The 12-year-old who died at a North Carolina wilderness camp this month was not the first young person to lose his life while enrolled in the therapeutic program.

A 17-year-old boy enrolled in Trails Carolina died in 2014. Alec Sanford Lansing ran away from the program that November, according to a police report. After an extensive search, his body was discovered 12 days later in a remote part of the Nantahala Forest. An autopsy found that his hip was broken and that he had died of hypothermia.

Trails Carolina, based in Lake Toxaway, about 140 miles west of Charlotte, has also faced an array of allegations from state officials and former participants.

One former participant has sued Trails Carolina, alleging that its leaders did too little to stop an older program member from sexually assaulting her in 2019, despite her repeated requests to be separated from the assailant.

And the state Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates therapeutic programs, has cited the program with multiple deficiencies in recent years.

Now authorities are asking new questions, following this month’s death of a 12-year-old boy who had just arrived at Trails Carolina.

A ‘suspicious’ death

The manner and cause of the 12-year-old boy’s death have not yet been determined. But the death appeared “suspicious,” according to a news release issued by the Transylvania County sheriff’s office.

A forensic pathologist conducting the autopsy told investigators that the death did not appear to be natural, the sheriff’s office said.

Sheriff’s investigators obtained warrants to search Trails Carolina’s base camp in Lake Toxaway, as well as a separate location where juvenile campers were moved after the child’s death.

In a rare public statement from law enforcement, the sheriff’s office was critical of help it was receiving from Trails Carolina.

“Trails Carolina Camp has not completely cooperated with the investigation,” the sheriff’s press release said.

The organization disputed that description.

“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,” a Trails Carolina statement said. “Any assertion to the contrary is false, reckless and defamatory.”

Trails Carolina contended that preliminary reports indicate the death was “accidental.”

Four adults were assigned to the cabin where the boy’s body was found on Feb. 3, and all reportedly were placed on leave, the sheriff’s office said. Other minors were also assigned to the same cabin.

The identity of the boy, who is from New York, has not been released. He had arrived at the camp less than 24 hours before his death, the sheriff’s office said.

Were allegations of sexual abuse ignored?

On its website, Trails Carolina says it was founded in 2008, largely on the belief that a wilderness setting enhances the benefits of therapy. It takes children, ages 10 to 17, on wilderness expeditions, and its therapists meet with children on a weekly basis.

The program helps minors with a variety of conditions, including depression, anxiety, anger management problems and oppositional defiant disorder, it says.

Participants typically stay with the program for 85 days, the program’s website says, and tuition is $675 to $715 per day.

But not all of the program’s participants say they found it therapeutic.

In her federal lawsuit, the woman who contends she was sexually assaulted as a teen camper alleged that the program “perpetuates an environment where troubled children in its programs sexually molest and/or assault other children.”

The woman, now 19, contends that an older female camper sexually assaulted her on two occasions in late 2019. But after each assault, the woman alleges in her lawsuit, staff members at Trails Carolinas ignored her requests to be separated from her assailant.

Soon afterward, she alerted her father, who called Trails Carolina to express his concern, according to the lawsuit. After that, the program forced her to spend another day and night with the older girl before placing her alleged assailant in isolation, the lawsuit alleges.

“Trails Carolina deceptively withheld the abuse from public authorities, failing at all times thereafter to report the crime despite their legal obligation to do so,” the lawsuit states.

The Charlotte Observer generally does not name victims of sexual assaults.

In a court filing, Trails Carolina has denied the allegations. The girl did not identify her alleged assailant until long after the incidents, the filing says. Her therapist at the camp asked her about the alleged incident on multiple occasions “and the Plaintiff did not want to talk about it,” Trails Carolina said in its answer.

Complaints and state-confirmed deficiencies

State inspectors have cited Trails Carolinas for deficiencies on at least four occasions since 2019.

In the most recent list of findings, issued in June 2023, DHHS inspectors said that program staff physically restrained participants on more than two dozen occasions in a three-month period. Two children reported they suffered minor injuries when staff members restrained them.

State inspectors also determined that the program failed to get the state’s approval for the training it provided to staff on how to use physical restraints.

Restraint holds, commonly used in treatment programs when children are in danger of hurting themselves or others, can be dangerous. A 2022 Hearst Newspaper investigation found that restraint and seclusion cause thousands of injuries to students and staff members nationwide each year — and have sometimes resulted in deaths.

And in 2021, DHHS inspectors interviewed four teenagers in the program who said they were not allowed to call their parents while enrolled in the program — despite a state law that gives participants in such programs the right to make and receive calls.

In each case, Trails Carolina officials submitted plans for correcting the problems cited by the state.

A spokesperson for Trails Carolina did not respond to the Observer’s questions about the survey, the lawsuit or Alec Lansing, the teenager who died in 2014. Lansing’s death was determined to be accidental, and no criminal charges were filed.

Meg Appelgate, CEO of Unsilenced, an advocacy group for former residents of teen treatment facilities, said she has heard many complaints about Trails Carolina. In response to those complaints, her group surveyed former Trails Carolina participants in October, and more than 60 have responded, she said.

“The vast majority said it was a horrible experience, and they didn’t benefit,” Appelgate said.

Some complained about not getting appropriate medical attention, Appelgate said. Others said they were forced to take part in activities even when sick or injured. A number spoke of being restrained by staff who put them inside their sleeping bags and then wrapped those sleeping bags with tarps — a technique they called the “burrito.” Some said the tactic made it hard for them to breathe, Appelgate said.

The spokesperson for Trails Carolina, Wendy D’Alessandro, did not immediately respond to a reporter’s question about the former participants’ claims. In an email to an Observer reporter Friday night, D’Allesandro wrote: “Unfortunately, there’s nothing more we can add to what we’ve already shared with you.”