California Art Critic Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, 40, Found Dead in São Paulo Hotel Room Surrounded by Pills and Liquor

Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, the 40-year-old California-based art critic who wrote under the name Jerry Gogosian, was found dead May 31 in a room at the Rosewood São Paulo hotel in Brazil. She was surrounded by pills and a liquor bottle. Police have classified the death as suspicious, but the official cause has not been determined.

Helphenstein was in Brazil for a cosmetic procedure. Her plastic surgeon called the hotel after being unable to reach her and later told police he had previously taken her to a hospital following a possible overdose. ” She wrote that the school operated as a cult and described being forced to eat her own vomit in front of hundreds of people who threw food at her.

She added that staff placed her “on silence,” meaning she was not allowed to speak to anyone. “It was a cult. The treatment I endured involved being forced to eat my own vomit in front of hundreds of people throwing food at me,” Helphenstein wrote.

The school opened in 1984 in rural Patterson, Missouri, two hours south of St. Louis. Tuition was about $1,000 per month, and parents signed away power of attorney to administrators. Helphenstein arrived at age 12 after her family returned from a year in Russia, where her father had worked.

Her only reported offense was acting out during her parents’ divorce. Meaghan Richter, 44, a fellow former student who reconnected with Helphenstein around 2004 at Palm Beach Community College, said staff made an example of her in the dining hall. Richter described staff dragging Helphenstein across the floor after she vomited and later accusing her of faking when the vomiting stopped.

Nathan McDonald, 43, another survivor, said the school used mind control and physical control. “They knew exactly how to make you feel like the most vile piece of sh-t ever,” he told the New York Post. Mountain Park closed in 2004.