A Highland Park couple is advocating for change inside the so-called “troubled teen industry” months after their son died inside a Utah residential treatment facility.
Reporter’s note: this story makes reference to suicide and self-harm.
CHICAGO – A Highland Park couple is advocating for change inside the so-called “troubled teen industry” months after their son died inside a Utah residential treatment facility.
When Katy and Josh Silvers learned their 17-year-old son, Biruk, died from an apparent suicide in November at the Discovery Ranch, they had lots of questions: how did this happen inside a facility that advertises on its website that it treats teens with “struggling with mental health crisis” and those with suicidal ideation?
Who was watching him?
On the Discovery Ranch website, it notes that “if someone is in imminent danger of harming himself or herself, do not leave the person alone.”
Biruk died on November 5th. His death certificate says he died as a result of hanging.
The next day, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services conducted an inspection.
A November 26th letter shows the facility was cited for compromising the health and safety of a client, failing to provide supervision and not following its own suicide prevention policy.
What’s more – the Silvers shared with NBC 5 Investigates reports from Biruk’s file that showed on October 23 and November 1st – days before his suicide – Biruk told a therapist that he was having suicidal thoughts and a plan about hanging or suffocating himself.
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The Silvers say those details were not shared with them.
“My biggest thing that is underpinning all of this is – these kids are supposed to be watched and supervised,” Josh Silvers told NBC 5 Investigates during a lengthy interview at their Highland Park home.
Utah’s DHHS temporarily barred the facility from admitting any new patients – a ban that was supposed to be in place for three months.
But NBC 5 Investigates learned that ban stopped a monthly early – on January 13 – after the facility passed two follow-up inspections with no issues, according to a Utah DHHS spokeswoman.
“To have an admissions ban removed while a facility is on a conditional license, the facility must have at least 2 consecutive monitoring inspections with no non-compliances found that are related to the reasons they were placed on the conditional license. This facility met that requirement,” DHHS spokeswoman Katie England wrote to NBC 5 Chicago Investigative Reporter Bennett Haeberle.
Discovery Ranch’s director, Clint Dorny, told NBC 5 Investigates on March 6 in an email that “We're in the process of updating our official statement. We should have something for you soon.”
Over the past two weeks, Dorny has not replied to multiple follow-up emails or calls from NBC 5 Investigates.
A surprise phone call
Katy and Josh Silver learned something was wrong when they got a call on November 5th from Biruk’s therapist.
He got ahold of Josh first and asked if he could get Katy on the line as well – who was at home.
“And he got us on the phone and said there’s been an accident and the paramedics are working on Biruk,” Josh recalled.
Still on his way home, Josh called back a few minutes later. That’s when he learned.
“And I kept looking at the clock counting the minutes – thinking it’s been 10 minutes it’s been 15 minutes,” Katy said.
Josh: “And I had to hold onto that because I didn’t want to tell Katy on the phone.”
Katy: “And I called (Josh) and I said ‘Josh he’s gone isn’t he?’ And he said “I’m in the car outside, I can’t come in and tell you, but he’s gone. And I remember I called my boys and I said something terrible has happened you need to come home.
"And they said to me we couldn’t figure out what happened but we knew it wasn’t Biruk because he was in the safest place he could be …and I screamed on the phone – I collapsed and screamed you were supposed to be watching him. How could this have happened? This is why he’s there," Katy told NBC 5 Investigates through tears.
A long journey
When Katy and Josh adopted Biruk and his brother from Ethiopia in 2014, it was a challenging process. The legal red tape of securing an adoption at the time prompted them to seek help from the U.S. Embassy and their Congressman.
Eventually, they would be able to bring the boys home.
And life in those early years in, according to Katy and Josh, was joyful.
“They had suffered so much in Ethiopia. Abuse, neglect , they came with TB and rickets, malnutrition, we didn’t know their ages – they had never had a hot meal,” Katy said.
Their new life in Highland Park became filled with joyful memories.
“He danced like Michael Jackson. He loved Motown. We listened to Motown all the time,” Katy said. “He taught us a lot. To slow down. To be in the moment. To appreciate each other,” she said.
But by his teenage years, Katy and Josh said Biruk began to struggle academically and was impulsive, getting into vaping and alcohol.
There were choices that Katy and Josh worried would lead to more bad outcomes. That’s why they chose to hire an education consultant who recommended that Biruk be sent to Discovery Ranch in Utah.
It was a decision the Silvers say they now regret and are working to overcome their own guilt.
Even before Burik's death and during his stay in Utah, Josh and Katy were alarmed to learn that Biruk had been playing a choking game while inside Discovery Ranch to escape his reality. There is a reference to it in the documents the family shared with NBC 5 Investigates.
Katy said Biruk had endured abuse as a child in Ethiopia and she worried that he was having to confront that trauma while staying at the Discovery Ranch.
“I promised this boy I would save him," she said. "I promised I would take care of him for the rest of his life, so it’s killing me and I wonder if he thinks we let him down because we didn’t know. And so that’s what we live with every day. Did he think we knew and that we weren’t helping him? We don’t know.”
Biruk spent nearly seven months at the Discovery Ranch.
Disturbed by Biruk’s recent behaviors while on the phone, Katy and Josh Silvers were making plans to remove Biruk from the program when they got a call from his therapist – alerting them that paramedics were working to revive him.
A bill aimed at oversight
NBC 5 Investigates was there earlier this month at the Silvers’ Highland Park home when Katy testified virtually before the Utah legislature.
She was speaking in support of SB 297 – a bill that would create additional layers of oversight inside residential treatment facilities in Utah – including adding an ombudsman and an advisory panel to help screen children entering the facility.
The bill passed both chambers and is expected to become law.
The bill’s sponsor, State Senator Mike McKell, told NBC 5 Investigates that there have been at least seven deaths of children inside Utah facilities since 2021.
He knows of three of them who – like Biruk – were from out of state. What happened inside the Discovery Ranch was not a one-off.
NBC 5 Investigative Reporter Bennett Haeberle has spent six years reporting on the so-called “troubled teen industry”. A U.S. Senate report published last year cited his reporting and highlighted the lack of supervision and federal oversight with the industry.
Among that report’s findings:
“The Committee’s investigation found that children at (residential treatment facilities) suffer harms such as the risk of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of staff and peers, improperly executed and overused restraint and seclusion, inadequate treatment and supervision, and non-homelike environments. These harms amount to acute safety concerns and have long-term effects, including suffering, trauma and even death. Taken together, the Committee finds that these harms are endemic to the RTF operating model.”
If you have something you’d like NBC 5 Investigates to look into, you can contact Investigative Reporter Bennett Haeberle at bennett.haeberle@nbcuni.com
