James Lamb - 1980

14 year old James Lamb was sent on a sailing boat operated by Visionquest. It sank when it entered weather the crew hadn't been trained to handle.

It seems lacking responsability sending untrained teenager into dangerous weather but without anyone alive to charge, the family were only able to be alone with their grief.

He never really saw the world.

May he find peace where he is now.


Sources:

• Panic noted in VisionQuest (Kingman Daily Minor)
• Body found, 7 still hunted on ill-faited boat trip (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Charles Martin Lucas -1980

Together with 6 other teenagers and some staff members from Visionquest, 16 year old Carles Lucas died in the Gulf of California, when the boat he was sent on sank.

Why did they sail out into this bad weather? They were not trained sailors.

For the family of Charles Lucas the downing in the Gulf of California was a tragedy they had to share with 6 other families. Hopefully this tragedy will never be repeated.

References:
Victims - 1980's (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Teen's sailing tour ends in storm disaster, Star-News - 28 Nov 1980
Panic noted in VisionQuest, (Kingman Daily Minor)

Robert Zimmerman - 1980

Together with 6 other teenagers and some staff members from Visionquest, Robert Zimmerman died in the Gulf of California, when the boat he was sent on went down with all hands lost.

Safety at sea demands a lot from the staff on the boat. What went wrong has never been fully revealed.

For the family of Robert Zimmerman the downing in the Gulf of California was a tragedy they had to share with 6 other families. Hopefully this tragedy will never be repeated.

May he rest in peace.

References:
Victims - 1980's (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Teen's sailing tour ends in storm disaster, Star-News - 28 Nov 1980
Un menor es abandonado en un islote en Fuerteventura como castigo por portarse mal, diario direct, May 22 - 2008 (In Spanish)

Mario Cano - 1984

In the 1980's boot camp programs was the fashion in punishment of juvenile offenders. Unfortunately it was an untested concept and the tests took the life of 16 year old Mario Cano. After his deaths lawyers fought over the continued use of out-of-state programs like VisionQuest offered.

Unfortunately the battle field was the wrong one. A boot camp is not a tool to help teenagers out of crime. We do know that now. They cannot help fewer kids to choose without crime.

It took more casulties before this could be learned. Mario Cano was one of the first teenagers to lose his life in a boot camp. Had the world learned of his death lives could have been saved.

References:
CALIFORNIA IGNORES ITS OWN AT OUT-OF-STATE PRISON CAMPS

Read more: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SB&p_theme=sb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB046EB5A2192FE&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM#ixzz1MjeAoq4d, The Sacramento Bee, June 28, 1998 (Per-per-view article)
Victims in 1980's - Fornits Wiki

Carlos Ruiz - 1994

A 13-year-old Carlos Ruiz died as result from a fall about 80 feet down a slope in the Santa Catalina Mountains.

The sources we have been able to locate provide us with very little information. We have not been able to learn what led to his fall. Was the equipment mailfunctioning? Were the instructors educated to deal with kids in the harsh terrain? We don't know.

All we learned is that therapy in the wilderness claimed another life that day.

May he rest in peace.

Source:

• Datasheet about the program on Fornits Wiki
• ucson boy, 13, dies after 80-foot fall during VisionQuest outing in Catalinas (Arizona Daily Star, December 17, 1994)

Eric David Schibley - 1980

17 year old Eric David Schibley was sent out to sail in a boat operated by Visionquest. The crew wasn't that experienced so when they ran into a storm, the boat sank. Together with several teenagers he died. It was called a survival trip and it might be right when the crew was inexperienced to pronounce it like that.

It was one of the tragedies which claimed most lives in the troubled teenage industry but for the family of Eric David Schibley it didn't matter how many who died at the same time. They lost a son.

A real tragedy which has been remembered to this day.

May he rest in peace.


Sources:

• Search for missing teens on survival trip (The Bryan Times)
• Panic noted in VisionQuest (Kingman Daily Miner)

Danny Lewis - 1989

16 year old Danny Lewis died during an outing while supervised by VisionQuest.

The place the counselors did choose for a bath became deadly for Danny Lewis when he became tangled in moss and drowned.

Sources:
Victims in 1980s,
Californian, Utahn drown, The Rochester Sentinel - April 4, 1990

John Vincent Garrison - 1990

18 year old John Vincent Garrison ended up at VisionQuest instead of serving his time in the local juvenile detention facility. No information can tell us today whether it was a choice made by the court in order to treat some kind of disorder instead of just doing time. But the decision to choose this kind of alternative sentence turned out to be deadly.

According to the media we have learned that the parents believed that the treatment of this young man by the staff members led him to believe that his life was in danger. He took the decision to escape from the program in an attempt to save his life and he drowned during this attempt.

His parents sued the program. It has not been possible to determine whether they won in court.

Source:
Deaths in the 1990s - Fornits Wiki database
VisionQuest sued over teen's death, Lodi News-Sentinel - 3 Jun 1991

Robert Doyle Erwin - 1980

Together with 6 other teenagers and some staff members from Visionquest, Robert Doyle Erwin died in the Gulf of California, when the boat he was sent on went down with all hands lost.

Was it sound to sent such a untrained crew out in such dangerous waters? Maybe! But still today you find many companies in different countries sending so-called at-risk teenagers out sailing in foreign waters.

In May 2008 the authorities in Spain found a Danish boy wandering around on a normally deserted island. Further investigation revealed that he had been marooned for some days so he could think about his behavior onboard the ship. Responsible behavior on the part of the staff? Some might at least state that it is questionable.

For the family of Robert Doyle Erwin the downing in the Gulf of California was a tragedy they had to share with 6 other families. Hopefully this tragedy will never be repeated.

References:
Victims - 1980's (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Teen's sailing tour ends in storm disaster, Star-News - 28 Nov 1980
Un menor es abandonado en un islote en Fuerteventura como castigo por portarse mal, diario direct, May 22 - 2008 (In Spanish)

Tammy Edmiston - 1982

One of the two deaths at VisionQuest involving a fall from a Wagon train ended in the death of 16 year old Tammy Edmiston. She fell to her death from a bridge outside a town named Latrobe which is possible located in Pennsylvania.

The circumstances surrounding her fall has remained unknown. The death of a so-called troubled girl which still today is considered a burden to the society calls for few resources to the investigation.

We know that her organs were harvested. Her liver came to a 35 year old man. A 9 year old boy benefitted from her heart.

13 years later in 1995 another death occurred when Dawnne Takeuchi fell to her death from a Wagon train. Due to intense pressure a real investigation was made and some extend of foul play were found.

It would be natural to raise the question why the death of Miss Edmiston was not fully charted. Why is investigation into possible abuse considering troubled teenagers really a question of the strength and pressure from the relatives left behind?

While we didn't know Miss Edmiston, we believe in the principiel that every human counts no matter who they were. May we never again experience a death which are left uninvestigated.

References:
Victims - 1980s, (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Liver transplant patient fair, Beaver Country Times - Sep 23, 1982