I was 16 when strange men dragged me from my bed and took me into the Utah wilderness... what I was subjected to next made me think I would die
When Claire McCafferty heard the harrowing details shared by David Bowie's daughter, Alexandria 'Lexi' Jones, of being, as she described it, 'legally kidnapped' and sent to a desolate wilderness therapy program in Utah, she wasn't shocked.
Lexi's trauma-laden recollection so closely mirrored what McCafferty claims was her own experience in a similar controversial troubled teen program just eight years ago.
Like Jones, McCafferty, now 23, claims she was woken up in the middle of the night by strange men and forcibly removed from her family's home, with no idea of where she was going.
'It was terrifying,' McCafferty told the Daily Mail. 'I had just turned 16 and they drove me to the middle of nowhere. I was screaming my head off because I had no idea what was going on.'
After two flights and a three-hour-long car ride, where, she said, she was blindfolded and shoved into the backseat, McCafferty arrived in the desolate wilderness of Kanab, Utah.
She spent the next 13 weeks there sleeping outside, hiking under extreme conditions, and surviving on limited rations of food and water, as part of the WinGate Wilderness Therapy.
Her parents, McCafferty claimed, enrolled her in the now-defunct disciplinary program because they were worried about her rebellious behavior in high school. They were, she believes, acting in good faith, driven by a sincere desire to help their wayward daughter. They did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment for this article.
At her very worst moments, McCafferty claimed, she thought she was going to die.
McCafferty (pictured age 16) said she was woken up in the middle of the night by strange men and being forcibly removed from her family's home, with no idea of where she was going
McCafferty, now 23, says she was sent to wilderness therapy because of 'rebellious behavior'
'I was just a teen being defiant,' McCafferty explained, noting that her rebellions were what she considered to be typical teenage mischief. 'I was running around with older boys, drinking and smoking weed.'
Upon arrival at the now defunct, WinGate Wilderness Program, McCafferty said she was forced to remove all of her clothing and any jewelry from her piercings before changing into an orange T-shirt, nondescript pants and hiking boots that she was given by the staff - a uniform that she said she would wear every week for the next three months.
'We got a change of clothes once a week,' McCafferty said, noting that the conditions that she lived under were not only difficult, but unsanitary; according to McCafferty feminine hygiene products were not provided, forcing girls to use their dirty clothing instead of pads or tampons (although McCafferty claimed that she stopped menstruating while she was there because of the physical stress and lack of food in the program).
She said: 'It's not healthy to be wearing the same underwear for a week. It's not healthy to not be eating or not brushing our teeth. When I finally got home, my shoulder had been dislocated for four weeks. I had five cavities. It took an entire bottle of shampoo to clean my hair, an entire bottle of body wash to scrub the dirt.'
During her time at Wingate, McCafferty told the Daily Mail that participants were expected to hike for up to five days at a time, tramping through mountains and desert, avoiding rattlesnakes and scorpions.
She said she carried a 40-pound backpack, which held her sleeping bag and provisions, while logging a significant number of miles every day in 90-degree heat. The hiking was not merely an activity, as McCafferty explains it, it was the way that she and other students in the program were given their water rations.
McCafferty claims she spent 13 weeks in the desert in Kanab, Utah. She carried a 40-pound backpack, which held her sleeping bag and her scant provisions, while logging tons of miles every day in 90-degree heat
'You couldn't just opt out of the hiking,' she said. 'If we didn't hike, we would not get to our water, there was one hike that we didn't finish because it got dark.
'We had to do crash camping, which is just setting up camp randomly without getting to our water and that sucked because the next day, when we woke up, we didn't have water and we still had to hike eight miles. We all thought we were going to die.'
McCafferty is one of many former young people to have participated in wilderness programs, who have come forward in recent years to share their stories of alleged abuse. According to a 2020 study in the Child & Family Social Work journal, 120,000 to 200,000 children are in such Troubled Teen Industry (TTI) programs at any given time. At its best, the journal found, such intervention can be beneficial, complimenting other therapeutic methods.
