CA - Schumacher (captor of escaped/tortured boy) interview

http://webblog.abc7news.com/2008/12/the-exclusive-i.html

The exclusive interview with Kelley Lau Schumacher
By Alan Wang

In 18 years of reporting, I have never conducted a jailhouse interview
like this one. At about 7:30 pm, I arrived at the John J. Zunino
Sheriff's Operations Center and Jail Complex in San Joaquin County.
The intent was to intercept and interview the mother of 30-year-old
Kelly Schumacher as she came in to visit her daughter at the maximum
security jail. Schumacher and her husband, 34-year-old Michael
Schumacher are charged with kidnapping and torturing a 17-year-old boy
who escaped from their home on Monday with a chain still shackled to
his ankle. We had a lead that her mother was on her way up from
Southern California, but we had no idea what she looked like. As I
waited with family and friends of other inmates, a sheriff's deputy
began calling everyone for the 8 o'clock visiting hour. About 20
people lined up at the metal detector, so I decided to ask if I could
sign up for a visit too. To my surprise the receptionist asked me for
a driver's license and the inmate I wanted to visit. Then she told me
to get in line with the rest of the men, women, and children who were
there to see their friends and loved ones in jail.

I got off the elevator and walked down several long corridors with no
windows or doors, until I finally reached visiting room number 31. I
sat down on a stainless steel stool bolted to the floor in a three-
foot by three-foot room. I figured I would give it about 10 minutes
then go back downstairs and begin writing a recap of the day's events
for the eleven o'clock news. About five minutes passed and I got a
second surprise. In walked Kelly Schumacher in her red jail scrubs. We
were separated by a glass window. She had no idea who I was, but she
seemed elated to see me. I introduced myself as a reporter and anchor
for ABC7 News in San Francisco and told her I wanted to give her an
opportunity to tell her side of the story that has made national
headlines.

She explained to me that in 2007 her husband met a woman named Caren
Ramirez through a mutual friend. She didn't have anywhere to live so
the Schumachers invited Ramirez and a 17-year-old boy, who they
believed was her son, to live with them until Thanksgiving of that
year. (To date, police say they're not sure how Ramirez is related to
the boy.) Thanksgiving passed and the guests were still living in
their home.

Schumacher says Ramirez was very imposing and instructed them to
discipline the boy the same way she did. She admitted hitting the boy
in the stomach and arm, the same way Ramirez did. She says her
husband, 34-year-old Michael Schumacher, also hit the boy but not as
much as she did. The beatings were regular... a couple of times a
week. But the mother of four says Ramirez really began abusing the boy
toward the end of the summer. The beatings were daily and Schumacher
admits using an aluminum bat to hit the boy in the knee at least five
times. She says the worst abuse took place when “[Ramirez] burned him
with a bat. She stuck it in the fire place and pressed it against
him."

I asked Schumacher if she understood the severity of these crimes and
she explained that "I knew in the back of my head that it was wrong,"
but said "I felt like I was being influenced. There were times I was
afraid of her (Ramirez). If I didn't do something, I was afraid she
would do something to my kids." All this time she says the boy would
occasionally be chained to the coffee table while the family carried
on with their daily lives. The stay-at-home mom and Girl Scout leader
says the boy would get to shower once a week or every other week. A
shower consisted of Ramirez hosing him down with cold water in the
back yard for three minutes, then pouring a pitcher of hot water over
him.

Schumacher says the first time she tried to feed the boy, Ramirez
slapped the food out of her hand and demanded that she be the only one
to feed him. So at dinner time, Schumacher says she, her husband,
their four children and Ramirez would eat at the dinner table while
the boy sat in the living room and watched. I asked her if she had
ever been abused and she said, "Not that I can remember." I asked if
her husband ever abused her and she admitted that her ex-husband use
to kick and hit her when she was pregnant with her first child.

On the day the emaciated and dirt-covered boy escaped, Schumacher says
she was sitting on the couch with her one-year old son. Her 2-year-old
was napping, and her 5 and 9-year-old daughters were doing their
homework. The boy came down from the upstairs office where he and
Ramirez slept. He had a thick chain padlocked to his ankle and carried
the two-foot slack in his hand. He drank a glass of water then bolted
out the back door in nothing but some over-sized boxer shorts. He
flopped over the backyard wall and into the parking lot of the In-
Shape Sport Center where he begged the managers to hide him.

I'm sure psychologists will have a field day picking this one apart.
It all sounds like a classic case of a dominating abuser taking both
physical and mental control over her victims -- which include the
family as well. But let's keep in mind that some neighbors say they
wouldn't let their children play at the Schumacher's house because the
mother [Kelly Schumacher] yelled and used fowl language in front of
their children. Schumacher claims she never abused the boy in front of
her children, but at least two neighborhood kids tell me they
witnessed her beating the boy and forcing him to eat a dead fly.
Let's face it, this story is twisted on many different levels.

But the final word should come from the Tracy Police Chief who pointed
out to me this kid, a mental and physical captive, had the courage to
hop over that wall. He said most abused children simply want to be
loved and they allow themselves to be beaten and tortured until we
report their deaths.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: CA - Schumacher (captor of escaped/tortured boy) interview
    ... another America with a line of bullshit 40 miles long! ... The exclusive interview with Kelley Lau Schumacher ... She explained to me that in 2007 her husband met a woman named Caren ... Ramirez through a mutual friend. ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Re: CA - Schumacher (captor of escaped/tortured boy) interview
    ... The exclusive interview with Kelley Lau Schumacher ... In 18 years of reporting, I have never conducted a jailhouse interview ... She explained to me that in 2007 her husband met a woman named Caren ... Ramirez through a mutual friend. ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Re: CA - Schumacher (captor of escaped/tortured boy) interview
    ... The exclusive interview with Kelley Lau Schumacher ... In 18 years of reporting, I have never conducted a jailhouse interview ... She explained to me that in 2007 her husband met a woman named Caren ... Ramirez through a mutual friend. ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Re: Down to the wire (yet again)
    ... Thanks for the stats, but I think that it wasn't Häkkinen who was fighting against ... Schumacher in 2003... ... I've had several people reporting that one :-) ...
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