Police: 2 behavioral health company execs died by suicide; questions remain for facility in Ephrata (2024)

A second top executive of a company that failed to pay employees last week and abruptly shut down several locations this week has killed himself.

The suicides punctuate uncertainty for countless Retreat Behavioral Health workers who provide addiction and mental health treatment in Lancaster County and across several states. And it appears that there will be no prompt answers.

Chief Administrative Officer Scott Korogodsky, who took up leadership of Retreat Behavioral Health after the Friday suicide of CEO and founder Peter Schorr, killed himself Wednesday in Palm Beach County, where he has a home, local police report.

Schorr also killed himself in Palm Beach County, at his home in Delray Beach, according to a local police and fire spokesperson.

Retreat has facilities in Florida, including Palm Beach County.

Like workers across Retreat’s nine sites in three states, employees of the company’s two Lancaster County locations - an inpatient facility in Ephrata and an outpatient facility in Akron - did not receive their biweekly pay on time last week. In a memo to workers Sunday under executive names including Korogodsky, the company acknowledged its failure to pay on time and indicated it might have some clarity about what would happen by the end of this week.

Retreat facilities in Florida and Connecticut closed over the weekend and the two Lancaster County locations are expected to be shut by the end of this week. A local manager of one of the facilities told LNP | LancasterOnline Wednesday that the closures are at least temporary but that the future remains uncertain.

There has been no response to requests for comment from the company. There was no response to messages left at phone numbers associated with Schorr and Korogodsky.

Just how many workers in Lancaster County and across the country have been left without a paycheck and at least temporarily out of a job is unclear. As of 2019, the Ephrata Borough location at 1170 S. State St. had around 280 employees, as LNP | LancasterOnline reported at the time. Retreat’s four Pennsylvania facilities had a total payroll of about $18 million in 2023, according to court documents.

Last week’s failure to pay employees on time was the second time this month, according to documents.

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said Thursday “no reports of misconduct have been brought to our attention” regarding Retreat, and explained that standard practice would be to refer a complaint to the local police department. The state Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

READ:Ephrata behavioral health facility to close; future unclear as financial struggles emerge

READ:Employees at Ephrata behavioral health facility go unpaid in the wake of CEO's death

Property tax problems and more

Records in Lancaster County and beyond show making payroll wasn’t Retreat’s only financial struggle.

Limited liability companies with ties to the Ephrata Borough location, Retreat at Lancaster County, as well as its other out-of-state mental health and substance use treatment centers have fallen behind on taxes and a loan.

Coal Capital Ephrata LLC, which owns the Retreat at Lancaster County property, owes $174,705 in delinquent taxes from 2023, according to county property tax records. The property was listed for sheriff's sale in late 2022 before the sale was canceled in May 2023.

Coal Capital Ephrata LLC is a subsidiary of Coal Capital Group LLC, which is named in a property foreclosure lawsuit filed in April seeking more than $17 million for properties in Florida that include Retreat Behavioral Health’s Palm Beach County location.

Efforts to contact Coal Capital were unsuccessful.

Schorr was sued this year over a deposit for a property, according to a report from the West Palm Beach affiliate of NBC, WPTV, and the station also reports there is an ongoing $5 million suit in New York state related to the companies. Both suits remain pending, WPTV reported.

Schorr founded what became Retreat Behavioral Health in 2011 in Ephrata Borough, establishing an upscale 120-bed substance use treatment campus at 1170 S. State St.

A July 2011 LNP | LancasterOnline article describes Schorr as a New York native living in Denver in Lancaster County with 31 years running drug addiction treatment facilities, most recently the Malvern Institute in Chester County.

Korogodsky worked with Retreat in a variety of increasingly responsible roles since at least 2013.

Reporter Dan Nephin and staff editor Alejandro Rios contributed to this report.