Three charged over death of 10-year-old boy decapitated on world's biggest waterslide

Three people have now been charged in connection to the 2016 death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab, who died on a ride at a park in Kansas.

Jeffrey Henry, who is the co-owner of Kansas City’s Schlitterbahn Waterpark where Caleb Schwab died on the Verrückt water slide, was indicted Tuesday after a grand jury considered evidence, and now faces charges that include reckless second-degree murder.

John Schooley, a designer of the water slide, was also named in the Tuesday indictment along with the corporation involved in the design and construction of the water slide, Henry & Sons Construction company.

The three defendants were also charged in connection to the injuries of 13 other people who were allegedly hurt while riding the slide, including four other minors. Those charges include aggravated battery, and aggravated endangering of a child.

The Tuesday indictments follow after charges were filed against the Schlitterbahn Water Park itself, and against the park’s director of operations, Tyler Austin Miles. That indictment detailed 20 felony charges, including one count of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of aggravated endangering of a child, 12 counts of aggravated battery, and two counts of interference with law enforcement.

Mr Henry surrendered to US Marshals Service in Texas Monday, and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. He has been released on $50,000 bail.

The park, in a Monday statement, said that they were not surprised by the decision to indict Mr Henry given the previous charges on the issue last week, but vowed to fight the allegations.

“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,” the statement read.

The indictment alleges that, while the 10-year-old’s death first appeared to be an “isolated and unforeseeable incident”, employees later came forward to investigators to say that officials at the park had covered up similar incidents involving the water slide in the past.

The water slide — certified in 2014 by Guinness World Records as the world’s tallest — required two or three riders with a weight of between 400 and 500 pounds to be strapped in a raft. The vessel would then “slide down a jaw-dropping 168 foot 7 inch structure, only to be blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut-wrenching 50 foot drop for the ultimate in water slide thrills,” according to the water park’s website.

Caleb was decapitated when he and the two women he was on the raft with went airborne, crashing into nets and hoops affixed above the slide. The two women faced face injuries, investigators said.

The water park reached settlement agreements with the involved parties in early 2017, including nearly $20 million for the Schwab family. The other settlements were not disclosed.