TRANSYLVANIA COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — An autopsy report is shedding light after a child died earlier this year at a troubled teen camp in western North Carolina.
An autopsy report states that a 12-year-old boy, who died less than 24 hours after arriving at the Lake Toxaway-based camp, died of “smothering” and ruled it a homicide.
“No significant natural disease was present to have caused or contributed to death. Non-specific findings included swelling of the brain. Mild bruising was present on the left thigh and leg without significant internal injuries,” the report states.
“His medications were sequestered and reviewed independently by law enforcement, and the medical examiner. The only irregularity noted was the absence of 3 clonidine tablets. No medical administration records were identified for the decedent at the camp and it is unclear if he took any of the missing medication.”
Clonidine is an “antihypertensive drug that lowers blood pressure and heart rate by relaxing the arteries and increasing the blood supply to the heart,” according to the National Institute of Health.
The boy had arrived at Trails Carolina in early February, taken from his home in New York “by two gentlemen with an escort company.” The report said that he refused to speak to anyone at camp during processing until he spoke to his parents in New York, who had paid to have him taken to North Carolina due to reported behavioral issues.
“As with all first-night campers, his mattress and bedding were placed on the floor with a counselor beside him,” the investigative report from the OCME states. “The set up was to place thick mil plastic on the mat, on top of which a mummy sleeping bag was placed, decedent lays in the sleeping bag, which has a zipper alarm, then placed in a bivy, or one-man tent, so the counselors can hear movement.
“He states that at [10 p.m.], the decedent was restless and mumbling in his sleep. He states the decedent was talking and restless in his sleep around [11 p.m.] as well, so they took him out of [his] sleeping bag. He falls asleep and is awakened to go back into [the] sleeping arrangement. The counselor states that at midnight, the decedent was restless and mumbling in his sleep, which was accompanied by ‘thrashing about’ according to his counselor, however, there is no known Seizure history. He states that subsided and that was the last event.
“The next morning, the decedent was found on his right side, his head was at the foot of the tent, which tapers on the end. They state that he was cold to touch and unresponsive.”
Just after 8 a.m. on Feb. 3, a call to emergency services reported that the boy was not breathing.
“After emergency medical personnel arrived, it was determined that he was already beyond life-saving measures due to rigor mortis being present, indicating he had likely been dead for several hours,” the report said.
The report notes that commercially available bivy products include “a common warning” indicating that opening “should not be fully secured as it may lead to condensation and breathing restriction.” In this case, however, the report states that “the outer, waterproof opening was fully secured and closed with an audible alarm which could not be opened by the decedent and the entire bivy was also partially surrounded by a thick plastic sheet ‘canoe’ under and on the sides of the bivy.”
“These support restriction of breathing due to these external factors,” the autopsy said. “It is unclear if elevated temperature (hyperthermia) may have also played a role in death since he was partially undressed and the way the sleeping area was constructed could have resulted in increased environmental temperature. He was placed into this compromised sleeping area by other(s) and did not have the ability to reasonably remove himself from the situation with the alarm securing the opening. The standard protocol was deviated from due to using a damaged bivy and securing the outer weather-resistant door instead of the inner mesh panel. Lastly, the counselors could not check on him as they should due to the opaque nature of the outer panel, preventing them from potentially noting the problem and delivering aid before he died.
“With this combination of factors, the death is best certified as homicide.”
Background
Trails Carolina was a wilderness camp located in Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, that worked with children ages 10 to 17. It described itself as “dedicated to helping teens work through behavioral or emotional difficulties, build trusting relationships with their family and peers, and achieve academic success.” The camp charged up to $715 a day in tuition and a $4,900 fee for children to enroll.
NCDHHS ordered the camp to stop admitting children, in a document obtained by WLOS, accusing the camp of denying the Department of Social Services access to the children for days and ordering them to “discontinue use of bivy bags for any purpose for all children or adults at the camp through the conclusion of all investigations in this matter.”
Trails Carolina denied law enforcement access to the other children who had been sleeping in the same bunk.
The camp subsequently had its operating license revoked by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in the months following the boy’s death.
This was not the first death in Trails Carolina history.
A child, Alec Lansing, died in 2014. According to his autopsy report, Lansing broke his hip and succumbed to hypothermia. A report made at the time by Blue Ridge Now stated that he had left the trail around 2:30 p.m. and had been reported missing later that evening.
NCDHHS has a history of disciplinary measures against the camp with five “Statements of Deficiencies” issued between 2019 and 2023, the most recent issued in June, stating that multiple children at the camp were physically restrained.
The camp noted in its paperwork, “Seclusion, physical restraint and isolation time-out may be employed only by staff who have been trained and have demonstrated competence in the proper use of and alternatives to these procedures. Facilities shall ensure that staff authorized to employ and terminate these procedures are retrained and have demonstrated competence at least annually.”
In the missive sent to Trail Carolina after the child’s death, NCDHHS wrote, “Further, we want to remind you that the use of restrictive interventions must be reported as outlined in the IRIS manual for which Trails Carolina is subject and must adhere to.”
Trails Carolina is also facing a lawsuit from a woman who alleges that when she was 12 years old, she was raped by another camper while staying at Trails Carolina and that authority figures within the camp dismissed concerns about the camper and did not remove her from the victim’s bunk despite multiple complaints of being sexually assaulted.
Troubled Teen Industry
Trails Carolina appeared to follow the model of “wilderness therapy camps” that are part of the larger “troubled teen industry.” This industry has long been at the center of controversy due to questions about efficacy, methodology and the loose regulations around them in some states.
In a report written for the University of New Hampshire in 2021, the researcher writes, “Adolescents are sent to these facilities for a myriad of reasons, ranging from severe mental health symptoms to more mundane forms of misbehavior (e.g., truancy). Parents are often manipulated through fear tactics into believing their children desperately need this type of facility, and are then manipulated to not believe their children if they say anything bad about the facility.”
“Survivors report physical abuse, exploitation (human trafficking), and several types of psychological torment, including harsh discrimination and LGBTQ+ conversion therapy.”
People who have attended these camps in the past also spoke to The Guardian about the experience, with one young woman describing how she was painfully restrained for self-harming behaviors and covering her sleeping bag with a tarp that was pinned to the floor with heavy jugs to prevent her from running away in the night.
The misuse of restraints, according to The Guardian, is prevalent in these kinds of facilities and was one of the things that Trails Carolina was cited for by NCDHHS.
