KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The Kansas Attorney General’s Office Tuesday released indictments against three more officials and entities in connection to the Schlitterbahn Waterpark death in 2016.
Jeffrey Wayne Henry, John Timothy Schooley, and Henry & Sons Construction Company, Inc. were indicted by a Wyandotte County Grand Jury.
The trio faces reckless second-degree murder charges in addition to aggravated battery and aggravated child endangerment charges stemming from others who rode Verruckt at the company’s Kansas City, Kansas waterpark.
Henry was taken into custody Monday by U.S. Marshals in Cameron County, Texas.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said Schooley remains at large.
Henry is co-owner of Schlitterbahn and is connected to Henry and Sons Construction Company.
Schooley played a key role in the design of Verruckt.
It was on Verruckt that then 10-year-old Caleb Schwab died in August 2016.
Last week, the attorney general’s office charged the company and its park operations manager at the time of the incident, Tyler Miles, in connection to Schwab’s death.
Miles pleaded not guilty in a court hearing in Wyandotte County on Friday.
These latest charges come as more Verruckt riders are sharing their terrifying experiences.
"We went on everything once. We wanted to go on the waterslide and never again," said Sara Egan.
Two months before Schwab died, Egan and her fiancé visited the water park. Instead of a "thrilling time," she told 41 Action News she had a chilling experience.
"It felt like the straps they put on me were completely pointless and I could feel myself quickly raising out of the seat," she said. "It’s the first thing we talked about when we got off the ride."
Late Tuesday, night Schlitterbahn posted a questions and answers section on its website. The water park said "yes" it is still a safe attraction.
Visit Kansas City, Kansas still lists Schlitterbahn as a "family attraction" on its website.
After the additional charges were announced Monday, the company released the following statement:
This indictment, as in the previous one related to Tyler Miles, is wrought with references to the outtakes of a dramatic, scripted television show, and filled with information that we fully dispute. Jeff Henry has designed waterpark rides the world over. Nearly every waterpark that exists today has an attraction or feature based on his designs or ideas.
The incident that happened that day was a terrible and tragic accident. We mourn the loss of this child and are devastated for his family. We know that Tyler, Jeff, and John are innocent and that we run a safe operation – our 40 years of entertaining millions of people speaks to that.
We are confident that their innocence will be proven in court where we know the facts will show this was an accident.
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