for failing to help this child and turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to what you were told and what you saw. Unbelievable and unexcusable!!!!! How could you be so uncaring about the life of a child? How?

Prayers to this young man and the other children in the home. I hope those other children did not learn to also be so sadistic.

Salem

I agree 100%. I would rather report suspected child abuse if I saw and heard what those neighbors did, and be wrong about it, than do nothing at all.

Completely shameful.
 
Tracy police are looking for a third suspect in connection with the alleged kidnapping and torture of a runaway Sacramento teen.

Schumacher, 34, and Lau, 30, are being held in lieu of $1.185 million bail in San Joaquin County jail on suspicion of conspiracy, torture, kidnapping, child beating, false imprisonment by force and paying a parent for adoption of a child, according to online jail information.
http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/1442386.html
704-Kelly_Layne_Lau.highlight.prod_affiliate.4.jpg

Kelly Layne Lau


There's supposed to be a news conference at 10 a.m. to name the third suspect, but now it's 10:20, and I haven't heard anything. Has anyone?

I wonder if, since they are charged with buying a child from his parent, if the third suspect is one of his parents.
 
I agree 100%. I would rather report suspected child abuse if I saw and heard what those neighbors did, and be wrong about it, than do nothing at all.

Completely shameful.

I have to agree with you totally. I wouldn't mind feeling like an idiot to have been wrong about it, rather than thinking of a child or any person being harmed and not trying to do anything to help.

So sad that these things happen. This case reminded me of Baby P here in the UK. If only someone had the courage to speak out.

I really wish the young man all the luck in the world.
 
Tracy police are looking for a third suspect in connection with the alleged kidnapping and torture of a runaway Sacramento teen.

Schumacher, 34, and Lau, 30, are being held in lieu of $1.185 million bail in San Joaquin County jail on suspicion of conspiracy, torture, kidnapping, child beating, false imprisonment by force and paying a parent for adoption of a child, according to online jail information.
http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/1442386.html
704-Kelly_Layne_Lau.highlight.prod_affiliate.4.jpg

Kelly Layne Lau


There's supposed to be a news conference at 10 a.m. to name the third suspect, but now it's 10:20, and I haven't heard anything. Has anyone?

I wonder if, since they are charged with buying a child from his parent, if the third suspect is one of his parents.

Sadly, it does appear so.
 
At a Tuesday news conference, Robinson showed a picture of a woman who police suspect is connected to the case. They said Caren Ramirez could be en route to east Palo Alto, and that they think she may be the aunt of the victim.

Ramirez has a pre-existing felony warrant and will face the same five charges as Lau and Schumacher.

She doesn't have a permanent residence, Robinson said.

http://www.my58.com/news/18186249/detail.html#
 
A woman who police think could be the aunt of a 17-year-old boy who ran into a fitness center Monday afternoon in shackles is being sought in the case, a Tracy police spokesman said Tuesday.

A Tracy couple has been arrested in connection with the case. Kelly Layne Lau, 30, and her husband, Michael Luther Schumacher, 34, face one charge each of torture, kidnapping, false imprisonment, child endangerment, and corporal injury to a child, according to police spokesman Matt Robinson. (more at link)
http://www.kcra.com/news/18186249/detail.html
 

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