Officials tell NC wilderness camp to stop admissions after 12-year-old boy found dead

State officials are telling a North Carolina wilderness camp to stop new admissions after a 12-year-old boy was found dead a day after he arrived there, the latest incident at a camp that authorities allege has not been fully cooperative with the investigation.

The boy died on Feb. 3 at Trails Carolina, according to a media statement from the camp, and the Transylvania County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office said an autopsy revealed that the boy's death was "not natural" but the cause of death has not been determined yet. Two search warrants were executed on the camp's property in connection to the death.

The sheriff's office said the camp has not "completely cooperated with the investigation," a claim echoed by the state Department of Health and Human Services. The department said "Trails Carolina prevented access to the camp’s children until Feb. 6," two days after state social workers first reported to the site, as reported by the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.

In their statement, the camp said they've been cooperative, and "any assertion to the contrary is false, reckless, and defamatory."

“Trails staff initiated life-saving efforts and called EMS and the sheriff, and our staff have fully cooperated with the local law enforcement’s investigation, voluntarily presenting themselves for interviews with law enforcement and other related public agencies,” the camp said in their statement.

State demands new admissions be paused

In a letter to the Trails Carolina executive director Jeremy Whitworth, Health and Human Services officials Mark Benton and Susan Osborne asked new camper admissions to pause until health regulators finish their investigation.

The department called for discontinuing the use of bivy bags − which are collapsible weatherproof, one-person shelter bags − and requiring at least one staff member be awake while one or more children are asleep.

Officials said state workers, health regulators and law enforcement must have "unlimited and unannounced access" to cabins, campsites, camp staff and camp clients during ongoing investigations. The camp is licensed by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Sheriff office calls boys death 'suspicious'

According to the search warrants, when police arrived, the child − whose identity will not be released and is only referred to as CJH − was lying on a mat on the floor of a bunk house and was already "cold to the touch."

“CJH was laying on his back with his arms on his chest and his knees bent upwards toward the sky," the warrant said.

The boy was wearing a hoodie and t-shirt but his pants and underwear were placed next to his shoulder, and none of the staff could tell detectives why they were there, the warrant said.

Once detectives rolled the boy's body over he "began to foam at the mouth, which could’ve indicated that he ingested some sort of poison,' the sheriff's office said.

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Camp has been at center of investigations in the past

Trails Carolina, a therapeutic wilderness program, says it's "dedicated to helping teens work through behavioral or emotional difficulties, build trusting relationships with their family and peers, and achieve academic success." But the camp has been at the center of previous investigations;

• A week after CJH's death, a former student filed a lawsuit against the camp for allegedly ignoring her complaints about sexual harassment when she attended in 2016. In a lawsuit filed on Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, a 20-year-old woman accused Trails Carolina of "negligent, reckless, wanton, and tortious acts and omissions" relating to sexual abuse she experienced when she was 12 years old.

• In 2021 former students told  WBTV that they were left worse off after attending. They described spending weeks in the wilderness without access to showers or basic hygiene. They also told WBTV they experienced emotional and psychological trauma and little time with a trained therapist.

• In November 2014, the body of a 17-year-old teen who had gone missing was found in a stream two weeks after he walked away from the camp, WYFF reported. Alec Lansing, 17, died of hypothermia after he broke his hip climbing a tree and fell, the outlet reported. WBTV citing a death investigation report by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported that a deputy with the local sheriff’s office said staff at the camp waited five hours before calling for help, and had they called sooner, the teen could have been found alive.