CrimeWatch

TRACY (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― The aunt of a 17-year-old boy who limped into a Tracy gym chained, terrified and begging managers to hide him has been arrested, police said Wednesday.

Caren Ramirez, 43, is the third suspect arrested in the alleged assault and kidnapping of the teen. She was taken into custody about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday after Tracy police received a tip that she was staying at the home of an acquaintance in Berkeley.

Police had been looking for Ramirez after they arrested Kelly Layne Lau, 30, and her husband Michael Schumacher, 34, earlier Tuesday. Lau and Schumacher were in jail in lieu of bail set at nearly $1.2 million each. They were facing charges of torture, kidnapping, false imprisonment, child endangerment, corporal injury to a child and child abuse.

The couple was set to appear in court Thursday. Prosecutors did not know if the couple had attorneys.

Ramirez had become the teen's guardian after child-welfare officials took him from his abusive father three or four years ago, police said. After Ramirez was arrested for allegedly abusing the boy, he was placed in another foster home, which he fled in late 2007, police said.

Since then, the boy's whereabouts hadn't been known until around 4 p.m. Monday, when he entered the fitness center.

Police said Wednesday there had been conflicting reports about how the boy ended up at the gym. First they said they believed the boy had been chained to a car seat but picked up a dropped key, unlocked himself and fled when the car stopped. Tracy police spokesman Matt Robinson said authorities now believe the boy hopped over a fence to get away.

The boy came into the In-Shape Sports Club on Tracy Blvd. in downtown Tracy wearing only boxer briefs and covered in what appeared to be soot, gym manager Chuck Ellis said.

Ellis said the teen was scared someone was going to come after him and asked to be hidden.

"He said, 'Don't let them get me, don't let them get me,'" Ellis said. "He was totally terrified."

The boy said he had been held captive for nearly a year, said Ellis, adding that he looked as if he was only 10 to 12 years old.

The boy has remained at a local hospital in stable condition since Monday, according to police.

"The victim says he was held against his will," Robinson said. "When you have a 17-year-old boy showing up with a bloody ankle from having a chain wrapped around it, it's one of those things for officers to put one and one together. The wounds he had and his physical condition... corroborated his basic statement that he was being held against his will."

Investigators were trying to figure out the connection between the arrested couple and Ramirez, who authorities believe occasionally visited their home.

Ramirez had a prior warrant out for her arrest for assaulting and abusing the 17-year-old, according to Robinson, who said the boy had ended up in the Tracy home having already suffered a long history of abuse.

The boy had been removed from his parents' home by child protective services after reports of abuse. Authorities wanted to place him with a relative and put him in the guardianship of Ramirez, Robinson said.

However, Ramirez was arrested last year for allegedly abusing the boy, and has had a felony warrant out for her arrest and been "on the lam for the past year and a half," Robinson said.

The boy was then put into the group home in Tracy where he had allegedly been burned, beaten with baseball bats, choked with a belt and starved before escaping Monday, police said.

"The big question is how did (Ramirez) come in contact with him again," Robinson said. "We still don't know the connection between Ramirez and the Schumachers, so she's the last piece of this weird puzzle."

Meanwhile, Lau and Schumacher's four young children, two of whom were home when police arrived, were taken into protective custody, authorities said.

On her MySpace Web page, Lau describes herself as a stay-at-home mom, Girl Scout troop leader and said her husband "is my best friend and a wonderful father." She posted many photos of her family, friends and pets.

Lau started serving as a local Girl Scout leader sometime in September, according to the head of the group's regional chapter.

A background check performed before making Lau a Scout leader turned up nothing to cause concern, said Pam Saltenberger, chief executive of Girl Scouts Heart of Central California.

The family's tidy two-story house was decked with two large Christmas wreaths on the front doors. No one answered Tuesday when reporters knocked on the front door.

According to neighbors, the couple seemed to lead lives that revolved around their kids.

Jennifer Foster, 33, said she and Lau became acquaintances through their children, who were neighborhood playmates. Foster said she first noticed an older boy with the family about a year ago.

"She told me that he was a nephew that was staying with them because he was having problems at home," Foster said. The boy was outside frequently, and his appearance never suggested anything unusual was happening behind closed doors, though the last time she saw him was May, she said.

Another neighbor said that more recently, the boy looked unwell.

"The last time I seen him, maybe two weeks ago, we were both taking our cans in from garbage days and he was really skinny and pale," Rachel Portillo said.

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