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)

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)

Michael Ibarra-Wiltsie - 2000

The life of 12 year old Michael Ibarra-Wiltsie was cut short when a counselor weighing more than 300 pounds sat down on him to calm him down. The poor boy suffocated dying a death so horrible that it is almost impossible to imaging.

The counselor who crushed the boy to death was not charged because the state of Florida at that time allowed this kind of dangerous restraint.

For the mother the loss of one of her sons destroyed her life. Tragedy followed when newspapers reported that she had ended the lives of both herself and another son.

Michael Ibarra-Wiltsie was not supposed to go to this camp but because someone in the system made a terrible error he ended up in this wilderness program which clearly was not suited to meet his needs. Furthermore the medication which aided him to control outburst as result of his illness was taken from him not because he had improved his condition but simply because it was the policy of the camp not to medicate boys like him.

He was failed on so many levels during life that it is hard to find a way to describe it. It sounds almost as the easy way out for the system was to kill him before he cost the society more money.

It was a triple tragedy.

May he find peace where he is now.



Sources:

• Remembering Michael Wiltsie (Teen Advocate USA)
• Mom 'never the same' after child's death (Ocala Star Banner)
• Victims 2000 - 2004 (Fornits Wiki)

Sabrina E. Day - 2000

15 year old Sabrina Elizabeth Day died at the My Brothers House Residential group home. Three employees tried to restrain her and she hit her head during the process causing her to die.

Her mother lost her child and she was quoted

"I’m mad, upset, hurt…All I wanted was help for her and now she’s dead."

To comfort a mother based on the fact that incompetence caused the loss of her daughter is impossible.

Poor Sabrina Elizabeth Day got too short a time in this life.

May she find peace where she is now.


Sources:

• CRIES OF ANGUISH - A Summary of Reports of Restraints & Seclusion Abuse Received Since the October 1998 Investigation by The Hartford Courant (National Alliance of Mental Illness)
• Victims 2000 - 2004 (Fornits Wiki)

Candace Newmaker - 2000

In the book Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker the issue whether there is such a thing as Reactive attachment disorder and the method called Attachment Therapy is discussed.

Every year we learn of possible new diagnoses: Year 2012 the new version of DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) will be released. Now we will learn of illnesses like Internet Addiction Disorder which is basically an illness originally invented as a joke.

New illnesses call for demands of new cures. People can make a lot of money starting to cure these new illnesses. But are they in fact disorders? If we look at our past we used to treat illnesses like Female Hysteria and Homosexuality. We are not talking the Middle Ages here. Only decades ago people were forced into treatment for these so-called illnesses.

What if the same could be said about Reactive attachment disorder?

Did Candace Newmaker then die while being treated for nothing?

We know that the court found both the adoptive mother and several therapists guilty of reckless child abuse and other abuse charges. Laws have since been passed preventing the use of the key element in Attachment Therapy - the rebirth session.

We can only guess what other diagnoses which are fiction in the DSM.

For Candace Newmaker it doesn't make a difference. She was allowed to live 10 years on this planet only - a tragic and unnecessary death.

May she rest in peace.

Sources:

• Victims 2000-4 (Fornits Wiki)
• Candace Newmaker (Wikipedia)
• Attachment Therapies: A Deadly Cure without a Disease? (Book Review of Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker, by Jean Mercer, Larry Sarner, and Linda Rosa)

William "Eddie" Lee - year 2000

It has been 11 years since 15 year old William "Eddie" Lee died at Obsidian Trails Wilderness Camp.

It was not the first death in a wilderness program. It was not the last death in the wilderness program.

It had not the media coverage as in the case of Aaron Bacon. His parents did not testify in congress. There was no movie made of him.

The wilderness program was not as high profile as Sagewalk known from "Brat Camp". A wilderness program which got closed down 9 years later when Sergey Blashchishen lost his life at Sagewalk.

Who's fault is it that William "Eddie" Lee is not an everyday household name? Did he not have just as much a right to outlive his potential and fulfill his dreams?

Of course he had. But in order to make it to the frontpage, you have to have a strong support group. One second used on natural grief and the death is forgotten in a modern and cruel media world. It is not the fault of his parents. They were only humans and kept their grief private.

That's why this post was made. I never knew William "Eddie" Lee but his deaths was unfair and cruel.

RIP

References:

• Death Trip (Healthday Magazine)
• Charge in Wilderness School Death, The Associated Press, September 20, 2000 (Reprint from Project Nospank)
• A son's death fueled drive for wilderness-school law (The Seattke Times)

Dionte Pickens - 2000

No one knows what took place when 14 year old Dionte Pickens was found hanging from a leather belt in a cell in a facility run by the company Three Springs.

The leather belt was not something detainees had access to under normal circumstances, but the staff in charge was occupied by a video game at the time of the death, so whether someone took it to the cell and murdered Pickens or the leather belt was smuggled in remains a mystery.

10 years has passed and the investigation has not provided any answers to the family left behind in this tragedy.

It was ruled as a suicide, but maybe we will never know the truth.

References:
Victims 2000 - 4 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Juvenile Center faces questions (The Dispatch - September 5 2001)
Questions Raised On Care After Juvenile Kills Himself (Lodi News-Sentinel - Sep 14, 2001)