A 12-year-old boy died less than 24 hours after arriving at a North Carolina wilderness camp for troubled adolescents, according to authorities, who said the child’s death “appeared to not be natural.”
The boy, who has not been publicly identified, was found dead at Trails Carolina Camp in Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, on the morning of Feb. 3, the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office said. The day before, he had been “transported per parents by two men from New York to Trails Carolina Camp,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, adding that the “death appeared suspicious since he had arrived at the camp less than 24 hours prior.”
The boy had been assigned to a cabin with other students and four staff members when he got to the camp. Shortly after 8 a.m. the next morning, staff discovered he was not breathing, officials said. The staff said that they had done CPR, but when emergency responders arrived, “rescue efforts were initiated and then stopped as the child appeared to be deceased for some time,” the sheriff’s office statement said.
Following an autopsy earlier this week, a forensic pathologist said the boy’s death “appeared to not be natural but the manner and cause of death is still pending,” according to the sheriff’s office.
The camp told officials it placed the staff members assigned to the boy’s cabin on leave, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators executed search warrants for two areas of Trails Carolina and are continuing their investigation, the sheriff’s office said, but “Trails Carolina Camp has not completely cooperated.”
Trails Carolina disputed that in a statement issued Thursday through a public relations firm, saying its staff has “fully cooperated” and that the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office’s statement “does not present an accurate account of the facts nor the current state of the investigation.”
Trails Carolina also said it has “conducted an internal investigation of this incident and the Trails facility has been investigated by outside professionals who are subject-matter experts,” and neither found evidence that the camp caused any harm or had improper supervision or unsafe conditions. It was not clear from the statement what type of experts conducted the external investigation.
In a statement earlier in the week, the camp said that there were few details available about the boy’s death, “only that at approximately 8 a.m. on Feb. 3, staff called 911 when a 12-year-old student did not respond to attempts to wake him.”
It cautioned against speculation and said its priority “has been to acknowledge and respect the unfathomable impact on this family’s life and maintain the integrity of the investigation.”
A controversial history
The boy’s death is the second of a Trails Carolina camper in the last decade. In November 2014, 17-year-old Alec Lansing walked away from the camp, prompting a massive search. His body was later found in a stream, where investigators believed he fell after climbing a tree and breaking his hip, leaving him unable to move. Reports from the time said he died of hypothermia.
A 2021 investigation by WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina, reported that a state Department of Health and Human Services report showed Trails Carolina waited five hours before calling for help to find Alec. The camp was cited for failing to supervise a student and fined $12,000 but was allowed to continue operating, the news outlet said.
Trails Carolina said at the time that it was proud of the work it had done serving children.
“Since its founding, Trails has helped make a difference in the lives of more than 2,800 adolescents,” Trails Carolina told WBTV in 2021. “Seven years have passed since the tragic event in 2014 and we continue to pray for healing and peace for everyone involved.”
Trails Carolina describes itself as an adventure therapy program that aims to “help children and teens who struggle with various mental…
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