Water Park co-owner arrested in boy’s 2016 death, newspaper says

TOPEKA, Kan. — A newspaper report says the co-owner of the company operating a Kansas water park has been arrested in connection with a criminal case arising from a 10-year-old boy’s death on a giant waterslide.

The Kansas City Star reports that Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts co-owner Jeffery Henry was arrested Monday in Cameron County, Texas. A captain in the local sheriff’s department told the newspaper that Henry was arrested by U.S. marshals on a Kansas warrant.

A grand jury in Kansas last week indicted the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, and its former operations director Tyler Miles on 20 felony counts. They included involuntary manslaughter over the August 2016 death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab.

The boy was decapitated while riding what was billed as the world’s largest waterslide.

Schlitterbahn said Monday it will open again as scheduled this spring and aggressively contest criminal charges arising from Schwab’s death.

The campany said in a statement Monday that a grand jury indictment’s allegation that the 2016 accident was foreseeable is “beyond the pale of speculation.”

The company also promised to respond to the allegations in the indictment “point by point” in coming weeks.

Schwab was decapitated on the Verruckt waterslide, touted as the world’s largest.