Two Bronx teens were discovered Monday bruised and emaciated after being held captive since January — a months-long hell in which they were whipped, stabbed and tortured by the biological son of their deceased adoptive mother, according to authorities.
Police arrested Michael Ramos, 34, at his Burke Ave. apartment in Lavonia after responding to a call of a domestic disturbance and discovering a house of horrors.
The first indication that something was amiss at the home was an unregistered black Ruger 9-mm pistol with the registration scratched off lying on the dining room table, according to police. The weapon had a live round in the chamber, ready to fire, and 16 more bullets in the magazine, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Bronx District Attorney’s office.
A 13-year-old boy inside the apartment appeared gaunt, with swollen eyes and bruises on his body, according to an affidavit by Officer Kelby Castulo, who responded to the address. A 14-year-old girl, who was also found inside the unit, told police that the children had not been allowed to leave since January.
Their adoptive mother died in December of unknown causes and the kids fell into the custody of Ramos, who would repeatedly beat and threaten them, prosecutors said.
He kept them in a room with a lock that could only be opened from the outside, according to court papers.
On several occasions, the girl told police, Ramos would hold the pistol to their heads and say, “Someone is going to die today. Do you want to die today? Open your mouth.”
If the children refused to open their mouths, Ramos would pistolwhip them in the head, Castulo said in his account.
Other times, Ramos would club them with a wooden bat, a metal bat and a black tension rod or he would whip them with an extension cord, according to court records.
Once Ramos rubbed his hands with A+D ointment, sometimes used for diaper rash, then pull on black motorcycle gloves and punch the children in the head and body, prosecutors say.
The girl told cops that the suspect stabbed her and the boy with a fork in the face and in the knees, causing puncture wounds that would bleed. Ramos also cut and scrapped the teen girl’s face with a samurai sword, she told police.
Jacobi Hospital pediatrician Dr. Olga Jimenez treated the kids after police freed them from captivity.
She found that the kids had injuries in various stages of healing, like linear marks that showed they had been whipped with an electrical cord.
The doctor also found four symmetrical circles on the boy’s thighs and shins that could have been caused by a belt found in the apartment.
Ramos was arrested and charged with child endangerment, unlawful imprisonment, assault and several counts of criminal possession of a weapon. At his arraignment later Wednesday afternoon, he was remanded into custody.
The Administration for Children Services declined to comment on the matter, citing state law that prohibits providing case information.
Ramos would have had to petition Family Court for custody of the children after his mother died. It’s unclear if he did so.
On Wednesday evening, news of Ramos’ arrest had spread throughout the Eastchester Gardens Houses, where he lived.
A neighbor, who declined to give her name, said she hadn’t thought the kids still lived in the apartment after their adoptive mother, Carmen Shadon, died in 2021.
“He had two kids hostage,” the neighbor said. “Both of them were mentally delayed. I haven’t seen the brother and sister since Carmen died several years ago.”
“It’s just so heartbreaking,” she added.
The woman said that the deceased woman was a good mother.
“She took great care of them,” she said. “She took them to the school bus every day. They looked great.”
She said that there was constant loud music coming through Ramos’ door, but no other outward signs of problems.
“He played loud street music,” the neighbor said. “It was rap 24/7″