Seven teens escaped Sunday night from a mental health facility in Raleigh.
According to the Raleigh Police Department, police were called to Holly Hill Hospital's South Campus around 8:02 p.m.on Michael J Smith Lane for reports of a disturbance among the residents. When they arrived, they learned seven teenagers escaped from the facility.
Other WRAL Top Stories
Raleigh police officers, along with the Wake County Sheriff's Office, State Capitol Police Department and North Carolina Highway Patrol, searched for and found the teens. Police said the teens were not considered armed and dangerous and did not pose a threat to the surrounding community.
It is unclear how the teens escaped from the facility during the disturbance, but authorities said they found all seven and returned them to the facility.
History of escapes, inspections from NCDHHS at Holly Hill facilities
This is the third escape the facility has had since 2024. In March of 2024, five teens escaped from the hospital over three days. In June, a 16-year-old girl escaped from Holly Hill
All the children were found safe.
According to a 2024 North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services inspection, which WRAL Investigates obtained a copy of, the hospital was cited for multiple standards of care. In the 40-page inspection, 10 pages specifically said the hospital violated policies preventing patients from escaping.
NCDHHS ordered the inspection shortly after the five teens escaped from the facility in March of 2024.
Additionally, a joint investigation by WRAL and North Carolina Health News uncovered a history of other issues at Holly Hill.
In August, a second joint investigation by WRAL News and North Carolina Health News found that problems had found repeated failures at another Holly Hill facility after a violent patient uprising on Christmas 2024. Several police officers were called to the facility and seven patients went to the emergency room to monitor possible medication ingestion.
The state report said staff that night panicked and some huddle in the corner while an emergency code was called. A summary of video evidence from that day in a federal report described patients throwing and damaging phones, smashing iPads, throwing computer monitors, keyboards and soda cans, some of which hit employees.