Emily Pike - 2025

What exactly happened after 14-year-old Emily Pike left the group home, she had been forced to live in on January 27 - 2025, remains unclear but the tragic fact is that she was found death on February 14 the same year. Some had claimed her life in a grusome manner. While he hope that the authorities can locate the individuals responsible for taking her life, we also hope that the authorities look into the conditions of such group homes. Why were there 30 cases of teenagers running from this specific group home? What are the qualifications of the employees? Which living conditions have been offered to the teenagers?

It is beyond imagination that such a young life should be lost. We can only think of the terrible impact, her death had on her family.

We hope that she can find peace, where she is now and we must all pray that something will be done seeking to stop this endless flow of teenagers on the run. Their lives can be put in danger!

Sources

• Emily Pike case: March scheduled to raise awareness of missing indigenous people (Fox 10 Phoenix)
• Emily Pike's family hoping for justice, group home employee responds (ABC 15 Arizona)
• Authorities investigate another murder where Emily Pike’s remains were found (Arizona's Family)

Robby Lynn Peay - 1982-83

Normally we publish an article on the day of the year where the victim of the troubled teen industry died, but in this case it is not possible.

Fact is that the exact time of death is not known for Robby Lynn Peay, who so tragic lost his life as result of a gun shot while being on the run from a facility located in Salt Lake City in Utah, United States. While the name of the facility right now remains unknown, it is important to remember that runaways live in danger. He was not the last to die while on the run.

We cannot imagine the level of torment, his family must have been enduring not knowning if he was alive or not.

We can hope that the police will look into the case with renewed force as it is very clear that a murder is free and this person can pose a risk to everyone in the society. It is too easy to write people off just because they are on the run from horrible conditions as they have been known to be in various facilities all over the state of Utah. A number of them have been close but all too often, the price has been a life of a teenager.

We hope that his familiy finally can get a level of peace know where they know what became of this young man, who so tragic got his life cut short.

May he also find peace where he is now

Sources:

• Body of Provo boy missing nearly 43 years confirmed to be 'John Doe' buried in Moab (KSL news)
• Robby Lynn Peay (The Charley Project)
• Body of Missing Utah Teen Robby Lynn Peay Identified After 42 Years (Yahoo News)

Astrid Valdivia - 2011

Astrid Valdivia life was short. Only 13 years she was allowed. She was placed at Utah Youth Village but while she could be been watched, the facility failed her and she ran away with a man. The authorities tried to get her but the man was armed and during a shoot-out with the police a bullet struck the poor girl

Her family expected more from the facility and rightfully they should have gotten more but all too often economy matters more than the security of the children in such facilities.

Her death was so unnecessary and she will be missed by family and friends

Sources:

• South Salt Lake police seek missing teen last seen at foster home (Deseret News)
• Family of 13-year-old killed in shootout files wrongful death lawsuit (Deseret News)
• Family of slain teen files wrongful death lawsuit against state (KSL News)

Taylor Goodridge - 2022

History so cruel repeated itself when 17-year-old Taylor Goodridge died while attending Diamond Ranch Academy. She had complaimed about her health in the weeks before her death.

This was the third known death during the years the school has been in operation. In 2013 a marketing event was interrupted because a student decided to hang himself in the showers. The rescue could only start when the potential customers had been removed from the area and rescue came too late. In 2009 a student also arrived at the hospital too late. None ever have stepped forward so the world could learn whether the boy had complained about his health as Taylor Goodridge very clearly did. Anyhow it was too late for both.

The family of Taylor Goodridge properly believed that their daughter was safe at the facility which is a huge business in that part of Utah where jobs are needed and the authorities have to weight the security of the patients against number of jobs.

Fact is that they were failed by the facility. Will a death again just be noted without consequences for Diamond Ranch Academy? They got off easy the other times.

Regardless of the legal outcome, fact is that a family suffered the loss of a loved one. We can only offer our prayers.

May she rest in peace where she is now

Sources

• ACADEMY SUED Horror details after Taylor Goodridge, 17, dies at boarding school when ‘officials ignored her crippling pain’ (The Sun)
• Diamond Ranch Academy sued, put on probation after 17-year-old resident dies (Reddit Troubled teens)
• Teen facility in Washington County put on probation after resident dies (Deseret News)

Raiden Toms-Moonin - 2022

Raiden Toms-Moonin only managed to be on this planet for 15 years. Due to her placement at Oak Plains Academy which seemed to a facility with little oversight and monitoring of the patients, tragedy struck when some girls stumpled upon dangerous medication left without the proper security you should expect of such a facility.

