CALIFORNIA - INVESTIGATORS say a 16-year-old boy was kept chained in a fireplace, choked with a belt and forced to drink and take drugs during more than a year of captivity in a Northern California home.

Tracy police Detective Nate Cogburn questioned the boy after he turned up at a local gym last week with a chain around his leg.

Cogburn said in a search warrant affidavit that the boy reported being seriously burned when someone lit a fire in the fireplace while he was chained there. He said the boy also described being choked with a belt until he lost consciousness.

A couple and the teen's one-time guardian are charged with his torture and kidnapping. They're expected in court later on Monday. -- AP