Kelly Lau & Michael Schumacher: Livin’ The Dream
December 3, 2008 by Jaded
Kelly Layne Lau (Myspace) & Michael Schumacher
Tracy, CA–Yes, Kelly and her husband MichaelMichael reviews
were living the American dream. Kelly is a Girl Scout leader and a stay-at-home mom. Michael is employed as a contractor for a cable company. They have a home in the ‘burbs, 4 cute-as-a-button little kids, and a dog named Bubba. *Sigh* It all sounds so Leave it to Beaver-ish. Kelly had something June Cleaver never had though…a 17-year-old boy shackled and locked up in the garage. Woot! Every housewife’s dream, right?
Like a scene from a horror flick, a dirty and bruised teen boy, wearing nothing but a pair of baggy boxer shorts, burst through the door at the In-Shape City Sports Club Monday afternoon. He had a chain, approximately 3 feet long, clamped and locked onto his ankle. He cried out, ‘HideHide reviews me! Hide me, please!’ before curling into a fetal position on the floor underneath the counter. ‘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.’ His ankle was swollen and cut from the chain. He was emaciated…he looked like he couldn’t be much older than 11 or 12. He kept repeating, ‘They’re coming to get me. They’re coming to get me. Don’t let them get me.’ Shocked employees called 911 and wrapped the shaking boy in towels to keep him warm.
Chuck Ellis said the chain was about an inch thick and was padlocked around the boy’s left ankle. Lea Leonardo, assistant manager at the club said, ‘He didn’t know where he was, but he knew his name and his birthday.’ The boy told Leonardoleonardo
that he was 16, apparently not realizing that he had turned 17 on Sept. 15, she said. A member of the club told employees the boy was seen jumping over the 8′ fence of a nearby house before he walked into the fitness center.
Officers arrived to interview the boy, who appeared to be dazed, confused, and very scared. He didn’t know where he was, he didn’t know exactly how long he had been held captive. He was able to give enough information to pinpoint the home from which he escaped and officers immediately sealed off the Schumacher residence. They questioned 30-year-old Kelly Layne Lau and her husband, 34-year-old Michael Schumacher. About 45 minutes later, they were both handcuffed and taken away. Their four children were taken into protective custody. A search of their home found evidence implicating them, but officials are being tight-lipped on the details. Authorities said they believe the boy had been chained to a car seat but picked up a dropped key, unlocked himself and fled when the car stopped. It is believed that he has spent the last year chained up in the garage, starved and abused. Sounds to me like they had themselves a fine little slave.
This is what authorities have been able to figure out so far…child welfare officials took the teen from his abusive father three or four years ago. He was then placed with his aunt, 43-year-old Caren Ramirez. After she was arrested for abusing the boy, he was placed in a foster home. He was reported missing from the foster home in late 2007 after he ran away in search of his family. How the boy ended up with Lau and Schumacher is anyone’s guess right now, but he had been held against his will for about a year. Though Ramirez has visited the home in the past, her relationship with the Schumacher’s is not clear.
A neighbor of Kelly and Michael, Rachel Portillo, said the boy ’seemed to arrive at the house like a friend.’ ‘They (Lau & Schumacher) said it was a friend’s son, they said he’d be going in about a month, then it was three months, then six months, then NovemberNovember reviews. I always wondered, why isn’t he going to school?’ Portillo said her 11-year-old granddaughter spent the night at the Schumacher house one night. The girl told her grandmother that the boy they knew as Kyle slept ‘on a piece of carpet in front of the door to the garage.’ Portillo adds, ‘He never went away, never went anywhere. He’d come out and cut the lawn, but they’d have the blinds open. I think he was being watched.’ He had been seen doing yard work, taking out the trash, and sitting with the family, but he wasn’t allowed to speak to the neighbors.
Kelly Layne Lau and Michael Schumacher now face charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, torture, child endangerment, false imprisonment, and corporal injury to a child. They are being held in San Joaquin County jail on $1.2 million bond. Kelly’s inmate information can be found here, Michael’s inmate information here. They face arraignment on Thursday afternoon. Neither one of them are talking yet. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing the entire story.
As I write this, it has been brought to my attention that Caren Ramirez was arrested late last night. So far, I have no further information regarding her arrest or charges.
