Words alone are not enough to describe the pain of losing a child or the lasting impact a child's death has upon family and friends. Every birthday, Mother's and Father's Day, school graduation, wedding, family vacation serves as a poignant reminder that even as life goes on, it will never ever be the same.
The third of eight children born to Bob and Cathy Sutton, Michelle Lynn Sutton had many talents, hopes and dreams. Two of her most favorite pastimes were drawing and playing the piano both of which she excelled at. She also loved playing with and caring for young children, especially her baby sister Natalie who would often sit by Michelle's side and listen as she played piano. An excellent student, Michelle wanted to be a pre-school teacher when she grew up . She was well-liked by her teachers and had many friends. Her best friend, Andrea Dawes who accompanied her to a Utah-based wilderness program and was with her when she died, named her first child after Michelle.
The account of what happened on May 9, 1990 to cause a 15 year old girl to lose her life just 7 days into a 63-day program, is well documented in court records, interviews conducted by state and federal investigators and various media outlets including the Salt Lake Tribune, A&E Investigative Reports, and TIME magazine.
But for Michelle's parents, the simple truth is had they not placed their trust and their daughter in the hands of someone who as it turns out, was apparently more skilled at "selling" wilderness programs than running one, Michelle would be alive today -- teaching pre-school and playing with and caring for her own children.
Remembering Michelle Lynn Sutton
No charges were ever filed against Gayle Palmer, Summit Quest or it's field counselors in spite of the fact that Michelle Sutton died from one of the most basic and preventable hazards of desert hiking: dehydration.
In the aftermath of Michelle's death Utah and several other states have enacted laws strictly regulating the licensing of wilderness therapy programs. But as evident by the tragic number of fatalities which have occured in the years following, it is clear that laws alone don't save lives. People do. Through strict compliance with licensing requirements, rules and regulations aimed at protecting the safety and well-being of children not side-stepping the law or blatantly ignoring it in an effort to achieve higher profit margins.
While it is impossible to reconcile the pictures of the beautiful, always-smiling and very-much-alive girl shown in the family photos above with the last picture taken of Michelle Sutton (shown below) lying dead for nearly 22 hours on a dirt road 70 miles from the nearest town of St. George, Utah - it must be noted this picture underscores the true legacy of the wilderness therapy industry (AKA "Brat Camps") and a perverse mentality called the Window of Loss which claimed Michelle's life and the young lives of other children profiled here.
"Remembering Michelle Sutton" by Barbe Stamps copyrighted 2004. All Rights Reserved.
As it stands today, on the 14th anniversary of the death of the first child to die while participating in a wilderness therapy program -- which this year falls on Mother's Day -- it appears the State of Utah is finally waking up to the grim reality that with nearly 200 residential youth programs operating in their state, regulations are not enough.
Criminal charges must be pressed, not just in Utah, but in all 50 states to underscore the ultimate penalty for violating state rules and regulations intended to keep private entities from operating shoddy programs.
Second, children are not possessions. They can not be sold, bought or traded into for-profit "specialized" programs under the guise of "helping families heal" or teaching them respect for God, Country and Family Values.
But that's exactly what is happening -- predominately on the Internet which is littered with websites run by people who either profit from referring children into private programs -- in exchange for placement fees paid for by the program, itself - or through hourly or flat rate "consultation" fees paid for by the child's parent to an independent educational consultant.
Less obvious but equally telling of how the Internet is rapidly becoming a fertile "breeding ground" for program recruiters are various online support groups or discussion boards aimed at providing resources for parents of "struggling" or "troubled teens".
While these groups can and do offer valuable insight they also serve as a magnet for unscrupulous profiteers and even other parents looking for lucrative "sales leads" (in this case, struggling or troubled parents). As unsuspecting as they are vulnerable, a worried or frightened parent is an easy mark for these predaceous would-be teen helpers.
How much longer before the legal and constitutional rights of children to be free from abuse, neglect, victimization and exploitation take precedence over the interests of a multi-billion-dollar private industry, I do not know.
I only know it must be soon so that no mother should have to celebrate Mother's Day or any other day without all her children.
" ... as Cartisano's financial and legal difficulties mounted, the Challenger admissions director, a woman named Gayle Palmer (now DeGraff)
quit to start her own wilderness therapy company, Summit Quest, Inc. Palmer knew little about the back country or therapy beyond what she'd gleaned from pitching Challenger courses. "But Palmer got tired of working for Steve," says Doug Nelson, "so she hung out her shingle". Five students were enrolled in the inaugural Summit Quest course, which cost $13,900 for 63 days. Palmer sent the group to the arid Shivwits Plateau, near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, supervised by two young counselors who were paid minimum wage.
During the first several days, Michelle Sutton, a pretty 15 year old who had enrolled voluntarily to regain self-esteem after an alleged date rape, complained repeatedly of exhaustion, sunburn, and nausea. As the group hiked through the desert, she vomited up most of the water she tried to drink and pleaded that she could not go on. According to counselors' field reports gathered by state and federal investigators, the lead counselor had been ordered to ignore such talk as "manipulative behavior". "You have been sloughing off," she told Sutton. "You are now being warned". On May 9, 1990, during an ascent of 7,072 foot Mount Dellenbaugh, Sutton's speech became slurred, she cried out that she couldn't see, and then she lost consciousness and died. Palmer insisted to officials that Sutton had succumbed to a drug overdose, but the the coroner found no drugs in her system and determined the cause of death to be dehydration."
Addendum: Gayle Palmer DeGraff is reportedly still working in the teen help industry as an "admissions" representative for such programs as the now-defunct Red Rock Ranch Academy (Utah) where Katie Lank (16) fell down a deep crevice on a Christmas day hike and later died from severe head trauma in a Las Vegas hospital in January 2002. See the Michelle Sutton Memorial for further details.
