12-Year-Old Boy Who Died At Therapeutic Camp Showed Possible Signs Of Poisoning
New details from search warrants obtained by HuffPost revealed that a 12-year-old boy who was found dead and naked from the waist down at a North Carolina camp for “troubled” youths may have ingested poison.
The boy, identified only as “CJH” by the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office, was found dead on Feb. 3, less than 24 hours after arriving at Trails Carolina, a “therapeutic wilderness program” south of Asheville, North Carolina.
According to the warrants, detectives found the child’s body inside a bunk house. The body was positioned on its back with the knees bent upward. Investigators noted that the body was cold and stiff, with possible bruising around an eye.
Toxaway Falls at the outfall of Lake Toxaway in North Carolina, with the Toxaway River below. The Trails Carolina wilderness camp is located at Lake Toxaway, south of Asheville.
Detectives noted that the boy was not wearing pants or underwear when authorities found the body and that the clothing items were next to his shoulder. When asked how the pants got there, the camp counselors told detectives they were unsure.
Investigators said foam came from the boy’s mouth when they rolled him over, which they noted “could’ve indicated that he ingested some sort of poison,” according to the warrants, which were dated Feb. 6.
CJH’s body was taken to the morgue for an autopsy. The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy said the death “appeared to not be natural, but the manner and cause of death is still pending,” according to a news release by the sheriff’s office.
One camp counselor described the 12-year-old as “loud and irate” when he first arrived, adding that he refused to eat dinner but later calmed down to eat some snacks, according to the warrants.
The counselor said the boy slept in a sleeping bag inside a small tent, referred to as a “bivvy,” on his first night at the camp, according to the documents. The counselor also reportedly told detectives that CJH experienced a panic attack around midnight but did not say if he or the other counselors attempted to assist the child to ease his anxiety during the attack.
The counselor reportedly told the detectives that he and the other counselors had opened and closed the bivvy to check on the boy at midnight, 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. Counselors said they found CJH dead at 7:45 a.m., according to the document.
A sheriff’s office press release said that camp personnel had “not completely cooperated with the investigation.”
Investigators said Trails Carolina staff refused to allow detectives to speak with any of the juvenile campers on sight, including the deceased’s bunk mates. According to the warrant, the camp also refused to give investigators any information, such as campers’ names or ages.
Detectives said child services encountered the same refusals from the camp staff and were given only campers’ first names. According to the search warrants, the camp also refused to give out any information on the whereabouts of the campers.
Trails Carolina responded that it had fully cooperated and claimed the sheriff’s press release did “not present an accurate account of the facts nor the current state of the investigation,” according to a statement shared with HuffPost last week.
In a statement addressing the contents of the search warrants, Trails Carolina said it was “saddened for the family to have these details made public,” claiming that the law enforcement account “contains misleading statements.”
According to Trails Carolina personnel, they had asked the campers’ parents permission for any child involved to speak with authorities and “complied with each parent’s preference.”
The camp claimed they relocated the children from the area to protect them from seeing the incident and not to avoid the investigation.
“We are a mental health facility treating children with severe, complex mental health diagnoses,” the statement said. “Not moving children from the area would have harmed their mental well-being.”
CJH’s death would not be the first time Trails Carolina has faced public scrutiny. Alec Lansing, 17, was a camper in the program before he ran away in 2014. Lansing was reported missing and was later found dead in a stream.
According to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Sylva, North Carolina, the 17-year-old died of hypothermia, WYFF-TV in Greenville, South Carolina, reported at the time.
In an interview with USA Today, former Trails Carolina wilderness field instructor Jonathan Hyde said he believed most of the campers did not get the professional help they needed.
“Some of these kids are trying to kill themselves. I didn’t feel really prepared for exactly what I was getting into,” Hyde said.
Trails Carolina is also facing a federal lawsuit filed by a former camper who claimed she was sexually assaulted by another camper in 2019.
The former camper said she was 14 when an older camper “with a prior history of sexual assault” attacked her while she was unconscious, according to the lawsuit, which also said her request to move to another cabin was denied and she was sexually assaulted again.