Caren (that can’t be a woman) Ramirez
The boy is listed in serious condition at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital. Police will interview him further when he is a little healthier. When nurses asked him what he wanted to eat, his response was, ‘PizzaPizza reviews. I haven’t had pizza in a year.’ I wish him a speedy recovery and the best of luck…I’m sorry he had to be surrounded by shitbags for so long.
This case is still under investigation and I have a feeling that it will be awhile before the whole story comes out. I will keep you updated as more information arises.
11:50 am on December 3rd, 2008
What is wrong with these sick fucks? Apparently they taught their children that holding someone prisoner is okay for the kids not to mention this to anyone. Let’s hope their children will never see their sick parents again, and they undergo much counseling to realize that their parents are messed up, yet they don’t have to be.
Bless that poor boy, and may he fully recover from this terrible ordeal.
11:51 am on December 3rd, 2008
Unbelievable…Jaded you are so right, straight of of a horror flick.
This poor child has been abused and moved around like baggage. My heart feels for him to know no real love or stability.
He is 17 but looks 11 or 12…wow, that just breaks my heart.
I want these bastard to pay a very big price….never see the light of day again. It boggles my mind that these to POS’s can have such lovely children and treat another like complete trash…
Sweet thing, be well and happy.
12:07 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Here is a little tidbit I just picked up from the news….
Ramirez lost custody after she was arrested on felony abuse charges for incidents that began in 2005, Sacramento County court records show. She was accused of using some kind of weapon on two boys, who were 16 and 13, in 2007. In November 2007, Ramirez agreed to a five-year probation on the charges, but she failed to make court appearances and violated the probation. A warrant for her arrest was issued in April.
Neighbors of Schumacher and Lau said they saw Ramirez at the couple’s Tracy home Monday. She visited regularly, and some neighbors said they were told that Ramirez was the boy’s mother.
Chris Sandoval, 17, and his friend Navid Sharifi, 17, said they were outside Monday afternoon on Tennis Lane when the boy apparently made a break, running down the street, then turning toward the health club.
The boy looked like he’d just gotten beat up, Sandoval said. He seemed disoriented and lost, unsure of where to go. Both boys said they noticed the chain around his ankle.
12:20 pm on December 3rd, 2008
What…the…FUCK.
An absolutely riveting write up, SJ. I can’t believe this shit is true. It’s amazing to me how children can fall so completely through the cracks.
12:25 pm on December 3rd, 2008
And this didn’t raise any red flags to her? She chose to look the other way and not get involved. Almost as sickening to me as the assholes who did the chaining and abusing.
12:25 pm on December 3rd, 2008
This MsMiser from the pizzaparty don’t know why I have two logins?
I have such a hard time believing there is God when so many children are abused and or killed everyday. It is so very sad that this world is so filled with evil people.
That cannot be a woman or at least it was not born a woman
11:29 am on December 3rd, 2008
Exactly. In one breath, the neighbors describe a happy and loving family, in the next breath, they talk about how skinny and pale the boy was.
My neighbors could tell you the last time I sneezed….there is no way I’d ever get away with keeping a teen slave.
11:32 am on December 3rd, 2008
You sure can pick ‘em, Jaded. What a terrible ordeal. No, scratch that: it’s been ordeal after ordeal after ordeal for this boy. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, then into the volcano!
Is there no one watching out for children? How could he be removed from TWO abusive households, “disappear” from a foster home, and have NO ONE out looking for him? How could neighbors see him and not call police? The little girl who slept over at the house told her parents he slept on a scrap of carpet on the floor….yet NO ONE did anything.
Kudos to this poor boy for having the strength to escape. At 17 years-old, he’s not even going to be eligible for help from the state for much longer. But I suspect he still needs years of nurturing and guidance. Who’s going to provide it, when he’s almost a grown man?
This sucks. That is my official assessment.
11:57 am on December 3rd, 2008
liek the case here in Syracuse, people don’t want to get involved, don’t want to rock the boat etc. As the woman on the story last night though said, there is NO excuse for turning a blind eye to the abuse of a child. NONE
12:12 pm on December 3rd, 2008
NERDZILLA78 you are SO right! I thought the same thing! Can you imagine hearing that about a child and then ignoring it like it’s nothing to be concerned about!?! I HATE people like that. He could have been saved earlier and endured so much less torture if she hadn’t ignored that information. At the very least she could have questioned it or maybe investigated a little on her own, scope it out, ask questions, obviously that’s not right to hear something like that!
