12-year-old died less than 24 hours after he arrived at a North Carolina wilderness camp for troubled youth, officials say

A 12-year-old boy died less than 24 hours after arriving at a North Carolina wilderness camp for troubled adolescents, according to authorities, who said the child’s death “appeared to not be natural.”

The boy, who has not been publicly identified, was found dead at Trails Carolina Camp in Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, on the morning of Feb. 3, the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office said. The day before, he had been “transported per parents by two men from New York to Trails Carolina Camp,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, adding that the “death appeared suspicious since he had arrived at the camp less than 24 hours prior.”

The boy had been assigned to a cabin with other students and four staff members when he got to the camp. Shortly after 8 a.m. the next morning, staff discovered he was not breathing, officials said. The staff said that they had done CPR, but when emergency responders arrived, “rescue efforts were initiated and then stopped as the child appeared to be deceased for some time,” the sheriff’s office statement said.

Following an autopsy earlier this week, a forensic pathologist said the boy’s death “appeared to not be natural but the manner and cause of death is still pending,” according to the sheriff’s office.

The camp told officials it placed the staff members assigned to the boy’s cabin on leave, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators executed search warrants for two areas of Trails Carolina and are continuing their investigation, the sheriff’s office said, but “Trails Carolina Camp has not completely cooperated.”

Trails Carolina disputed that in a statement issued Thursday through a public relations firm, saying its staff has “fully cooperated” and that the Transylvania County Sheriff’s