Shuttered wilderness therapy camp in western N.C. faces new lawsuits

CHARLOTTE — Despite the facility being shut down and the property being up for sale, the owners of the Trails Carolina program aren’t out of the woods yet.

Following the death of a child in early 2024 the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services revoked the license of Trails Carolina, a wilderness therapy camp for teens and young adults located in Western North Carolina.

9 Investigates learned a former resident of Trails Carolina, and the parents of another filed lawsuits on Oct. 11 against multiple individuals and businesses they say are responsible for the conditions at Trails Carolina, and other programs like it.

Kim Dougherty is the co-founder of the Justice Law Collaborative, the law firm representing the former resident and parents in the newest lawsuits, one of which is a class action, meaning there could be more plaintiffs added to the case.

The latest lawsuits are filed under pseudonyms, John, Jane, and June Doe, due to the sensitivity of the complaints. Their complaints and allegations are similar to complaints Channel 9 has heard from past residents of Trails Carolina.

These are not the only lawsuits Trails Carolina has dealt with. On October 18, 2024, documents filed in court revealed Trails Carolina and another former resident reached a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed earlier this year.

In recent years there has been more attention on facilities like Trails Carolina. It’s an industry that survivors have started calling the ‘Troubled Teen Industry.”

“The term refers to entities that market themselves as an easy solution to fix family dynamics and ‘troubled teens,’ but have a dark history of abuse, negligence, and even death,” one of the lawsuits reads.

Trails Carolina and other programs like it advertise themselves as a place for young adults with behavioral or emotional struggles to get therapeutic help -- but many of those who lived through the program said that help never happened.

“You got to see your therapist once a week ... so for a program that’s meant to be super therapeutic, that seems not very often,” said Kelly, a former resident who was sent to Trails Carolina in 2013.

The lack of professional therapy is just one of the complaints seen multiple times in lawsuits and inspections another one was the inability to communicate with family members, most often parents.

“John was only allowed to communicate with his parents through letters and a single phone call during the 93 days he was at Trails,” one of the new lawsuits reads.

North Carolina regulations require facilities like Trails Carolina to allow minors to communicate with their families. The Division of Health Service Regulation (DHSR), the state agency tasked with licensing and inspecting these facilities, said that wasn’t happening.

“Based on record reviews and interviews, the facility failed to ensure that each minor client retained the right to communicate and consult with his parents or guardians and make and receive telephone calls,” according to the inspection report.

It’s not cheap to send a child to a program like Trails Carolina, according to court records. The parents suing Trails Carolina paid nearly $25,000 for 42 days.

“I’m fully convinced that it is literally a system designed to con parents into spending hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Kelly said.

Those expenses are one reason Dougherty said they’ve filed the class action lawsuit. But Dougherty said the lawsuit is also about something much bigger: systemic changes.

“It’s time for us to really work together and make sure that these facilities, if they’re going to continue to exist, are safe for children,” she said.

9 Investigates heard from more than 25 people who said they went to Trails Carolina, or similar facilities in North Carolina. Their stories include allegations of physical and sexual abuse, as well as a lack of medical care and proper clothing. Many of the allegations can be found in lawsuits against Trails over several years.

Despite the recent attention highlighted in documentaries and news reports across the country, Dougherty said lawmakers need to step in.

“That’s why we’re litigating, because the lawmakers aren’t doing what they need to do to protect these children, so we have to move forward in another way, which is to litigate and to make sure that through the justice system, that we can hold them accountable and make that change,” she said.

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