A teen at a Mapleton residential treatment center has died by suicide, officials said Friday.
The 17-year-old died Tuesday at Discovery Ranch in Mapleton, a residential program for boys between 13 and 18, Mapleton police and the center’s director confirmed Friday. Police responded to the facility’s call about the boy’s death just after 2 p.m. Tuesday. The boy’s name is not being released.
A medical examiner told Mapleton police that the boy died by suicide, Mapleton Police Chief John Jackson said Friday. The examiner had not sent a written report — which would include a toxicology screening — to police by Friday afternoon, Jackson said.
There is no indication of foul play, Jackson said.
The Department of Health and Human Services has not issued a compliance notice to the treatment facility but is investigating the boy’s death, an agency spokesperson said in an email. If noncompliance is found, the spokesperson said, the agency will make that information publicly available on its website.
Clinton Dorny, executive director of Discovery Ranch, said the Utah County treatment center has been “fully cooperative and transparent with the authorities and their investigations.”
“We are deeply saddened by the loss, and we grieve with the family,” Dorny said in an email statement.
The treatment center is conducting an internal investigation, Dorny said, and is making available additional on-site therapists and staff to the teens there.
