Shackled teen was beaten daily

Shumacher speaks to ABC7 about torture case
Thursday, December 04, 2008 10:14 AM
By Alan Wang and Laura Anthony TRACY, CA (KGO) -- Kelly Shumacher speaks exclusively to ABC7's Alan Wang from jail and the details unravel.

The story gets more disturbing at every turn. On Wednesday night, ABC7's Alan Wang got an exclusive jailhouse interview with Kelly Schumacher, a woman accused in taking part in kidnapping and torture of a teenager.

Kelly Schumacher is being held in a maximum security portion of the San Joaquin County Jail. Wang says they were separated by a glass window and for 45 minutes she answered all of his questions.

Schumacher said the boy was, often times, chained to the coffee table while the family carried on with their daily lives. Then there were times he walked around freely.

Schumacher said they met Caren Ramirez through a mutual friend. They invited her and the boy, who they believed was her son, to live with them. She says Ramirez instructed them to discipline the boy the same way she did. Schumacher admits she hit the boy in the stomach and arm, and used an aluminum bat to hit him in the knee at least five times. She says her husband Mike hit him less than she did. Toward the end of the summer, Schumacher says the beatings were daily.

Wang asked Schumacher what Ramirez did and she said: "She burned him with a bat. She stuck it in the fireplace and pressed it against him ... I knew it was wrong in the back of my head."

But she did it because she was afraid Ramirez would hurt her children. Schumacher says only Ramirez could feed the teenage boy. She, her husband, her four children and Ramirez, would eat at the table while the boy watched in the living room.

She says he got a shower once a week or every other week. Schumacher said Ramirez, "Made him take it outside in the backyard with a hose. Then she took a pitcher of hot water and threw it on him."

On Monday, Schumacher says she was watching TV with her kids, Ramirez was upstairs, and that's when the boy bolted out the door and hopped over the wall. She said Ramirez told her to drop her off at the 99 Cent Store. She said that's the last time she saw her and 20 minutes later the police arrived.
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http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=6534730