Her life was already in danger when she entered the faciltiy and her family was promised security. Security they never got.

The authorities are now looking in to how the facilty was managed. A little too late to save a girl aged only 15 years.

We can only pray for a family who believed they took the very best step to secure the life of their daughter and was so tragically failed.

May she rest in peace

Sources

• Mother of teen who died in the care of Oak Plains Academy speaks out (News Channel 5)
• Authorities execute search warrant at Clarksville treatment facility (WSMV News)
• SCHOOL CHAOS Ten middle schoolers overdose only a day after 2 girls died when they took medicine stolen from school nurse’s office (The Sun)

Summer Rose Lambert - 2022

Summer Rose Lambert was only 15-years-old, when she was taken to the hospital due to an overdose of medication from the facility she was sent to in order to be treated for undisclosed reasons. Her family believed her to be safe, but tragically the medication was not put in a safe place out of reach from the patients and while a number of other patients only got sick from an overdose, Summer Rose Lambert sadly did not make it.

The authorities now needs to figure out while the facility named Oak Plains Academy managed to store medication without taking precautions against possible overdoses. It simply should not happen that a girl which should have an entire life in front of her so tragically lose her life before her life really was lived.

Imaging believing that your relative should be in a safe place only to be cheated. Maybe profit was prioritized too much, maybe there were not enough employees around. That is some of the issues the authorities now have to look into. Why does such tragedies only catch the attention of the authorities when people have died. Why did this facility not receive proper supervision before the deaths?

There is no sense to make of this. May she rest in peace where she is now.

Sources

• Summer Rose Lambert (Legacy)
• Search warrant executed for Oak Plains Academy after teen deaths (News Channel 5)
• 10 Students Overdose Following The Death Of 2 Girls Who Took Stolen Medication From Nurse's Office (yahoo News)

(yahoo News)

Clay Hensley - 2020

Clay Hensley became victim of a foster care system. He was placed at the Great Circle group home in St. James simply because they could offer to house him cheaper than some of their competitors. Now because they could provide better conditions for a boy in his medical and mental condition but simply because they could offer something cheap.

It is very simple to state that there was not the proper level of supervision. Maybe it also had some root in a budget somewhere but the result was a tragedy. He was killed by two other residents according to the police.

Some who met him while he was alive stated to the media that he had some potential. If true, he was robbed from the chance of pursuing them. The world might never know what he could have achieved and the reason was so simple that it was a question about money.

It is simply so sad for his family left behind and those who knew him.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Current and former staffers call for reform at Great Circle (Phelps County Focus)
• Obituary (Simpson Funeral Home on Facebook)
• 2 charged with murder after escaping a Great Circle facility (KY3 News)

Joseph Douglas Bolt Jr. - 2000

Joseph Douglas Bolt Jr. did not get a lot out of this life. He ended in foster care and people failed to supervise him so he downed in a lake. While the Alpine Boys Ranch managed to deal with the lack of interest of the state to increase security, the insurance companies saw the entire setup of the ranch as a security risk and increased the prices so the ranch had to end their dangerous operations.

All this came too late to save the life of a 17-year-old boy who never should have been allowed to swim without anyone testing if he could deal with the conditions. The lack of care ended his short life and brought grief to his family and friends.

Maybe the state will ask more in the future from the facilities, they allow to operate.

May the poor boy rest in peace.

Sources

• Joseph Douglas Bolt Jr. (Find a grave)
• DSHS takes action against ranch where boy drowned (Kitsap Sun)
• Insurance woes force boys ranch to close (The Seattle Times)

Raven Nichole Keffer - 2018

17-year-old Raven Nichole Keffer died at the Newport News Behavioral Health Center. It did not cause a lot of problems for either the facility and the employees involved in what can be called neglect as they ignored her sickness.

Probation is hardly punishment and if an employee move to another state to work there, the new employer would properly not discover the lack of professionalism the employee showed at the Newport News Behavioral Health Center

A lawsuit is hardly a punishment either as the facility properly have a insurance company to cover the costs.

It was such a waste that a 17-year-old girl should lose her life in a such tragic way.

We can only offer our support to her family. May she find peace where she is now.

Sources

• 17 yr. old dead at Newport Behavioral Health Center /Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)
• Aling Teen seen on Video before her death (Daily Press)
• Universal Health Services: Police Investigating Sexual Assault Complaint at Newport News Behavioral Health Center (Psychiatric Crime Database)

Svetlana Hope Cyphert - 2021

June 25, 2021 a tragedy occured at Reflections Academy in Montana when a 17-year-old girl died as what is investigated as a suicide.

