Death of 12-year-old at N.C. wilderness camp ruled a homicide

The boy, who had been at Trails Carolina for less than 24 hours, died of asphyxiation in the one-person tent where he was required to sleep, an autopsy found.

The death of a 12-year-old boy at a North Carolina wilderness camp for troubled adolescents has been ruled a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Monday.

The boy died in February, less than 24 hours after having arrived at Trails Carolina, a for-profit program that has since lost its operating license. Trails Carolina has said the death appeared to be accidental and that staff members performed CPR after they found the boy unresponsive the morning after he arrived. He was inside a bivy, a one-person tent secured with an alarm. 

The camp did not immediately provide a comment on the medical examiner’s findings, which listed the boy’s cause of death as “asphyxia due to smothering,” or the inability to get oxygen — “in this case due to covering the nose and mouth” with material that was not breathable. 

The camp has said it routinely placed children in bivvies overnight for their safety when they arrived. The autopsy report said the inner mesh panel of the boy’s bivy was torn, so counselors sealed the outer, weather-resistant door panel instead, which was not the camp’s protocol.

The autopsy report, issued by the state chief medical examiner’s office, said bivvies typically include warnings against fully enclosing the weather-resistant outer layer “as it may lead to condensation and breathing restriction.” 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/death-12-year-old-nc-wilderness-camp-ruled-homicide-rcna158691

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