Multiple agencies are now investigating a Connecticut resort after a teenager died in an apparent drowning earlier this week.
The incident happened at High Meadow resort in Granby, where several school districts from Connecticut and Massachusetts were on a field trip Wednesday when police were called just before 2:30 p.m. to a report of a drowning, according to the Granby Police Department.
Police said 14-year-old Emari Marshall-Woodard, an eighth-grade student from Springfield, Massachusetts, received care in the pool area of the camp before paramedics took him to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead. Police said numerous other children witnessed the incident and “later were overcome with emotions.”
A spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Friday that officials are still determining the cause and manner of death, though police have indicated they’re investigating the incident as a possible drowning.
The director of High Meadow has not responded to a request for comment.
When reached for comment Friday, a Granby police spokesperson declined to say whether a lifeguard was on duty and said the department would not release other details while the incident remains under investigation.
Beyond Granby police, multiple agencies are investigating High Meadow.
Stephanie Johnson, director of the Farmington Valley Health District — which oversees Granby — said the health district would inspect the resort’s pool area and its safety measures. She said the inspection would be limited to the pool and would not involve the apparent drowning.
A spokesperson for the Office of The Child Advocate said the office would “conduct a preliminary review” of the incident “in accordance with our standard procedures.”
High Meadow is a popular resort for school field trips, and it operates as a youth camp over the summer.
According to the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood, the resort holds a camp license this year running from June 22 to Aug. 14. Though the apparent drowning didn’t occur during summer camp, a spokesperson for the OEC said the office would investigate to “determine how this incident may affect the operation of High Meadows’ summer camp.”
Previous inspections and self-reported incidents at High Meadow between August 2021 and August 2025 turned up seven violations, according to OEC reports. None of the violations appeared to involve the pool.
Last August, the office found that staff weren’t directly supervising campers in a changing area during an unspecified “incident,” according to the OEC. In a corrective action plan drafted in response, High Meadow said it would assign lifeguards and counselors “direct assignments” during changing periods.
In June 2024, an OEC inspection found that the camp had failed to conduct background checks on all staff before letting them work, including some who had unsupervised access to children.
In 2022, the OEC found that a 16-year-old counselor and a 15-year-old counselor in training had snuck off together to smoke marijuana, according to the inspection report.
An August 2021 inspection found that the camp had failed to lock up arrows at the archery range when it was unstaffed, according to the OEC. The same inspection found that the camp failed to create individual care plans for campers with emergency medications and failed to obtain written parental permission for all medications, the report said.