In 2010, three adults from Tracy, California were sentenced to at least 30 years in prison each after they pleaded guilty to crimes committed against a 16-year-old boy named Kyle Ramirez, as reported by the Daily Mail. Kyle was in the care of his legal guardian, Caren Ramirez, when he was tortured and held captive for more than a year (per CBS News). Caren, together with Michael Schumacher and his wife Kelly Lau (pictured), beat up, tortured, and starved the teen. He was kept in chains and slept in a fireplace. After more than a year in captivity, Kyle was able to escape and call the authorities.

In court, Kyle testified that the three adults, as well as a neighbor named Anthony Waiters, abused him, as they claimed he bullied Schumacher and Lau's children. He was also tortured for forgetting to do chores and not doing them the way Lau wanted them to be done. Kyle recalled that he heard them talking about ways to kill him, too, per SF Gate. "I remember they said they would try to cut me up and everything and throw me in the delta," he testified. The transcript of horrific things the teen endured was more than 900 pages long and included details such as being bathed in scalding water, choked with a belt, cut with a knife, and hit with a baseball bat. According to Kyle, Schumacher and Lau's 5-year-old daughter was nice to him and gave him water or candy. More than 30 people, including the couple's children, testified against the defendants.

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