A husband and wife were charged Thursday with kidnapping and torturing in connection with a California teenager that showed up abused and shackled to a California fitness center.

Authorities told TV station KCRA he was sometimes kept shackled inside the couple's home and abused with a baseball bat, belt and knife. The boy's one-time guardian also was charged with similar allegations.

Kelly Layne Lau, a Girl Scout troop leader, and husband Michael Schumacher, of Tracy, were charged with 13 counts of abuse and former guardian Caren Ramirez, whom the boy called an aunt, was charged with 10 counts.

Lau, Schumacher and Ramirez were also charged with corporal injury to a child, child abuse and aggravated mayhem, which the San Joaquin County District Attorney's office said could yield life sentences if they are convicted

The case started to unfold when the teen showed up at a fitness club called In-Shape City Monday with a chain locked to his ankle. He told gym personnel he had just fled his captors.

The boy was eventually taken to a hospital for treatment. He was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and was turned over to child protective services workers.

Robinson was reluctant on Wednesday to offer more details about the boy's condition, adding that the investigation is still going on. Gym manager Chuck 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. Police had been looking for Ramirez after they arrested 30-year-old Kelly Layne Lau and 34-year-old Michael Schumacher.