Her MySpace was weird! Nice “sexy wanna be” background and music. Lots of pics of the kids with “silly” captions under them, I wondered how she can have so much love for her kids (unless it’s all for show and they are abused behind closed doors who knows…) and then torture a child! I don’t get it but there I go again trying to understand how someone could do something so EVIL. I wonder if Kelly and Michael were always mentally ill or what.
I feel for her 4 kids as well having their lives uprooted– poor things. I am going to have nightmares about that poor 17 yr old and I am still emotionally recovering from those girls Brianna and Ashton at the nursing home abusing elders! AHHHHH!!!!!!!
12:18 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Just testing the comments. We got a strange time thing going on.
12:42 pm on December 3rd, 2008
I looked to buy a home in Tracy about 15 years ago, decided to stay in the bay area, I’ve tried to find more info on this case but not getting anywhere other than aunt Cruella de Vil was captured in Berkley
and Lau’s mother claiming she’s gullible and flying up from LA area to be with her
fricking nut case, I’m gullible, doesn’t everyone keep a slave chained in the garage
12:42 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Things should be back to normal. Sorry for the timewarp.
12:43 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Another prime exampe of why I hate people….
Just went to her myspace page, and she has a blog about her daughter’s recital or something. Didn’t read all of it, I hate reading stuff typed in alls caps; gives me a headache. Tried to leave her a comment on the blog, but they have to be approved first.
“It’s nice that you can be so happy about your children when you have one locked up in your garage……. Enjoy prison bitch, I bet Big Bertha will have no problems tying you up to your bed and ass ramming you.”
I doubt that will ever be approved for the world to look at, but at least you guys can love it for awhile.
1:11 pm on December 3rd, 2008
I sent her something along the lines of stupid bitch, cunt, blah,blah, blah. Can’t really remember but I know I called her a cunt!!
As for the neighbors, maybe the little girl tends to be a liar. Maybe they didn’t believe her. Hell, I’d still call to see if they could do a welfare check as I have before. My neighbor ended up getting a ticket because they didn’t cut the lawn(2 ft. high grass) and were told they need to clean out the rooms(had trash against the windows) No children living there. They were all adults.
1:37 pm on December 3rd, 2008
This poor child. After reading so many of these stories, so many of these children forgotten, hurt, lost – my heart aches and breaks for each and everyone. Why is it, that no one cares? That not one neighbor, not one person saw this poor boy and helped him? He ran away from the foster home to find his family? His aunt was visiting him where he was being held and starved? How is this possible, how can this even be?
I pray that he will get all the pizza his little heart desires and all the love and help that I am sure he so desperately needs.
1:47 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Dammit, wrong article. Is there anyway to transfer my 1st comment to the right article? It was supposed to be in the Aaron Saunders article. Imp? Morbid? Anyone?
1:49 pm on December 3rd, 2008
SHE DELETED HER MYSPACE!!! I guess our comments were hurting her feelings!!
2:01 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Uhhh.. Stashrider?
Huh?
2:06 pm on December 3rd, 2008
WTF?? How’d she come up with bail? Do you get computer use in jail (not prison) just normal jail – on your 2nd day there? That’s fucked up!
Damn – I never got to see either myspace. lol. I feel cheated! Maybe the bitch ass will come on here and try to defend having a child chained up for a year!
I have an idea — let’s put her in with Leslie. They can take turns chaining up each other and locking each other in a 2×2 box. Or — just chain them both in the 2×2 box and say “fuck it”.
2:06 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Wrong article I said, wrong article! Don’t you dare judge me or I’ll start writing in all caps and in one long run-on sentence.
I worked a double last night and then got smashed on some wine. My brain cells are still trying to boot up.
2:06 pm on December 3rd, 2008
hahaha–HER “Stash” is getting as thick as his!!!
If you don’t have the balls to wax, then BLEACH LADY, BLEACH!!!
2:13 pm on December 3rd, 2008
WOW…I looked at their inmate info and it states that child beating alone is $10000. i my eyes, that is not enough….and i’m thinking that aunt that said she’s gullible is the one who deleted the account. I don’t think they did, then again, I don’t know how wealthy her family is.
3:23 pm on December 3rd, 2008
I am sickened, scared, heart broken and really angry…all these emotions just shoot thru my veins…I have a 16 year old son. I can’t imagine the fear this poor child had to endure all these months. Boys that age should be chasing girls, hanging out with friends at the mall, not being tortured and abused as this poor child was.
