Shock coroner's report reveals death of boy, 12, at Trails Carolina 'wellness' camp was 'homicide' after he was sealed into sleeping bag-like 'burrito'

A vulnerable 12-year-old was killed on his first night at a 'cruel' troubled-teens camp when he was sealed up and left to suffocate in a faulty sleeping bag-like tent, or bivy, in what coroners have now ruled was a homicide.

Troubled pre-teen Clark Harman was already in rigor mortis by the time he was found dead by staff at the Trails Carolina wilderness camp on the morning of February 3, the coroner's report states.

The boy, who the report says  suffered from ADHD, migraines and social challenges,  had arrived at the Lake Toxaway site hours earlier after being transported from his New York home by two escorts hired by his well-to-do parents.

Staff at the camp strapped him into what has been described by former Trails campers as a 'burrito-style' bivouac lying on a thick plastic tarp which they wrapped around the bivy, sealing the contraption with a lock and an alarm to stop him escaping.

With the bivy's mesh door broken, staff chose to seal up the whole thing by its outer layer, restricting the airflow and leaving them unable to see Harman as he died in the night, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded in its just-released findings.

Jeremy Whitworth has been the co-executive director of Trails Carolina camp since 2013 

Clark Harman, 12, was found dead in a bivy bag 'burrito,' similar to the one above, wrapped in a plastic tarpaulin and sealed with a lock and alarm on his first night at Trails Carolina in February this year 

The North Carolina Attorney General is now considering charges against the camp, which had its license revoked last month and has faced a string of lawsuits alleging neglect and abuse.

Former camp attendees have said they were lucky to escape with their lives after being pinioned in the camp's sleeping devices.

'I immediately went through a list in my head of the ways that I was treated that could have caused his death,' former camper Vic Mitterando, who spent three months there in 2017 and 2018, told local outlet WRAL.

'I was on burrito for two weeks and I remember not being able to sleep because I could not move, I could not breathe very well, it was just like a cocoon,' he said.

'We would lay on a tarp and then they would wrap it over us,' said another former resident, who attended as a 14-year-old.

'When I heard about the death at Trails my first reaction was, "I made it out but he didn't",' the girl, who did not want to be identified, told the station.

Staff told investigators that they initially took Harman out of the bivy after seeing he was 'restless and mumbling in his sleep', the coroner report states.

But when he fell asleep outside, they woke him up and made him get back in, securing it once more with an alarm.

He was seen moving inside the bivy within two hours of being placed back in, and 'routine checks' were performed during the night.

Vic Mitterando, who spent three months at the camp in 2017 and 2018, said he was confined to the 'burrito' for two weeks 

One former 14-year-old camp inmate said some had been lucky to escape with their lives 

The camp in an isolated area of North Carolina is a 13-hour drive from the fated victim's home in New York

Harman's 'burrito' was inside a lodging and an initial medical report noted he had been found  frothing at the mouth and stiff with rigor mortis

'The counselors could not check on him as they should due to the opaque nature of the outer panel, preventing them from potentially noting the problem and delivering aid before he died,' the coroner wrote.

'It should be noted that a common warning on commercially available bivy products indicates that the outer, weather resistant opening should not be fully secured as it may lead to condensation and breathing restriction,' he added.

'This information was obtained on basic web search.'

When counselors unsealed the bivy the next morning they found Harman lying with his head at the tight foot of the bag.

They tried to resuscitate him but emergency medical providers told them he had probably been dead for hours by the time they arrived.

The camp which charges more than $700 a day, hit the headlines in 2014 when Alec Lansing, 17, was found dead in a nearby stream where he had lain for two weeks after running away.

A week after Harman's death, Trails was hit with a lawsuit from a former camper, Gertrude Siegel, who said staff dismissed her pleas for help after she was sexually assaulted by a fellow inmate as a 12-year-old in 2016.

She alleges she was ordered 'not to tell anyone else about the assault', and that 'she was equally at fault'.

'It felt like they didn't care about what was happening,' she told NBC, 'that they didn't believe me.'

Former Trails Carolina worker Jonathan Hyde said undertrained staff are unable to cope with children whose needs they cannot meet 

17-year-old Alec Lansing, seen here, spent almost two weeks dead in a stream after running  away from Trails Carolina on an excursion in November 2014

Earlier this year former staffer Jonathan Hyde also told the outlet that he worked at the camp in the summer of 2020, and raised issues over the training of staff to deal with the children.

'I had kids that were vocally suicidal. I had kids that tried running away. I had kids that would try and fight you,' he said.

'One of the issues of the place is that the people that spend the majority of the time with them are not trained therapists.'

A spokesperson for Trails Carolina told FOX Carolina it was 'shattered' by the 12-year-old boy's Day 1 death.

'Our priority is to acknowledge and respect the unfathomable impact on their lives and maintain the integrity of the investigation into the cause,' a spokesman said in February.

'We are cooperating fully with investigators and have retained outside professionals to assist us in conducting our internal investigation.'

But a spokesman for the Transylvania County Sheriff's Office said back then that 'Trails Carolina Camp has not completely cooperated with the investigation', before securing two search warrants for separate locations of the camp.

According to the camp's website, its mission is to give children the confidence, coping mechanisms, and communication skills that will help them become the best version of themselves.

Glossy websites paint a picture of rural bliss offering extensive therapy for conditions including depression , eating disorders, addictions, low self-esteem, behavioral problems, stress, trauma, anxiety and hopelessness

A primitive hut with plastic sheeting for windows is the basic accommodation at Trails Carolina, but campers say conditions are even harsher elsewhere 

Led by co-executive director Jeremy Whitworth, it offers wilderness therapy programs for preteen boys (10-13), preteen girls (10-13), teen boys (14-17) and teen girls (14-17).

A Change.org petition has gained more than 2,000 signatures demanding the camp not be allowed to reopen.

'These are kids,' Mitterando told WRAL. 'These are kids who are depressed and anxious and suicidal and they don't want to be there.

'What you're doing is hurting people. In some sick way you might think you're helping them because of the amount of money. but you're just hurting children.'

Dailymail.com has reached out to Mr Whitworth and to Trails Carolina for comment.