TRANSYLVANIA COUNTY, N.C. — Staff at a wilderness therapy camp in western North Carolina failed to check if a boy was breathing while being required to sleep in a "bivy" tent during his first night at the camp, a newly released state report finds.
The 12-year-old boy was found dead at the Trails Carolina camp on Feb. 3.
The child was required to sleep in a small sleeping-bag-like tent called a bivy, covered by a plastic sheet and including an alarm, according to NBC News. At some point, staff determined "there was an issue with the zipper" on the bivy.
An unidentified staff member said in the report that staff had been assigned to sleep next to the bivy at night, and heard "breathing heavily" during one point, but couldn't see him to determine if it was the boy or a staff member.
Camp staff said, "Suffocation is always possible if equipment is being used wrong," according to the report. The report also noted that the camp had started using the "bivy" system in particular within the last year.
The camp didn't immediately respond to questions from NBC News about the state’s report, though the camp noted in the report's "plan of correction" the state had previously approved of the sleeping arrangements used by the camp: "The state has signed off on this safety precaution for the past 15 years, until now," the plan of correction reads.
While the medical examiner's report is still pending, the state report says preliminary results indicate the death was unnatural.
State officials began investigating the facility after the boy's death and removed all other children from the site within a week. Trails Carolina was also prohibited from accepting new admissions.
Trails Carolina is located about 35 miles outside of Asheville and is described as a wellness therapy program for troubled youth.
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