I hate every damn bastard that hurts a child. You are the lowest of humans beings. Nothing in this world would posses me to hurt another for the shear pleasure. I can, however, slice, dice and feed you to the pigs if I see anyone doing that to a child. Those dumb ass neighbors, should be hung too. If my daughter told me that there was a boy sleeping on a piece of carpet in front of a garage door, I would be dialing 911 before she was even finished speaking.
STUPID FUCKERS! Happy Family my ass!
One last thing…this bitch is only 30? She looks more like 50…geez
3:58 pm on December 3rd, 2008
These sick fucks do not look like the Beavers in any fashion of the word, look into those eyes those evil eyes. Need to put them both on the Chain Gang down south. I don’t know what makes these people think that this kinda shit is normal. Why didn’t one of the four kids say anything at school? Sounds to me like the whole family is sick.
4:31 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Dayumm, That bitch is a rough 30.
Interesting the aunt has been arrested, sounds like he may have run away from the foster care and went to her for help finding his family and she hooked him up with these prize winners.
5:00 pm on December 3rd, 2008
HAHAHA! The bitch couldn’t handle a little “constructive critisism.” If she thinks the comments that are left on her myspace are bad, her feelings are really gonna hurt in prison.
And yeah how the hell did she get on myspace to delete it? I highly doubt she had 1.2 Million dollars just sitting somewhere.
Ohhhh wait! I know, she’s gonna be getting some defenders soon, huh? This should be fun! (what a piece of shit)
5:09 pm on December 3rd, 2008
It’s that common theme we hear so many times in cases like this. People knew what was going on but stayed out of it because “it wasn’t our business, family matter blah blah). There is NO excuse for not reporting child abuse, none at all and if it was up to me, anybody that knows abotu abuse and doesn’t stop it should go to jail for five years minimum. Harsh maybe but maybe then we’d have less dead children.
5:22 pm on December 3rd, 2008
There are already law in place to charge those who fail to report abuse. While I agree with the intent of a strong sentence, in practice, that gets messy. The longer the sentence, the higher the burden of proof…and it could be hard to prove that a person was aware of abuse beyond a reasonable doubt when there’s that kind of prison time involved.
6:00 pm on December 3rd, 2008
You’re right ruby – looks like he’s got until September 15 ‘09 to recover from a lifetime of abuse.:(
6:33 pm on December 3rd, 2008
How sad. This kid has not ever had ‘normal’ ever in his life. He’s probably never had any happiness at all in 17 years. Jeez. I hope somebody knows how to help him so he can eventually have a life. I really hope he eventually knows what happiness is. I wonder why he ran away from the foster home, tho?
I hope all three of these douchebags get what they deserve. And Caren is one ugly ass bitch, she oughta be locked up for that alone.
6:42 pm on December 3rd, 2008
If I had a teenage slave chained up in my garage I’d make damn sure he did hair and makeup for me so I wouldn’t look so used up in my mug shot.
7:43 pm on December 3rd, 2008
[...] Kelly Lau & Michael Schumacher: Livin’ The Dream (great post!) California Couple Arrested in the Alleged Kidnapping and Torture of Shackled Teen 2 arrested in alleged torture of teen, who escaped Police arrest aunt in Calif. shackled teen case Shackled Teen’s Aunt Arrested in His Alleged Kidnapping and Torture [...]
9:52 pm on December 3rd, 2008
Where is Peeperann?? This is her department!!
I read about this on AOL last night. There was video there as well. It sounded like he was lucky to have gotten his hands on the key to his shackles. Who knows how long they’d have kept him chained up otherwise.
3:26 am on December 4th, 2008
I pray that this young boy will get the help that he needs.
And to the sick pricks who did this to him, ROT IN PRISON THEN ENJOY HELL!
4:35 am on December 4th, 2008
They could have at least bought him a pizza.
Dang.
7:19 am on December 4th, 2008
I wonder why he ran from the foster home too. He said he ran away so he could find his family. Did he think that he had family out there somewhere that loved and wanted him? I hope he does have someone out there who wants to show him some normalcy. It makes me numb to think about the last few years of his life….
