A California couple is in jail charged with kidnapping and torturing a 17-year-old African American boy.
Police are seeking a third suspect, a woman (pictured right) believed to be a relative of the boy.
Police say 34-year-old Michael Schumacher and 30-year-old Kelly Lau Schumacher held the teen captive for at least a year in their Tracy, California home.
The Schumackers have four biological children living in the home ranging in age from 1 to 9 years.
The senseless crime came to light yesterday when the teen fled the home, scaled a fence and limped into a fitness center holding a 3-foot link chain attached to his ankle.
Employees hid the boy and called 911. They described him as thin and “very dirty” wearing only a pair of large men’s boxers. He was covered with a layer of soot, urine and feces from the waist down.
“The staff noticed blood and bruising on his body, and he looked emaciated and had a chain locked to his ankle,” said Matt Robinson, spokesman for the Tracy Police Department.
“The boy was confused and didn’t know where he was or how long he had been held against his will,” he told ABCNews.com.
Police say Karen Ramirez, 43, believed to be the boy’s aunt, may have taken him to the Schumacker’s residence a year ago after he ran away from a group home.
“There’s times you’d see him, and then times a whole month, no show,” neighbor Rachel Portillo said of the victim. Portillo lives across the street from where the boy was held captive.
“He was only supposed to stay here just a little bit of time, and then months went by and he was still here,” Portillo said. “And I kept wondering, why isn’t he in school?”
