Water park official facing murder charge in waterslide death
TOPEKA, KAN. » A water park company’s coowner was being held in a Texas jail on murder and other charges Tuesday in connection to a Kansas criminal case in the death of a 10-yearold boy on what was promoted as the world’s largest waterslide.
Jail records show that Jeffrey Henry, the 62-year-old co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, was booked into the jail in Cameron County, Texas, on three charges: murder, aggravated battery and aggravated child endangerment.
He was being held on a $500,000 bond, and a jail booking clerk said he would remain there until a court appearance later Tuesday.
Henry’s arrest on Monday followed a Kansas grand jury’s indictment last week of the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, and its former operations director, Tyler Austin Miles, on 20 felony charges. The charges include a single count of involuntary manslaughter over the death of Caleb Schwab in 2016.
“While we as a family continue to mourn and heal from Caleb’s passing, we wanted to again thank the community of Kansas City for its continued prayers and support,” Caleb’s father, Kansas Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab, said in a statement Tuesday. “Clearly the issues with Schlitterbahn go far beyond Caleb’s incident, and we know the attorney general will take appropriate steps in the interest of public safety.”
Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said that considering last week’s indictment, the company is not surprised by Henry’s arrest. The company also promised to aggressively fight the criminal charges against Miles and the park, and respond to the allegations in the 47-page indictment “point by point.”
“We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident,” she said in an emailed statement.