The death of a 12-year-old boy who was locked in a “burrito” like sleeping bag at Trails Carolina “wellness” camp was a “homicide,” according to a shocking coroner’s report.

A defenseless 12-year-old boy was suffocated and locked inside a faulty bivvy-like sleeping bag on his first night at a “brutal” camp for troubled youths. The coroner ruled it a homicide.

According to the coroner’s report, Clark Herman, a troubled pre-teen, was already in rigor mortis when his body was discovered by staff at Trails Carolina Wilderness Camp on the morning of February 3.

The boy, who suffered from ADHD, migraines and social disabilities, had been transported from his New York home by two bodyguards hired by his wealthy parents and arrived at the scene in Lake Toxaway hours earlier, according to the report.

Camp staff strapped him into a tent that former Trails campers described as “burrito style,” pitching it on top of thick plastic, covering it with a tarp and sealing it off with a lock and alarm to prevent him from escaping.

In its findings released recently, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded that because the bivvy’s mesh door was broken, staff chose to seal it all off with an outer layer, restricting airflow and preventing them from seeing Herman as he died during the night.

The North Carolina Attorney General is currently considering filing charges against the campground, which had its license revoked last month and is facing a string of lawsuits alleging negligence and abuse.

Former camp participants said they were lucky to escape with their lives after being tied to the camp’s sleeping devices.

“I immediately ran through in my mind a list of ways I was treated that may have contributed to his death,” Vic Mittelland, a former camper who spent three months at the camp in 2017 and 2018, told WRAL.

“I was on burritos for two weeks and I remember not being able to move, not being able to breathe properly, not being able to sleep because it felt like I was in a cocoon,” he said.

“We lay down on a tarp and they wrapped it around us,” said another former resident, who attended school there when he was 14.

“When I heard about the deaths at Trails, my first reaction was, ‘I was able to get out, but he couldn’t,'” the girl, who did not want to be identified, told the station.

According to the coroner’s report, staff members told investigators they initially removed Herman from the bivvy after finding him “restless and talking in his sleep.”

But he fell asleep outside, so they woke him up and made him go back into the house, where he again locked it with the alarm.

He was seen moving around in his bivy within two hours of being returned to it and a “routine check” was carried out overnight.

“The counsellors were unable to see him as they should have because the outer panels were opaque and therefore were unable to recognise the problem and provide assistance before he died,” the coroner wrote.

“It should be noted that a common warning on commercially available bivy products states that the exterior weatherproof openings should not be completely sealed as this can lead to condensation and breathing difficulties,” he added.

“This information was obtained through a basic web search.”

The next morning, the counsellors opened the bivvy bag and found Herman lying with his head at the bottom of the bag.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him but he had likely been dead for hours by the time they arrived, paramedics said.

The camp, which charges more than $700 a day, made headlines in 2014 after 17-year-old Alec Lansing was found dead in a nearby creek two weeks after running away from home.

A week after Herman’s death, Trails was sued by former camper Gertrude Siegel, who claims she was sexually assaulted by the same inmate in 2016 when she was 12 years old and that staff ignored her pleas for help.

She claims she was ordered “not to tell anyone else about the assault” and that “she is equally responsible.”

“They didn’t seem to care about what was going on,” she told NBC. “They didn’t believe me.”

Earlier this year, former staff member Jonathan Hyde also told the outlet he worked at the camp in the summer of 2020 and raised issues with the training of staff working with children.

“Some kids were screaming about wanting to kill themselves. Some were trying to run away. Some were trying to fight,” he said.

“One of the problems with this facility is that the people who spend most of their time with them are not trained therapists.”

A Trails Carolina spokesperson told FOX Carolina they were “devastated” by the death of a 12-year-old boy on the first day.

“Our top priority is to recognise and respect the immeasurable impact this has had on their lives and to maintain the integrity of the investigation into the cause,” a spokesman said in February.

“The company is cooperating fully with investigators and has engaged outside experts to assist in conducting its internal investigation.”

But at the time, a spokesman for the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office said “Trails Carolina Camp has not fully cooperated with the investigation,” and two search warrants were obtained for separate locations at the camp.

According to the camp’s website, its mission is to give kids the self-confidence, coping mechanisms and communication skills to help them become the best version of themselves.

Led by Co-Executive Director Jeremy Whitworth, the facility offers outdoor therapy programming for preteen boys (ages 10-13), preteen girls (ages 10-13), teen boys (ages 14-17) and teen girls (ages 14-17).

A Change.org petition has garnered more than 2,000 signatures calling for the camp not to be allowed to reopen.

“These are kids,” Mitteland told WRAL. “They’re kids who are depressed, anxious, suicidal, they don’t want to be here.”

“What you’re doing is hurting people. You think you’re helping people because of the amount of money, but you’re actually just hurting kids.”

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