State officials say they are removing children from the care of Trails Carolina, a therapy camp in western North Carolina where a 12-year-old boy died earlier this month.
The Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Social Services, along with officials from the state Department of Health and Human Services, have been investigating the camp since a boy died Feb. 3.
“Action needed to be taken to ensure the health and safety of the children,” DHHS said in a brief statement Friday morning. State officials said any new admissions to the camp are suspended.
The county department of social services is caring for the children and their parents have been notified, DHHS said.
The camp is based at Lake Toxaway, about 35 miles southwest of Asheville in the North Carolina mountains.
Trails Carolina said it was cooperating with the investigations into what happened leading to the boy’s death the day after he arrived at the camp.
“Trails maintains there is no evidence of criminal conduct or suspicious acts, based upon all knowledge available to us and information and statements from involved agencies,” the camp said in a statement Monday.
“Trails and all related personnel have not been charged with any crimes. Knowing the truth about what caused the loss of this young boy’s life is what matters, and we eagerly await the report by the chief medical examiner,” the camp said.
The camp billed itself as a wilderness therapy program for children 10 to 17 years old.
The cause of the boy’s death is still under investigation, according to the sheriff’s office. They boy’s body was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Winston-Salem because investigators said the cause of dealth did not appear to be natural.
The boy got to the camp less than 24 hours before he died, according to the sheriff’s office. The boy was brought to the camp from New York by two men on Feb. 2, the sheriff’s office said.
The next morning, the camp called 911 and said the boy was not breathing, according to search warrants released by the sheriff’s office.
When first responders got to the camp, the boy’s body was “cold to the touch,” the warrants said.
Camp counselors told investigators that the boy slept his first night in a “bivvy” in one of the cabins, the warrants said. The bivvy is similar to a one-person tent, and it had an alarm on the zipper to make sure the boy did not get out, according to the sheriff’s office.
Camp officials told investigators they checked on the boy at midnight, 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. before he was found dead at 7:45 a.m.
Investigators said the camp would not let them speak with the four other children who were in the cabin or tell social service workers where they were.
Trails Carolina rejected the sheriff’s accusation that the camp was not cooperative with the investigation.
“Trails asked parents’ permission for any children involved to speak with law enforcement and state regulatory agencies, and we complied with each parent’s preference, as we are required to do,” the camp said in a statement. “Children were moved from the area to protect them from seeing what was happening, not to avoid investigators.”