We cannot know what line of events that led her to be placed at the facility. But we can assume that her family believed that she was placed in a safe environment. She was failed. Her family was failed. The facility was not able to deal with severe mental conditions and run on such professional level as the girls illness required.

It is such a waste of life. The authorities intervened and the facility had to close down. Unfortunately too late to save the poor girl.

May she find peace where she is now

Sources

• After mishandling suicide, Reflections Academy to close Saturday (Independent Record)
• Reflections Academy (Project Unsilenced)
• Girl’s Death at Boarding School Under Investigation(HI-line Today)
• Troubled Teen Industry Loopholes (Clinical Reads)

Mia Gabrielle Fontana - 2021

May 2021 family and relatives experienced a great loss when Mia Gabrielle Fontana died at Grove School. While a lawsuit has been filed into what is the third known death at Grove School, the question remains how such a tragedy could occur in the first place.

Which signs were overlooked? Did Grove School accept a student they were not suited to handle?

These questions might never been answered because the industry in general do not care. So the process of filing a lawsuit is important because it forces the school to look at their procedures. Such tragedies should be prevented. That Mia Grielle Fontana was only allowed 15 years in this life is simply wrong.

May she find peace where she is now.

Sources

• Student Dies by Suicide at the Grove School, a Boarding School for “Struggling Adolescents” (BreakingCodeSilence)
• Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Against Connecticut Boarding School for Death of 15-Year-old Girl (Grenier Law Group)

Angel Lynn Rolph-Jackson - 2021

2020 was hardly started before the first death of the year of a teenager detained in a residential setting happened.

At Shodair Children’s Hospital a tragedy occured when 15-year-old girl which name has not been released to the public died and the authorities suspected suicide. She has since been identified asAngel Lynn Rolph-Jackson.

It was the second known death at the facility as a girl died in traffic after an escape attempt in June 2019.

Some hospitals prioritize profit over the welfare of patients. Investigation conducted by the authorities blame understaffing and lack of monitoring instructions as the cause of the tragedy.

It is impossible to imagine how the relatives and friends who believed that she was safe in a hospital setting must feel.

It was an unnecessary tragedy. May she find peace where she is now.

Sources

• Report: Insufficient staffing and training contributed to death at Shodair (Montana Free Press)
• Report: Shodair Hospital had multiple patient escapes before July 15 death (8 KPAX - Missoula & Western Montana)
• State's report says staffing shortage, burnout and training issues played role in Shodair patient death (KTVH)
• In Memory Of Angel Lynn Rolph-Jackson, age 15, of Helena (Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home)

Diane Ramirez - 2019

The circumstances regarding who allowed Morris Small Family Home to be in operation and how they were approved as foster care home seems to remain unclear. Maybe it is just easier to blame the owners at the facility instead of looking at those who were supposed to monitor and supervise the foster home.

There is a risk that an investigation into that area would reveal a really broken system. A system which in the end claimed the life of a on only 17-year-old girl. Diane Ramirez should not had a such tragic end to her life. Suffering while being ignored like she was in just another correctional boarding school while her life slowly ended. She was supposed to be protected by the system and instead it failed her, when it allowed her to be placed at a run-down foster home where the only interest seemed to make it as cheap as possible to have children placed there. Not even the gas for a drive down to a hospital where the poor girl could have been given treatment seems to be in the budget.

Of course now the authorities goes after the employees and owneers of the place and their responsibility cannot be ignored. They should bear the consequences of their actions. But other children could be at risk of ending up in the same senseless way if the system is not changed.

We will pray for her family. May she find peace where she is now.

Sources

• Family of teen who died while in foster care furious after suspect released from jail (ABC 7 Eyewitness News)
• Calif. Foster Mom Charged with Murder, Dad with Sexual Abuse After Teen's Death Prompts Investigation (People Magazine)
• Riverside County foster parents charged in death of disabled teen girl appear in court (ABC 7 Eyewitness News)
• A year after her Spectacular Prom, California teen dies at controversial foster home (The Mercury News)

Charlotte Holliman - 1992

In 1992 tragedy happened at what was called Truckee Meadows Hospital at the time. An only 14-year-old girl was found hanging at the hospital. She was treated with anti-depressive and something clearly went wrong with either the dosis or the risk-management of possible side-effects that can impact the person who have to take the medicine.

This lack of care not only robbed this 14-year-old girl of a future. Also relatives were left behind and had to deal with their terrible loss. The hospital changed its name to do something about its poor reputation but it not to read anywhere if other precautions were made to prevent similar tragedies from happening.