But many programs have faced scrutiny as the rise of social media has enabled former students, including high-profile individuals like Jones, Paris Hilton and Chet Hanks to share their stories. Likewise, reports of sexual assault and harassment, as well as preventable deaths have also incited backlash and calls for change.
The Salt Lake Tribune has made a project of compiling data on Utah's 'troubled teen wilderness retreats.' It reported that seven teenagers died in such facilities or congregate care programs between 2021 and 2025. Meanwhile the case of a 12-year-old boy who died of asphyxia after less than 24 hours in a North Carolina program made headlines in 2024.
The boy died after staff mandated he spend the night in completely closed sleeping bag. No criminal charges were filed after an investigation determined that the death, 'did not involve criminal intent or recklessness sufficient to warrant criminal charges for involuntary manslaughter under the law.'
A 2007 report from the Government Accountability Office found that in 2005 (the last year that the data was available), 1,500 staffers at programs in 33 states were in litigation for abuse, including broken bones, dislocated joints and sprains.
Meg Appelgate, is the founder and CEO of Unsilenced, a nonprofit that serves victims of institutional child abuse.
She told the Daily Mail: 'There is no federal regulation overseeing these kinds of programs. And the biggest consequence is death. Since I've started Unsilenced, almost every single year, I've helped with a death case within the troubled teen industry.
'We're not only dealing with death, but the vast majority of people we speak to coming out of these facilities are experiencing neglect and sexual assault. We have to do something about that.'
Appelgate (left) and Paris Hilton (right) are both survivors of wilderness therapy programs
Appelgate founded Unsilenced after her own harrowing experience in a wilderness program for troubled teens
Appelgate, who herself was enrolled in a wilderness program for troubled teens, also points out that these programs can be financially exploitative to parents, who have no idea that their children are experiencing abuse. The nonprofit Breaking Code Silence reports that the $23 billion is spent annually on the troubled youth industry.
WinGate, which closed in September 2023, charged between $10,000 and $30,000 depending on the duration of the program.
Derek Daley is the founder of Legacy Treatment Center, a residential treatment center, and the president of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP), a membership organization representing programs and schools for struggling youth.
Daley has worked in the behavioral healthcare space for over 20 years, and is motivated by the loss of three family members who did not have access to resources like his program.
He believes that there needs to be accountability, strong standards and oversight for wilderness therapy programs, but does not believe that the programs should be eliminated altogether.
'Advocating for accountability and higher standards protects youth,' Daley told the Daily Mail in a written statement. 'Advocating for the elimination of treatment options without building better alternatives does not.
'The professionals working in behavioral healthcare, including clinicians, guides, social workers, former clients, and families are people who have dedicated their lives to helping others during some of the most difficult moments imaginable. Their work deserves scrutiny and high standards, but it also deserves to be understood in its full context.'
He wrote: 'I have personally been involved in efforts that required programs to meet accreditation standards and, in some cases, led to programs closing when they could not meet those expectations. That work matters.'
Daley revealed that an adherence to those standards has seen the number of programs with NATSAP membership dropping from 185 to 87 programs. He explained: 'In part because we required independent accreditation and stronger expectations around safety and outcomes tracking.'
Daley maintained that he believed wilderness therapy to be beneficial: 'Wilderness therapy and outdoor behavioral healthcare have been studied for decades, and the research consistently shows improvements in depression, anxiety, substance use, and family functioning.
'Safety has also been examined and the results are clear. In well-run wilderness therapy programs, serious incident rates are lower than those experienced by the same age population living at home.'
But for McCafferty, the experience at Win-Gate did not live up to the standards for which Daley advocates. She claimed it put a strain on her relationship with her parents for many years but today she believes they were as much victims of the troubled teen industry as she was.
McCafferty explained: 'I think parents are also victims of the industry. They lie to parents. They say, 'She's going to tell you that these awful things are happening, but that's not true. She just wants you to take her home. Don't listen to her.'
'It was traumatizing for my mom, too. I've made my peace with the fact that they're victims too - they had no idea what was actually going on.'
