Trails Carolina Death
Earlier this month, a 12-year-old participant at a North Carolina wilderness camp was found dead in one of the program’s cabins. Soon after the boy’s death, all of the children were removed from the camp. The Trails Carolina camp has been the focus of a multi-year WBTV investigation, and this was not the first death there. Furthermore, there are more deaths and injuries in the nation’s youth outdoor camps.
We’ll talk about the objectives of residential treatment camps, also referred to as wilderness camps for teenagers, the justifications given by families for sending their children there, and the firsthand accounts of some campers.
We’ll also talk about the investigation at Trails Carolina and the circumstances behind this month’s camper death.GUESTS: Nicole Okoren, a journalist who covered residential treatment camps for The Guardian; Meg Appelgate, co-founder and CEO of Unsilenced; Nick Ochsner, executive producer for investigations at WBTV and lead investigative reporter; and Alan Mortensen, attorney with Mortensen & Milne Law.
Trails Carolina Death: All Details
A 12-year-old child was discovered dead a day after arriving at a North Carolina wilderness camp; this is the latest occurrence at a camp that authorities claim has not been completely forthcoming with the investigation. As a result, state officials are ordering the program to cease accepting new admissions.
According to a media release from the camp and the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office, the kid passed away at Trails Carolina on February 3.
Although the cause of the boy’s death has not yet been established, the sheriff’s office stated that an autopsy had shown that his death was “not natural”. In relation to the death, two search warrants were carried out on the grounds of the camp.
As stated by the state Department of Health and Human Services, the camp has not “completely cooperated with the investigation,” according to the sheriff’s office. According to the agency, “Trails Carolina prevented access to the camp’s children until Feb. 6,” which was stated by the Asheville Citizen Times, a member of the USA TODAY Network, two days after state social workers had initially visited the location.
The camp maintained in their statement that they have cooperated and that “any assertion to the contrary is false, reckless, and defamatory.”
“Our staff has voluntarily presented themselves for interviews with law enforcement and other related public agencies, and have fully cooperated with the local law enforcement’s investigation,” the camp said in a statement. “Trails staff initiated life-saving efforts and called EMS and the sheriff.”
Health and Human Services officials Mark Benton and Susan Osborne requested in writing to Trails Carolina executive director Jeremy Whitworth that new camper admissions be put on hold until health regulators had completed their inquiry.
The agency demanded that at least one staff member remain alert when one or more children are asleep and that bivy bags—collapsible, weatherproof, one-person shelter bags—be stopped in their use.
During continuing investigations, officials said law enforcement, state employees, and health regulators must have “unlimited and unannounced access” to cabins, campsites, camp staff, and camp clients. The Department of Health and Human Services in North Carolina has granted the camp a license.
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The youngster, who will remain anonymous and is only known as CJH, was already “cold to the touch” when police arrived, according to the search warrants, and was laying on a mat on the floor of a bunk house.
The warrant stated, “CJH was lying on his back with his knees bent upward toward the sky and his arms on his chest.”
The warrant stated that although the youngster was dressed in a hoodie and t-shirt, his underwear and pants were positioned near to his shoulder. None of the staff members were able to explain their presence to the detectives.
The youngster “began to foam at the mouth, which could’ve indicated that he ingested some sort of poison,” according to the sheriff’s office, when detectives rolled the boy’s corpse over.
Trails Carolina, a therapeutic wilderness program, states that it is “dedicated to helping teens work through behavioral or emotional difficulties, build trusting relationships with their family and peers, and achieve academic success.” Camp has been the subject of inquiries in the past. But earlier inquiries have focused on the camp.
• A former camp attendee filed a lawsuit against the camp one week after CJH passed away, alleging that the program disregarded her concerns of sexual harassment during her 2016 stay. Twenty-year-old Trails Carolina is accused of “negligent, reckless, wanton, and tortious acts and omissions” in a lawsuit filed on Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The lawsuit is related to sexual assault the victim endured when she was twelve years old.
• Former pupils said to WBTV in 2021 that their situation had gotten worse as a result of enrolling. They told stories of being cut off from basic hygienic supplies and showers for weeks while camping. They also disclosed to WBTV that they had limited time spent with a licensed therapist and had suffered from emotional and psychological damage.
• Two weeks after the 17-year-old walked out of the camp in November 2014, his body was discovered in a stream, according to WYFF. According to the publication, 17-year-old Alec Lansing injured his hip while climbing a tree and collapsed, succumbing to hypothermia. According to a deputy with the local sheriff’s office, workers at the camp waited five hours before asking for help; had they called sooner, the adolescent could have been found alive, according to a report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner that WBTV cited in its story on the death inquiry.
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FAQs
On which age Trails Carolina become dead?
12
