Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
Meet Michael and Kelly Lau Schumacher. They Have Some Explaining to Do.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Well, I told you yesterday about the teenager clad only in boxers and a chain who ran into a Tracy, California gym for shelter. The boy had clearly been abused and was, by all accounts, utterly terrified of his abusers coming to find him.Thirty-year-old Kelly Lau Schumacher and her husband, Michael Schumacher, age 34, are the lovely pair arrested in connection with this bizarre and troubling story. Police also removed 4 children between the ages of 1 and 11 from the home.
The boy at the heart of this story was a runaway from a group foster home in Sacramento. He'd been missing since at least 2007. It isn't clear how long he's lived with the Schumachers.
The couple have been at the home on Tennis Lane in Tracy for a year or so, and during that time neighbors noticed the boy. They said that even though the family appeared to be "normal," the teen wasn't, in the words of one neighbor, "allowed to talk to us when we'd see him outside or ask him questions."
Not my idea of normal, but hey -- people have their own lives to lead, right?
Anyway -- CNN reported today that police are now looking for Caren Ramirez, age 43. Ramirez may be the 17-year-old's aunt.
According to the CNN article, the teen was removed from his parents' home at some point during the last 2 years or so. He went to live with his aunt, but she was then charged with felony abuse. That was how the unfortunate kid ended up in the group home. In other words, he was being abused or failed by those who were supposed to take care of him at every turn.
He's now being treated for malnutrition, cuts and bruises.
The connection between Ramirez and the Schumachers isn't clear, at the moment.
Kelly Lau Schumacher and her husband Michael are in police custody, and facing multiple counts of kidnapping and torturing the boy. There's no word on whether or not the State of California will have to answer for the obviously awesome job it did in taking care of this kid after it removed him from his home in the first place. [ABCNews.go.com]
Tags: 17-year-old, abducted, abused, Caren Ramirez, InShape City, Kelly Lau Schumacher, kidnapped, kidnapping, Michael Schumacher, Tennis Lane, Tracy California
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