Chained boy, 17, escapes locked garage in Tracy

Kelly Layne Lau presented herself as the happily married, stay-at-home mother of four kids in a suburban neighborhood in Tracy. But she and her husband hid a dark secret, police say - they kept a teenage boy in their garage, locked at times and neglected to the point of emaciation. On Monday afternoon, the boy made a dramatic escape, scaling an 8-foot wall from the backyard and running into a fitness center. There, wearing only men's boxer shorts, covered in soot and with a padlock and 3-foot chain still clamped on his ankle, he begged workers to hide him.

On Tuesday, Lau, 30, and her husband, Michael Luther Schumacher, 34, were booked at San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of conspiracy, kidnapping, torture, false imprisonment and child abuse.

Both were being held in lieu of $1.1 million bail and are expected to appear in Superior Court in Manteca on Thursday pending the filing of charges by prosecutors.

A third suspect, 43-year-old Caren Ramirez, is being sought in connection with the alleged abuse as well as a felony warrant for an earlier incident in which she allegedly beat the boy, police said. Ramirez may be staying with a brother in East Palo Alto, police said. She pleaded no contest last year to child abuse in Sacramento County and was sentenced to five years' probation, but it was revoked in April, court records show.

There was no legal relationship between the married couple and the boy, who ran away last year from a foster home in Sacramento, police said. Ramirez's relationship with the boy and the circumstances of the alleged kidnapping were not immediately known.

The couple have four children, none of them older than 9, who have been put in the custody of social services. Neighbors on Tennis Lane in central Tracy said that they used to see the 17-year-old doing chores outside, and that although tall, the skinny boy looked much younger than his age.

The boy, whose name was not released, got up after vaulting over the wall, picked up the chain on his ankle and limped into the In-Shape Sports Club on South Tracy Boulevard about 3:30 p.m. Monday, authorities said. He had bright blue eyes but was dirty and emaciated, and the chain had cut into his right ankle, which was swollen, investigators said.

"He looked like he was covered in soot - not necessarily dirt, but a fine, dark soot," said Chuck Ellis, district manager for the gym. "He had cuts on his arm and his back and his head."

The boy begged, "Hide me, hide me, please," before hunkering into a crouch underneath the counter and covering his face, Ellis said. "He was shaking so bad."

Employees called 911 and wrapped him in towels and gave him bottled water, which he gulped down. He repeated, "They're coming to get me," Ellis said.

He put the towels over his face and peeked around them, said assistant general manager Lea Leonardo. The boy told Leonardo that he was 16, apparently not realizing that he had turned 17 on Sept. 15, she said.

"The victim said he was held against his will," police spokesman Matt Robinson said at a news conference Tuesday.

The boy had apparently been staying in the garage of the couple's home, police Capt. John Espinoza said. Police were trying to determine how long he had been there.

The boy was taken to a local hospital; his condition was not released. Nurses asked what he wanted to eat and bought him pizza after he told them he hadn't eaten it in a year, Leonardo said.

On her MySpace page, Lau said her four children were ages 1 to 9. She described herself as a stay-at-home mother, a Daisy Girl Scouts leader and die-hard Oakland Raiders fan who is "happily married to a man who I love to death."

Schumacher, she wrote, "is my best friend and a wonderful father to our four kids and I wouldn't trade him for anything in this world."

The couple moved in about three years ago, said neighbor Rachel Portillo, 47. She said she first noticed the teenage boy there about a year and a half after the family moved in. "He came out, he did chores and would throw the garbage out," Portillo said. She added that she hadn't seen him recently.

Portillo's daughter, Marina Alvarez, 28, said she was shocked to learn that the small boy she saw taking groceries inside the home was 17. "I thought he was 13," Alvarez said. "The way he interacted with the other children made it seem like he was very young."

Schumacher worked as a contractor for a cable company, Portillo said. He was quiet and had a calm disposition, she said. Lau was more outspoken and was often outside talking on the phone and paying attention to the comings and goings in the neighborhood, Portillo said. Lau would sometimes make comments to Portillo such as, "I saw your husband leave," she said.

"She was a busybody, but I think the little guy was doing a lot of her work," Portillo said, referring to the 17-year-old boy.

Lau would invite Portillo's family over for barbecues, but Portillo said she distanced herself because the couple tended to "talk like adults in front of children. Just cussing and just talking adult stuff, things that kids shouldn't even hear