Taylor Goodridge death: Boarding school’s claim that heart attack killed Snohomish County teen disputed

Boarding school?s claim that heart attack killed Snohomish County teen disputed

Tragedy struck December 20th, 2022, when the Academy called Goodridge to say Taylor had died from a sudden heart attack. What Dean didn?t know was Taylor had been complaining of pain for weeks, and it wasn?t a heart attack that killed her. According to newly released autopsy results, Taylor died of peritonitis, an infection of abdomen tissue, followed by sepsis, which caused her organs to fail; she collapsed after vomiting for several straight days.

Disturbing new details are coming to light in last year’s death of a 17-year-old Snohomish County girl, at a school for troubled teens in Utah.

"The pain and agony my daughter went through, no 17-year-old should have to go through that," says Dean Goodridge, Taylor’s father. Goodridge tells FOX 13 his anger over his daughter’s passing has led to renewed legal action over Taylor’s alleged treatment at the Diamond Ranch Academy, which advertises itself as ‘America’s leading teen therapeutic boarding school.’

Tragedy struck December 20th, 2022, when the Academy called Goodridge to say Taylor had died from a sudden heart attack. What Dean didn’t know was Taylor had been complaining of pain for weeks, and it wasn’t a heart attack that killed her. According to newly released autopsy results, Taylor died of peritonitis, an infection of abdomen tissue, followed by sepsis, which caused her organs to fail; she collapsed after vomiting for several straight days.

Accounts from school workers obtained by Utah state investigators further confirmed the family’s worst fears about Taylor’s death. "They made it sound like it was an accident, that it couldn't have been preventable – that it just was this crazy thing that happened," said former Diamond Ranch Academy staffer Rachel Goodrich. She says she told state investigators she witnessed Taylor suffering in the days leading up to her death. "If you were actually there with her and worked with her directly every day, you know that Taylor was sick, you know that Taylor needed help," Goodrich said.

In its federal complaint refiled last month, the family is suing the Academy for neglect, child abuse and false imprisonment, claiming the school kept them in the dark about Taylor’s situation by canceling their regularly scheduled Zoom calls, while allegedly ignoring her declining health.

In a statement to Fox 13, the Diamond Ranch Academy says privacy concerns prevent administrators from discussing the specifics of Taylor’s case, but that there are "allegations in the lawsuit that are demonstrably false," which will come out in court.

However, the state documents now obtained by FOX 13 suggest there was a decided lack of medical care in the days leading up to Taylor’s death. "It's not that this was an accident, nothing," Dean Goodridge, Taylor’s father  said. "This was straight up neglect and abuse to Taylor."

Reporter Alejandra Guzman is working through that timeline now, and will bring you those details tonight on FOX 13 at 10pm.

Review the family’s lawsuit here (mobile users click here):