15-year-old Natelee identified with only her first name ran from a facility which until now has not been named.
She was recovered. Rather interestingly it seems that she was punished by being placed at an out-of-state facility because she been victim of a crime.
We can only pray that she will come back home to her family and friends where she can get the support she must need after such an ordeal.
Sources:
One of the teenagers who left the Tree Points Center in Hurricane was a 16-year-old male which was not mentioned by name in the media.
His disappearance was only one of many from this treatment center. We can only speculate on the level of treatment the patients get when so many seems to make the choice to leave.
What is it that make this low standard. Is it the hiring of employees from the closed Cross Creek Academy which was part of the WWASP organisation which got treatment centers closed in Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Costa Rica, the Czech republic and California due to the low standard of treatment they offered?
Is it hiring too many people just out of high school instead of hiring trained staff with high degrees in the relevant area?
On Yelp you can read:
This place is a joke. If you do your research, Thane Palmer, Norm Thibault, and Garth Lasater all worked at Cross Creek Academy. CCA was shut down in 2012 for abuse. If you go down the rabbit hole while researching- you find all three of these men have abuse allegations against them. The staff members who work there are barely older than the teens. They have staff members as young as 18 and 19 working there. Also, recently a staff member was fired for slapping two of the students across the face. Staff members restrain students for simple things such as talking back, or having a bad attitude. They put you in these awful, painful positions sometimes for hours. Many students end up with rug burns on their faces and their bodies from being restrained. A girl even broke her arm while she was being restrained by a staff member. I highly encourage all parents to look up every single incident report that has been reported. Unfortunately, those incident reports don’t start until 2020.The amount of emotional abuse and manipulation that goes on here is terrifying. I’ve known many students who have not done well after leaving this place. Some kids even get sent back here. staff definitely have favorites, and a former staff member was fired for sexual abuse allegations. if you think your child is safeier, they are not. Listen to the kids who actually went here. Not the parent reviews. Most of us don’t speak out about what happened here because no one ever believes us.
Amanda G
The Utah state official must look into this facility. A girl died in the care of another facility not a year ago and her death was far from the first one. A memorial blog lists many names of children who lost their lives while they were in treatment list several entries of children who have died in Utah facilities.
I hope that the officials look into why so many patients disappear from this facility and force them to take a look on who that are hired and order the facility to allow the patients access to cell phone so the youth can feel secure now where the most obvious solution would have been to having kept them at home where they can receive treatment for their illness with support from friends and family for unknown reason was not possible.
We will pray for his health and hope that he can return home.
Sources:
14-year-old Corie Lessard disappeared from the Three Points Center. She was not the first one to disappear nor the last one. The facility seems to have a problem. Maybe the treatment of the patients is the key. When you remove so young person from their support network of friends and family, the employees must go the extra mile to secure that the patients fell well being there.
In Denmark the parliament ordered the facilities treating minors to allow the children to have cell phones all time. First of course was the reason that the children should be able to contact the national abuse hotline. Next that the children would be able to record possible abuse towards themselves and other patients. Not so few of such recordings were investigated by police and the social services resulting in improvements of the conditions the children have to endure while they get treatment away from home.
But the other reason for the children to be allowed ownership of cell phones were that the treatment results improved when the children could make calls to friends and families. Results showed that the stays were shorter and that could be the reason that the children at the Three Points Center properly do not have access to cell phones because the facility properly wants to prolong a stay because they then get a higher profit.
One last thing the cell phones do is to help the police locating children if they disappear from the facilities. So the Utah state officials should look into creating an abuse hot line and order the facilities to see to that each patient have a cell phone.
In this case Corie Lessard was located in the end. We pray for her health and hope that she will be allowed to return home where she can get treatment in her local community with the support of friends and family.
Sources:
Jade Macias-Fristoe was only 15-years-old when she disappeared from the Three Points Center together with another girl. She was later located which must be a good news for her family.
Over the years we have investigated a lot of disappearances from facilities like the Tree Points Center. Not all ends with a happy news to the family. Some children were never found, some children was found dead.
In some cases the background check the facilities should have made were the reason. Utah state officials have discovered employees with false identities working at youth facilities (one example Silverado Academy). In other states we have seen people who later was convicted of murder having free access to the facilities (one example CEDU). And then of course the many facilities where employees forced themselves on the patients (one example Alpine Academy where a house parent ended up in prison).
We do not know why Jade Macias-Fristoe decided to leave the facility. We do not know why she ended up there in the first place instead of being treated locally in her community where she could have the support of friends and family.
We are happy that she was located and hopefully she will be allowed to live her her family instead of a treatment center which have seen quiet a high number of patients who the police had to search her.
