Wyoming Ranch Accused of Forced Child Labor Suddenly Closes

A ranch in rural Wyoming accused of subjecting troubled girls to humiliating punishments and forced labor notified state regulators that it had halted operations.

The closure of Trinity Teen Solutions comes amid an ongoing criminal investigation and a lawsuit against the Wyoming ranch. The shutdown comes after an investigation by NBC News last month which revealed a long history of allegations of abusive treatment and hard labor at the for-profit facility that offered Christian-based therapy in northwest Wyoming.

Trinity Teen Solutions has denied many of the allegations of the former residents in court filings, and no charges have been filed thus far. Officials said that the facility informed the Wyoming Department of Family Services, which licenses the ranch, that it stopped enrolling new teens and providing services on September 28.

Why did the ranch suspend its business abruptly?

A Department of Family Services spokesman said that the company maintains its state license and was not ordered to stop operating. A spokeswoman said that the ranch remains in good standing with the Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization that accredits behavioral health centers and hospitals.

It is still unclear why the ranch, which opened back in 2002, abruptly suspended its business. Angie Woodward, the ranch's founder and owner, did not respond to phone calls and emails. The website of Trinity Teen Solutions remains active, but its Twitter and Facebook accounts were deleted in the past several weeks.

NBC News interviewed, in their September investigation, a total of 22 women who had been placed by their parents at Trinity Teen Solutions from 2007 to 2020. The women described injuries to their legs, feet, and hands, from irrigating fields to carrying bales of hay they said weighed over 50 pounds to hauling heavy metal pipes.

The girls said in court filings and interviews that they performed veterinary work, built barbed wire fences, and were driven around the county to clean various properties. Three women said that if they disobeyed, they faced punishments from the facility's staff, including being tied to a goat for days at a time.

Lawsuits filed against Triangle Cross Ranch and Trinity Teen Solutions

Over the past decade, women reported their concerns about their treatment at the ranch to law enforcement and state authorities several times. The sheriff's department and prosecutor for Park County, Wyoming, said that a criminal investigation into the women's complaints remains open.

Former residents of not only Trinity Teen Solutions but also nearby Triangle Cross Ranch, a program for rebellious boys that the same family runs, filed a federal lawsuit back in November 2020, alleging that both ranches censored the children's communication with their parents and forced them to perform arduous manual labor, according to Only Sky.

Triangle Cross Ranch and Trinity Teen Solutions have broadly denied allegations that children were mistreated at their facilities, but they have declined to comment directly on them.