May she find peace where she is now.

Sources:

• A CONTINUING LITANY OF DEATH - DEADLY RESTRAINT (Citizens Commision on Human Rights)
• Candid Camera on Carey (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)

Naomi Massa Wood - 2020

Naomi Massa Wood was 17 year of age when her life ended while attending one of the Teen Challenge holding facilties which are marketed as a mixure of boarding schools and treatment faclities. Facilities where medication and treatment by professionals are replaced with a prayer based curriculum and the communication and interaction with the surrounding world is restricted.

When the 17 year old student complained of plain not enough effort was made to contact local medical services and at the facility medical trained personnel was not at hand. As result of this institutionalized neglect the girl died. A report was made which ordered changed which seem to happen slowly and in the meantime family members of employees were allowed to play medical professionals.

It was a tragic for the family left behind who had put so much effort into giving this girl a good life. What a terrible loss of lives for the many siblings and also the adoptive parents, who were led to believe that Teen Challenge had something to offer to their daughter.

We can only urge the responsible politicians to look at the legislation so such places become better licensed and subject to supervision by the state.

May Naomi Massa Wood who were given so little time on this earth experience peace where she is now.

Sources

• Roommate of girl who died at Lakeland boarding school says medical requests were not taken seriously (Fox 13 news)
• Faith-based Lakeland Girls Academy draws scrutiny after teen's death (The Ledger)
• A Lakeland boarding school is under investigation after a teen died in their care (Spectrum News 9)
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Adora Grae Stout - 2000

17-year-old Adora Grae Stout died at the Buffalo Mountain Camp January 8, 2000. The camp was a kind of boot camp controlled by a company called OmniVisions

The circumstances that brought her there is unclear as years have passed and not that much media coverage exist about this tragic death.

What is clear is that a family lost one of their relatives and a 17-year-old girl did not get to live a full life

May she find peace where she is now.

Sources:

• Custody Victims Lost Within the Tennessee Department of Childrens Services (Death Camp Watch)
• Adora Grae Stout (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)
• Former County Teen's Death Still Is Under Investigation; Cause Of Death Undetermined (The Greenville Sun)

Rylan Harris - 2020

13-year-old Rylan Harris was found dead in the Arkansas River after he ran away with other boys at his age from a group home. The reason for his escape attempt is not known nor is the reason for him being placed there.

Somewhere out there a family now morns his death.

We have to remember that while he is only one out of about 200 children mentioned on this blog, he was also an individual person with relatives who misses him. A person who might have been grown up and made something out of live, if he had been allowed.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Runaway Oklahoma teen found dead in Arkansas River after escaping residential treatment facility: officials (Fox News)
• UPDATE: Deputies find body of missing 13-year-old boy in Arkansas River (KTUL news)

Jared Camacho - 2020

No one seems to know what caused 12-year-old Jared Camacho to run away from the Rose-Mary Center. He ended up on highway with lots of traffic and he was struck by a vehicle.

It is worth to investigate but it to understand why focus has been on the family who so tragicly lost one of their family members.

12 years is very little to be allowed to live.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Questions surround the death of a 12-year-old boy hit on the I-90 Innerbelt Bridge (19 News)
• Mason family burying 12-year-old son killed by car in Cleveland (cincinnati.com)

Andrew Potter - 2018

15-year-old Andrew Potter was hit by a car when he tried to escape Devereux Cleo Wallace in Westminster. While the identity of the driver was not clear, the victim was. A boy who was only allowed 15 years to live in this world. We do not know the circumstances that led to his placement at this facility which had its share of controversial media articles covering its way of doing business over the years but we do know that he never made it back to safety among friends and family. It must have been a terrible loss for them.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• The deadly consequences when kids run away from Colorado residential treatment centers (The Colorado Sun)
• Family sues Westminster school over son’s death (FOX 321 news)

Timmy Montoya-Kloepfel - 2020

12-year-old Timmy Montoya-Kloepfel was hit by a vehicle when he tried to escape from the Tennyson Center for Children in Denver. As his conditions worsened his mother made the painful decision to send him to a place where there were supposed to be round-the-clock supervision until he could get better. The supervision proved to insufficient and provided him the possibility to escape resulting in his death of a random driver who had no chance to avoid the terrible collision.

How the treatment center was allowed to operate and fail families remains unanswered.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• The deadly consequences when kids run away from Colorado residential treatment centers (The Colorado Sun)
• Mother of child was hit by a car after walking away from the Tennyson Center remembers son (Spot on Colorado)