Sources:
UPDATED: 2 runaway teens from youth treatment center found unharmed in Mesquite (St. George News)
POLICE SEEK TWO MORE RUNAWAYS FROM HURRICANE YOUTH CENTER (KSUB News)
Authorities, family seek help to find 2 runaway teenagers likely seen in storm – St George News (Utah News)
One of the disappearance cases of 2022 was the one of 15-year-old Alexis Van Vlake. The facility mentioned in the articles surrounding her disappearance – The Three Points Center – seems to hold factors which results in the patients not wanting to be there. She was last seen together with another girl and both were reported missing. We can only imagine how it must be being treated far away from family and friends.
In Denmark where I live we see the importance of keeping children close to their local community where they can attend school and enjoy beer and wine after school. In this way we manage to keep so many students in our gymnasium that finding persons for unskilled labor actually has become a problem. The children want to go to school and get well if they have social activities with the other students.
Social interaction combined with a light level of alcohol improves health and promote faithfulness toward school and later work. That is also the case why job-portals like Job-index in Denmark tell employers to write if they offer Friday bars at work if they want to get the most candidates for jobs. Several foreigners who have worked in Denmark have spoken off how they felt isolated until they learned to interact with their co-workers at the Friday bars.
We cannot know why her family made the choice to get her treated so far from the community who could have supported her through her period of illness but with all the escape attempts from the Three Points Center it is clear that the stay did not benefit her.
We can only pray for her health and hope now where she was located that her family will let her come home to they can put together a treatment plan for her where she can have the full support from friends and family.
Sources:
In the cold Utah, authorities are now searching for a 14 year old girl named Eva Kosanovich-Ware, who ran away from the infamous Solstice Residential Treatment Center. She is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds. She is not dressed for the winter conditions and can be in danger due to cold conditions.
According to various sources, she is not a Utah native, so she does not have close network of friends in the community who can take her in. For unknown reasons, her homestate either decided that they do not care where the girl is as long as she is far away from the paper pile on the desk of her caseworker or her parents disliked the local treatment facilities and the diagnoses, they have. As for the conditions at Solstice, on Yelp, a former patient wrote:
I attended solstice rtc for almost 2 years starting in 2015 and graduated the summer of 2016. It was the most traumatizing experience of my life. I would rather have anything happen to me again from my pre solstice trauma than ever go back there. I still have nightmares that I’m there and even though I’m too old to be forced back it is still my biggest fear.
The emotional abuse was horrific. I was forced to clean bloody tampons out of the toilet with my bare hands by the lower level staff who weren’t being supervised on multiple locations. They force patients to sign off on treatment plans that include diagnosis’s, medication, and bullshit “progress reports”. If you don’t they withhold your privileges. They also force patients to meet with perspective parents and intrerveiw with them. They tell the parents before each interview that they (the parents) can ask us (the residents) any question and we can answer however we want, without fear of retribution. THIS IS NOT TRUE. As a patient, I had to lie to the many parents and guardians about solstice. If someone didn’t , the other girls in the room would snitch in the person telling the truth. That’s why they always put at least two of us if possible in the room, preferably three. I will live with the guilt of convincing people to send their children to solstice and for covering those “people” for the rest of my life’s. Please don’t make the same mistake.
They once took a girl’s speaking privileges away did weeks. She couldn’t SPEAK to staff, therapists, or patients, or HER FAMILY for weeks. She slept in a (finished basement). She wasn’t allowed to go to groups, school, or therapy. This was because she kissed a couple girls and lied about it. They sometimes made us, the patients vote on whether or not we wanted this to happen to people. They didn’t always listen to the vote, but still. They call this “positive peer pressure”. I can assure you, this pressure is nothing more than rewarded bullying and emotional abuse. It was this emotional abuse that lead to my suicide attempt, while in the program. The pressure was nonstop. My therapist, literally said they would, ” break [me] down to build [me] back up.”
They broke me for so long. By the time I left, I was almost completely brainwashed. I believe what had been drilled into my head again and again. They told me I wasn’t abused as a child, that I never had a “legitimate” eating disorder, that I didn’t use substances before solstice and so much more. They also convinced me that the awful things that they did there were a result of my poor decisions that led me there. If I was bothered by the abuse or stood up for myself it was because I was “entitled”. It makes me want to throw up to know that my name and face are still proudly displayed on the walls as a success story. I am, but in spite of solstice, not because of it. I will never erase the guilt of helping that system run, you don’t want to feel the same way, I promise.
