BREVARD, N.C. (WBTV) – All children are being removed from Trails Carolina, a North Carolina wilderness camp where a 12-year-old boy died earlier this month.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced the move in a release Friday morning.
“It was determined that action needed to be taken to ensure the health and safety of the children,” the department said in a statement Friday morning. “Parents have been notified and children will be temporarily taken into care of Transylvania County DSS.”
A 12-year-old died at Trails Carolina on the morning of Saturday, February 3.
Regulators with N.C. DHHS sent a letter to Trails Carolina on Friday detailing their decision. Trails Carolina is prohibited from admitting campers until April 14.
“The Secretary has determined that the character and degree of conditions at Trails Carolina are detrimental to the health or safety of the children in your care,” the letter to Trails Carolina staff said.
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A spokeswoman for Trails Carolina sent a statement on Friday afternoon responding to the move from the state; accusing regulators of having “threatened and intimidated parents” of the 18 remaining children at the camp.
The statement faulted state regulators for removing children from the program.
“This negligent and reckless move by the State denied parents the opportunity to continue to care for their children in the appropriate manner,” the statement said.
The Trails Carolina website was not accessible as of Friday afternoon.
Search warrants filed by the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office said the boy was stiff and cold to the touch by the time first responders arrived, with his pants and underwear laying on the floor next to his shoulder.
According to the warrants, none of the staff with the boy could explain how his pants and underwear got there.
On Monday, N.C. DHHS wrote the camp’s leaders to demand the program stop accepting new participants, among other steps, in order to remain open during the investigation.
Monday’s letter from N.C. DHHS said the camp had kept investigators from seeing the remaining campers in the program for days.
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The Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office has said the camp’s leadership was not cooperating with the investigation, a claim a spokeswoman for Trails Carolina has denied.
WBTV has been investigating Trails Carolina since 2021, including by talking with former participants and a former staff member who detailed allegations of abuse and neglect.
This is the second child to die at Trails Carolina in a decade. A 17-year-old boy died after running away from the camp in 2014.
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