'They sent her home in a box:' WA family suing 'troubled teen' treatment facility after daughter's death

A Snohomish County family is fighting to shut down a so-called "troubled teen" treatment facility in Utah after their daughter collapsed and died on the campus last year. 

17-year-old Taylor Goodridge collapsed and died a few days before Christmas in 2022 at Diamond Ranch Academy. According to a lawsuit filed by her father, Taylor complained about stomach pains for weeks before her death.

The suit claims Diamond Ranch Academy failed the teen by neglecting to give her the right medical care. The suit against the academy alleges neglect, child abuse and false imprisonment.

Her father, Dean Jefferies Goodridge, remembers her as a girl who loved climbing trees, riding horses and spending time on the water with her family.

At 17, Taylor enjoyed the newfound freedom of becoming a young adult like getting her ears pierced and dancing in recitals; but among the good, there was also the bad.

"She was having some problems and there was an incident, in which she finally realized that she needed to get help," Goodridge said.

In October 2021, the teen was enrolled at Diamond Ranch Academy in southern Utah, a $12,000-a-month therapeutic boarding school, specializing in helping teens with emotional, social, educational, and behavioral issues.   

 On its website, the ranch claims to be "America's leading teen therapeutic boarding school." Its academic program is fully accredited. Its therapists are with the students 'day in and day out' and they’re supported by an on-campus team of "various experienced, licensed medical professionals who ‘aim to treat every student like our son or daughter," their website said.

"I thought I was doing what was best for my daughter,"  Goodridge said. "I should have just let her come home."

A little over a year later, Taylor’s health took a sudden turn.  The timeline laid out by investigators with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) indicates Taylor first went to staff on Dec. 9, 2022, complaining of "back pain and difficulty breathing" and later was "crying and groaning in pain."  

The Goodridge family attorney, Alan Mortensen, says Diamond Ranch Academy did very little to help Taylor, a member of the Stillaguamish Tribe in Washinton.  In court filings, he claims Taylor was told by staff members to "take an aspirin and suck it up" even as her symptoms became worse. 

"For at least seven days, she's listed there as vomiting and everyone knew it. It got passed along and no one did a thing," Mortensen said. 

State investigators say in the days before her death, Taylor vomited at least seven times in 11 hours. 

"The pain and agony that my daughter went through, no 17-year-old should have to go through that," Goodridge said.

The pain she went through is something Goodridge can't bear to imagine as scheduled calls home were canceled.

As Christmas approached, Taylor’s condition became even worse. Autopsy results show she was in the late stages of peritonitis – a potentially fatal internal infection that usually requires rapid treatment with antibiotics.  

"It’s not like she could call the police. It's not like she could call Family Services. She wasn't even allowed to call her parents," Mortensen said. 

On Dec. 20, Goodridge's phone rang. It was Diamond Ranch Executive Director Ricky Dias saying his daughter had collapsed. 

"I thought she fainted, not my daughter was passing. And then less than 30 minutes later [he] calls back and says she's gone,"  Goodridge said.

Devastated by the loss of his daughter, Goodridge is on a mission to get answers.  Answers Diamond Ranch Academy's former staff member, Rachel Goodrich, can provide. She knew Taylor and saw her health deteriorate firsthand. 

"She had thrown up, and then she collapsed in her own vomit, and she was laying in her own vomit, passed out," Goodrich said. 

Upset by the events that lead up to Taylor’s death, Goodrich left Diamond Ranch and helped the State of Utah with their investigation into the academy.  

"They made it sound like it was an accident, but if you were actually there, you knew that Taylor needed help," Goodrich said. 

FOX 13 reached out to Diamond Ranch Academy, who says out of respect for student privacy, and federal and state laws, they cannot respond to any allegations regarding Taylor's case. 

Bangerter Frazier Group, the legal firm for the Diamond Ranch Academy, sent the following statement: 

"While DRA has the right to defend itself in the pending lawsuits, it does not have the right to disseminate protected information in the media. I ask that any news story include the fact that DRA cannot substantively and specifically respond to the allegations in your email or in the lawsuits referenced in the media due to the operation of those privacy laws. We regret that we cannot respond specifically to the allegations in your email out of respect for student privacy and the operation of federal and state laws. We can say that there are many bullet points in your email and allegations in the lawsuits that are demonstrably false. DRA will continue to fully and transparently cooperate with all appropriate agencies. DRA looks forward to presenting the facts in court."

As memories of Taylor linger in her family's mind, Goodridge and his sons wear their hearts on their sleeves and pain on their chest; they are ready to fight.

"It’s like a ticking time bomb, when will it happen again?" Goodridge said. 

He says they won’t stop until they get justice for Taylor.

"Where did they help my daughter? They put her in a box. That's how they sent her home to me," Goodridge said. 

After the DHHS investigation in January, Diamond Ranch Academy’s license was put on probation, blocking the school from enrolling new students. The school was given four citations, one of them directly for "failing to provide and seek necessary medical care for an ill client who died several days later." 

In March, the Utah Department of Licensing lifted its restrictions allowing the school to accept new students once again.

Meantime, Hurricane Police say their investigation is ongoing, as is the family’s court case.