NC wilderness camp for troubled teens up for sale after death of 12-year-old boy, license revocation
LAKE TOXAWAY, N.C. -- Trails Carolina, a wilderness camp in western North Carolina where a 12-year-old boy died earlier this year, is now up for sale.
Lake Norman Realty has the property in Lake Toxaway listed for $3.2 million.
The Transylvania County Sheriff's Office said that the New York boy had been at Trails Carolina for less than 24 hours after he arrived in February.
An autopsy report revealed the boy was smothered and suffocated. The medical examiner ruled the death as a homicide.
A counselor told detectives the boy had slept on the bunkhouse floor in a sleeping bag inside a bivy that had an alarm on its zipper triggered when someone tried to exit.
SEE ALSO | North Carolina removes children from a nature therapy program's care amid a probe of a boy's death
Trails Carolina described itself as a nature-based therapy program that helps 10 to 17-year-olds "work through behavioral or emotional difficulties."
Nearly two weeks later, all children attending the camp were removed and the program was told to stop taking admissions while the death was investigated.
The program had its license revoked by the state following the 12-year-old's death; the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services found several violations. The state shut the camp down.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