This place should be shut down, it robbed me of my own voice and autonomy in a way my previous physical, emotional, and sexual abuse can’t compare to. They bill themselves as a tough love treatment center that will give you you kid back again. In one way, they were right, but only in the sense that I would literally prostitue myself before ever going back. Please don’t let this happen to anyone else. No child deserves what happens behind those close doors
Sources:
Two teenage girls reportedly ran away from a mental health facility in Layton (HeartGlitz news)
The original testimony from the former patient on Yelp
UPDATE
The girls have been located
Source:
UPDATE: 2 teens missing since Wednesday found safe (KJZZ News)
In the cold Utah, authorities are now searching for a 14 year old girl named Autumn Mayo, who ran away from the infamous Solstice Residential Treatment Center. She is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds. She is not dressed for the winter conditions and can be in danger due to cold conditions.
According to various sources, she is not a Utah native, so she does not have close network of friends in the community who can take her in. For unknown reasons, her homestate either decided that they do not care where the girl is as long as she is far away from the paper pile on the desk of her caseworker or her parents disliked the local treatment facilities and the diagnoses, they have. As for the conditions at Solstice, on Google, a former patient wrote:
Firstly, a disclaimer: my views on solstice are solely opinions. While my feelings towards it are negative overall, I know that there are some who really appreciate the program.
I have many feelings which cannot be explained in a review, so here’s the overall pros/cons list.
Pros:
- -good trauma therapy
- -opportunities for equine therapy & horsemanship
- -outdoor recreation
- -people can make lasting friendships there
- -helps rework family dynamics
- -provides structure which can be helpful for those who are struggling
Cons:
- -only 1 individual session/week; 1 family session a week
- -very high staff turnover
- -the group therapy is generally viewed as unhelpful (to most residents)
- -residents are around mentors much more often than therapists; mentors are undertrained, and mostly burnt out college kids. this results in highly unprofessional conduct at times.
- -very poor eating disorder treatment in general
- -strict level system places pressure on residents to act perfect, so often times they’ll lie and fake their way through the program
- -extremely restrictive environment; it often times takes people 5+ months to even gain the privilege of walking in between buildings on campus unsupervised or carrying a backpack.
- -personally speaking, only one person I’m still in contact with from Solstice actually appreciates the experience. The others either believe that it made them worse, or it helped them in some aspects but traumatized them in others.
- -there are some kids that really struggle there. there were occasions (such as a kid who drew on the wall with their blood; a girl who had psychotic breaks; a girl who repeatedly self-harmed in front of others and cosistently tried to kill herself, etc) which create a really unsafe space for healing. Personally I believe that they needed to let go of residents who undoubtedly needed more support/care.
- -they are a lot less holistic than it would seem… they certainly don’t think that “food is medicine”, as the nutrition is poor (gushers and Rice Krispies for snack, hamburgers/chips for meals, etc) and there is very little spiritual connection work there.
- -overall most residents there are miserable; not because they need treatment, but because they ARE in treatment and solstice does not provide the healthiest of spaces for this.
I hope this can help parents in making a decision in where to send their child.
See to that the girl is helped. She is together with another girl who ran from the facility named Eva Kosanovich-Ware.
Source:
Layton Police ask public’s help locating 2 missing teenage girls (Gephardt Daily)
UPDATE
The girls have been located
Source:
UPDATE: 2 teens missing since Wednesday found safe (KJZZ News)
Tyler Mastro ran away from the infamous Agape Boarding School which is a religous boarding school located in Missouri based on very extreme so-called Christian values.
On a number of message boards former students have complained about use of manual restraints and censorship of even family photos so they upload so-called Christian standards.
We have not been able to locate a link stating that he has been found.
A year has gone with no trace of this poor girl. It is a tragic as it can be. She left Black Hills Children’s Home February 9, 2019. A search was started right a the beginning. Much later, maybe too late, the search was increased with help from law enforcement.
The facility fired some foot people to satisfy the media. The supervisor who did not call in the police right away and the manager remains employed.
A year on there is still no trace of her. The terrain is not good for a child and it was very cold if you took the clothes, she had on when she disappeared into consideration.
We can only pray that she is found.
Source:
SERENITY STILL MISSING: One year later, S.D. girl’s fate unknown despite extensive search and investigation (South Dakota News Watch)
Update 2021
Sadly we can report that the girl has not been found. We hope that her poor family soon will hear news and will pray for that.
Two-year search for a South Dakota girl missing in the Black Hills has been suspended, sheriff says (Grand Forks Herald)
Amy Yu was one of 3 girls who ran from a Vision Quest facility in Pennsylvaia in 2018. During its operation Vision Quest had lost the lives of several teenagers in their care but it is uncertain why the girls ran.
They were later located.
Source:
Pennsylvania teen who fled to Mexico with 45-year-old man is missing again, police say (CBS News)
Missing TTI Victims Teens 