Boy, 12, died ‘suspicious’ death at Trails Carolina therapy camp

The 12-year-old boy who died just one day after arriving at a controversial North Carolina therapy wilderness camp suffered a “suspicious” death that does not appear to be from natural causes, police said.

The unidentified pre-teen had been dead “for some time” when he was found unresponsive and not breathing Saturday morning inside his cabin at Trails Carolina Camp in Lake Toxaway, the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

He had been “transported per parents” from New York to the therapy camp less than 24 hours earlier.

The boy was then assigned to a cabin with other minors and four other adult staff, all of whom have since been placed on leave, according to the camp.

When the boy died, and what caused his death remains unclear, but forensic pathologists stated it “appeared to not be natural,” the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators executed a search warrant Tuesday at the camp, as well as a secondary location more than 30 miles away — where police say Trails Carolina Camp moved the other campers who had been in the cabin where the 12-year-old died.

“Trails Carolina Camp has not completely cooperated with the investigation,” investigators said.

The self-described “wilderness camp for troubled youth” railed against the sheriff’s office assessment in a statement Thursday, claiming it “does not present an accurate account of the facts.”

Trails Carolina said that preliminary findings don’t suggest foul play was involved or that other campers were involved. Those who shared a cabin with the dead boy were moved to minimize the traumatic effects of his death, the organization claimed.

Its own internal investigation and an investigation by outside professionals found no evidence that the program failed to supervise or caused harm or that the facility’s conditions were unsafe or unhealthy, the program said.

Additionally, Trails Carolina claimed its staff had been fully cooperative with the investigation and had made themselves available for interviews.

“Any assertion to the contrary is false, reckless and defamatory,” the program said.

Trails Carolina, which is located about 35 miles southwest of Asheville, describes itself as a nature-based therapy program that helps 10- to 17-year-olds “work through behavioral or emotional difficulties, build trusting relationships with their family and peers and achieve academic success.”

The program — which costs up to $715 per day, depending on a student’s age — has not been without controversy, however.

A former employee blasted Trails Carolina in 2022 for failing to provide its troubled youth with the professional treatment and therapy it promised, as well as its use of restraints against campers who posed problems for staff.

Years earlier, a 17-year-old camper succumbed to hypothermia in 2017 after running away from the program.

Trails Carolina is one of dozens of so-called “troubled teen” facilities in the US that have come under scrutiny in recent years as survivors — including Paris Hilton — recount the abuses they endured.

With Post Wires