Tortured 17-Year-Old Boy Escapes Captors After a Year in Captivity

Police in Tracy, California released video yesterday of a 17-year-old boy named Kyle, who stumbled into a health club December 1, 2008, after being tortured and abused for nearly a year. Kyle was captured after he ran away from his a group foster home and was held against his will by Michael and Kelly Schumacher. Police charged them with five felony counts, including torture, kidnapping, conspiracy, child abuse and false imprisonment. Two other men were also found guilty for participating in the beating of this young boy. Kyle was brave enough to testify in court against his abusers and said that he was beating with items such as a baseball bat. When Kyle walked into the health club last winter, he asked if he could hide behind the salon counter. Salon workers covered him with a blanket and got the manager, who called the police. "'Don't let them get me, don't let them get me'," the manager quoted Kyle as saying. "He was totally terrified." The young boy was confused, dehydrated and emaciated when detectives arrived. He was in such horrid shape that initially, police believed he couldn't have been more than 10 or 12-years old. He still had shackles chained to his foot, which he carried so it would not drag. He reportedly jumped on a trampoline, over the fence of the Schumacher residence, once he broke free from his shackles.

The boy's aunt, 43-year-old Caren Ramirez is now wanted by Tracy police as she will also likely face felony abuse charges. At one time, Ramirez had custody of the boy, but then he was removed when she was charged with beating him. "For a human being to look that way, to be treated that's way," Lea Leonardo, of the health club the boy fled to, said. "It's almost hard to imagine...that someone would do that to this kid."