7:51 am on December 4th, 2008
I read about this story the other day, and this boy’s WHOLE life has been a nightmare. Abused by parents, so removed from parents and placed w/ aunt. Abused by her and so placed in foster care (and escaped foster care to try to find his parents; *sniff*. And then he was removed from foster care because he was being abused there, too (that’s what I read the other day). And then he gets in with these aholes. I’m so glad he wasn’t too broken inside, emotionally, to keep from escaping.
10:36 am on December 4th, 2008
I hope whatever kept this kid going through all this will serve him well in the future.
3:10 pm on December 4th, 2008
My Goodness… just read this…
http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/1054647.html
3:38 pm on December 4th, 2008
Oh these fuckers. Burned him with a bat huh? Made him watch the other kids eat? I am afraid the offspring of these abusers may need a wee bit of compassion counseling if they were made to think this was ok.
And WTF- someone knew he was sleeping on a piece of carpet and did NOTHING?! Oh man- I’ll take this kid in and he can play wii and eat pizza, oh and he can help feed the chickens too.
3:47 pm on December 4th, 2008
I saw this on the news,looks like her MySpace was taken down…. buncha asshole caregivers….I hope he got his pizza poor kid. My son is 18 so i can only imagine this poor teenager going thorough this shit…
11:13 am on December 5th, 2008
the more I read the less I understand people, how can people be so psycho, has to be genetic and how do they all find each other?
1:23 pm on December 5th, 2008
http://news.aol.com/article/chained-teen-allegedly-beaten-with-bat/265203
Some updates on the story. There’s a photo gallery w/ pic of the female ass klown (by which I mean Kelly Lau and not the tranny “aunt”) crying–not crying hard enough, bitch!
Some deets follow–I can’t believe what a shitty life this kid has had–with my own insightful comments here and there in brackets
“Lau told KGO-TV of San Francisco in a jailhouse interview a day earlier that the boy and Ramirez, 43, came to live with her family more than a year ago because they had nowhere else to go.
Ramirez instructed Lau and her husband to discipline the boy as she did, Lau said. She said she struck the boy in the knee with a baseball bat at least five times, KGO reported.
[FUCK YOU!]
Lau said she participated in the abuse because she was afraid Ramirez would hurt her own children. Ramirez also burned the boy with an aluminum bat heated in a fireplace, she said.
[FUCK YOU! You were afraid Caren Ramirez would hurt your OWN children? And yet you let Caren Ramirez stay in your house? Fucking liar.]
Ramirez would not let anyone else feed the boy, Lau said, adding that the teen would sit in the living room and watch while the Schumacher family, including their four children, ate meals in the kitchen.
[FUUUUUCK YOU]
Those children, between ages 1 and 9, were placed with Child Protective Services after their parents’ arrest. Authorities have said they showed no signs of abuse.
Ramirez had been the boy’s legal guardian after child welfare officials took him from his abusive father three or four years ago. According to court documents, she pleaded no contest to one felony count of beating the boy.
Authorities had earlier identified Ramirez as the boy’s aunt but said Thursday they learned she was a family friend he called his aunt.
5:33 pm on December 5th, 2008
I think the best thing they can do for this boy is NOT look for any of his relatives. They all sound like dirt.
2:28 am on December 6th, 2008
They made the kid sleep in the fireplace…kept him drugged up and lethargic.
The boy named Kyle R. told police he was frequently beaten. He said he didn’t eat for days at a time and was forced to sleep in a fireplace, where he was often chained up.
According to newly released court records, he told investigators that on one occasion when he was asleep, one of his abusers lit the fireplace, badly burning his arm.
Items taken by investigators during a search of the home include: a fireplace grate and bricks, carpeting, digital cameras, cell phones and all electronic devices, a couch, a table, a male juvenile’s clothing, liquor, medications, knives found in the kitchen and master bedroom; and nylon tie downs, tape and chains (attached to a punching bag) found in the garage.
The boy told police he was never allowed to leave the home and was always chained to the fireplace or to a heavy table. When officers arrested Schumacher and Lau on Monday, they said they saw a blanket inside the fireplace.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_11152689
2:41 am on December 10th, 2008
(12-09) 21:57 PST Tracy — A man who lives next door to the Tracy home where a husband and wife and their houseguest allegedly tortured and beat a 16-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday night in connection with the case, authorities said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/09/BALK14LC1O.DTL
12:30 pm on April 8th, 2009
Just an awful coincidence for the Tracy community that Sandra Cantu was found dead this week. What a horrible place to live right now!
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